First Sourdough

[GianniFocaccia]

So in preparation of my oven finally becoming operational, I tried a batch of sourdough in my home oven. Many thanks to SCChris for his gift of several artisan flours and some of his daily-fed starter.

The boule was baked in a cast iron dutch oven, the oblong loaf was baked in a clay Romertopf cooker. They were good and chewy, but I think with practice, can be better.

Happy Holidays!

John

[Faith In Virginia]

Re: First Sourdough

Looks good to me...great job on a first go. Looks so tasty and a great crumb!!!

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: First Sourdough

Thanks Faith. It means alot, coming from you. If you see anything that warrants a word or two that would translate to improvement, I'm all ears!

[Faith In Virginia]

Re: First Sourdough

The only thing I see is the oblong loaf was a bit under proofed because of the split in the top. But just a bit.

You have a beautiful crust with nice blistering, the crumb is nicely open...seriously great looking loaf.

The tricky part...can you do it again??? :-)

[SCChris]

Re: First Sourdough

John, I agree with Faith, they look beautiful! Keep it up!

How was the taste?



Chris

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: First Sourdough

Faith,

Thanks for the heads up. I'll try to err on the 'over-proof side next time. Repeat-ability? I thought the same thing right after I took my first bite, which was wonderful: Chewy, creamy, and faintly sour. (I'll make four loaves next batch - two like these and retard two). I'm confident I can repeat the process faithfully, but need to run out and get some flour. I believe I can get KA locally, but am ignorant on which type to buy. Does it need to be bread flour or will All-Purpose work ok?

Chris,

Thanks again for getting me kick-started! Now I'm hooked and so is the family. I'm really hoping I can eventually get the same results from my WFO.

John

[SCChris]

Re: First Sourdough

Does it need to be bread flour or will All-Purpose work ok?

If I get in a bind, I go to KA AP flour, it's consistent and not pricy.

John, Again nice work on the breads. Once you get comfortable with this formula swap out up to 20% whole wheat, you should feel right at home with the addition.

Chris

[Wlillegard]

Re: First Sourdough

A word on slashing: imagine the direction in which the loaf will want to expand. This means up and out. The chief purpose of slashing is to allow the loaf to expand in the oven without bursting. Your pattern on the boule allows it to expand in all directions equally. You got a burst in the loaf because the slashes did not allow it to grow fatter. So you can either go with the sideways slashes, but at an angle, or with a single lengthwise slash.

My take on flour: I always use the cheapest flour I can find. I've used KA and I like it, but there is almost no perceptible difference between flour brands (unless you've made 1000 loaves of bread, in which case you might notice a difference). I almost always use bread flour (because I'm making bread!), but either bread or AP will work just fine. Whatever you prefer to work with will work just fine. The 1.5% difference in protein is noticeable in the dough, but not so much in the bread (unless, again, you've made 1000 loaves).

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: First Sourdough

OK Faith,

You were right! I have baked a bunch of batches, but could not really match the quality of that first (lucky) batch. Until today. It finally clicked with me to be flexible and attentive to my starter's rise and fall schedule based on ambient temperature and the maturity of my starter. The crumb turned out creamy and delicious while the crust crackled upon removal and had that crustiness I so love now.

Let's see if I can repeat it!

John

[SCChris]

Re: First Sourdough

Spectacular John, really nice loaf!

Chris

PS Here is a link to the blog of a local LA gal. She's doing some interesting things worth note.

http://girlmeetsrye.blogspot.com/

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: First Sourdough

Chris,

Thanks! Thanks to you, I have a wonderful starter that makes bread the entire family loves. There's some homebrew with your name on it once I get back into brew mode.

And thanks for sharing the Girl Meets Rye blog. What an excellent resource! I'll be reading through her Tartine Bread Experiment archives as well. On a whim, I picked up a small bag of Bob's Red Mill Dark Rye flour so am anxious to see how a rye starter performs. The wife has been asking for darker, whole grain breads so I guess that's my next direction.

John