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Sourdough baking

Sourdough bread

418

18d 5h ago by programming.dev/u/monomon in sourdough from programming.dev

I don't maintain my sourdough very strong. Only feed it pretty much when I bake.

Tips on process are welcome, I am not super experienced.

ingredients

350 g white soft flour
100 g hard wheat flour
50 g rye flour
200 g sourdough
10 g salt
30 g bread seeds mix
~360 g water

preparation

put the sourdough in a separate bowl and add a bit (5 g) of flour
separately, mix the flours, salt, seeds and stir them well until more or less even
start adding water to the flour, slowly mixing. Take breaks and check the consistency occasionally.
start stretching and folding until you get smooth dough. This is somewhat easier with wet hands, but be mindful of the amount of water you add with your hands.
after half to one hour, mix the sourdough into the dough. I do it in 2-3 batches, each time stretching and folding until even. Keep folding for 10-15 minutes. Add a bit of water if too dry.
leave for proving, stretching 2-3-4 times every half an hour
after the last stretching, I sometimes move it to the oven pot and let it prove there
now when the weather is warmer, I let it prove for about 6 hours total, though I should probably leave it longer. In fall/winter I may leave it overnight and bake in the morning.
finally, bake with the lid on for 50 minutes

Just seems like too many steps and interventions for my taste. It's of course possible that you enjoy the steps of your baking and in that case there's nothing wrong with it - as long as your bread tastes good - is there anything you would like to see different with the finished product? For my own baking, since I'm busy and forgetful, I've developed my sourdough recipe for minimum work, no heavy mixing and robustness. German style sourdough bread with lots of seeds, lazy version.

Sourdough lives in the fridge in summer, in the room in winter - sometimes I feed it every day, sometimes only once a week, so far it has always handled it. I sometimes dry and/or freeze a batch, just in case I really mess up one day.
For rye bread I start with T170 and T150, very coarse rye and wheat flour respectively. 2 cups of each, then one cup of oat flakes and one cup of seed mix, plus the sourdough (roughly 150-250ml) and 1-2 tablespoons of salt. 3 cups of water. I mix it with a wooden spoon and let it sit between 3 and 24 hours, depending on outside temperature and available warm spots (I heat my house little and don't cool it at all). When it's ready it will have risen to ca. twice its height in a ca. 35cm bowl or pan. It will be fluffy and full of bubbles.
Now I mix another 2 cups of t170 and 2 cups of T150. Ca. 2 cups of water. Another pinch of salt. Mix again with the wooden spoon. I keep my dough a bit on the liquid side and bake in trays lined with baking paper. Fill the tray to 2/3, bake when the dough reaches the top of the tray. Gas oven on hot, and later a little less hot if I feel like it. Bakes between 1 and 2 hours. It's ready when I knock it and it sounds hollow.
The finished bread lasts up to two weeks and freezes well, too.

6 replies

Thank you for the feedback. What a coincidence, I am busy and forgetful, too :)

I mostly follow the instructions of the friend who got me into it, slightly developed to my liking.

That's an interesting paradigm - so you only mix it with the spoon, no kneading?

Perhaps the thing that annoys me is bakes I see have a somewhat nicer structure. Mine is not too bad (anymore; stopped buying bread a couple of years ago), but there's a little extra "inflating" effect in others'. As I see it, it should be mostly due to the sourdough being weaker, and sometimes messing proving time. There are moments when I'm rushed and can't wait any longer.

Forgot to mention, I keep my sourdough in the fridge the whole time. It gets in the way in the kitchen otherwise.

Hm so my loaves go dry in about 4-5 days, a week if lucky. Perhaps I should aim for more hydration.

The quality seems very variable, here is last week's loaf, same recipe, used a round pot. It felt puffier.

It appears you don't score your loaves. Scoring them will give you better oven spring.

As to the variability, sometimes puffier, sometimes less, getting just the right amount of proofing is one of the harder things to master and it just takes time to get a feel for it and knowing the difference between under proofed and over proofed.

For a long time I was underproofing my loaves but mistaking the result for overproofed. I had to force myself to let it go longer than I was comfortable with, to either get a better result or see what overproofed was really like.

Thank you for the feedback. I do score on most occasions. The shot in the comment is scored, but the cut often disappears, so maybe it should be deeper. I am a bit worried about the dough running off to the sides if scored too deep.

I also suspect proofing is the issue.

I just noticed that you don't ever mention shaping. A final shaping is more than simply a last stretch and fold and will also make a big difference. If your loaves are in danger of spreading out too much when you score them, then not having shaped properly to create a tight skin, might be the cause.

Hm that's a good one. I sometimes tighten up the skin when moving from the bowl to the baking pan, but many times do not.

Hydration isn't going to affect how long your loaves last, because you're just going to bake more moisture out of a higher hydration dough. A higher proportion of rye, or a certain amount of coarsely ground wheat (or some other grain like oats) made into a soaker, might help with keeping your loaves moist longer.