Sourdough Bread
Recently, I’ve been using the recipe from Andrew Whitley’s Bread Matters for my sourdough bread. However, for a change, thought I’d have a go at the recipe in Richard Bertinet’s Crust book.
I didn’t have any spelt left (typical, I’ve had some in the cupboard for ages, use it all, then a recipe comes along which calls for it), so rye flour was substituted instead. Also, my leaven (ferment, as it’s called in Crust) is currently at 100% hydration, whereas the Crust book uses only 50% (unless I’m reading it wrong, seems a bit dry?). My recipe got adjusted with more levain and less water to allow for this.
The proving period was much longer than my normal recipe: a monster 16-18 hours overnight at a suggested 17-18 deg. C. My kitchen was only just over 18 when I left it and went to bed last night, and the heating was off by then so it would have only got colder. It still looked a bit over-proved to what I’m used to only 12 hours later at 10.30 am, so I chickened out of leaving it for another 4 hours and baked it then. First problem was that it was well and truly glued to the linen in my proving baskets. This isn’t normal, though I usually use rye flour to dust, not wheat. It did have a fairly tough skin on it by then, so I managed to tease it out. Slashing it wasn’t exactly easy: it kept dragging and had so many wrinkles from the indignities of being ripped from its overnight bed.
The results are shown below: my son clearly likes it as he’d managed to polish off nearly half a loaf by the time we’d got back from a trip to buy some clothes with my daughter (admittedly not exactly a quick task).
sourdough loaves
formula was:
533g white leaven/ferment at 100% hydration
508g water
700g dove’s farm strong white flour
90g rye flour
20g salt
The dough was surprisingly stiff to work, given that I calculate that at around 73% hydration. Out of interest, I’ll compare the recipe’s proportions with my normal one at some time. I’d be wary of letting it prove so long again, and definitely use more flour in my baskets.