by gregtpayne | Oct 3, 2018 | Bread
Well we’ve had some epic fails lately. Yesterday I went back to the Irish guy’s recipe which made the dough way too watery. The bread machine loaf hadn’t even risen after 7 hours of proofing when it started baking. It actually came out tasting good, very spongy and sour, but it was very dense and flat and the top was as white as white flour. The round sunk so much it looked more like flatbread. So today I started looking for a new recipe and found this on BBC’s site…
How to make sourdough bread
Ingredients
- 500g/1lb 2oz strong unbleached white bread flour, plus extra for flouring
- 300g/10½oz sourdough starter
- 250ml/9fl oz water
- 10g/¼oz brown sugar
- 10g/¼oz salt
- flavourless oil, for greasing
Method
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Mix together the flour, sourdough starter and water in a bowl. Add the sugar and salt. Turn out on to a clean kitchen surface and knead for 10 minutes or until the ‘windowpane effect’ is achieved (where the dough can be stretched until it is so thin that it becomes transparent).
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Put the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and let it prove for 2½-3 hours. You won’t notice as much of a rise in the dough as you would with a normal, yeasted bread and it will take a lot longer.
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Turn out the dough onto a clean kitchen surface and knock back. Portion the dough into two and shape into two ball-shaped loaves. Flour generously, and place each loaf seam side up in a bowl, lined with a couche cloth or a heavily-floured tea towel – without the cloth, your loaf will stick in the bowl and you won’t be able to turn it out. Leave to prove for a further 2½ hours.
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Preheat the oven to 230C/450F/Gas 8. Put a few ice cubes or cold water into a baking tin and place in the bottom of the oven to create steam. Turn the loaves out onto a baking tray or hot baking stone. Using a thin sharp knife score two or three times on the top of the loaf and place in the oven. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a good crust has formed and the loaves sound hollow when tapped on the base.
by gregtpayne | Sep 28, 2018 | Bread
I think avoided burning them today by pulling the bread machine loaf after 55 minutes and the cloche boule after 35 minutes (25 with cover). I took the temp of our oven and it’s running hot, at least 440 F when set to 425. That’s OK though, we’ll continue to cook with our oven set to 425 F. I took the internal temperature of both loaves and it read about 206 for both so 55 and 35 minutes for 1/2 wheat, no added ingredients may be about right. One thing I did notice was holes in the tops of both loaves. I suspect this may be due to using much less water than the recipe calls for, trying to achieve a harder consistency, like I’ve seen in videos. However I’ll go back up to 430 g/ml of water next time which is still 30 ml less than the recipe. So here’s what we’ll do next time…
For two loaves kneaded in bread machine:
- White Flour: 400 g
- Wheat Flour: 400 g
- Water: 430 g/ml (down from 460 in recipe)
- Salt: 10 g
- Starter: 320 g
- Rest: 10:00
- Knead: 25:00
- Shape: OFF
- Rise 1: 3:00
- Rise 2,3: OFF
- Bake: OFF
- Keep Warm: OFF
When done, remove dough, punch it down, cut in half and proof another 3-4 hours in bread machine, pan or shaping basket. Bake for 55 minutes in bread machine or 35-40 minutes in cloche (covered first 20) in 425 F oven.
by gregtpayne | Sep 27, 2018 | Bread
This was yesterday’s. The one on the right is overdone, the one on the left, well, it’s ugly but these bread machine loaves make really good sandwich bread and they might be more sour which is something we’re shooting for. Today we used the same recipe as yesterday and let it proof for about 8 hours. Still it was not that sour. I set a timer for 40 minutes (25 + 15) and still it seemed burnt. The oval I’m checking after 35. It was really hard to get out of the basket. Next time I think I’ll reduce the water another 30g to 400 grams of water and not use sugar.
For two loaves kneaded in bread machine:
- White Flour: 400 g
- Wheat Flour: 400 g
- Water: 400 ml (400 grams) (down from 460g in recipe)
- Salt: 10 g
- Starter: 320 g
- Rest: 10:00
- Knead: 25:00
- Shape: OFF
- Rise 1: 3:00
- Rise 2,3: OFF
- Bake: OFF
- Keep Warm: OFF
When done, remove dough, punch it down, cut in half and proof another 3-4 hours in bread machine, pan or shaping basket. Bake for one hour in bread machine or about 40 minutes in 425 F oven, (cover 1st 20). Note that baking two loaves at once or using added ingredients like olives can extend baking times. Start watching at 35 minutes and pull as soon as it gets light brown. Ideally the inside temperature will be between 200 and 205 F.
by gregtpayne | Sep 26, 2018 | Bread
Another attempt today, this time Babs gets a break from kneading and we let the bread machine knead and do the initial proofing.
For two loaves kneaded in bread machine:
- White Flour: 400 g
- Wheat Flour: 400 g
- Water: 430 ml (430 grams) (down from 460g)
- Salt: 10 g
- Sugar: 2 tbsp
- Starter: 320 g
- Rest: 10:00
- Knead: 25:00
- Shape: OFF
- Rise 1: 3:00
- Rise 2,3: OFF
- Bake: OFF
- Keep Warm: OFF
After 3 hrs 35 min. we’ll remove it from the machine, punch it down, cut it in half, put 1/2 in the machine and bake for 55 min (set to 1:00 just in case since our stupid bread maker won’t bake when it’s hot!). The other half we’ll make into an artisan boule (round) and bake in the cloche for 50 minutes (first 25 with the cover on) at 450 F.
by gregtpayne | Sep 21, 2018 | Bread
Babs is becoming our master baker. She loves to knead the dough and today while I went mountain biking she did the proofing and shaping. We used the Irish guy’s recipe but used half wheat flour and added 2 tbsp of sugar. She let it proof twice for 3 hours each and it rose big. We baked the oval for 45 minutes (25 with cover, 20 without) and the boule for 35 minutes (450 degrees). We created steam for the boule with a preheated large pan or cookie sheet on the bottom shelf filled with boiling water. We check the insides with a meat thermometer and make sure it’s at least 200 degrees in the center (210 degrees is just fine). You don’t want to undercook sourdough, it will get “rancid” which the Cultures for Health lady says is disgusting. Anyway, 200 – 210 degrees, 35 minutes, add 10 minutes for a cover (leave first 25). Bake at 450 F. Here’s the recipe…
For two loaves:
- White Flour: 400 g
- Wheat Flour: 400 g
- Water: 460 ml (460 grams)
- Salt: 10 g
- Sugar: 2 tbsp
- Starter: 320 g
Knead and proof for 3 hours
Shape and proof for another 3 – 3 1/2 hours (our temps are cooler)
Bake at 450 F for 35 minutes (uncovered artisan with steam pan) or 45 minutes (covered for first 25 minutes). Make sure inside temp of bread is at least 200 F before pulling.
She just sliced it and it turned out perfect! This is definitely our best effort yet. This is officially our House Bread to go with our House Buch. Props to the master baker Babs!
by gregtpayne | Sep 19, 2018 | Bread
I think we produced our best yet today and we made it totally from scratch, no bread machine! Barbara did the kneading. We used ILoveCooking’s recipe but substituted wheat flour and added a cup of olives. The kneading was different than with white flour. It is much heavier and harder to manipulate. It’s tempting to add more water but I think we made it too wet doing that. We did the first proof in front of the fire place because the house was cold this morning. We shaped one oval and one round loaf. The boule we baked on a small round stone and the oval we baked in our new Emile Henry cloche at 450 degrees. The round took 40 minutes and I think we should have let it go 45. With the wheat bread and olives it took much longer to cook than plain white sourdough bread. We took it out when the center was about 197 degrees. I think we don’t want to pull at less than 200 degrees in the future. The cloched oval baked 25 minutes with the cover on and another 25 with it off (maybe a tad more). This brought it to around 203 degrees when we pulled it.
Next we’ll try a half wheat, half white olive with some sugar. Jarad uses 2 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp salt for a smaller batch. I suppose we could do 3 tbsp of sugar and 1/2 tbsp of salt to stick with his compromise with 2 tsp sugar and 1 tbsp salt. We also want to find a recipe for cheesy jalapeno bread and there’s a recipe for cinnamon rolls in the Zojirushi cookbook we want to try too.
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