lesson two

So the dough should have warmed up, it doesn't feel warm, it just isn't as cold as the fridge anymore. You can see that I have odd things to rise them in. One is a clay bread pan with a cloth lining it, a random basket, and a glass bread pan. I sprinkled corn meal on the two, and greased the glass one with lots of butter.

Here I shaped the dough, one round boule, and two batard shapes. Google for videos of this if it seems harder than it looks. Do initial shaping, fold in sides, mush it, roll it, etc, and let them rest for 3 minutes. Then shape them again. Dump them upside down in baskets, and right side up in bread pans.

Now let them rise for 3 hours at room temperature and then it's time to preheat the oven. If you are not using stones, then just half an hour is long enough at 450 degrees, in this case wait until 3.5 hours to preheat.

When the loaves are fully proofed they will be poked and slowly bounce back rather than quickly.

As you see in the photos below I use an old pizza pan covered in corn meal as a peel. And I did use a razor to slash the tops, nothing fancy. I baked these for 10 minutes, then turned down the oven to 425 degrees for 5, and then turned the loaf for even browning for another 5.

I baked the bread pan loaf last. I turned the oven down to 350 degrees and baked it for 25 minutes, then turned it, and baked it for another 15. It registered 195 degrees on the meat thermometer, so I knew it was safely done, even though the crust was light. It was a pretty thin crust, which made it crumble a lot. Maybe it would have held together better with a coat of butter brushed on? I don't know. I was able to cut it regardless. The other loaves were much more thickly crusted and turned out like usual.

Please let me know if you have any more questions.

Happy baking!

sourdough bread lesson

For all those who have some of my sourdough starter, I am now giving directions for you to make bread the way that I've learned to.

I should mention that you should avoid using metal utensils or bowls with sourdough.

I'll list the ingredients here:

2.2 lbs water (including one cup or more of sourdough starter the consistency of muffin dough)

2.8lbs of flour (half whole wheat, half bread flour, I use more like 2.4 lbs if I am making it all with white flour)

4 teaspoons of salt

This makes 3 loaves.

1) Having fed your starter the morning of your mixing the dough (the day before you bake), a few spoons of water, and a few of flour every hour or so, with a good stir, and left it in a warm place.

Dump about a cup of starter, into a bowl that you have placed on your digital scale and tared out to zero. Simeon had turned mine off, and thus all of the numbers shown in the photos are wrong. It should say about half a pound. Then add water until you reach 2.2lbs

Here I show a jar with just the drippings left, I put this back in the fridge as it has just been fed. Sorry for the chicken defrosting in the background, it looks too close for comfort. I would have moved it, but didn't want to defile my hands.

After having just added water, tare out your scale again (be sure to add your spoon before you tare it) and begin adding flour. I use about half whole wheat and half white bread flour. I added 1.4lbs of white, and then added 1.4lbs of wheat. It was a tacky dough, though not sticky (coat your fingers), and quite heavy. You want to make sure that it forms into a ball and doesnt just lay flat. If it is sticky or flat you need to add more flour, hand fulls at a time, if it forms a ball and is just tacky before you've added all the flour, stop adding flour! You will have to knead it to mix the flour in. But you can stop once it's added, the gluten gets organized in it's stay in the fridge, you don't need to knead this like regular bread.

Cover with plastic wrap and put in a warm place for one hour (my oven has no light in it, so the top of the stove where the pilot lights are works well). After that point you will add 4 teaspoons of salt and mix it in well (this will count as one of the four times as described below). The delay in adding salt allows the wild yeast to grow unhindered.

Once ever hour, for the next four hours you will need to fold the bread four times (just over on it self, like folding a wash cloth into eights). I use chop sticks so I dont have to get my hands dirty.

This is what mine looked like at the end of the four hour period. Now you put it in the fridge over night.

This is what it looked like in the AM, yours should have lots of bubbles that you can see on the side. Let it warm up for two to three hours, there is no need to hurry it, just keep it at room temperature.