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This is sort of a follow up thread to the excellent playing with sourdough thread - starting a new thread in an effort to focus on my own interests in this subject. To put it briefly - I'm trying to make it as easy as possible to make good bread at home. Here's what my home bread making has evolved into:
Preparation - I start with a 65% hydration dough (currently using gold medal's Harvest King "better for bread" flour) - 1000g flour and 650g (=mL) of water. Initially I mix this in the kitchen aid about 2 minutes to bring it together. Then I use a 10g pinch of my (probably dormant) starter directly from the fridge and "knead" it by hand with 10g of the bread dough - no salt at this point. Then I add 10g of kosher salt (Jim, I have a variety of sea salts that I'll experiment with later, but kosher salt has been my baking salt for a long time, not ready to branch out here yet) to the main dough mixture, knead it a few more minutes, then the dough (with no yeast) goes into the fridge in a sealed tupperware for a long autolyse. This also becomes an easy way to feed and activate my yeast - no more measuring is needed as I just need to roughly double the volume.
Feeding - The 20g starter/dough piece is left in a covered but vented tupperware to begin growing - about 6 hours until good and bubbly. Then I continue feeding it from my autolyse premixed dough, doubling each time. Over the course of 24 hours, the yeast activity begins to accelerate - it bubbles well and can double in volume in about three hours (remember each time the dough added is from the fridge). I knead in the dough with the active starter by hand each time.
Dough Finishing - Once the starter is approaching the volume of the dough in the fridge, the final mix is made, allowed to rise about 2 hours, then back in the fridge for four hours to overnight to retard (depends on my schedule). Finally the dough is shaped (first divided and roughly shaped, then after a 15 minute rest it is stretched to final shape), covered, and allowed to rise until almost doubled.
Baking - the oven is preheated to 550F (I'm still between brick ovens
) with the baking stone the second rack from the top - I give it plenty of time for the stone to heat through. The bread is slashed, then slid onto the stone. I place a jelly roll pan on the bottom of the oven during preheat, and have a soup can that I've perforated with a small hole. I add 4oz of water to the soup can right after the bread is placed in the oven and the water drips from one of the lower racks onto the jelly roll pan to create a steady steam source. After six minutes the can is removed and the oven vented. About 8-10 minutes later the bread is done (it's not really done until it is 204 internal temp) and removed.
The whole process takes 24-36 hours - the fridge gives some flexibility in the time. The prep is exceedingly simple and the feeding steps are also minimal work, takes about as much time to wash my hands as it does to feed. The long autolyse should effectively allow the bread enzymes to release sugars from the starch in the grain and simplifies later mixing/measuring. I don't have to perform excessive feeding on the mother starter either, yet give many yeast doublings to allow the starter to really activate before the final dough is made. I find that with this approach the final bread is less sour than my previous approach of using a larger inoculation (100-150g) with the mother starter, and the rising is more predictable.
Pictures: first is my most recent batch, second is the batch prior with a slice to show the crumb:
Preparation - I start with a 65% hydration dough (currently using gold medal's Harvest King "better for bread" flour) - 1000g flour and 650g (=mL) of water. Initially I mix this in the kitchen aid about 2 minutes to bring it together. Then I use a 10g pinch of my (probably dormant) starter directly from the fridge and "knead" it by hand with 10g of the bread dough - no salt at this point. Then I add 10g of kosher salt (Jim, I have a variety of sea salts that I'll experiment with later, but kosher salt has been my baking salt for a long time, not ready to branch out here yet) to the main dough mixture, knead it a few more minutes, then the dough (with no yeast) goes into the fridge in a sealed tupperware for a long autolyse. This also becomes an easy way to feed and activate my yeast - no more measuring is needed as I just need to roughly double the volume.
Feeding - The 20g starter/dough piece is left in a covered but vented tupperware to begin growing - about 6 hours until good and bubbly. Then I continue feeding it from my autolyse premixed dough, doubling each time. Over the course of 24 hours, the yeast activity begins to accelerate - it bubbles well and can double in volume in about three hours (remember each time the dough added is from the fridge). I knead in the dough with the active starter by hand each time.
Dough Finishing - Once the starter is approaching the volume of the dough in the fridge, the final mix is made, allowed to rise about 2 hours, then back in the fridge for four hours to overnight to retard (depends on my schedule). Finally the dough is shaped (first divided and roughly shaped, then after a 15 minute rest it is stretched to final shape), covered, and allowed to rise until almost doubled.
Baking - the oven is preheated to 550F (I'm still between brick ovens
) with the baking stone the second rack from the top - I give it plenty of time for the stone to heat through. The bread is slashed, then slid onto the stone. I place a jelly roll pan on the bottom of the oven during preheat, and have a soup can that I've perforated with a small hole. I add 4oz of water to the soup can right after the bread is placed in the oven and the water drips from one of the lower racks onto the jelly roll pan to create a steady steam source. After six minutes the can is removed and the oven vented. About 8-10 minutes later the bread is done (it's not really done until it is 204 internal temp) and removed.The whole process takes 24-36 hours - the fridge gives some flexibility in the time. The prep is exceedingly simple and the feeding steps are also minimal work, takes about as much time to wash my hands as it does to feed. The long autolyse should effectively allow the bread enzymes to release sugars from the starch in the grain and simplifies later mixing/measuring. I don't have to perform excessive feeding on the mother starter either, yet give many yeast doublings to allow the starter to really activate before the final dough is made. I find that with this approach the final bread is less sour than my previous approach of using a larger inoculation (100-150g) with the mother starter, and the rising is more predictable.
Pictures: first is my most recent batch, second is the batch prior with a slice to show the crumb:
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