Looks like a beautiful loaf of bread,Bob!
Tartine Bread
- Thread starter Sullybob
- Start date
It was a good one, Connie.
I had a wildly successful go at sourdough today. Following the Forkish "Country Blonde" recipe, I made a full batch with 1000 grams of flour (92.5% white, 5% rye, 2.5% whole wheat), I took half the dough and made a traditional boule, and put the other half into a loaf pan. Prior to splitting the dough, the rise was exceptional, and the levain remained very active during the 3-4 hour proof. The sandwich loaf had a great crumb and mild tang. It was an experiment that worked really well. The boule using the Dutch Oven was one of the best efforts I've had yet, and the oven spring was the best, hands down:
I had a wildly successful go at sourdough today. Following the Forkish "Country Blonde" recipe, I made a full batch with 1000 grams of flour (92.5% white, 5% rye, 2.5% whole wheat), I took half the dough and made a traditional boule, and put the other half into a loaf pan. Prior to splitting the dough, the rise was exceptional, and the levain remained very active during the 3-4 hour proof. The sandwich loaf had a great crumb and mild tang. It was an experiment that worked really well. The boule using the Dutch Oven was one of the best efforts I've had yet, and the oven spring was the best, hands down:
Looks and sounds great, Bob! Were you able to taste the rye at all at 5% or did it just add some character?
You can't taste the rye at all. One of the loaves I do is up to about 20% rye, and you can taste that. I haven't worked myself up to a full rye loaf yet. Those doughs are supposed to be extremely sticky, and take some practice to get used to.
great looking bread Bob! All you bakers make me jealous!
With a little extra time this weekend, I took my first shot at a rye loaf. Well, it was a rye-wheat loaf based on Hamelman's recipe in Bread. With higher amounts of rye, you can't just dump rye flour in the recipe and have a good outcome. Certain enzymes in the rye flour can turn the dough into a starchy, gluey mess, and the best way to counteract that is......sourdough.
I used 6 grams of my robust starter to ferment 125 grams of rye flour overnight at room temperature, and mixed in 250 g of white flour and 125 g of whole wheat. Add more water, salt and yeast, and kneaded by hand for about 10 minutes. Bulk fermentation took 1 hour, and I deviated from the traditional oval or boule, and put the full dough in a loaf pan. I got called away for a parade, and when I came back, the dough had overproofed (called for 50-60 minutes, and I was gone for 90). Baked at 450 for 40 minutes, uncovered, and I was rewarded with a very tasty loaf. It was denser than hoped, but I'll remedy that next time with a more careful proof.
I used 6 grams of my robust starter to ferment 125 grams of rye flour overnight at room temperature, and mixed in 250 g of white flour and 125 g of whole wheat. Add more water, salt and yeast, and kneaded by hand for about 10 minutes. Bulk fermentation took 1 hour, and I deviated from the traditional oval or boule, and put the full dough in a loaf pan. I got called away for a parade, and when I came back, the dough had overproofed (called for 50-60 minutes, and I was gone for 90). Baked at 450 for 40 minutes, uncovered, and I was rewarded with a very tasty loaf. It was denser than hoped, but I'll remedy that next time with a more careful proof.
On the docket this weekend is a loaf called a Miché. It is a bread of French Canadian origin, and is almost 100% whole wheat, leavened solely with sourdough. More details as the weekend goes on, but I've set up the levain to freshen up in anticipation of a bake on Sunday.
A rather involved process, using a stiff levain (65% water) incorporated into a very wet dough (80%). There was no commercial yeast used, and the sourdough performed like a champ, giving 2 strong 2-2.5 hr rises. This is a big dough, more than 5 lbs, with all of it put on a pizza stone after proofing (and nearly spilling over the banneton). The bread is 85% whole wheat and is supposed to flatten out during baking. I think it overproofed a bit, but all in all, a good bake. I haven't cut it yet, as it's still cooling (4 hours later 
).
). 
Nice Bob. 
- Thread starter
- #370
That looks nice Bob. And sounds like it was a technically difficult loaf to pull off, 5 pounds of dough is not easy to work with. How is the crumb?
Too dense, Shawn. It overproofed. This is all trial and error, though, so I'm not upset about it. It was the toughest recipe I've tried. 5 pounds of pretty wet dough isn't the easiest to maneuver by hand, and I can see why people use mixers.
- Thread starter
- #372
5 pounds of dough seems like a huge challenge at nearly every step. Mixing wouldn't be terrible provided you have a big enough bowl. I can only imagine that trying to slide it onto the pizza stone was not an easy task.
Do you plan on making it again?
Do you plan on making it again?
Unlikely. My wife pointed out that 5 pounds of bread for 4 people seemed excessive.
- Thread starter
- #374
Yeah, that's a lot of bread for 4 people. I was thinking it might be fun for a holiday party or family get together.
Did you score the loaf? I wonder if letting it rip open instead of scoring it would help with oven spring?
I didn't score it for just that reason. The most likely reason is that it was overproofed. I certainly had enough air in the boule before transfer to the stone. Being about 85% whole wheat, the gluten wasn't as good as, say a loaf of white, and it just sort of expanded to cover the stone.
I had some with cheese for lunch and it is really tasty. It doesn't taste like typical whole wheat bread at all.
Giving this thread a little bump.
My bread making has been fairly infrequent lately, but I did make a boule yesterday of 80%white/10% wheat/10%rye, and the results were quite good. I've finally come to grips with the fact that I think Ken Forkish overbakes his loaves. I know that he digs the extra nuances to the flavor that crust on the borderline of char can give, but if my kid won't eat it, then what's the point? For yesterday's loaf, I baked in the Dutch oven covered for 30 minutes, and then for another 10 minutes uncovered, rather than 15-20 that Forkish recommends. The result was a beautifully golden loaf that was only slightly darker on the bottom, and both kids ate it. In fact the youngest demanded a slice with butter for breakfast this morning....and got it.
I also had the experience this fall of supplying a loaf for the team dinner of my older daughter's sports team, and having the report be that it was devoured before anything else with my daughter being on "bread duty" from now on.
My bread making has been fairly infrequent lately, but I did make a boule yesterday of 80%white/10% wheat/10%rye, and the results were quite good. I've finally come to grips with the fact that I think Ken Forkish overbakes his loaves. I know that he digs the extra nuances to the flavor that crust on the borderline of char can give, but if my kid won't eat it, then what's the point? For yesterday's loaf, I baked in the Dutch oven covered for 30 minutes, and then for another 10 minutes uncovered, rather than 15-20 that Forkish recommends. The result was a beautifully golden loaf that was only slightly darker on the bottom, and both kids ate it. In fact the youngest demanded a slice with butter for breakfast this morning....and got it.
I also had the experience this fall of supplying a loaf for the team dinner of my older daughter's sports team, and having the report be that it was devoured before anything else with my daughter being on "bread duty" from now on.
I made a loaf of white sourdough yesterday, and though the flavor, crumb and crust were all fine, I didn't get as much oven spring as usual. It didn't help that the loaf got stuck to the banneton, and probably lost some gas in the process.
At this point, I have the Forkish method of no knead bread nailed, and I'm ready to branch out into some different kinds of loaves. I don't have a stand mixer, so I'll be doing this by hand, which should be a good bit of exercise for me. I have Sam Fromartz's volume on his bread baking journey, KAF's baking cookbook, Hamelman's Bread, and Jim Lahey's "My Bread" to work from. Peter Reinhart just issued a second edition of his Bread Maker's Apprentice, and I may ask Santa to bring it this year. It's time to shift gears!
At this point, I have the Forkish method of no knead bread nailed, and I'm ready to branch out into some different kinds of loaves. I don't have a stand mixer, so I'll be doing this by hand, which should be a good bit of exercise for me. I have Sam Fromartz's volume on his bread baking journey, KAF's baking cookbook, Hamelman's Bread, and Jim Lahey's "My Bread" to work from. Peter Reinhart just issued a second edition of his Bread Maker's Apprentice, and I may ask Santa to bring it this year. It's time to shift gears!
Can't wait to see 'em Bob.
- Thread starter
- #380
Nice Bob. I've been so busy with a new job that I haven't baked a loaf of bread in months. My starter is in good shape though 
Similar threads
