Loaf 50 – Halfway Sourdough!
Halfway through my 100 Loaves of Bread!
My last two loaves were experiments with different approaches to making sourdough, concluding with the SFBI approach is the best so far. I still wasn’t happy with the crumb of my loaves and thought that perhaps my ineptness at the loaf shaping was having a bad effect.
For this loaf I did two things differently:
- Reviewed the shaping video that I embedded at the bottom of Loaf 29 – it’s easy to grok and consistent with everything else I’ve learned.
- Used only unbleached white flour rather than a 90/10 mix of white and whole wheat. I wasn’t crazy about the whole wheat sourdough.
Results
- Better shaping skills definitely helped, but it didn’t make my crumb perfect. The crumb was much more consistent, but still was too dense.
- I like this non-whole wheat version better.
- Flash of insight! I think I’m underproofing the loaves. I looked at the amount of expansion that the loaves are getting along the scoring line and reflected back on my proofing experiment (Loaf 39) – the longer the proofing, the less the tearing along the score line. I’m going to do this same loaf again and proof much longer.
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- Pre-shaping boules resting for 1/2 hour
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- Beginning proofing
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- After a 2ΒΌ hour proof, scored and ready to bake
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- Loaf 50!
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- Pretty with explosive expansion
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- Loaf 50
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- Loaf 50 crumb
