also another consideration, not sure if you usually knead your dough but WW and rye have the ‘sharp bits’ of the grain left in them which can cut through gluten when kneading, so i think its generally considered better to maybe stretch and fold or something rather than kneading.

“Autolysing” (mixing the flour and water, and starter, depending on who you believe, but not salt) before the stretching/folding/kneading will soften the bran up. It’s supposed to be good to do anyway, but particularly with coarser flours.

my 8th attempt at sourdough bread…. think I may have gotten the hang of it now….

Autolysing” (mixing the flour and water, and starter, depending on who you believe, but not salt) before the stretching/folding/kneading will soften the bran up. It’s supposed to be good to do anyway, but particularly with coarser flours.

I normally make up quite a wet mix, take it out, give it a few folds, back in the bowl, and leave it for an hour or so before the main stretch and fold event. Has worked for me so far – so am doing the same. Hopefully that should soften up the WM flour like you say. Thanks. 👍

Easy Focaccia Recipe (with yeast or sourdough starter), No-Knead Focaccia

Don’t add too much in the way of sunflower seeds or it gets quite heavy.

Can’t think how I know this.

After a failed attempt at making a starter we got some off a friend. Here is my first loaf using Alex’s recipe from YT so cooked in a dutch oven:

Pretty pleased with it. If i had to knit pick i’d have two gripes:

1) The crust didn’t remain crispy once it had cooled
2) The inside was ever so slightly crumpety in texture

Maybe the above are characteristics of sourdough..any ideas how i might improve?

Let me try again with those photos:

The crust didn’t remain crispy once it had cooled

From recent experience this happens when you cook a wet dough and the water comes out to the crust as it cools. 2 things you can try are a less wet dough initially, also I stuck the loaf back in the cooling oven for 10-20 minutes after baking to ‘dry’ it out a bit further which worked 2 weeks ago and didn’t work so well this week. I am not an expert 🙂

Just testing how to post from Instagram and showing a recent loaf using KISSourdough which was tasty…

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Cheers @jimchall and @barbellsandbread for the video. Happy with how this one turned out. The other one in the oven with higher % water is a different story it was meant to be a loaf but is looking like a ciabatta/pancake! #kissourdough #sourdough #sourdoughbread

A post shared by Roddy Scott (@rs92xfn) on May 14, 2020 at 11:33pm PDT

well i made my best and ‘airest’ loaf yet, but……. i cheated, its normal instant yeast. posted it here tho to show what im trying to achieve with sourdough, but ive never made one like this yet!

its just so light and soft!

ive still got another week of building my starter so thought id try and get the hang of how bread should look and feel during bulk fermentation and proving, just so i can compare. it sort of went wrong, but ive ended up with this still.

i intended to use my usual sourdough recipe, but just subbed the 100g starter for 7g instant yeast.
water and yeast mixed and left for a minute or so, then 500g flour added and mixed for a couple of mins by wooden spoon and left to autolyse for half hour.
added salt and kneaded for 10 mins instead of usual stretch and folds.

i was then expecting it to bulk ferment for around 4 hours, went out for 2 and it had ballooned and was nearly spilling over the top.
this is where i did something ive never done before but thought what the hell, i ‘knocked it back’, to smaller size again, then left it another hour or so and it rose again. wow, so quick!

i then preshaped as usual, 4 stretch and folds, and put on the top, expecting to leave for half hour or so. but….. i did the prod test, it was showing signs of being about right, so i thought no time for final shaping, it is what it is, its ready, so just plopped it in the oven as it was, in a boule.

really pleased with the result, but not sure i can replicate it either with yeast or even harder, with sourdough 😀

That looks lovely Sadex! Here is my latest loaf…getting the hang of it now!

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Sourdough sunrise #sourdough #sourdoughbread #wildyeast #freshbread #breadbaker

A post shared by Roddy Scott (@rs92xfn) on Jun 1, 2020 at 12:01am PDT

Managed to score some 00 flour yesterday, happy days!.

right then. sourdough pizza dough recipe please, and has any done them on the barbecue?

right then. sourdough pizza dough recipe please, and has any done them on the barbecue?

I’ve used the ooni recipe for the last 2 weeks with a reduced volume of water (-2-g I think) the second week.
ooni sourdough

I am not using a BBQ though, I tried with a stone but never got it hot enough to do the job well.

cheers!

i started with successful pizzas using the £40 BBQ oven, but since then its either been too hot underneath and burnt the bases, or not got hot enough at all and ive had to finish them in the kitchen oven. i decided to cut my losses and buy a gas pizza oven…..

well i nearly jacked the sourdough in, had a few ‘splat’ loaves, waste of flour and time, probably due to my weak starter that never gets near doubling, and my last one was all holes……

anyone care to tell me if thats under or overproved?

anyways, i thought id have one more go…..

so……like i say i was just about to give it all up but thought id experiment with the starter first. ive actually got 3 separate starters, all from the main one given to me, one with rye, one white bread flour etc. i left around 20g in each, then put 100g of different flours in them, and thought if these dont rise, im binning them and thats it.

i thought id be leaving them overnight, but was astonished to see the rye starter double in just 3 or 4 hours! it was the only one showing much action. i put a little marker on the level and monitored to see if itd get any higher. it rose a bit, but then 10 minutes later was back below the line, which amazed me, i wasnt expecting such a tight margin, but got mixing immediately.

i tried a lower hydration, i think 450g SWBF, 250g water, 100g 50/50 rye starter, 10g salt. kneaded, then left alone to BF. when i thought it had got sloppy and airy, i found there were some pretty big bubbles, so i thought nothing ventured nothing gained, its what i do with yeasted loaves, so knocked it back and let it rise again, hoping for a more even crumb.

lower hydration was easier to handle and shape, it all went well and i was surprised to find i had good oven spring and a nice looking loaf.

by this time, the other 2 starters were actually showing signs of doubling, so i thought id gamble and experiment a bit. chose one at random, went 400/100 white/wholemeal, 300g water, 100g 50/50 white flour starterand 10g salt for a wetter dough. i thought id try that french fold slapping method. matey in the vid makes it look so easy, i was sweating away for around 25 minutes and made a right mess before it looked decent enough to put in the bowl and BF 😀

i still did a couple of stretch and folds, then left it. timings were all wrong but i just put it in the fridge overnight then left it to get to room temp this morning. i thought id left it too long, it was pretty slack throughout pre-shape and shape (this one i did as a batard) and i thought it was a goner. when i put it on the stone to bake it spread out and i feared the worst, but….. it rose! i now have 2 fine looking loaves!

ive just sliced the boule and it tastes lovely. not as gummy as my other loaves either. tighter crumb, but thats what i was half-expecting after knocking it back, plus its a lower hydration.

so……..i havent jacked it in yet, i live to fight another day, but, i think my problems have been weak starters. im starting to recognise what to look out for, and im amazed at the difference in timings that a bit of hot weather makes. you really do need to just watch the dough rather than the clock, thats clear to me now. its still a lot easier to make yeasted bread tho isnt it! 😀

Quick question for you pros – do I need to keep the starter sealed airtight? It sits in the fridge for a week between baking. I used to keep it in a screw top plastic thing but I just bought a small Weck glass and was wondering if I should put the rubber ring in or not.

I don’t. One of the pluses of the Weck jars is that the glass lid just sits on top so air can ‘burp’ out if needed. You don’t want to be creating a pressurised container, for obvious reasons.

My latest attempt…. 100% white flour, the dough was a tad sloppy, but the DIY dutch oven stopped it from going all flat and floppy.. this is the best risen loaf I have made to date…

wow, id be happy with that too!

more details required 😉 DIY dutch oven? is that still the greaseproof paper round the bottom or the imprints from it?

sloppy dough…. through a high percentage of water, or over/underproving?

good work.

@sadexpunk 500g stong white flour, 265g of water, 150g sourdough starter, 30g water+8g salt

started the mix around 7am yesterday morning, mixed water and flour, did a short 5min knead and left for 1 hour to autolyse, then added 30g water+salt and mixed it well in and then left for 1 hour, then did 3 stretch and folds 30 min apart, and then left to prove for 3.5 hours, turned out onto floured surface and formed into a slack ball and left to sit for 20 min (covered with the plastic mixing bowl), next I floured the top and turned the dough over and brought all ends into middle and then flipped over and formed into a tight ball, placed the dough in a well floured banneton and covered with a shower cap and placed in fridge until 8am this morning….had a ceramic dish and a pyrex casserole dish preheating in a very hot oven for 20 min, turned the dough out onto parchment paper and used this as a sling to transfer the dough to the ceramic dish and then covered it with the pyrex dish and baked for 25 min, then removed the pyrex dish,reduced the oven temp slightly and baked for a further 30 min

My last attempt at the weekend was really overproved, ridiculously sloppy, to the point I just couldn’t shape it at all. Pretty sure it wasn’t too high hydration, as it’s a dough I’ve done before a fair few times.

Lesson learned.

Still, managed a half decent couple of loaves from it, sliced and frozen, makes a perfect wfh lunch whacked straight into the toaster and covered in something lovely. 🙂

Canny wait on the Koda 16 coming in August, sourdough neapolitan pizza ahoy!

Sourdough update! (via lazily copied Instagram posts)

Stocked up on flour. This should keep me going for a while!

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The #paindemic continues #sourdough #bread #realbread #stonegroundordeath

A post shared by Dave Winterborne (@the_north.wind) on Jun 12, 2020 at 5:46am PDT

Had a few flat, disappointing loaves. Should really have posted some pictures of those for balance.

Things have improved though. I made some baguettes that weren’t amazing…

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Yes, I roll my own. #baguette Also pleased with how this turned out for a 50% wholemeal loaf after some unintentionally flat loaves recently. #paindemic #realbread #sourdough

A post shared by Dave Winterborne (@the_north.wind) on Jul 1, 2020 at 8:13am PDT

…but did make an awesome sandwich for a 135 mile mixed ride:

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In future, all my long rides will feature a giant multi-purpose sandwich. #bread #sourdough #baguette #bikelife (No, I know no self-respecting Frenchman would measure his baguette in miles)

A post shared by Dave Winterborne (@the_north.wind) on Jul 2, 2020 at 1:34pm PDT

I had intended to keep making some really simple plain white loaves until I got consistent at it. Then I thought, sod it, and had a go at chocolate sourdough, and, though I say so myself, it was the absolute bomb. I promise it tasted as good as it looks. I was so happy with that one.

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So… this happened #chocolate #sourdough #bread #realbread #northeastbakers #holdmycalls #sendbutter

A post shared by Dave Winterborne (@the_north.wind) on Jul 9, 2020 at 6:43am PDT

This is the recipe I (pretty much) followed (I used their quantities but my usual sourdough process): https://www.theclevercarrot.com/2014/10/sourdough-noir/

Things I learnt from this:
– Stretching and folding technique is quite important. I see a few people have mentioned sloppy dough. I think building structure in the dough, particularly tension across the top, is the key in getting good bread from that. High hydration is fine if you can build the structure. Watch some videos and practice. That said, I don’t think hydration is the be all and end all. I’ve had perfectly good loaves from 70%, which is on the lower end, but more workable.
– Shaping is also pretty important. Those of you with bannetons probably know this. At one point I was proving in a square tin and then doing most of the shaping before it went in the oven, but I’ve now realised that even just proving in a mixing bowl where it holds the general shape of a boule helps a lot.
– Covering it in the oven really works. This was the kicker I think. I haven’t got a dutch oven. I’ve used a cast iron casserole which works OK but not much different to a tray. But I realised that one of my stainless steel mixing bowls fits perfectly over my pizza tray and makes an ideal cloche. The enclosure seems much more important than the heat capacity for oven spring. Makes sense really; you just want to keep the steam in.

Did a couple of half n half white/wholemeal loaves at the weekend, I’ll stick to white, this wasn’t as good at all.

25% wholemeal seeded worthiness.

https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/environment/feral-sourdough-starters-spotted-on-moors-20200713198443

My most hipster open crumb high hydration effort so far – damn tasty too

This might be of interest?
https://heated.medium.com/what-have-we-learned-during-the-home-baking-era-462089fa2343