Bread Making - Sourdough & Boules

[arkc]

The bread is my idea of a sourdough country loaf.

The cheese is from the same batch as the photo I posted last week.  This one
is a tad too 'oozy' for me.  But the flavor is great.

annie

[arkc]

But on second thought,  that cheese was sitting near a very warm loaf.   I recut it an moved
the loaf.  It's not as oozy as I thought.  Can you see the more solid center.  This is how I like
my Camembert. 

annie

[iratherfly]

You baked that bread? How nice!
Do you make your own sourdough fermentation? Or, do you use a starter?
I always love having my own cheese on my own bread. Makes me feel like I really screwed up the global system!

Just yesterday I baked fresh Baguettes for breakfast. So easy. Was great with that St. Marcelin!

[arkc]

Thanks Yoav.

Are you asking if I made my own starter?  If so, yes.  It was 'born' about 8 years ago in San Ramon, Ca.
We really do have great indigenous yeasts and lactobacilli  in the SF Bay area.

annie

[nhbrewer]

mmm,  fresh, warm bread and some lovely Camembert to spread on it AND both from your own hands...I can almost taste the satisfaction through my monitor.  Well done.

[arkc]

Thank you ever so.

annie

[iratherfly]

Awesome!  I was never a huge fan of sour flavor in my bread until I recently discovered that sourdough doesn't need to be sour and that there are so many ways to preferment yeasts.  Would love to know how you do it!  I pre-ferment a lot for French bread and I do tons of no-knead whole grain breads. The baguettes are quite new to me but I thoroughly enjoy them. Really quick and easy to make.  I also often use whey from cheesemaking instead of water in my breads.

[arkc]

It should be sour if it's done correctly.  In fact, some of the 'famous' commercial places out
here add citric acid to get it that way.  In order to get a lovely home made sour loaf, it has be be fermented over 18 to 24 hours.  This is the tricky part, getting the yeasties to be really active for that period of time. 

You use a 'mother' or sponge.  I have always found it easier to keep starters, , , unless of course,
you bake every day.  I only bake once a week.

Your baguettes are beautiful.  I make primarily boules, as they require no additional forms.

If you have any questions,  you should go to the Northwest Sourdough web site. My
friend, Teresa is one of the greatest sourdough gurus.

annie

[iratherfly]

Great resource Annie! Thanks!
I like the naturally fermented starter idea, I am just not into the sour taste. Doesn't work for me with eggs, cheese, salads, jam etc. That's how I use it. I do however love the texture of those SF sourdough breads.

Most of the breads I make are boules as well. I do a lot of those no-knead types so they do rise 18 hours. I make them in a ditcvh oven and the dough is highly hydrated so you can't really form them well and they just come out like boules.
For the other types, I prefer batards. I have a really nice German brotform that helps them rise and gives them beautiful shapes and lines.  But for stuff like baguettes - I just hand form them. It's easy enough and no need to special forms and bakeware. A good baguette should round up on the bottom on its own without the help of special form baking sheet.

I don't meant to hijack the threads, but here are some examples. As you can see I am a bit limited and not as hardcore as you are.  Note that the barards are raised in the brotform and you can see it on them. The boules rise in the dutch oven. There is a quick white bread that I baked in a german clay dish (Romertopf) and lastly, a tasting of my cheese and my jams with my bread.

[arkc]

Very pretty loaves...

annie

[OudeKaas]

Cheese . . . . jam . . . . . and bread? Dude, you are a triple threat! It's always interesting to see the participants here show their other facets. Looks very tempting.

Oh, and what are the 'cheeses-on-a-stick' we can see in your pic?

[iratherfly]

Thank you kindly! These are little aged goat's "Lollipops". They are like little Sainte Maure cheeses. 14 day aging semi lactic.

I also make them in a blue version (2nd photo below)

[Tomer1]

I recently made some rose petal jam from my Grandmother's garden,
You can even label it semi organic (the sugar is not) 
Yoav that is some nice high hydration loafs,good random holes.
Im personally a big of of whole wheat and "spacially" grains rather then 100% white flour.
I feel that they give more earthiness to the aroma and greater depth of flavour.

Im brewing some wheat beer this week so I hope to make something interesting with the spent grains.

[iratherfly]

Nice. I am not sure what to do with these grains. I recently washed a Tomme with wheat beer.

I too love the whole grains but find them difficult to create a great fluffy airy texture, so I always mix them in with bread flour and maybe gluten. I find that it takes only a small amount of rye flour to prevent your bread from rising nicely and if you put too much of these whole grain flours you will end up with a slightly bitter bread.  I use lots of grains, usually sesame and black sesame, caraway (Dutch caraway!), roasted sunflower seeds, oat bran, oatmeal... I mix them in for the 2nd rising of the bread or coat the bread with them just before entering into the oven  (actually, I spray the bread with water first, then I sprinkle the seeds, then make the slits and put in the oven).  I recently began using a food processor in a method that requires freezing water to make dough. It heats up as it turns and you get a well-kneaded dough before it has a chance to overheat.

[Tomer1]

"I too love the whole grains but find them difficult to create a great fluffy airy texture"
Two words, High hydration.
WW can absorb alot more mosture then white flour. I can easly do 80% while still keeping it workable where with white flour 80% will be chiabeta at that stage.
Some brave bakers even do 85% but I dont use a proofing basket just a floured pyrex boule which I flip on a baking paper ontop of a piece of cardboard  and slide it on to my baking stone.

Vital Gluten addition is a good idea, I bought about a pound once, finish it and havent used it since. Its rather expenssive if I remember right.
I avoid using my stand mixer with WW,Its too easy to over mix.
I prefer to use time and a few strech and folds to develope the gluten.
I dont do any kneading aswell,time (and love) is all you need.