Hi all, I thought I’d share just in case someone struggles as much as I did with getting a decent loaf. I wasn’t getting any good result from the “perfect loaf”recipe (link in comments) and ended up modifying it by increasing the ratio of levain (and therefore of starter) in the recipe. This is by no means a perfect result, but I’m very satisfied with it and am sharing the recipe in the comments.
I am a total newbie, have a small baby at home and found this recipe to be quite forgiving with not timing the folds very consistently.
Please not that this is a high hydration loaf.
My starter is very active because I got it (for free) from a nearby bakery. I highly recommend doing this as well if you are a beginner struggling to get a decent starter at home like I was.
Any suggestions for improvements are more than welcome!
Recipe in the comments 🙂
by ephemerette
3 Comments
Recipe
1. Make levain by mixing these three ingredients (mixing starter and water first before adding the flour)
– 1/8 + 1 tablespoon bubbling starter
– 1/2 cup water
– 1 cup flour (I’m using bread flour from Robin Hood in this entire recipe)
Let sit overnight for +/- 12 hours on the countertop. Usually I wait around 13-14 hours.
2. Autolyse: mix flour (3 1/4 cup) and water (1 1/2 cup) and let sit in a bowl for 30 minutes.
3. Mix the levain and the mix of flour and water. It will be a sticky dough. Let sit for 50 minutes.
4. Add 1 tablespoon water and 1 tablespoon salt (mixed together) to the dough. Mix it in.
5. Take the dough out on a floured surface and fold it. Add a bit of oil (I use avocado oil, around half a tablespoon) to the bowl before putting it back in. Cover.
6. Bulk ferment: fold the dough three more times without removing it from the bowl, spaced 30/45 minutes each.
7. Directly after the last fold, take the dough out on a floured surface and shape fold it. Put it in a proofing basket for 30 minutes.
8. During these 30 minutes, preheat the oven with the Dutch oven in it at 280 degrees Celcius.
9. Once the 30 minutes are over, score the dough deeply using scissors, spray water on it and add a bit of flour. Put it in the Dutch oven with the lid on, immediately reduce the heat to 232 Celsius, and remove the lid after 30 minutes. Let it in the oven for 20 more minutes afterwards.
I usually do the levain at 10:00pm, start the autolyse at noon, and put my bread in the oven at 6:00pm. I am not extremely consistent with the timing between each fold (from 20 min to an hour) because I have a small baby at home. I didn’t notice a difference with the timing of these, but did see that the bread improved significantly when I went from 3 folds to 4 folds. I don’t have many folds because of the high percentage of starter used for the recipe, I want to avoid overproofing.
Again, full disclosure, this is a modified version of the following recipe, which didn’t work at all for me in its original form but does now! https://www.theperfectloaf.com/high-hydration-sourdough-bread/
GREAT JOB! i hope my first loaf looks like that or better!
I am wondering how you fill your cups of flour?
If you fluff and spoon and level the flour it will be about 120-125g flour per cup.
That would make the modified recipe 92% hydration.
If you sweep the cup through the flour, compressing it, then it is around 150g of flour per cup (could be more, could be less).
That would make the hydration 79% or so.
I think it is helpful when indicating a recipe in cups to indicate for flour how you fill it in case someone wants to try out your modifications.
Very nice results on your loaf 🎉