Mother in law got me some starter as a birthday gift. I make pizzas every Friday so she wanted to encourage me to try sourdough pizza bases. I got the starter up and running and thought I'd try traditional bread first to get the hang of things as pizza night for a family of 7 is a bit high stakes to just jump straight into!
My first effort (pics 1 and 2) was a bit of a disaster. I think the recipe I followed was for a 71% hydration dough but I also think my digital scales are on the way out because the dough was really sticky and never felt like it was coming together correctly. Also suspect I over fermented it and lost some of the gluten structure as when I went to turn it out of the bowl I fridge proved it in it sank into a sad little puddle 😅 absolutely no rise and the crumb texture was terrible but tbh the taste was good and I felt like I learned enough to have another go.
Ordered some bannetons and new scales, watched a lot of youtube videos. Ended up following the steps in the linked video in my comments and stuck quite closely to similar timings. Opted for a lower hydration dough to make it more workable too and it was fairly plain sailing.I'm really really happy with the results (pics 3 and 4) but would love feedback from more experienced eyes!
Recipe:
400g bread flour (75% strong white, 25% wholemeal)
218g water
100g starter
8g salt
Combined all ingredients
45 minute autolyse
Little bench knead
Two stretch and folds over next 3 hours
Shaped and into the bannetons and fridge for 9 hours overnight
230c oven
20 mins in Dutch oven with lid on
20 mins with lid off
by saul_newguy
2 Comments
Woaaaaa this looks great and so fluffy! Was it rip-apart-able? Or did you slice it?
That’s pretty much perfect, well done.
I’ve made a lot of the first one before I dialed in fermentation. Still very tasty.