Sourdough bread (fresh starter!)

D found this recipe from the King Arthur flour web site about a no-knead sourdough. Since I just made a starter again (see this post), I figured this would be a good first try. I followed this site’s directions relatively closely and will put my slight alteration.

Ingredients

225 g fresh sourdough starter (it wasn’t exactly fresh as I had fed it around 7 am and didn’t make the dough until about 7 pm…most things I read said you should start your recipe about 4 hours after feeding your starter)
395 g luke warm water
598 g bread flour
15 g salt

I took all the ingredients and mixed them in a large metal bowl (I typically use a metal bowl for my baking…I know a lot of places say you should use wooden or plastic but I haven’t had any issues with rising). I made it into a cohesive moist dough, covered it with my plate (that fits almost perfectly as a lid) and let it sit for 1 hour.
Next I lifted the dough and then folded it over on itself (I just grab a piece from the edge and fold it to the center and then go around the edge of it to fold on itself). I covered it again and let it rest another 1 hour.
I repeated step 2 another 2 times (total of 3 hours) and folded it one more time after the last hour wait. I then covered it and put it in the fridge.
The King Arthur site says you can let it sit in the fridge for as little as 8 hours and up to 48 hours. Since I started it on one of my work days, I was going to wait until my day off to bake. I ended up letting it sit in the fridge for about 36 hours.
On a well floured counter, I poured out the dough, formed a rough ball and let it sit for 15-20 minutes.
I then shaped it into a boule and with seam side up put it in a well greased bowl. The dough ball didn’t really rise much (which is what it said from the original recipe) but did spread out and relax. I let it come up to temperature for about 3 hours (again it depends on warmth of your house…2.5 to 3 hours)
About 1 hour before baking I preheated the oven to 500 F. I put in my dutch over with the lid partially ajar to preheat as well (as this is my baking container).
After 3 hours, I dumped the dough into the dutch oven, floured the top and made 4 cuts on top with a sharp knife.
I replaced the dutch oven cover, put it in the oven and reduced the temperature to 450 F. I baked it for 45 minutes covered.
After 45 minutes, I removed the cover and allowed it to bake another 10 min (~10-15 min until internal temp is at least 205 F).

Continue reading “Sourdough bread (fresh starter!)” →

Italian Bread

I realize that I haven’t posted in quite a while. Life has just been going on. I haven’t been all that inspired to create a post. This weekend I decided to get back into the baking game. Perusing through The Fresh Loaf, I came upon this recipe. Rather than create 2 large loaves, I cut the recipe in half. I also recently purchased some non-fat dry milk to test out since it is easier to keep than fresh milk. Since there are only 2 of us eating the bread, I also elected to divide what I did make into 2 smaller boules.

Ingredients:

Preferment

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup bread flour (or AP flour) – I used bread flour
1/4 tsp active dry yeast

Dough

Preferment
2.5 cups bread flour (or AP flour) – I used 1 cup bread and 1.5 cup AP flour
1/4 cup dry (non-fat) milk
1/2 Tbsp (1.5 tsp) sugar
1/2 Tbsp (1.5 tsp) salt
1 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 Tbsp (1.5 tsp) olive oil
1 cup water

I made the preferment the night before my combining all the ingredients listed into a bowl and covering it and leaving it at room temperature.

The next day I mixed all the ingredients of the above Dough together into a large mixing bowl. I dumped this onto my counter and proceeded to knead it. I don’t know if it was due to the recent rains we’ve had making the house more humid but this dough was way too sticky.

I ended up adding in about an additional 1/4 cup of flour to make the dough more easily handle-able and knead-able. After kneading for around 12-14 minutes I placed the formed dough into an oiled bowl.

I let this sit covered at room temperature for about 2 hours to allow it to double in size.

After doubling I did a stretch and fold (within the bowl) to get some air out and then let it rest an additional 30 minutes.

I then dumped the dough out onto a lightly floured countertop surface and divided it in half. These were each formed into a ball shape and covered and let to rest an additional 20 minutes.

Following the rest, I formed each one into a boule, creating a tight seal on the bottom of the dough. One of these boules I placed into a bowl with a lightly floured cloth and put in the fridge since I was only going to bake one at a time (couldn’t fit them both in my oven). The other one I also formed into a boule and put in a floured cloth bowl at room temperature for 1 hour.

I pre-heated the oven to 425 with a dutch oven (with the lid slightly ajar…I had read about dutch ovens cracking in the oven if they were empty and covered).

Once the dough had doubled (or close to it), I placed it on parchment paper and created an “X” over the surface and placed this in the dutch oven covered. I did spray the bread with water just before covering it. I baked this at 10 minutes and then removed the lid.

I then baked it an additional 20 minutes. It had a nice crust.

Midway through baking the above boule I removed the other one from the fridge to let it come to temperature. I waited until I had a partial spring back of the dough when you pressed it with your finger. I put this boule on parchment paper and created some cuts on top and then placed this directly on a baking steel (instead of a baking stone). I also sprayed this with water and baked for ~28 minutes. This one was a little over-baked.

The taste and crumb came out great for both of the boules. I was happy with this first-time Italian bread experiment. Will definitely make again in the future.

-StewsCat

Bread boules!!

A few weeks ago I decided to make some bread for my lunch (I’d bring the bread with some deli meat and sliced cheese – very European I know). I decided to just make two boules and bring one for a co-worker who has asked for me to bring some bread for her previously (little did I know that she’d be out sick). I went back and found an old recipe and tweaked it slightly.

Ingredients:

Preferment:

350 g bread flour
364 g water
3 g yeast

Remaining ingredients

350 g bread flour
266 g water
14 g salt

I mixed up the preferment and let it sit for about 30 minutes. I then added that to the remaining ingredients above. I mixed these up thoroughly and then let it sit for the water to absorb before I kneaded it.

I then proceeded to knead it for approximately 15 minutes until it was relatively smooth and I could do the “window” test – not perfectly but close enough. I then set it in a bowl, covered it and used the proof setting on the oven to allow it to rise (double in size).