Sourdough loaf two ways. Part 2.

So at 0500 I resumed the sourdough experiment. You may find the following slightly confusing, spare a thought for me, I had three bowls of dough at different stages of development, each requiring different processes at different times.

Both sets of starter had bubbles, I made the smaller one into dough as instructed here,

http://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/our-version-of-tartine-style-bread/

and followed the instructions. 

After two folds it was looking like a loaf, and there were only four more to go! Quite labour intensive.

The other starter was used to make a loaf from the book "Do Sourdough" by  Andrew Whitley. This one involves a lot of doing nothing and a bit of machine mixing. I hope its the tastier as I'm inherently lazy. Here it is resting.

In the middle of that, I got an order for 30 Onion Seed Panini for tomorrow. I started the pre-ferments straight away, they will be ready for delivery at 0900 tomorrow.


So at 0830 I got back involved with the easy one, making a mixture of flour and water to add to the above at 0900.

I then shaped the first loaf (getting confused which one is which)

That now needs proving till 1130.

Next the two parts of the easy loaf need adding together,

followed by a brisk knead.

Turning it out, I found it very wet but shaped it into a tin anyway.

That will prove till 1400. Time for a coffee.

You may be wondering why I put Sourdough into a tin and not as a freeform boule. Well the answer is simple, my customers ask me for tin shaped loaves to make sandwiches or toast. 

And after all it tastes the same.

While I was doing that, I made crumpets with the left over starter, it's dead easy; just 250 g starter, 1 tsp sugar and 0.5 tsp each of salt and Bicarbonate of Soda, give it a whisk and fry in a dry pan using a ring.

So after baking the complicated loaf is done,

and here is the crumb,

and three hours later the easy loaf, there were a few bubbles on the top of the dough when I put it in the oven,

and after baking and cooling,

Taste wise there is little to tell between them, surprisingly the small loaf took the same time to bake as the large. The small loaf has a closer crumb but is perfect for sandwiches or toast. Both were slightly underproved but not enough to matter, maybe an extra half hour would be right. That's what I wanted to learn.

And the result........ Phew! the easy one is a clear winner, largely because I can leave it to its own devices and do other things.

Next I must practice my Sourdough Baguettes, but first I need to buy more flour.