White and Rye Sourdough

Even though I have stopped baking commercially, I keep my starters going, feeding them weekly and storing them in the fridge.
I use them in rotation to make bread and all the discard goes in yeasted loaves to add flavour (just add 10% by weight of discard to your normal recipe)

This week it was the turn of the Rye starter but I wanted a white loaf so I mixed the two ideas together.

I took 360 g of active Rye starter, (I used 40 g from fridge fed to 120 g, 12 hours later I fed it to 360 g) I mixed it with 1020 g white flour and 600 g warm water until just hydrated. 

This I autolysed for 30 minutes then mixed in23 g salt. I gave this 5 minutes in my mixer on low/medium speed and covered it.

I folded it after 45 and 90 minutes,

then after another 45 I turned it out, split it into two and shaped into boules.

These I placed in Dutch ovens and left for 2 hours.

I then put them into the fridge for 8 hours.

One hour before baking I warmed the oven to 250°C, when it was warmed up I put teh ovens in for 30 minutes. After that time the loaf looked like this.

I left the lids off and gave them another 30 minutes.

Looks like a good sandwich loaf.

Balsamic Bread

I spotted a recipe for a bread with Balsamic vinegar in it, and modified it to suit my ingredients. I used up some discard sourdough starter in it as well to give it even more flavour and made rolls and a couple of baguette shaped loaves as well.

The ingredients.

750g flour, I used my favorite blend from Wessex Mill, it has dried onions, peppers and Oregano in it. You could make your own mix of your favourite herbs and add it, no more than 15% by weight though.

450 g warm water,
75 g EVOO,
30 g Balsamic Vinegar,
15 g each of salt and yeast,
100 g White Sourdough Starter.(optional)

Then it's just the usual bread making method, whatever works for you.

After 1 hour in my proofer, (sounds posh but it's actually my oven, with a tin of warm water in the bottom and a 1 minute blast of full heat.) it had risen well.

I turned it out and shaped it into 2 x 400 g baguette shapes and 6 x 105 g rolls.

These I left to rise as the oven heated up.

And the whole lot was baked with steam for 20 minutes at 240°C

When the internal temperature is 95°C they're done, and the crusts were crisp as well.

White Spelt Sourdough

Here's a new version of the Spelt Sourdough, using a new formula and method.
I started with 300 g of 100% Wholemeal Spelt  starter and added 1000 g of White Spelt flour and 550 g water. This I mixed together and left to autolyse for 1 hour.
I then added 50 g water with 24 g salt dissolved in it and another 200 g of flour. (Wholemeal Spelt this time)

Over the next three hours I folded the dough three times with no kneading. It doubled in size.

and I shaped it into two boules. These I placed in Dutch Ovens and covered.

after another three hours they had doubled and passed the 'poke' test. I had the oven on at 250°C,

I gave them 30 minutes covered,

and they rose nicely, leaving the lids off I gave them another 25 minutes. (They were 1100 g dough weight each so needed a while to get the middles cooked.)

 Very pleased with the result.

Wholemeal Sourdough

I hadn't made a Wholemeal Sourdough for a while, I do like its flavour and while I was feeding my starters this week I separated some of the Wholemeal and fed it up. The recipe is from Teresa Greenways Udemy course and as I paid her for it I don't think its right to tell you.

Next morning I added flour, salt and water,

After four hours and three folds it was well developed and ready to shape.

I thought I would try shaping directly into the Dutch Ovens this time, I've lost too many loaves (and burnt too many fingers) trying to slide dough into hot ones.

After 8 hours in the 'Dutchie' they weer ready to bake, 240°C for 45 minutes.

After 30 minutes with the lid on the last 15 are opened.

And here it is, not huge but tasty, I didn't want huge holes as you can't make sandwiches with it. (Its really hard to butter air!)