sourdough the magnificent

Is this not a beautiful one?

One of my finest sourdough ever 🙂

Spiderman sourdough :)

Spiderman is here!!!! 🙂

Does it not look like the face of Spiderman – one of my favorite characters? 🙂

This loaf was the last and the best one I baked with multigrain bread flour.

FYI – I cannot recommend the multigrain bread flour – it does not rise much. If you are looking for better crumb, either have a warmer place to proof the dough (my kitchen is around 17C during winter and I am not patient enough to wait too long), or use the old, good plain bread flour.

This loaf contains:

• 1 1/3 cup whole wheat starter/levain
• 2.5 cups of water
• 4 cups of multi-grain bread flour and 2 cups of all purpose flour (i had run out of bread and multi-grain flour)
• 2.5 tbs sugar
• 2 tbs salt

Everything is mixed and I stretched and folded it 4-5 times before I left it to rise overnight at room temperature; these happened yesterday evening

This morning I shaped it and placed in a mixing bowl upside down and left for proofing in the oven for 5.5 hours

Baked at 350F oven (non-prehetaed) for an hour

Delicious!

Spiderman is here!!!! 🙂

this is how it looked right before I left it to rise over night

and this is how it saied good morning to me in the morning – it has risen 🙂

shaped – you may notice that I did not do a good job making it a smooth round dough. It is difficult to “bind” and “smooth” dough prepared with the multi-grain flour. It may be me, it may be the flour – I leave it to you to decide

5.5 hours later it had risen and got fluffy, which is always a pleasure to see 🙂

the dough keeps its shape well, which tells me that gluten is formed.. let’s cross the finger 🙂

my favorite score 🙂

the crumb was soft and with little but mighty air packets – I could not be happier 🙂 the air packets were little but at least existed – cannot wait to get plain bread flour now 🙂

Sunday sourdough

rolled oat makes perfect crown for sourdough 🙂

am I happy or what?

crowned queen – sourdough with oat 🙂

 

butternut squash dessert and weekly sourdough bread

Butternut squash dessert

I found a nice butternut squash the week before. My original aim was to make a hearty soup, but I decided in the last moment to make a dessert with it.

here is the recipe:

• peel the coating and cut in pieces (mine were around 1-5 cm width and 7 cm length)
• add 2 cups of sugar, mix
• add 1.5 tsp salt and 6 cups of water
• bring to a rolling boil and simmer at medium heat for 40 min
• add 1.5 tbs lemon juice and boil for another 5 min
• take the squash bits on an oven pot, add 2 cups of the liquid*, sprinkle with chopped nuts (I have used hazelnut) (optional)
• bake at 350F pre-heated oven for 20 min**
• enjoy! (top with a scoop of ice cream if you wish and tell me this was not a good idea 🙂 )

*I have had around 1 liters of the liquid, which is yummy. Drink it as it is, or use less water 

**You can bake longer to thicken the liquid

chop in size and shape as you like

put squash bits in a pot, add sugar, slat and water; boil and simmer until the desired softness is reached

take the cooked squash bits in an oven pot,, pour over 2 cups of liquid, and bake at 350F for 20 min or loner (depending on your preference)

enjoy 🙂

Sourdough

My sourdough today was kind of sticky dough and as a result did not keep it shape well. But there was oven spring and it looks great 🙂

after stretching and folding 4-5 times and right before letting to rest overnight at room temp

good morning! 🙂

shaped and placed in a proofing bowl

4 hours of proofing at room temp – kind of sticky and not standing tall, but that is okay (I have seen worse! 🙂 )

baked at 350F (non-pre-heated oven) for n hour) – looking good to me!

the wild yeast made its work just right 🙂

sourdough loaf with oats and black olives

Here is a fantastic sourdough with a hint of trolled oats and black olives 🙂

This loaf was my first trial of a rectangular shape 🙂 I learnt a while ago that sticky dough do not keep its shape well if does not have enough support. So I used one of my oven pots to prove and bake this loaf.

I would do this loaf again; the crust was thin and soft (the way I love it) and it tasted amazing!

The recipe is similar to others:

• 1 1/3 cup 100% whole wheat starter (fed Friday night and then on Saturday morning prior to saving half in the fridge; used to make the dough in the afternoon)
• 2 cups water; mixed the starter and water well with the help of a fork until it became kind of frothy
• 2.5 tbs sugar; mixed well into the starter/water mix
• 4.5 cups of bread flour, 1.5 tbs salt, and 200 grms of pitted black olive-halved: (approximately 1.5 cups). Formed a shaggy dough, closed the lid, kneaded every 30 min or so three times until dough looked like forming. At the end of folding stage dough was too sticky (must be the olives’ juice), so I added 1/3 cup of rolled oats to help with the moisture
• let rest at room temperature over might
• since it was a kind of sticky dough, I decided to place it in a large rectangular oven pot lined with parchment paper
• sprinkled top with more oats, placed in a nylon bag, tied the ends, and proved for 4.5 hours at room temperature
• baked in non-pre-heated oven at 350 F for one hour

after the stretch and fold and prior to over night rise at room temp

this is how it said hi to me 🙂 what a lovely rise 🙂

placed in the oven pot without trying to shape; I just helped it to the corners and that was it

and it looks awesome inside – as expected from a sticky dough it has nice air pockets

closer look – black olives are my favorites, so I could not be happier 🙂

Sunday Sourdough (belated post)

Here is the sourdough loaf I baked yesterday – is it not a beauty? 🙂

As soon as I put it in the oven, I knew it was gonna be an awesome loaf, so I invited a friend over to enjoy it together with meal.

It was delicious, hearty, and very much loved 🙂

Happy sourdough bread!

Here is today’s sourdough bread with a happy, happy, happy face! 🙂

It will be gifted to a colleague of mine, who gave me a ride this weekend – hope they will like it 🙂

this is the dough prior to overnight rise at room temp; it contains 1 cup of levain, 1 1/3 cup of water, 3.5 cups of bread flour, 2 tbs of sugar, and 1.5 tbs of salt; stretched and folded 4-5 times. You may notice it is in a mixing bowl , which is in a pot. I wanted to try whether rising in a bowl would help with the development of the dough better than a large pot, like I always do. I also needed the pot because it has a lid – we do not want any pet lurking around, do we? I do not…..:)

in the morning; it was a great dough

this is right after it has been shaped and placed in a mixing bowl with a clean kitchen towel sprinkled with flour

5.5 hours of rising at room temperature in a plastic bag, which creates a green house effect I believe

I was kind of worried about its shape, but it turned out to be great at the end

scoring; my favorite one!

Sunday sourdough with sesame seeds

Yet another lovely sourdough to complement this beautiful Sunday 🙂 

today’s sourdough loaves

Because of my trips lately I had depleted my frozen bread stock. I feel a lot better when I have extra loaves at the freezer. Thus, I baked two sourdough today using the same recipe 🙂

They both turned out to be lovely! Thin crust and soft crumb, with a kick of salt and feeling very homey 🙂 The oven spring was way more powerful that I would imagine, as both loaves had sides cracked despite the fact that I had scored their surface 🙂 Something worked really well 🙂

The catch is that I had run out of bread flour, so I had to prepare the dough with all purpose flour. Now, I  never have had a good rise with all purpose flour, even though I am in Canada (people says that Canadian all purpose flour is as good as the bread flour with high protein content…). That is why I thought I would add some oat or rye flakes to dough – my previous experience with these additions is that they make the yeast somehow happier and dough better and airy.

Recipe:

• I used 1 cup of rolled rye flakes soaked for 2 hours in 1 cup of water, which was then topped with 5 cups of all purpose flour, 2tbs of sugar, 1.5 tbs of salt, 1 1/3 cups of starter, and I believe 2.5 cups of water.
• I used the stretch and fold technique to form the dough and left it at room temperature over night to rise.
• In the morning, I was looking at a puffy and healthy dough 🙂 I cut it into two, one smaller than the other, shaped, rested for 10 min, and then placed them in proving containers. The small one was proven in an oven pot and the other one was formed into a long loaf and placed on a cookie sheet surrounded with items to keep it in shape. I left them at room temperature for 4.5 hours to prove.
• I scored them and then baked at non-pre-heated oven at 350F for 55 min.

Voila 🙂

initial dough

the next morning, it looks fluffy and happy 🙂

this is the long loaf, squeezed between kitchen items to help keep its shape

small loaf; nicely tucked in an oven pot

after 4.5 hours at room temp, the dough has risen nice and eay

ready to score and bake 🙂

score

score

t

the crumb of the small loaf – not bad, eh?

the crumb of the long/big loaf

today’s sourdough was a failure

I thought I could make it, but I was wrong.

Using all purpose flour in this sourdough loaf was a disaster. They say the Canadian all purpose and bread flours have similar protein content and many bakers are successful in getting decent loaves with all purpose flour, but today I proved myself that was not the case for me. Bread flour it is!

Dough was fantastic, but as soon as I took it from the proofing basket, it spread and leveled. I was hoping maybe once it is in the oven things would get better. But the loaf did not rise, usual oven spring was not existing, and it took longer (1 hour 15 min at 350F) to get a browned crust (I suspect because it was such a shallow loaf that its crust was further away from the top of the oven, which made it longer to brown), and as a result is as dry and hard as brick.

I will eat it, but honestly use the bread flour if it works better for your loaves.

 

starter was one of the best I have seen lately; I was hopeful about this loaf. Alas…..

initial shaggy dough with 3 cups all purpose flour, 1 cup+1tbs of starter, 1 1/3 cup water, 2 tbs sugar, and 1.5 tbs salt. it was dry and did not form well at the beginning, which was somehow alarming

after 4-5 stretch and fold; it turned out to be working; dough was in a much better shape and moist

after 18 hours rise at room temperature dough has risen quite well and I was very pleased with this 🙂

quickly shaped and placed in a bowl lined up with a clean cloth and sprinkled with generous amount of flour

after 6 hours of proof at room temperature in a plastic bag (makes the green house effect)

when taken out of the bowl; it does not look bad but it started to spread after that

my signature (aka favorite scoring)

final product baked at 350F non-pre-heated oven for 1 hour 15 min

there are some air pockets, but it is a good example of a brick loaf 😦

————————————-

Added after the post: On a second thought, this loaf may as well be just over-proved. The first rise was quite long (around 18 hours) and I wonder if this has something to do with this leveled loaf (aka less gluten structure)… if you have any opinion, please do comment.

Truth about sourdough

I see a number of blogs/recipes using commercial yeast in the dough and calling it sourdough.

Sorry to break the news to some of us, but if you use commercial yeast, it is not sourdough. I guess someone started this and it kind of stuck with some other people.

Sourdough is made from levain/starter that is a totally natural culture of yeast (and bacteria). If you do not believe me, please check internet and see for yourself.

It somehow hurts me to hear that sourdough culture and commercial baking yeast are equalized. They both are fantastic, yet different. So let’s give them the place they deserve.

this is my sourdough culture that I created a year ago from water and whole wheat flour; it is love.

 

 

sourdough loaf with black olive, parsley, and kefir

I wanted to bake a sourdough that was not tried before and I think I managed to do so.

I present you the sourdough loaf with kefir, parsley, and black olive 🙂

Smells like sea! Enjoy!

 

kefir, coarsely chopped italian parsley (my favorite), and cut black olives – yummy 🙂

starter-levain 🙂

kefir, sugar, and starter mixed well – they are happy 🙂

add the rest and the flour

what a messy dough – at first I thought it would not form anything, but I was wrong-it just needed some time to form… I gotta give it its credit – it is pretty crowded in that dough

a few streching and folding and now it is time to rest over night

aaaaandd the morning – it escaped! what a great rise it has had – admiring it pretty much 😦

proving – start

at the end of 5.5 hours proving – quite a rise it has had

right befor scoring – it is such a healthy dough 🙂 smells like sea!

boy, I guess I messed with scoring this time – it was a nice try though 🙂

hmmmm… oven spring is not the best, but its crunchy outside and soft inside – so all is well 🙂

such a nice structure – I keep getting not huge air pockets, but consistently formed/air-pocketed crumb. I am happy with that 🙂