#justsourdoughthings — Public Fediverse posts

@matthewhowell Cornmeal is also good.

And the frying-pan pizza method is also excellent:

1. Prep dough (I have a 65% hydration sourdough I use), roll out.
2. Pre-heat oven to max temperature (290C / 550F if you can get there).
3. Lightly oil cast-iron frying pan, dust liberally with either cornmeal or semolina.
4. Place dough in pan, form and roll edges.
5. Add toppings.
6. Turn oven to broil, position top rack ~25cm / 6in below flame or element.
7. Cook on stovetop for 5 minutes, until edges of crust just start to brown.
8. Broil for 3-5 minutes under high heat. Check constantly, you want it just starting to crisp on top, but not burnt. Pizza cooks quickly.
9. Remove from oven, slide onto cutting board (spatula can help here), slice and serve.

Note that everything out of the oven is HOT, so use good oven mitts or a towel to protect your hands. I have fairly frequent burns here myself 😺

My basic method has evolved from this video: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=HXAW2GseICs

Looking at that just now, my process differs in all kinds of ways (different ingredients --- ordinary white flour rather than 00, though I do add semolina if available, prepped pizza sauce, etc.). The constants are the use of the frying pan (I haven't been pre-heating mine, though I might start doing that), and the stovetop-to-broiler cooking method.

Oh, and that pizza dough makes amazingly good rolls, or calzones:

• 1000 g flour (any blend of white & whole wheat to your preference)
• 100g semolina
• 650 -- 700g water (I pre-heat to about 38C / 100F, about 2.5 -- 3 minutes in microwave).
• 20--25g salt
• 100g olive oil
• 200g sourdough starter

You can autolyse flour & water if you like or just combine all ingredents. I've experimented with dough quantity (90 --- 150g per 25cm / 10in pie), all are thin but workable crust, you can use more dough if you prefer. Quantity above is good for about 16 pies, which is probably more than you want at a sitting. I'll use the same batch for pizzas and a few batches of rolls or calzones, which are basically pizza with the dough folded over the top and then baked at 230C / 450F for about 35--45 minutes.

Both rolls and calzones can be baked in a convection toaster-oven if you prefer, which is a bit faster and heats the kitchen less than using the full oven.

#sourdough #JustSourdoughThings #SourdoughLife #pizza #calzones

Whole Wheat Sourdough Apple Walnut Oat Flax Bread

(90% hydration)

Bread:

• 1000g wholemeal (whole wheat) flour
• 900g water (800g + 100g)
• 25 g salt

Augmentations:

• 100g walnut pieces
• 100g flax seed + boiling water (optional)
• 250g steel cut oats + boiling water (whole groats may be substituted)
• 2 apples

Dusting:

• ~100g rice flour
• ~100g corn meal

Goal

We're creating a large meaty loaf. Starting point is an 80% hydration sourdough recipe. Given the wholemeal flour, I've bumped that up to 90%. Gluten formation is via stretch & fold. Water is split 800g in autolyse, 100g + salt added prior to levain, which I find makes salt distribute more evenly. This loaf has walnut, flax seed, steel cut oats, and apples added as what I call "augmentations". The walnuts give a buttery flavour and purple colouring, the oats meat, and the apples a surprisingly mild fruity addition.

Creating dough

Prepare your levain as per usual, 100g flour + 100g water for ~200g total.

If you're thinking ahead, you'll start drying your apples a day in advance. Or if you're thinking like me (my condolences), you'll slice two apples into eighths, remove seeds, and slice those into triangles, with peel intact. Place on parchment paper on a baking sheet in a convection oven at 90°C / 200°F for 6--12 hours, turning periodically to ensure even drying.

Crumble shelled walnut meats to preferred size. Set aside.

Measure out flax seed. If you prefer these soaked, soak in a bowl with boiling water, sufficient to cover to a depth of 2--4 cm (1--2 in). You may add the flax dry, and it's considerably less messy to work with if you do so. Drain via a strainer about 30 minutes prior to incorporation.

Measure out oats. Boil in 2x quantity of water, at least 45 minutes prior to incorporation. Drain via a strainer about 30 minutes prior to incorporation.

Prepare autolyse: Heat 800g water to ~45°C (~120°F). Add to 1000g flour in a large bowl. Mix with handle of a cooking spoon and/or hands until all flour is incorporated. Lumps are OK. Let stand at least 20 minutes (longer is fine), covered with towel or wrap. You may keep this in an oven set to proof if available (useful if your kitchen is cold).

Boil remaining 100g water and add 25g salt, stir until fully dissolved. Set aside.

When autolyse is completed: Pour in salt-water solution and integrate with dough. Then incorporate starter, about 180g or so. I squeeze this through my fingers repeatedly to thoroughly integrate levain into dough. I usually finish with a stretch/fold or two just to get things mixed.

We're starting the bulk ferment. For 3--6 cycles (until gluten development is to preference, windowpane test if you like), allow dough to rest 20+ minutes, then perform four stretch & folds, lifting dough up at one end, doubling it over, turning 90°, and repeating until you've rotated the dough one full revolution. Then cover and rest another 20 minutes or so, again in an oven set to "proof" if you prefer. I typically do 4 repeats.

Before beginning your final stretch & fold, start draining flax (if soaked) and oats.

To incorporate the augmentations, I find it's easiest to laminate and layer them in.

If you've soaked your flax seeds, they will be seriously goopy, and will retain quite a bit of water. I've tried various options of rinsing and draining these with little luck, adding the seeds dry may be preferable.

Lightly flour your working surface. Stretch dough flat and spread on surface. Spread oats, flax, walnuts, and apples in layers over dough. Fold top two corners in to about 1/2 the height of the dough. Fold top down, and roll dough toward you. Turn 90° and roll up from side. Let sit 20 minutes, then laminate again. Augmentations should now be well distributed and incorporated into dough. Let sit another 20 minutes.

Divide your dough. I make two evenly-sized loaves, adjust to your preference. Form and shape your loaves --- this is similar to the lamination process above, followed by a turn-and-tuck of the loaf. Invert and seal the bottom, then place seam-side down and let set ~10 minutes or so.

Prepare your bannetons / proofing baskets / bowls. (I use a pair of glass casserole bowls, about 2 litres / 2 quarts each.) Line with a tea towel, dust with rice flour.

Dust tops of loaves with rice flour, invert into banneton, dust bottoms with rice flour, fold towel over, and cover bannetons (casserole lid, plastic wrap, shower cap, etc.) Place in refrigerator for a cold retarded proof 12--48 hours.

Baking

Arrange your oven mitts, lamé, cooling racks, hot pad, parchment paper (if used), cornmeal (for dusting loaf bottom), and water spray bottle (if used) prior to baking.

Place Dutch oven on oven rack and a large metal pan with ~4-6 cm water on oven floor. Preheat oven to 260--290°C (500--550°F) ... essentially as hot as your oven will get without harming itself. Allow to preheat for ~45 minutes. You may use convection at this stage to heat everything evenly, but you'll want to turn off any blowers during the first stage of the bake.

I do not put the lid in the oven to pre-heat.

Remove proofed dough from refrigerator immediately before baking.

Remove Dutch oven from oven using your oven mitts. Warning: that puppy is hot.

Dust seam side (top of dough in banneton, this will be the bottom of the cooked loaf) with cornmeal. Invert banneton onto parchment paper. Score top of loaf. Transfer to Dutch oven. Spray top of lid with water (increases humidity, gives better oven spring), and place lid on top of Dutch oven. Return Dutch oven to the oven, again using your mitts.

If you'd enabled convection for pre-heat, disable it now.

(Convection fans tend to remove humidity from the oven, you want that humidity for a good oven spring a/k/a loaf rise, in the first stage of the bake.)

Initial bake is 20--25 minutes. You may spray water into the oven at ~5 and 10 minutes to boost humidity.

After initial bake phase, open oven, remove pan with water, take lid off Dutch oven, and turn oven temperature down to 230°C (450°F). Bake another 20--25 minutes to preferred darkness. (I generally advise longer/darker bakes.)

At end of bake, I prefer to leave bread in oven with heat off and door cracked open for another 20--25 minutes, which helps form crust. After oven treatment is complete, remove Dutch oven from oven, lift loaf from Dutch oven, dust off loose cornmeal at bottom, and cool on rack for 15--30 minutes prior to slicing.

Yield

1.6 kg (3.5 lb) loaf, approximately.

If I had it to do over

I think I'm going to go with not soaking the flax seed, as they're just too much of a mess. And prepping the apples a day in advance would have been better (I dried mine for ~4 hours). Overall results were still excellent, and I feel that I could easily have doubled the apples, as they're far more subtle than I'd anticipated.

This is probably best as an autumn bread, but I suspect it will find takers at any time of year.

#Sourdough #SourdoughLife #JustSourdoughThings #baking #recipes

More hydration experiments.

Last night's bake was a set of 50% WW loaves w/ added sliced olives.

I bumped hydration to 90% from my usual 80%. Dough was very loose, but still came together after a few folds. The crumb is the most open I've had for this level of WW flour, so I'm doing something right.

45 minutes autolyse.

4 sets of stretch & folds w/ 20 minutes rest each.

Bulk-proofed in oven on "proof" setting between S&F. (I've noticed that a warmer prooving temperature tends to make the dough looser).

Cold retard overnight in the fridge. Baked 24 h after initial prep, 20 minutes at 290C (550F) covered & w/ a large flat pan of water on bottom of oven, 25 minutes at 230C (450F). And yes, I remembered to turn down the heat after the initial spring.

Spring was ... meh. No ear to speak of.. Outer appearance of my loaves is the least satisfactory part, and I'm continuing to test approaches.

Texture and taste excellent.

500g white bread flour, 500g whole wheat, 900 g water, 25g salt, ~200g levain (100% hydration).

Baked in a pair of covered Dutch ovens, both preheated for 45 minutes in oven.

~15 minute rest in oven after bake w/ door cracked open. I sliced the first loaf immediately, and yes, should have waited. 2nd I sliced this morning (bake was evening), texture better w/ additional wait (though 30 minutes on a wire rack should have been sufficient).

I'll note that the amount which bread texture changes after baking, in 30 minutes, after an hour or two, and a day or two later (it rarely lasts that long before being eaten), is profound. A friend asked what I'd done different between loaves of bread once --- it was the same loaf, one serving about 30 minutes out of the oven, the next about 12 hours later.

#Sourdough #SourdoughLife #JustSourdoughThings #Baking

@michaelc My observations:

• Whole-wheat springs far less than white. Most of my loaves are ~40% WW, and if I drop the precentage I see more spring.

• Under-hydration. I'm still trying to figure out how much more hydration I need to provide when including more WW flour.

• Levain and proof. I'm less consistent with either, as well as temperature, than I should be. I suspect that younger levain and less prooved dough tends to spring better.

• Oven moisture. I've been experimenting with a bunch of stuff, and have more-or-less arrived at: 1) pre-heat baking bottom but not top, 2) spray the lid (Dutch oven) or soak top (clay loaf pot) before going into oven, and 3) shallow (~2.5 -- 5 cm) tin tray w/ water at bottom of oven. Spraying oven interior when loading loves seems to do little. For rolls, I'm making an aluminium paper "tent" and spraying the inside w/ water which gives more spring on rolls.

• Dough structure. I'm suspecting again that less working gives more spring. My dough tends to come together really quickly with stretch-and-folds. I usually go 3--4 rounds, but may try 2 sets of 4 folds for shins-n-grits to see how that works.

I usually warm-proove for an additional 1--2 hours after the stretch-and-folds (4 @ 20 minutes -> 1h20m bulk proof), increasingly within the oven at the "bread proof" setting. I should experiment w/ shorter warm / longer cold prooving.

Loaves go in straight from fridge, which should maximise gas expansion. Fridge -> prep on parchment paper -> into pre-heated baking container -> oven.

20 min @ 290C -> 20--30 min @ 230C. (That's ~550 & 450 F respectively).

On guidance from a video, I usually try to leave loaves (in baking container) inside oven w/ door cracked open for 15--30 minutes after baking is completed, then cool on a wire rack. There's a lot of loaf-development which continues after the main bake, which I'd not previously realised (before starting my sourdough experiements in April 2020).

#Sourdough #SourdoughLife #JustSourdoughThings #Baking

Bread's in.

This is a 100% whole wheat loaf, with 150g walnuts added to 1000g flour.

Hydration is 90%, as it seems that WW soaks up even more liquid than white flour. I could have upped that and will try a 100% hydration next time, possibly even more.

Playing with oven settings as well. Turned convection on for pre-heat to evenly heat both oven and thermal mass (Dutch Oven + a cast-iron skillet). Turned conv off for the bake itself, then back on after dropping temp for browning.

Bake at 550 F (290C) for 20 min, brown at 450 F (230 C) for 25 min / until desired browning observed.

#SourdoughLife #JustSourdoughThings