Naturally leavened sourdough bread

I normally make a 100 percent whole grain bread that consists of my 100 percent white whole wheat flour starter and a flour ratio of 70 percent white whole wheat and 30 percent spelt.

The recipe below is for my "light" bread version, which still consists of my 100 percent white whole wheat flour starter, but a flour combo comprised of 50 percent white whole wheat and 50 percent all-purpose flours. This still produces a tasty bread with a bit softer crumb.

Starter

My starter was "born" in a Zingerman's bread baking class in Ann Arbor on January 30, 2010, and it has been "raised" in Toledo, Ohio since.

The starter began as 100 percent all-purpose flour, but within the first year or so, it became 100 percent white whole flour.

My recipe for refreshing my starter once a week:

200 g King Arthur white whole wheat flour
130 g of water in the summer or 140 g of water in the winter
110 to 120 g of last week's starter

The chilly, dry air in our house in the winter requires a bit more water when working the dough.

add water to bowl
tear pieces of last week's starter and add to bowl of water
mix starter in water for 60 seconds
mix flour into water
dump mixture onto counter
knead for six minutes
place dough into lightly oiled bowl and cover
ferment at room temp for at least 8 hours in chilly house in the winter with temps in the low 60s, and 5 to 6 hours in the summer with house temps 75 to 80 degrees or warmer

Light Bread Recipe

Half white whole wheat flour and half all-purpose flour.

Recipe - includes baker percentages

starter (100% whole grain) - 176 g - 40%
water (room temp) - 352 g - 80%
salt - 15 g - (I've been using 12 g in 2014)
white whole wheat flour - 220 g
all-purpose flour - 220 g

Another option is 60-40 ratio of ap flour vs www. (2014)
- all-purpose flour - 264 g
- white whole wheat - 176 g

Procedure

bowl one - mix water and starter
bowl two - mix the two flours
let salt sit on the sidelines for now
add flour mix to the bowl with starter and water and mix/incorporate for 3 minutes or until a shaggy ball is produced
dump dough onto counter and cover with bowl
let dough rest (autolyse) for 30 minutes
place dough back into bowl
with wet hands, mix/incorporate the salt for 1 to 2 minutes, which can include some light kneading within the bowl and making a hook with one hand, placing hooked hand into dough, and turning bowl, so that dough twists around hand
place dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover.
after 10 minutes, dump dough onto lightly oiled counter and complete a stretch and fold, which means patting out the dough a little and one at a time, grabbing each of the four sides and stretching it and folding it back onto itself.
after the stretch and fold, place the bundled dough back into lightly oiled bowl and cover.
after another 10 minute rest, complete the second stretch and fold like above, and then repeat this process two more times. 10 minute rest followed by a stretch and fold for a total of 4 s&fs.
(optionally, increase the 10 minute rest between each s&f to 15 to 20 minutes.)
after the fourth and final s&f, place dough into lightly oiled bowl, cover, and let ferment at room temp for 4 to 6 hours. (4.75 hours on August 9, 2013 with outside air and house temps in the mid to upper 70s, windows open and our two window AC units off)
after fermenting, dump dough onto a lightly oiled counter
Chad Robertson's instructions for folding, resting, and shaping dough after fermenting
gently shape dough into a ball
cover and allow dough to bench rest for 20 minutes
pat dough out gently
complete a stretch and fold with an additional fifth fold over being the one that tightens the dough into a bundle
place dough seam side up into proofing basket and cover with plastic bag
proof at room temp for 2 to 3 hours or as in my case, I proofed at room temp for 1 hour and then placed the plastic-covered basket of dough into the refrigerator where it proofed for 10 hours
I proofed in an oval banneton basket that used a linen liner and white whole wheat flour dusted on the liner and on the dough before it was placed into basket
place baking stone or dutch oven into oven. I place the stone near the bottom of the oven and the dutch oven in the middle of the oven.
preheat oven at 525 F degrees for 30 to 40 minutes. This is when I removed the proofed basket of dough from the frig.
during the final 10 to 15 minutes of preheating the oven, place large metal mixing bowl into oven if baking with the stone
sprinkle flour onto top of dough while it is still in the basket
dump dough onto parchment paper. Surprisingly, the dough came out easily. No sticking to the linen. The final proofed dough was about 3/4 inch from the top edge of the small oval basket.
Since the dough proofed seam side up, and after it has been dumped onto paper, it's now seam side down, slash the dough lengthwise down the middle, approx 1/4 inch deep.
option: load spray bottle with hot tap water
after stove has preheated and dough is ready, remove metal lid from oven.
place parchment paper and dough onto stone or into dutch oven if using that
cover stone with bowl
option: lift bowl off stone a little and spray underside of bowl with the hot water. add steam. this may not be added, but for now, I'm doing this.
lower bowl over stone, close oven door.
lower oven temp to 500 F degrees
set timer for 35 minutes
after 15 minutes (20 minutes left on the clock) remove the metal bowl or the lid from the dutch oven
lower oven temp to 475 or leave it at 500. play with this.
after 25 minutes (10 minutes left on the clock) rotate the bread on the parchment paper to ensure the side closest to the back of the oven does not get baked too much
after 35 minutes is up, the internal bread temp will register at least 200 degrees, so can either remove bread from oven or bake it a bit longer to darken the crust to taste. one option is to turn off the oven after 35 minutes, but leave bread in the oven for another 5 minutes. I like a dark crust from the carmelization of the natural sugars in the flour. The white whole wheat flour will create a darker than normal crust anyway.
when done baking, remove bread from oven, place on cooling rack, and let rest for at least four hours before cutting.

jan 25, 2014

Jan 24-25, 2014 bread baking.

I fed my starter during the afternoon and evening of Fri, Jan 24, 2014.
When the starter was done or ready to be put away, that's when I assembled the bread dough, which occurred late that evening, so the starter was fresh and room temp when used in the recipe. no chilled nor old starter was used.
the water was cool, fairly fresh from the faucet and then run through the filtered pitcher, so the water did not have time to warm to room temp.
I used 12 grams of fine-grain sea salt.
Time between the four stretch-and-folds:
- 15 min
- 15 min
- 10 min
- 10 min
Dough got very stiff and hard to stretch.
Fermented the dough for 7 to 7.5 hours.
house temp was 62 to 64 degrees.
outside temp rose during the night from 17 to 23 degrees.
dumped the pillowy, fermented dough and and tried to shape into a ball and then allowed to bench rest for 20 min.
after bench rest, turned dough back over onto its and did a stretch and fold and tried to create some kind of shape but it did not work well. need to figure this part out. the part between fermenting and proofing. the part of shaping and rounding before proofing.
anyway, i proofed seam side down by mistake. I took dough out of basket and tried to correct, but dough had too much flour on it, so I placed it back into basket, seam-side down.
proofed for 3.5 hrs. house temp around 64 degrees.
part of the proofed dough was equal to or even slightly above the top of the proofing basket.
I dumped dough onto parchment paper and rolled it back upright, so that it remained seam-side down. This was easy to do. The dough came out of the basket easy. I even picked the dough up a little to position it on the parchment paper.
this dough fermented and proofed very well.
the proofing went better than expected, especially after the way I handled or mishandled the dough after fermenting.
I slashed top shallower this time, maybe only 1/8 inch deep, instead of the usual 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep.
Oven temps were per main instructions.
I removed bread from the oven after 35 minutes. I did not turn off oven and leave bread in for another 5 minutes.
outside of bread was a nice dark brown, so I didn't think it needed any more time beyond the 35 minutes.
dimensions of bread immediately out of the oven:
- 9.0 inches long
- 4.0 inches tall
- 6.5 inches wide
looked fabulous. maybe the nicest looking bread that I have ever made.
the shallow slash was still enough. the dough still separated well during baking.
good oven spring.
the dough contained little flour on it after coming out of the basket, so maybe that's why the dark brown color and why it looked so great.
cut into it and ate some the next morning, and this might be the best tasting bread that I have ever made too.
thin, crispy crust.
crumb was moist, soft, but still firm for spreads.
amazing bread. professional quality, in my opinion. this would sell at a farmers market.
I'm guessing the keys to producing this great bread this time were:
- fresh starter
- proof at room temp
If I can learn how to shape and round the dough better after fermenting, that might improve the oven spring and overall shape even more.

Jan 31 - Feb 1, 2014

Assembled two batches of the bread dough recipe late on Friday night, Jan 31, 2014. Used 12 grams of sea salt again. During the day, created two starter feedings. I fed the starter the day before, on its 4th birthday, Jan 30. Then Jan 31, I used that starter to create two feedings.

Starters fermented for about 10 hours with house temp in the low 60s and outside temp around 28-32 degrees.

Used the fresh, room-temp starter to make the two batches of bread dough. Cool water from tap ran though the pitcher and then used, so it did not warm to room temp.

20 minute rest between all the stretch and folds for both batches.

Batch A, dough set up to ferment at 1:17 a.m.
Batch B, dough set up to ferment at 2:00 a.m.

Approx 7.5 hours of fermenting time for both.

Weather overnight during the fermenting:
- outside, temps around 30 degrees with some snowfalling
- inside, in the dining room, around the top of the upright grand piano where the dough fermented, temp was 62 to 63 degrees.

Dumped Batch A at 8:45 a.m. Rolled up, tucked in the sides into a squarish package. Bench rested for 20 minutes. Then a small stretch and fold and tried to create a log shape. The dough was bubbly. I busted some bubbles. I placed dough seam-side down into the cloth-lined oval-shaped basket.

Batch A, dough set up to proof at 9:08 a.m.

Dumped Batch B at 9:30 a.m. Bench rested as for Batch A, except Batch B proofed in a round, linen-lined, wicker basket that DD brought back from a bakery in Paris.

Batch B, dough set up to proof at 9:55 a.m.

Both doughs proofing on top of the piano in the dining room. Same house temp as overnight, low 60s. Outside temp is at least 32 degrees at 10:00 a.m., and it will warm to mid to upper 30s today. The snow has changed to sleet which will change to all rain for the afternoon. So possibly a little more humidity in the house, compared to a day with single digit temps.

Plan
- will proof for 3 to 4 hrs
- will preheat oven and stone for at least 45 minutes.
- if plan to bake Batch A at 12:30 to 1:00 p.m., need to start warming oven and stone at 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

Actual
- Batch A placed into the oven at 1:45 p.m., so a longer than expected proof. The dough had proofed at least one inch above the top edge of the basket.

Batch A after baking:
- 8.25 in long
- 4.5 in tall at the highest point.
- 6.25 in wide.

Batch B placed into the oven at 2:35 p.m.

Other bread baking notes

#food - #recipe - #bread - #blog_jr

By JR - 2253 words
created: Aug 11, 2013 - updated: Jun 02, 2016 - replies: 1
source - versions - backlinks

Related articles
Jim Lahey No-knead Bread Baking - May 17, 2016
Happy Birthday to My Sourdough Starter - Mar 17, 2015
Grilled ribeye steaks - Aug 20, 2013
Cooking a rib roast - Dec 25, 2015
Making Pizza - Apr 25, 2014
more >>