Entries tagged with “starter” from Sketchy's Kitchen
I have a new healthy starter! My old one died and got funky when I was sick, so I rebuilt a new one from scratch. This time I stored some of the Seed Culture in the freezer. That way I should be able to resurrect it if dies again. Back to the sourdough -- I made a large loaf with mimolette cheese. I diced the cheese into little bits and incorporated it into the dough before the first rise. the bread came out great! The sourdough starter imparted a great flavor in the bread, and the little pockets of cheese were wonderful. As usual, the little guy spotted the bread immediatly and wanted some.
As for the oven spring, I think I needed to let the dough proof for 30 more minutes, or make the slashes a little larger. The bread exploded on me and cracked the base of the bread. Technically, the slash and exposure is called a grigne, but I keep thinking I mispelled a word.
In other bread baking news, I attempted the Poilane style miche again. I say again because I made a masonry brick the first time. 
Miche refers to a large round loaf. Poilane refers to Lionel Poilane, French boulanger. I don't know what I did wrong the first time, but it was quite wrong. Nothing went right. This is a LARGE and interesting recipe. It's huge, it even says not to use a stand mixer, because you will break it. It has 3 pounds fo flour in the recipe, add that to 2 cups of water, it is a mass of dough to be reckened with. as I said, the first time I made a masonry brick. It was hard and inedible. I didn't blog about it becasue I wanted to figure out how to do this darned recipe first. I made another attempt, and pulled the bread out of the oven yesterday. This one proofed better, was much easier to work with, but I think I still have the proof timing off. As with the sourdough above, this wheat sourdough exploded out of the gates. I worry about overproofing the dough and starving the yeast, but they get overexcited if there is too much food when you start to bake the bread. I'm doing some research to see if I can get this figured out.
On the good sice, the Miche taste great and has a nice crusty exterior. It think the top will soften a little int he next 24 hours, but it does not fit the bill for what my wife wanted. She wanted sandwhich bread for PB&J -- this bread requires meat and cheese. It is tangy, has a very light rye flavor, and goes great with soppresetta, cheese, garlic and oil, anything hearty.
I've been neglecting my blog -- time to catch up.
I'll start with the yeastie living in my fridge. My starter is happy, tangy, and bubbly. So far, it's created 5 batches of bread. Each one is better then the previous. I've been doing copious amounts of research on sourdough, and I hope I have ironed out the kinks I kept running into. I have a nice banneton (rattan bowl) that I use for forming my dough on the second proof. That little bugger was a learning experience all in itself. If you use too little flour, the dough does not want to release, if you use too much, there is too much flour left on the surface. Rice flour is the general consensus - some say 100% white rice flour, others call for 50% white rice, and 50% all purpose. You still get the nice pattern on the dough, but you use less to get the clean release.
I finally figured out the problem I was having with proofing my bread. I let it overproof. This means it no longer has the oomph needed to rise when it hits the bakers stone. It would un-form from the banneton, I would slash it, and it would just sag. When I put it in the oven, there was no spring. In the first 5 to 10 minutes of cooking, the dough will rise one last time. This is where the expansion around the cuts comes from. Overproofed bread just bakes, properly proofed bread will grow in size, and the small slashes will expand.
Though I can comment on "misbaked bread" - it still tastes better then anything in the supermarket.
This entire time, I have been doing 100% of the work by hand. I like the feel of kneading the bread, and it is very easy to tell when it is ready, My last two batches were perfect, gigantic boules of sourdough. for the holiday dinner, I folded in some shaved Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and fresh rosemary from the back yard. It was fragrant, tangy, and crusty. The lift in the oven was excellent, and the bread made a great compliment to the Beef-Shank Peposo (that's another post).
The next time I make bread, I will take more pictures and post the recipe I use.
I'll start with the yeastie living in my fridge. My starter is happy, tangy, and bubbly. So far, it's created 5 batches of bread. Each one is better then the previous. I've been doing copious amounts of research on sourdough, and I hope I have ironed out the kinks I kept running into. I have a nice banneton (rattan bowl) that I use for forming my dough on the second proof. That little bugger was a learning experience all in itself. If you use too little flour, the dough does not want to release, if you use too much, there is too much flour left on the surface. Rice flour is the general consensus - some say 100% white rice flour, others call for 50% white rice, and 50% all purpose. You still get the nice pattern on the dough, but you use less to get the clean release.
I finally figured out the problem I was having with proofing my bread. I let it overproof. This means it no longer has the oomph needed to rise when it hits the bakers stone. It would un-form from the banneton, I would slash it, and it would just sag. When I put it in the oven, there was no spring. In the first 5 to 10 minutes of cooking, the dough will rise one last time. This is where the expansion around the cuts comes from. Overproofed bread just bakes, properly proofed bread will grow in size, and the small slashes will expand.Though I can comment on "misbaked bread" - it still tastes better then anything in the supermarket.
This entire time, I have been doing 100% of the work by hand. I like the feel of kneading the bread, and it is very easy to tell when it is ready, My last two batches were perfect, gigantic boules of sourdough. for the holiday dinner, I folded in some shaved Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and fresh rosemary from the back yard. It was fragrant, tangy, and crusty. The lift in the oven was excellent, and the bread made a great compliment to the Beef-Shank Peposo (that's another post).
The next time I make bread, I will take more pictures and post the recipe I use. 
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