Beginning of a New Obsession Sourdough

I was down in the Smoky Mountains somewhat recently getting away for a week, hiking and seeing the sights and bought a bag of "Mingus Mill Whole Wheat Flour" (http://ift.tt/2oiUNYZ). I've been brewing my own beer and ciders off and on now for several years and have always wanted to try bread since beer is pretty much just liquid bread.

In typical fashion for me, once I got home I started digging deep into learning about bread making. I usually get into things as far as I can and try to work my way out to see if I really get it. After some initial reading and video watching I determined that I wanted to use this stone ground wheat from the Smokies to cultivate my own yeast and so I began.

Over the course of two weeks I subtracted 100g of yeast from my mason jar, adding back 25g/25g Mingus Mill Wheat and King Arthur Organic Bread Wheat an 50g water. Once the yeast became more active I fed it twice a day, morning and night. The night before baking I created my levain by pulling 40g of active yeast into a separate mason jar with 35g/35g Mingus Wheat & Arthur Bread Flour with 70g water.

My dough formula was as follows - think this is ~86% Hydration? 575g King Arthur Organic Bread Flour 230g Mingus Mill Stone Ground Wheat 72g Arrowhead Mills Organis Rye (Whole Foods) 755g Water 20g Himalayan Salt 180g Levain Starter

1. Mixed Flour and Water, left to Autolyse for about an hour, then mixed in Leavain, let sit for another 30 minutes then added salt.

2. I wanted to try to slap and fold it but being this was my first time I don't think I was quite ready for that and with the dough being this hydrated it was REALLY difficult so I just did ~30-40 folds in the original mixing bowl.

3. After resting for a while from step two, I moved it to a new bowl, let rest for 15 then did 3 sets of folds (4-5 times per) every 10 minutes, then 3 more every 20 minutes. After that I let is rest to rise a little which took a little bit of time. I allotted 1.5 - 2 hours for this and it was about 2 - 2.5 until it "looked" right and ready to move on.

4. I split the dough into two and lightly pre-shaped , then covered to let them rest for another 20 minutes. After that I went back in and more tightly shaped them then placed each of them in a bowl lined with thin kitchen work towels which I sprinkled with flour.

5. They proofed overnight in my refrigerator and I pulled them out 2 hours prior to baking around noon today. Put the dutch oven (5.5 quart) in my stove to preheat (1hr) at 500 degrees. Once preheated, I placed the first one in, gave it a slice on top and cooked for 20 minutes. After that I took the lid off, dropped the temp to 450 degrees and did another ~25 minutes. I did the same with the other loaf.

Crust 1: http://ift.tt/2p702Ir

Crust 2: http://ift.tt/2oj74gj

Crumb 1: http://ift.tt/2p7ch8d

Crumb 2: http://ift.tt/2oj6SO1

I got some ok oven spring, I think I should have probably have gotten more so I'll be trying again soon. I think I have work to do in regards to shaping the bread tighter - I though I did this good enough but at this hydration level it was tough because the bread wanted to spread out more than I was prepared for so maybe next time I'll take the hydration down a little? Also, maybe a little less wheat and more bread flour next time? I could also do a better job scoring the bread next time to be more shallow and less deep.

Besides any tips on the above or anything else - does anyone have any flour brand recommendations other than the Arrow Head or Organic King Arthur's Bread Flour? Could that help too?

All in all the bread taste really good and overall I'm pretty content with my first run. I'll probably try again next weekend.

I also really want to get two circular banneton baskets because I used two bigger metal mixing bowls lined with a towel. It looks to me like that let the bread spread out too much overnight.

Submitted April 24, 2017 at 03:18AM by Enndr http://ift.tt/2p6XpX8 Sourdough