Ru007's blog

Hello friends! 

It's been a (long) while since I posted, not for a lack of baking though. Just been dealing with all sorts of chaos. 

I've been baking and re baking this seeded loaf trying new techniques and methods and it's been fun to see the different results. The formula hasn't changed much from my last post, except I've changed to a 100% hydration levain. I don't know if there's any real science behind it but I seem to get nicer results with a 100% levain as opposed to my usual 80% hydration. 

I've also stopped soaking the seeds, trying to incorporate wet seeds while laminating dough is hard. Has anyone ever tried picking up a wet pumpkin seed from a marble counter??? So frustrating... LOL! So now, I just sprinkle the dry seeds onto the dough while its stretched across my counter. 

The mix of seeds has changed too, I don't really measure how much of each type anymore, I just use whatever blend I have that adds up to 40g. Living on edge... 

Coil folds are my new dough development technique of choice. I find them more effective and gentler than how I do stretch and folds. Plus, it's a really great way to get the dough out of container and do a preshape all in one without destroying/over handling the dough.. This is one area I tend to struggle with, but doing a coil fold and then just lifting the dough out of the container, and using that as my pre shape too, seems to work for me. 

Here's the result: 

Really happy with how this turned out. 

This was my third attempt at a stencil and I was pleased with this result. I'm trying to figure out how to get a butterfly onto my loaf with scoring, my last attempt didn't really work. As we can see, the scores kind of exploded on me, so that was a bit of fail :(

But I'll be trying this again soon, hopefully with better results!

Happy baking all! 

Ru

Hello friends! 

This weeks' bake was fun for me, tried a few new things. Second time doing coil folds for gluten development (I like it), first time using a "young levain" (I don't like it), first time using a stencil for my design (I like it!)

Formula: 

160g 100% hydration levain (73% whole wheat, 27% rye), used after 5 hours. [Normally, I'd use it just after it peaks, 10ish hours after feeding. The dough felt a bit different this time, really soft and not as tight. It wasn't terrible, just not what I'm used to.]

294g water 

315g white bread flour

55g whole wheat flour

40g toasted mixed seeds soaked in 40g water overnight.

11g salt

Method: 

1. 2 hour autolyse. 

2. Mix in levain, seeds and salt using regular folds with 10min rest in between each fold for an hour. 

3. 4 coil folds, during bulk 45mins apart, leave to finish bulk fermenting for about 2hours or until there's loads of bubbles. 

4. Preshape, rest for 30min, shape and rest for another hour. 

5. Retard overnight. 

6. Bake @ 250dC with steam for 20mins and then 23mins without steam. 

I'm happy with the spring on this one: 

I didn't handle the dough very well when I was getting it out of the container to preshape, had I done better, I think I could have gotten a better crumb. I'm not too bothered though, the taste and texture are great. The crumb is much softer than my seeded loaves usually are. Maybe because of the less acidic younger levain? 

I loved making the stencil, it was so relaxing and therapeutic.

Credit for the design goes to @sourdough_nouveau (link: https://www.instagram.com/p/BcVR7TMh8AK/?taken-by=sourdough_nouveau) 

I did tweak the pattern a bit to make it more "me". 

I almost got super clean lines, but then I smudged the flour as I took the loaf out of the oven, so close... LOL!! 

Happy baking everyone, and have a great week :)

Ru

Hello friends!!

I hope everyone had a great weekend :)

This weekend I baked another (mostly) white sourdough. The formula and method is largely unchanged from my last post except I upped the hydration to about 87%. This was not a wise choice given that I've been trying to work on my shaping and scoring ... but I think it turned out okay. The loaf doesn't look like my usual loaves... I went out on a limb here. I was inspired by a loaf I saw on instagram and decided to give it a try. Usually, I prefer the unfloured look for my loaves.. so this was me trying something different.

(here's the original post I saw on instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/Bks-ni0Bu5C/?taken-by=magdalenadobromilar)

I was trying to avoid an ear, but I think I angled the blade slightly (probably out of habit... LOL!).

I used rice flour to dust the dough before baking, it doesn't burn as quickly as wheat flour and stays white in the oven...

I'm happy with the crumb on this one and the texture is one of the best I've managed, maybe the higher hydration helps here. I had fun baking this loaf, I might try this again and see if I can get it to turn out the way I imagined it. 

Happy baking and have a great week! 

Ru

Hello friends! 

Happy monday :) This is was my bake yesterday...

I've been working on this formula for a couple of months and I've almost settled on a flour blend that I really like. 70% white, 25% whole grain and 5% rye. I'm still working on what grain the 25% is. I'm not really spoiled for choice in terms of flour, but I've tried 25% spelt, and 25% whole wheat and a few variations in between. This one is 25% whole wheat. 

The hydration has varied from 75% to 85% this week. I must say this has been my favorite version of the dough to work with. I use 2.4% salt.

Method: 

1. Levain build the night before mixing 16g 80% hydration 100% rye NMNF starter, 6g rye, 36g whole wheat, 33g water. I typically use the levain when its some where between 10 and 12 hours old (although I do want to try using it when its a bit younger, just to see what happens)

2. 2 hour autolyse on mixing day (316g water, 296 white unbleached bread flour, 67g whole wheat flour)

3. Add 10 g salt and 90g levain to flour and hand mix for a couple of minutes. Rest for 10mins and mix again. Repeat 3 -4 times. 

4. S&F 60, 120 and 180 mins after mixing. 

5. Bulk ferment for another 3 hours or until the dough is jiggly (yes, this is a very technical term!)

6. Preshape and rest for 30mins then shape. 

7. Proof at room temp for another 1 -2 hours (depending on the weather, it was cold this weekend so I let it go for 2 hours).  

8. Retard overnight, bake straight from the fridge. 250dC with steam for 20mins ,230dC without steam for another 25mins.

Result... 

I'm happy with the crumb on this one, its nice and soft.

I've tried this leafy scoring pattern before, but I think I like this version better, with the more aggressive slashes down the side... but I might change my mind next week! 

Have a great week everyone and happy baking :)

Ru

Hello friends! 

This is a loaf I made last weekend, toasted oats sourdough is right up there on my list of favourites. 

Life has been so busy for the past couple of weeks, so I haven't had time to sit done and post...

The formula for the toasted oats SD is pretty much the same as the last version I posted here.

The only change was that this time, I didn't soak the oats. I just upped the water in the main dough. I wanted to see if the oats would maintain their structure a bit more in the dough if I added them dry, and they did. But ... I found that the dough wasn't as smooth and strong as it usually is. Not sure why, my only guess is that the dry oats might have been too hard for the dough?

I really enjoyed the texture of this loaf, its really soft with a slight chewiness too. 

Next, time I'm going to try just soaking the oats in a tiny amount of water, just enough to dampen and for a shorter amount of time and see what happens...

Happy baking everyone!! 

Ru

Hello friends - 

This weekend, I revisited my seeded SD. The recipe is very similar to the last version except:

• I changed the seed blend a bit, added some pumpkin seeds and upped the total amount of seeds from 19% to 23% and
• I adjusted the flour blend, less white (79% is now 71%), more whole wheat (19% is now 24%) and more rye (2% is now 5%). 

Formula: 

The method I used is a bit different. I've been playing around with different ways to develop strength in the dough. I'm loving the lamination technique. I think I just like stretching my dough out across the counter. Is it weird that I find doing this fun and actually quite therapeutic?

Method: 

1. Night before mixing: Levain build (20g NmnF rye starter, 12g rye flour, 38g w/wheat flour, 40g water). Leave over night. 

Toast seeds and soak in 50g boiling water.

2. Next morning: 2.5 hour autolyse before adding levain and salt. Mix for about 30 mins. [I mix for about 2 - 3 mins, rest for 5 - 6 mins and repeat x 3]. Rest for an hour. 

3. Lamination: Gently, stretch dough over counter. [I did get two little holes, but that's fine]. Sprinkle over seeds and fold the dough over into a little parcel. Rest for an hour. 

I really enjoyed adding the seeds with the dough stretched out, I was so much easier (and less messy) than how I usually do it (at the initial mixing stage). 

4. Stretch and folds. I did one every hour for the next 3 hours. In hindsight, I should have skipped the first one. The dough still felt a bit tight. 

5. Bulk ferment for however, long the dough needs until it nice a proofy and jiggles when you shake the container. My dough took anther 4 hours. I really had to convince myself to leave it alone for as long as it needed. I was making a white loaf at the same time and that dough was ready after 2.5 hours. The dough for the white loaf was exactly the same as the seeded loaf, just without the seeds.

6. Scoop the dough out of the container and leave to rest for 30mins. I skipped the preshape, I didn't think the dough needed it. 

7. Shape and proof for 1 hour at room temp, retard for 14 hours before baking. 

Here it is: 

I'm very happy with how this turned out. The crumb is not as open as the previous version. Might be because of the higher seed and whole grain content, but I'm not complaining. I prefer this version of the loaf to the last one. The crumb is super soft and fluffy and it tastes really nice, the pumpkin seeds are a nice addition. 

Here's the (mostly) white loaf I made at the same time. The formula and method is exactly the same as the seeded loaf, just no seed and this one had a shorter bulk. 

Okay, that's all from me. have a great week everyone, happy baking :)

Ru

Hello friends!!

A couple of weeks ago, Abe posted a mid week bake. I've never done a mid week bake. I just couldn't figure out how to fit it into my work schedule (08:00 - 17:00). So Abe's post really inspired me to try it, and it worked!! I didn't miss a beat with my regular routine. 

Here's how it went: 

Monday:

1. Levain build, just before work. I used my cold starter straight from the fridge (20g NMNF rye starter, 40g whole wheat flour, 32g water). 

2. 17:00ish get home and autolyse flour and water for an hour. 

18:00 Mix levain, dough and salt for a couple of minutes, rest for 10ish mins and repeat. 

18:45 Lamination (basically stretch the dough out on the counter as far as it will go, and then fold it up).

I was trying to build strength quickly because I didn't want to be up until all hours of the night folding dough! (It was dark so the pictures aren't great).

Stretch and fold x 3 at 19:15, 20:00 and 21:00. 

Bulk ferment at room temp overnight. The temperature was about 2 Celcius over night so, it was pretty much the equivalent of refrigerating it. I did keep the dough warm during the stretch and fold period though (in the oven). 

3. First thing in the morning, preshape and rest for 30mins. Shape and proof for 1 hour at room temp (while doing all my morning things before work). leave dough in the fridge for the day. 

4. 17:00 on Tuesday preheat oven, bake at 18:00, loaf done by 18:50!

I could have sliced last night, but I left it till today.

Here is the formula, its another mostly white SD. 

Thanks for the inspiration Abe, in my mind working a full day meant I could only be a weekend baker, apparently not :)

Happy baking everyone

Ru

 Hello friends! 

This weekend, I tried to make my toasted oat SD using spelt instead of whole wheat, I’ve never used spelt before, so I don’t really know what the rules are. All I know is what I’ve read here, so feel free to give your feedback. 

The main thing I changed was lower the hydration (because spelt needs less what than regular wheat, right?) Although, the hydration below is 75%, the final dough had a lower hydration than my regular loaf because I used way less water to soak the oats. I wanted to get an upfront feel for what the dough would feel like and not add too much wetness with the soaker. 

Formula

1. The levain was mad from 15g NMNF rye starte, 40g whole grain spelt flour and 32g water. So the final loaf actually had about 27% spelt.

2. Soak 68g rolled oats in 80g boiling water, I usually like to toast my oats, but I wanted to taste spelt. Leave to cool. 

3. Premix the flours, salt and water, chill for a couple of hours and leave to come to room temp overnight. I shouldn’t have done this; the dough didn’t feel right in the morning, it felt a tiny bit on the goopy side. Is this a spelt thing? Next time, I’m going with a short(ish) autolyse.

4. In the morning, mix the dough, levain and oat soaker. Leave to rest for 60 mins and then do as many stretch and folds as needed to strengthen the dough. I needed to do 4, I every hour. The dough did feel better at this point, but still not as nice as it does when I use whole wheat. 

5. Let the dough bulk ferment undisturbed for 2.5 hours (or for however long it needs to start looking bubbly).

Pre-shape, rest for 30mins and then shape. I left the dough to proof on the counter before putting it in the fridge for 8 hours.

6. Bake at 250dC with steam for 20 minutes with steam and then for another 25mins. 

Here is the result:

And the crumb....

I;m fairly pleased with the final product, because its so yummy! Its tangier than my regular oat sourdough, and I like it! I would have liked the crumb to be a tiny bit more open... I’ll try this again next week, and shorten the amount of the time the flour stays wet. I think that’s what I need to do. 

I’ve been making my (mostly) white SD every week, here’s the latest version.

 and the crumb...

 I think the shaping technique I used (which involves rolling the dough when I shape is giving my crumb the swirly effect). Its more pronounced in the shot below, reminds me of a croissant! 

Changes: Slightly higher hydration 78%, shorter bulk, longer shaped proof and shorter cold retardation.

This has become my “blank canvas” loaf, I’m experimenting with different, proofing times, hydration levels, mixing methods shaping techniques, scoring designs, you name it, i'll try it on this loaf! This is maybe my favourite version so far.

Have a lovey week everyone and happy baking!! 

Ru

So, you know when your choices are 1) wake up super early to get your loaves in the oven and have fresh bread or 2) don’t bother baking because your day is really busy and go without the bread… Clearly, the right answer is to wake up and bake. Am I right? Well anyway, that’s what happened to me this weekend and here is the consequence of my choice.

One (mostly) white SD

...and one seeded SD loaf

The white loaf is the pretty much the same as my previous post except I upped the hydration a tiny bit from 76% to just shy of 79% and dropped the prefermented flour % from 12% to 11% (yes, 1% is important to me!! LOL!!)

This loaf has become my little project and I must say, I prefer the result I got this time. The crumb is noticeably softer and melty in mouth. Yum… I let this one have a much longer shaped proof (3.5 hours instead of 1.25hours) and retarded it for 8 hours instead of 14hours.

I'm happy with the oven spring on this one,

Crumb shot...

Still playing with my scoring :)

The next loaf was a seeded loaf… nothing fancy, just a mix of white and black sesame seeds and linseeds. I’ve made a seeded SD loaf before and I really enjoyed it but I thought that the seeds sucked a lot of moisture out of my dough. So this time I toasted the seeds and soaked them in boiling water overnight before putting them in the dough. I put just enough water so that it would all be absorbed, I didn’t want extra water to end up in my dough.

Here is the formula and method:

1. 1 stage 12 hour levain build. 20 g NMNF rye starter plus 45g whole wheat flour and 36g water.

2. “Pre mix” the flour and water for the dough the night before mixing, chill in the fridge for a few hours and leave to come to room temperature overnight.

Toast the seeds and soak in 55g of boiling water.

3. Add the salt, levain and seeds to the dough and mix.

I spent about 50 mins mixing the dough initially (about 2 -3 mins on, 10 mins rest x 4) and then did 3 set of stretch and folds, not quite hourly but they were done within the first 3.5 hours of the bulk fermentation. Then another 5 hours bulk fermentation (yes, things were slow because its cold here)

4. Pre shape and let the dough rest for 30mins.

5. Shape and let the dough sit in the basket for 3.5hours before refrigerating for 8 hours.

6. Baked at 250 dC for 20mins with steam and then at 230 dC for another 25mins.

Result:

Slicing this loaf was amazing! The aroma of the seeds was just so good…I was worried that I didn't have enough seeds in the dough, but I think I got just the right amount.

Soaking the seeds was a good idea, the crumb is nice a moist because the seeds didn’t steal as much water from the rest of the dough.

I hope everyone has a great week! Happy baking friends :)

Ru

Hello friends! 

Nothing fancy happening here today. I really like white sourdough bread, but, adding a bit of whole grains makes it taste better to me. So I figured if nothing fancy is happening inside the loaf, I would challenge some of the habits I had developed when making bread. Just try something new and see what happens, right?

 I reduced the levain that I would normally use in a loaf like this to 12% prefermented flour. I was trying to slow down the bulk fermentation and see what that did to the taste. I’m very happy with how this loaf tastes. Result!! 

 I tried a different shaping technique, from Trevor J Wilson's how to make tartine style country bread video. I enjoyed the process. Normally, I wouldn’t dare rolling up my dough like that and would go for less a aggressive shaping technique, but I did it and the sun still rose today!! I just need to practice getting the right balance between getting enough surface tension and being gentle with the dough. 

 Oh and I decided to get a little creative with the scoring, see the little forest on the side?! Okay, it wasn't really my idea. I got the idea from instagram (@brooklynsourdough). 

Considering that getting the dough out of the bowl was a bit of a disaster, I’m happy with the crumb. In hindsight I think I should have let the bulk fermentation go for another hour or so or maybe left the shaped dough out at room temp for a little while longer.

Here’s the whole formula:

 The method was pretty simple:

1. 1 stage 12 hour levain build. 20 g NMNF rye starter plus 50 whole wheat flour and 40g water2.

2. “Pre mix” the dough i.e. all the flour, water and salt is mixed the night before mixing chilled in the fridge for a few hours and set out to come to room temperature overnight.

3. I spent about 30 mins mixing the dough initially and then I did 4 set of stretch and folds, not quite hourly but they were done within the first 5 hours of the bulk fermentation. Then another 2.75 hours bulk fermentation (yes, things were slow because its cold here!)

4. Pre shape and let the dough rest for 30mins.

5. Shape and let the dough sit in the basket for about an hour before refrigerating overnight.

6. Baked at 250 dC for 20mins with steam and then at 230 dC for another 25mins.

Happy baking everyone!