Quarantine Sourdough
4/1
Made pizza dough with a piece of the previous day’s dough and no extra yeast.
4/3
Dough didn’t look ready yesterday, so I let it rise for another night.
4/4
Made a “focaccia” cracker. Put some of the dough into weck jar with equal parts water and flour to total 100g.
4/5
“Starter” rose nearly double after first feeding (2:1:1)
4/9
Maybe I should have been adding flour/water without removing half for the first couple of feedings. Starter no longer rises after feeding. I believe the original commercial yeast colony has basically died off in the inhospitable environment with the wild lactobacillus.
4/13
Starter almost doubled last night, so it looks like we’ve finally cultivated enough wild yeast to get the party started.
4/14
I’ve run out of my usual AP flour (King Arthur) but we found a Korean brand at the nearby Korean grocery. Will be feeding and baking with this from now on.
4/17
Still doesn’t rise over double, but it’s also been cold outside and the starter is kept on the windowsill. I’m baking with it anyways!
8am
Levain:
- 50g starter
- 75g water
- 75g flour
6pm
Adding the levain to:
- 400g flour
- 250g water
- 10g salt
Bulk fermenting overnight. Did a single stretch & fold after placing in the bowl and left to ferment.
8pm
I’m also preparing a levain for sourdough crepes tomorrow morning:
- 50g starter
- 75g water
- 75g flour
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar
4/18
Added to last night’s levain:
- 2 eggs
- 200mL milk
- pinch of salt
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar
- 2 Tbsp browned butter
Crepes were delicious!
Dough for bread did not rise enough for me to be confident in the result, leaving overnight again.
4/19
11am: Baked the bread! Rise was not great, crumb looks ok but it is a little dense. Pretty sour as far as sourdoughs go, too, but still perfectly edible.
4/21
I’ve been saving the “waste” starter when feeding to use in other recipes instead of throwing away. Today I’m starting a new bread levain with some of that excess.
8am
- 100g starter
- 50g water
- 50g flour
9pm
Autolysis of the rest of the dough:
- 400g flour
- 275g water
- 11.5g salt
10pm
Mixed levain with autolysed dough. Getting it incorporated was a pain. Took nearly 10 minutes of manual mixing.
Placed in oiled bowl, performed many stretch & folds, may do one more before bed.
4/22
Dough has risen well, letting it continue into the afternoon.
Switching to a 1:1:1 feeding ratio.
5pm
Dough is about 2/3 up the bowl, shaping now.
Into proofing basket, which has been wetted and dusted with rice flour. Into puffed-up plastic bag that I saved from the produce section of the grocery store, into the fridge.
10:30pm
Starter looks about doubled. Feeding 1:1:1 seems to be working out ok.
4/23
8am
Starter has fallen halfway to start line, I think this isjust about right for a 1x daily feeding schedule.
6pm
Baked bread—still poor oven spring.
10:30pm
Starter has nearly tripled in about 14 hours!
4/24
6pm
Starter has risen from this morning to about where it was at it’s peak yesterday, but in only 10 hours.
10:30pm
Starter is still fully inflated, a little more than earlier.
4/25
10:30pm
Starter is already falling, shall I increase the ratio again tomorrow?
4/26
Feeding at 1:1.5:1.5.
4/27
10:30pm
Starter has officially leveled up, it has overflowed the weck jar. My old starter never got this strong, so I’d better work on my stretching/shaping to get a better loaf out of this!
4/28
Re-homed starter in a taller straight-sided mason jar until I get a bigger weck jar.
4/29
Reducing ratio of feed again, something like 1:1.75:1.75.
5/3
Made dough yesterday, levain took 12 hours to rise x3, autolysed flour/salt/water for 1 hour.
I think my loaves are flat because not enough gluten development. I could do 3 things to increase:
- Use bread flour (which I don’t have and won’t be getting anytime soon)
- knead the dough
- longer ferment
To address #2, i used the stand mixer for about 10 minutes to combine the levain and autolysed dough.
To address #3, I left the bowl in the oven overnight with the light on & door cracked open, it rose x3.
This morning, the dough does not pass the windowpane test. However, the finger poke test springs back quite quickly, so I think it’s not done with bulk ferment?
5/4
Dough is an utter failure. Completely liquid. Does not hold together at all. Making “focaccia”.
The “focaccia” was awful.
5/7
Feeding at 1:2:2.
Prepping dough at 70% hydration, maybe 75% was too much?
Trying to reduce dough schedule to one day, so speeding up bulk ferment in the oven with light on.
10pm
Shaped and set in fridge.
5/8
Baked bread, loaf is fluffier than the last.
5/15
Feeding at 1:2.5:2.5.
5/17
Preparing 70% hydration dough with a surprise—because it’s totally time to start experimenting, right? I know I haven’t quite mastered this yet, but I want to add some miso, so we’re adding some miso, 50g.
5/18
Baked loaf. Did not turn out as fluffy as the last one. I should stop experimenting. Tastes good, though the difference isn’t that pronounced, and the outsized effect that 50g of miso had on the dough doesn’t leave me inclined to try again any time soon.
5/21
Feeding at 1:3:3.
5/23
I’ve had a revelation today.
I’ve been over-fermenting the dough.
I don’t remember which video it was, but they mentioned letting the dough rise 25% during bulk fermentation. I had to rewind the video and play it again to be certain they meant letting it rise only 1/4 larger than it was. At one point I had been letting the dough rise x3! It all makes so much sense now. When the starter rises about x3, there’s no longer enough food left to sustain the CO2 production and it falls… so the same can be extrapolated to the dough itself. If I’ve let it rise more than 2x, there isn’t enough food left for that amazing oven spring!
Let’s put this to the test.
11:30am
I woke up a bit late, but I think we still have enough time. I want my levain to be ready fairly quickly, within 4 hours, so I’m setting it up with a fairly high proportion of starter:
- 80g starter
- 60g water
- 60g flour
This goes into a pint mason jar and into the oven with the light on.
3:30pm
Levain is ready, and I’ve forgotten to autolyse the dough. Mixing together now:
- 400g flour
- 250g water
- 10g salt
4pm
A half hour is better than nothing, and the levain is starting to overflow the mason jar. Mixing together now by hand.
Note: somehow the final dough weighs 830g, when it should weigh 860g? Did I lose that much water from the levain in the oven, or did I measure incorrectly? Oh well.
Doing proper stretch & folds about every 30 minutes for 2ish hours.
6:30pm
Dough easily passes the windowpane test. Ready for bulk ferment! I am also setting this in the oven with the light on so I can be sure to finish this tonight.
9:30pm
Dough is bubbly and has risen maybe 1/2X. I do need to get a clear plastic bulk ferment container. It’s time for pre-shaping!
10pm
Time for final shaping. I’m doing the trifold-and-rollup that seems to be the Foodgeek’s preference. Into a rice flour coated proofing basket, inflated plastic bag, and into the fridge overnight.
5/24
11am
Dough rose in fridge about another 1/2x. Oven and dutch oven are preheated to 450°F. Did my best to do an angled slash, hoping for a nice ear.
20 minutes with the lid on, the suspense is killing me!
Lid off… By Odin’s beard, it’s beautiful!
20 more minutes with the lid off.
And finally, 10 minutes with the oven turned off and the door cracked open.
