PJ - I've been baking all the bread for two families these days, and all of it is sourdough of some kind. Although I am still doing the KA baguette recipe from the class with a half sourdough starter poolish, I have been working on the whole wheat rustic sourdough every week also. I have found 2/3 all purpose and 1/3 whole wheat has given me the right consistency crust and inside.
Last night I made a fed starter with 12 oz of unfed starter, 6 oz flour and 6 oz water, basically a triple recipe. Tonight I mixed all the water with the starter, mixed the dry ingredients in a separate bowl first so the flours were blended, added to the starter etc. I made 2 loaves in 4x8 pans, 2 round hearth loaves, and 2 baguettes from this recipe. I do the baguettes first in the hotter oven for 22 minutes, steaming the 1st 5 minutes, then the 4 loaves(sprayed and sliced) in the 425 oven. Baguette crust was great, loaves are perfect. I have been making larger batches with several different shapes from the same dough for a while now, and it has been lots of fun.
By the way, thanks for the sourdough pizza crust recipe in the email today. I am anxious to try it, especially because it uses unfed starter, which I have plenty of. I am still taking all my removed starter and creating some to give away. Spread the joy as they say.
I think my next thing will be to work on a sourdough rye or pumpernickel. I'm back in the banter, and looking forward to a long baking winter. Ron
Welcome back, Ron - you sound like you're well on the way to becoming a "breadie;" - in fact, you're probably already there. Fun, isn't it? And the winters don't seem nearly as long when you can look forward to lighting the oven and getting your hands into some dough... PJH
November 7, 2009 at 12:28am