Well there you go, our first loaves, kneaded by Babs and baked in Pyrex pans. It actually didn’t taste as good as the bread machine loaf but it looks a lot better. It may be that the sugar and olive oil made the difference or it could be that we didn’t steam it properly, overbaked it … who knows. We’re happy because all 3 loafs turned out pretty good for a first attempt. We are keeping the starter at room temp for a couple of days while we play with baking. This morning we’re looking at options on how to keep starter fed, produce a levain, dough, the timing of all that … and then there’s the baking. This is fun!
Everyone seems to have differing opinions from the minimum of 3 feedings at room temp recommended by Cultures For Health (they are on the difficult end of the spectrum) to quick and easy methods that involve one feeding from refrigerated starter. We’re working on a compromise which is to feed our 1/4 cup refrigerated starter twice and then make the dough. The key is to give the starter (or levain which I’ll use to refer to the starter used to make the dough (final “feeding”) digest for at least 6 hours. We still have a lot of questions regarding times betweens feedings and dough making. We’re thinking the starter peaks between 6 and 12 hours (8 seems like a good peak) and that while you can go 24 between feedings or dough making, it loses potency after 12? We’re still learning. I think we’ll make our own YouTube video that puts all this together.
So today we’re going to try the cinnamon raisin bread from this YouTube video called Cinnamon Raisin Sourdough Bread – Bread Machine by Desert Hava Garden. She uses the following ingredients for 2 loaves of bread:
- Flour: 4 cups
- Salt: 1 tsp
- Cinnamon: 1 heaping tsp
- Raisons: 1 cup
- Milk: 3/4 cup (Almond or any kind)
- Honey: 4 tbsp
- Starter: 2 cups
She puts them in the above order and runs the machine at Dough only. After kneading and a 3 hour rise time. She then kneads just a little with the machine (punch down). She then greases two bread pans and divides the dough between them, rolling the dough into loaf shapes and setting them into the pans. She then covers lightly with seran wrap and lets sit in 72-80 degrees for 5 hours and puts them into the oven for 30-40 minutes (she does 40 but doesn’t tell us what temperature unless we missed it).
I think today we’ll try it in the bread machine, same programming as last time (Cycle 15?). We’ll add the raisins as an extra ingredient at the beep part way through the kneading. This is a lot of ingredients for one loaf but we have a big bread machine so we’re just gonna go for it.
We’ll also try some oven loafs. We’ll use the loaf pan and maybe try an artisan bread on our new baking stone. I think we’ll use Jarad’s recipe for that and kneed it in the bread machine…. which means we’ll need to do that first! Back later!
Oh wow, we just learned some great stuff from the Irish dude. We can proof our dough in the fridge overnight! Hooray! I’m learning a lot from this guy. Looks like we make dough, knead it, proof it for 3 hours, cut it in half and create your shapes (pans, proofing basket, etc) and let proof for another 3 – 3 1/2 hours or pop it in the fridge overnight and bake it in the morning. I gotta get this guy’s folding technique down because he does it at every phase. Great video from ILoveCooking!
First we’ll make some dough. This step will be the same every time. We’ve fed 200 grams of flour, water and starter twice and maybe 500 grams of each for the levain, let rest 6-14 hours and then make dough. I’m gonna take a stab at a recipe for either 2 artisan loaves or one big bread machine loaf
- 2 1/3 cups starter
- 3 1/3 cups flour
- 1 tbsp salt
- 2 tbsp sugar (optional)
- 2 tbsp olive oil (optional)
- 3/4 – 1 1/4 cups water (start with 3/4 and add as needed)
Bread machine Dough Only (Cycle 15 Memory 2):
- Rest: 10 min
- Knead: 20 min
- Shape: OFF
- Rise 1: OFF (or 3:00 for the first rise and punchdown)
- Bake: OFF
- Keep Warm: OFF
Soon we’ll try ILoveCooking’s Rye Sourdough Bread!
So here’s how the day went. I waited till 3 pm to make dough after feeding about 8 am. I was going to just put the above ingredients in the machine but I started mixing in a bowl, then poured it in, forgot the salt, let the machine knead for a while, started grinding salt all over the dough and let knead for another 15 minutes. I then took it out, put it in a bowl and let it proof for 3 hours in the attic upstairs where it was warmer. I then brought it down, cut it in half and put 1/2 in our new proofing basket and half in a loaf pan greased with ghee. I put them in the fridge, covered with towels for baking tomorrow. At 9pm tonight I’ll feed 2 cups of starter for tomorrow. Tomorrow I think we’ll try the cinnamon raisin bread, baked completely in the machine with Rise 1: 3:00 and Rise 2: 4:00.
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