I used to do other stuff at weekends I’m sure, now it’s all about the dough

😆 indeed. I am just about to squeeze in a bike ride 😂

I haven’t tried the overnight fridge rise yet for bread. Probably about to do that with my pizza dough as I don’t need it til tomorrow.

I’m using variants of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Guardian recipe from a year or two ago – it’s on line

Here’s my notes

For the sponge – midday ish
About 150ml active starter (see recipe above)
250g strong flour (white, wholemeal or a mixture of the two)
275ml warm water

For the loaf – evening
300g strong bread flour (white, wholemeal or a mixture), plus more for dusting
1 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
10g fine sea salt

Rising overnight in fridge

Prove from first thing 1.5-3 hours

Bake as normal – hot as it’ll go for 10-12 minutes then 35-40 minutes at 180C

^The Hugh FW recipe is the one I use. I’ve found it works better with the following modifications:

Feed the starter the night before
Make the sponge first thing the next morning
Use 300ml water not 275ml
Make the loaf and kneed early afternoon
Shape and prove overnight in the fridge
Give it an hour or two the next morning at room temperature then bake.

MrSmith
Member

Rice flour, bannetons will stick with ordinary flour

This was a top tip. 👍 I had a bag of rice flour lying around not doing much so tried it. Not even the slightest sticking and even better, I didn’t have a shed load of flour to brush off – it all stayed in the banneton.

It’s because rice flour doesn’t absorb water.

I’m only on my 4th loaf and was doing ok until no3 that had a cheddar gorge sized cave inside, decided to do everything by eye/ feel and bulk fermented for longer and more stretch/folding and rest before retarding in the fridge overnight. Took phone pics so I could gauge changes in appearance and size as I went along , turned out a right banger that held its shape and baked my best loaf yet with great structure.
A recipe is never going to help you with temperature changes and differences in flour.

Ended up having a few beers, forgot about the half hourly turns, left in the first prove for about 7 hours. Baked this morning and the loaf seems fine!

Pizza dough though, I forgot the salt, the dough was sticky and undeveloped it kept tearing and was a bugger to move, it made pizzas in the end, but they weren’t as food as last week’s.

Pizza dough though, I forgot the salt, the dough was sticky and undeveloped it kept tearing and was a bugger to move, it made pizzas in the end, but they weren’t as food as last week’s.

Apart from the salt, that was exactly my experience from yesterday’s pizza! Think I’ll stick to the standard yeast version.

76% hydration, strong white/heritage white/wholemeal rye

Looks good grum! 😊

Ref pizza Base sticking and being immovable, the recipe I’m following for sourdough pizza Suggests stretching the dough out onto baking paper and then moving the whole thing onto a pre heated baking tray. I can imagine that otherwise, the base would be an absolute bugger to get into the oven. It’s for dinner later so I’ll know soon enough whether to stick to yeasted pizza dough 😆

Banneton ordered.

Ref pizza Base sticking and being immovable, the recipe I’m following for sourdough pizza Suggests stretching the dough out onto baking paper and then moving the whole thing onto a pre heated baking tray. I can imagine that otherwise, the base would be an absolute bugger to get into the oven. It’s for dinner later so I’ll know soon enough whether to stick to yeasted pizza dough 😆

It’s usually not an issue moving it around, this was just ridiculously wet, I think it was over proved due to it being proved on a very hot day. Never sticks to a pizza stone btw, and usually never sticks to peel either, due to me using a bit of semolina.