Loaf 27 – Sourdough with SBFI Starter

Posted on Mar 3, 2012 in loaves

After my class at San Francisco Baking Institute it was time to practice what I learned. They gave us about 50g of starter to take home which has been living in my fridge for the week. I used the directions that Frank had given us in class for a two feed liquid levain from the starter – beginning Thursday night so that I could bake Friday evening. My two feeds were at 7pm and 8am the next morning, and everything behaved as it was supposed to.

Friday evening after work I began the almost four hour process of mixing, folding, dividing, shaping and proofing. I also pulled 50g of the starter aside, fed it and sent it back to the fridge for next time.

My kitchen was a bit cold for the process, generally hovering around 72°. Shaping was difficult, as the skin on the pre-shaping boule didn’t want to stick to itself when I was shaping it into a batard. I was also nervous about overproofing, as the shaped loaves were behaving during a ‘finger poke’ test as if they were ready to bake about 45 minutes before they should have, so I baked them maybe a bit early.

I was careful to put the seam up during proofing and down during baking, but the interior crumb looks as if it wasn’t rotated – there were large holes along the top and sides and it was very dense along the bottom and in the middle. This may have also had something to do with my shaping process – I forgot exactly how Frank showed us in class, so I was referencing my notes, books and websites, ultimately getting myself stressed and confused.

The flavor of the loaves was very nice, but the odd internal structure make them not-so-enjoyable to eat. The dense center was a bit much to chew on, and the giant holes made sandwiches on Saturday unsatisfying.

Lessons

• I need to do a shaping refresher course (already!).
• I need to get more experience judging if the dough is proofed enough.
• I’m going to get in touch with Frank and see what he can tell me based on the pictures.