long-time reader first-time bread-maker

do any of you bread people know the trick to making sourdough that's actually sour? i've had decent success at making levain bread with no yeast but it never has much of that strong tangy sourdough flavor. looking at recipes online for san francisco sourdough, it appears the trick is either a) using a san francisco sourdough starter bc that has special bacteria in it or b) doing a very long fridge proof/ferment. i've done overnight fridge proofs before and not had that result.

you can fridge a 65% hydration levain for 24 hrs. more acetic acid because of more struggle. then proceed as normal (and do a fridge proof too).

does it make a difference if my starter is already refrigerated? the starter itself smells/tastes very sour

no not really. if it’s very sour smelling that just means it needs to be fed sometime soon.

My last bread was bordering on /too/ sour. My advice is to use a refrigerated starter that’s slightly past its prime (~ week since last feed) a long, slow 24 hour bulk ferment and a 12 hour slow second rise in the fridge (finished on the counter).

lol this is all totally over my head, i love it

"the struggle"

lol that actually came from a note i wrote on the recipe given to me during my e5 'advanced sourdough' class. note was next to the instrux for a cold 24-hr levain build and said in total: 'MORE ACETIC ACID = MORE STRUGGLE'

the struggle is real

my boyfriend found yeast, in for a wild ride

I would love to go back to a world where people who never bake never bake, so I can get some whole wheat flour.

you’ll NEVER BAKE
NEVER BAKE
NEVER BAKE
NEVER BAKE......

this hearty scone

Lol

making HCBs mainly via the recipe tracer went me (no fruit, no nuts, will NOT be using frosting for the cross ffs). is the dough rising? NOT MUCH imo (tho the room is warm and draft-free) but i guess i still have another 45 mins until punch-down, more soon

(i halved all* the amounts bcz 30 buns is a lot when you live alone)

*probably all, maybe

tbh i may have over-kneaded when absorbing the butter "the french way" since i forgot to leave it out and it was cold not soft

lol i absolutely fvcked up the "french way of butter", when i was dividing and shaping them just now i found a huge unabsorbed soft glob of it in the middle of the dough

Sounds delicious! :)

we'll see

Different kind of bread, but I started a batch of injera batter last night.

dough for crosses was too wet and flowed everywhere, shapes are terrible, glaze and colour good tho!

https://files.slack.com/files-pri/TV20059EW-F012CJX6H9N/2020-04-13_17.47.46.jpg

couldn't find any raisins or sultanas when i shopped for these, it does need em really -- but the texture is not bad at all! (this was intricate without being difficult really)

https://files.slack.com/files-tmb/TV20059EW-F01224ZUUPK-27a43b5cd1/2020-04-13_18.07.24_720.jpg

lol awesome plate. those look great!

the laurel's kitchen bread book is quite verbose but usually i think it's helpful - they anticipate the kinds of practical questions you might have and address them right in the recipe, which i feel usually ends up simplifying things rather than complicating them i.e. will i need to do these in batches, what should they look like when i've shaped them, is there something i can use to squash them etc - and most recipes would just say 'form the buns'

yes i mainly stuck with laurel -- but it suggested using icing-frosted crosses instead of authentic white dough strips, so i switched to paul hollywood for them, then couldn't get the snipped-plastic-bag-as-a-piping-device to work (the bags just burst) until i made the cross dough so runny that it wouldn't stay in place

probably i shd have tried the piping out first -- the second batch was a bit better

whoa piping!

They are Turin shroud crosses, very appropriate. Look delicious too.

Icing crosses are all kinds of wrong.

i just baked these tonight:
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020985-cheddar-walnut-gougeres

it was.... not hard! no yeast! no starter! no baking powder! just mixin and cookin! and very freaking good

Nice. I might give those a try!

Something to do with 00 flour other than pizza dough?

I'm using red caputo 00 flour to make the tartine country sourdough, as bread flour is nowhere to be found and i was able to buy a 25k bag of it off Amazon somehow, and it is working really well!

On a related note, how are people storing their massive bags of flour, if they have them? Scared of getting bugs in it somehow...

that's what sifting is for surely :)

a big plastic bucket with a snap-on lid would be ideal imo (i do not have one, but i also don't have 25kg of flour!)

those gougeres look amazing. i'm gonna try them as soon as we can get eggs again.

It seemed like an overinvestment when it arrived - I could barely drag the box into the kitchen - but we're making 4-5 loaves a week, plus pizzas and feeding the sourdough starter, and with doling bags of it out to flour-strapped friends, I might get through it a lot quicker than I'd imagined!

Ah, sifting, of course...

My 25kg is in its sack, still in the cardboard box it was delivered in. It's moved from the front room and is now sitting by the fridge. I've been thinking about getting some kind of airtight plastic bucket/box/bin for it - it could probably safely move to our small, damp and crowded cellar if I did - but haven't gone for it yet.

And same, stevie - It's definitely going down faster than I thought - I was guessing about 6 months, maybe a bit less, but I am baking more than anticipated when I was umming and ahhing about buying it.

as we can get eggs again

if you don't sift the flour the eggs will re-enter yr recipes iirc

lol

NOBODY in my family liked the gougeres. mind-boggling. there are like 35 of the fucking things left. i can't give em away because everybody on my street knows i had the 'vid.

Gorge on gougeres.

Whaaaat. I'm going to make those gougeres this weekend.

if there was a way i'd totally take the gougeres off yr hands tracer :)

bah the recipe is behind the nyt firewall: behaviour i am not going to change under lockdown = setting up a fkn account with those ppl

Today - my first crack at baguettes, following King Arthur Flour recipe:
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/classic-baguettes-recipe
Going in the oven in about 30 minutes. Not feeling hugely confident here tbh, but wanted to start on some 55 flour I'd bought(*) and try something to challenge my (very poor) shaping.

(*)You'd think the 25kg would be enough, but it didn't get me free shipping so I bought several small bags of other flours alongside - 55, 00, ciabatta & soda bread flour.

Oh, and following previous chat on here my early-in-the-week loaf was old-ish starter, 2/3 white, 1/3 rye and wholemeal, long fridge proof with a lot of stretch and folds. Held its shape, rose well and was delicious.

YES!! god it's a good feeling when it works out eh?

tbf I think baguette shaping isn't easy! (not that i've tried it myself)

a friend on instagram did a video about making sourdough bread and it turns out he puts his dough in the fridge overnight before cooking it (which I do too) but, get this, he doesn't cover it up, so it develops a skin. And fuck me, it really improves the shape and structure of the bread. TRY IT!

i tried a multiple-day fridge ferment/proof for my most recent sourdough (36ish hours for the poolish, another 12ish hours for the dough) per the recipe for a san francisco-style sourdough i found online. the bread was very good but still not sour at all!

IME the age of the starter has more impact in flavor than the length of the ferment/rise.

Yes. You can also try overproofing it. Though it won't rise as high in the oven. You may not care. You could also overproof in a bread tin and then the shape'll be fine :P

NA, re: sourness, Sarah suggests letting the starter ferment longer in the beginning of the process, or adjusting the ratios in favor of starter (for example add 100g starter compared to what you normally use, and decrease the added flour & water by 100g).

Here are some examples she found :

Norwich Sourdough Bread Recipe – Wild Yeast
http://www.wildyeastblog.com/my-new-favorite-sourdough/

Norwich More-Sourdough – Wild Yeast
http://www.wildyeastblog.com/more-sour-sourdough/

And here's the latest loaf with a lot of flax seed, very hearty & moist:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_DLGQnjSE5/

there is no way you don't get an a+ for that.

Oh I can't take credit, that's all my partner, I just did a little folding.