Proofing - raising questions????

[Frances]

Re: Proofing - raising questions????

Sarah, the mold was just a very small patch on the edge of the glass, so this time I'll risk it. If I thought it was developing throughout the starter of course I'd start over.

John: somehow I thought it wouldn't be that easy... .

I made a small loaf of bread yesterday, and to my complete and utter surprise it did in fact rise and produced an edible product that two out of five family members are prepared to eat for breakfast. So still plenty of room for improvement - I'll plan a proper three stage bread for next weekend.

Thank you for all the advice!

[John Fahle]

Re: Proofing - raising questions????

Frances:

Congratulations on your first natural leaven bread! Even with the hurry-up method you described, I'm certain it has more flavor and texture than any straight-dough method bread, just because of the increased rising and proofing times. When you add that extra ferment, I think you'll be very pleased with the results. And the starter will just keep getting better with time, giving you a higher rise and more flavor. The first of a long line of great breads.

[Frances]

Re: Proofing - raising questions????

Quick update: This time I went for longer rising times. Not quite as long as you suggest, the first trippling was more a sort of doubling, so it bubbled up faster and had to sit in the fridge till I was ready... I also added some malt, as the first loaf made me think that would be a good addition tastewise.

But the bread really is better than with bought yeast! It has more texture somehow. Everybody loved it! As a newcomer to all this, I find it fascinating that all you need is flour and water to replace the yeast. Weird... cool!

It didn't have a sour taste at all, which is great, because thats what my family objects to... propbably only beginners luck though. So my next question is: How do I keep the sour taste low?

Here's a pic of one of the four small loaves, and one of the copious notes I had to make to get there...

[CanuckJim]

Re: Proofing - raising questions????

Frances,

Congratulations, well done. The crumb structure will become more open as the culture matures. You also might experiment with higher hydration levels and more steam while baking in the first half of the time alloted. Retardation of the shaped loaves overnight in the fridge will result in more complex flavours, too.

Soudough/levain cultures can be prevented from becoming too sour by several methods. The first is to stick to hard white, unbleached bread flour for feeding. Both whole wheat and rye flours have much more in the natural sugar department, resulting in more aggressive feeding by the wild yeast and more acetic acid production, leading to a more sour flavour. The size of the feeding just before you plan to bake also has an effect. The larger the feeding, the less sour, the smaller the more. It's really not complicated (except biochemically), and it's a great way to manipulate the flavour of the final outcome.

Jim

[John Fahle]

Re: Proofing - raising questions????

Beautiful, Frances! One other thing I noticed is that it doesn't appear that you slashed the bread. If you slash it, you get a much better oven spring, resulting in a looser, more open crumb. A razor or a (fairly sharp) serrated knife will do it. You can find all sorts of slash patterns. I just usually do a box cut (a rectangle, essentially, slashed into the top of the bread just where it starts to curve down and become the sides), followed by a small X in the center of the box. 1/4" to 1/2" is about how deep you want your slashes.

[Frances]

Re: Proofing - raising questions????

Thanks Jim and John!

I'm really pleased (and surprised) with how well its going so far, you've certainly made another sourdough convert here...

I do usually slash my bread, but this lot was rather highly hydrated, and I thought it would slosh all over the place if I tried. I noticed the box cut on those pictures - nice!

[sarah h]

Re: Proofing - raising questions????

Frances, your bread looks great! I got bogged down and didn't get any starter going yet, but this will serve as inspiration - I'm off to the store for some un-clorinated water.

[CanuckJim]

Re: Proofing - raising questions????

Sarah,

Don't forget, I'm not that far from you. Unless you're very tied to the idea of a do it your self operation, I'd be more than pleased to send you some of my starter to get you started. Err, what did I just say? Anyway, let me know. A kick start, sometimes, is a good thing. Err, what did I just say?

Jim

[Dutchoven]

Re: Proofing - raising questions????

Frances
For the really hydrated doughs you can clip them with kitchen shears...well any sharp shears for that matter...
Dutch

[sarah h]

Re: Proofing - raising questions????

Jim,
I'd, err, be happy to accept your kind offer and will shoot you an e-mail with my coordinates. Thank you!
Sarah

[Inishta]

Re: Proofing - raising questions????

Here's a pic of one of the four small loaves, and one of the copious notes I had to make to get there...

Love the notes..................and I can relate to the "something" bit on the right hand side. My head has been hurting from the first page of the topic............

I'm not doing anything in the baking department till I get the rest of the construction side further on.

[CanuckJim]

Re: Proofing - raising questions????

Sarah,

Will do. Give me a few days, and I'll get if off to you, including feeding notes.

Jim

[Frances]

Re: Proofing - raising questions????

Talking of clorinated water... our tap water has 13 mg/liter, the lowest clorine content I found for bottled in a preliminary search at the shop has 12 mg/liter.

(Hey Inishta, fancy doing the math for convertions? Since your head is hurting already...? )

Although its working fine, I'm still curious to know how this compares to what you people are using. Do you have zero clorine water?

[sarah h]

Re: Proofing - raising questions????

If I'm doing the math right (always chancy for me!) my bottled water, at 2.7 ppm of clorine translates into .0027 mg/litre (mg being fairly equal to ml for water). Even if I'm off a few decimals, it's still very low!

[CanuckJim]

Re: Proofing - raising questions????

Sarah, Frances,

Chlorine is a gas. If you let the water sit out for a day, chlorine actually evaporates. What's of more concern is whether the water is hard or soft. Most municipal water is on the hard side. To avoid taking chances with water at all, I've used bottled water (no salt added), filtered water (I have a large filtering system [Sarah, on sale at Crappy Tire from time to time]) that gives room temp, cold or hot water. It's very useful for manipulating the temperature for the water I use in bread making through the seasons. Also, I have a source to the north for extremely soft deep artesian well water that is the best.

Spock (er, Sarah) beam me those coordinates so I can beam up the starter.

Jim