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The following information about how I bake is in response to a question George asked in another thread about the loaf pictured below. I don't consider myself an expert by any means--although the quality of my bread is steadily improving, I hope to learn a lot from the accumulated experience here.
It's kind of a ramble, but I'd appreciate comments and suggestions based on your experience!
Starter
I originally made my starter a couple of years ago, mostly by following Dan Wing's instructions in The Bread Builders, a book many of you are probably familiar with. I went down to my local organic food co-op and bought some wheat flour and some rye flour (roughly equal amounts) and mixed them up. I mixed 50g or so of that flour with an equal amount (by weight) of water. I was very surprised at how quickly it took off! For the first several days, I fed it twice a day by discarding half and bringing it back to its original weight by adding equal amounts of flour and water. I slowed to once a day feedings, and eventually once a week when I kept it in the fridge.
At first, the starter had a very strong acid smell, but within a few days it mellowed out quite a bit. I attribute this to the bacteria taking off first, and the yeast taking some time to catch up. It is now not especially sour at all--one of the things I have yet to learn is how to nurture certain flavors.
Two other side notes. First, I just feed it with the KA all-purpose I bake with. No doubt other flour (rye?) and temperature control would both help control the flavor. Second, I have left this starter neglected for a period of months and still been able to bring it back to life. I suppose the acid helps preserve it in the back of the fridge.
Bread
When I bake, it's usually just plain ol' bread--flour, water, and salt, with all the leavening coming from my starter. I use KA all-purpose flour, and we're lucky to have very good tap water here. I shoot for about 65% hydration (by baker's percentage), and starter will make up 20%-40% of the final dough weight (more in cooler weather). I know my starter is half flour and half water by weight, so I have to take that into account.
As an example, for 1kg of dough, I might use 200g of starter, 506g flour, and 294g water. (That's a total of 606g flour and 394g water, for 65% hydration). Toss in an amount of salt equal to about 2% the weight of flour or slightly less. Sometimes I put in whole wheat flour for about 15-20% of the flour.
I usually don't have enough starter in the fridge, so I'll pull it out the night before, triple it, and leave it on the counter.
I let the dough rise for at least 3 hours; longer if it seems slow. (In general, slower is better--I have a friend who's a baker, and he always retards his baguette dough in the fridge overnight. Good for the flavor and good for the schedule.) Deflate and shape, and let it rise for probably another 90 minutes depending on ambient temperature. Slash it, put it in the oven, and try to get some steam for the first few minutes (I use water in a hot cast iron pan).
As you can see in the photo, I'm still working on careful shaping. Little lumps turn into big lumps pretty easily. I also don't make such fat loaves--that one probably should have been a round.
I usually get pretty dramatic oven spring, even on the thin tiles I use as a stone. I probably end up over-baking a bit for the sake of crust color. This shouldn't be a problem in a WFO (which I hope to have by the end of summer!) Although it may suffer from the over-baking, the crumb is a bit chewy and fairly open (see photo). The flavor is mild and just slightly sour.
*whew*
Please please offer your own suggestions on this process, tell us what you do differently that works for you, etc. If you don't chime in, I'll feel very self-conscious, since I'm hardly a leading bread authority.
One of the things I'm curious about is how you handle wetter doughs (e.g. for ciabatta) and what you do differently other than the hydration.
It's kind of a ramble, but I'd appreciate comments and suggestions based on your experience!
Starter
I originally made my starter a couple of years ago, mostly by following Dan Wing's instructions in The Bread Builders, a book many of you are probably familiar with. I went down to my local organic food co-op and bought some wheat flour and some rye flour (roughly equal amounts) and mixed them up. I mixed 50g or so of that flour with an equal amount (by weight) of water. I was very surprised at how quickly it took off! For the first several days, I fed it twice a day by discarding half and bringing it back to its original weight by adding equal amounts of flour and water. I slowed to once a day feedings, and eventually once a week when I kept it in the fridge.
At first, the starter had a very strong acid smell, but within a few days it mellowed out quite a bit. I attribute this to the bacteria taking off first, and the yeast taking some time to catch up. It is now not especially sour at all--one of the things I have yet to learn is how to nurture certain flavors.
Two other side notes. First, I just feed it with the KA all-purpose I bake with. No doubt other flour (rye?) and temperature control would both help control the flavor. Second, I have left this starter neglected for a period of months and still been able to bring it back to life. I suppose the acid helps preserve it in the back of the fridge.
Bread
When I bake, it's usually just plain ol' bread--flour, water, and salt, with all the leavening coming from my starter. I use KA all-purpose flour, and we're lucky to have very good tap water here. I shoot for about 65% hydration (by baker's percentage), and starter will make up 20%-40% of the final dough weight (more in cooler weather). I know my starter is half flour and half water by weight, so I have to take that into account.
As an example, for 1kg of dough, I might use 200g of starter, 506g flour, and 294g water. (That's a total of 606g flour and 394g water, for 65% hydration). Toss in an amount of salt equal to about 2% the weight of flour or slightly less. Sometimes I put in whole wheat flour for about 15-20% of the flour.
I usually don't have enough starter in the fridge, so I'll pull it out the night before, triple it, and leave it on the counter.
I let the dough rise for at least 3 hours; longer if it seems slow. (In general, slower is better--I have a friend who's a baker, and he always retards his baguette dough in the fridge overnight. Good for the flavor and good for the schedule.) Deflate and shape, and let it rise for probably another 90 minutes depending on ambient temperature. Slash it, put it in the oven, and try to get some steam for the first few minutes (I use water in a hot cast iron pan).
As you can see in the photo, I'm still working on careful shaping. Little lumps turn into big lumps pretty easily. I also don't make such fat loaves--that one probably should have been a round.
I usually get pretty dramatic oven spring, even on the thin tiles I use as a stone. I probably end up over-baking a bit for the sake of crust color. This shouldn't be a problem in a WFO (which I hope to have by the end of summer!) Although it may suffer from the over-baking, the crumb is a bit chewy and fairly open (see photo). The flavor is mild and just slightly sour.
*whew*
Please please offer your own suggestions on this process, tell us what you do differently that works for you, etc. If you don't chime in, I'll feel very self-conscious, since I'm hardly a leading bread authority.
One of the things I'm curious about is how you handle wetter doughs (e.g. for ciabatta) and what you do differently other than the hydration.
.
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