Hello! This is my first ever sourdough loaf! It looks like bread so I’m pretty pleased.
I have not been on this sub at all because the information overwhelm was making me feel discouraged. So I got some starter from a friend, found and followed one recipe, and didn’t look at any other outside sources since I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.
My recipe: 250g active starter/leaven 1000g flour 25g salt 650g water
My process: activate starter overnight, incorporate all ingredients, 30min autolyse, 4 stretch and folds over 2 hours, bulk rise for 3 hours, shaped and placed into bannetons in fridge overnight, baked covered at 500 for 40 minutes, uncovered at 450 for 10 minutes
I think I let my leaven (is that what the fed/active starter that is going to be used for the dough called??) ferment for too long. It peaked and then started to go back down before I incorporated it into the dough.. I also think that I baked it for too long because the crust was super hard.
My goals are: more airy texture, more sour flavor, and a less hard/crunchy crust (it tears up the roof of my mouth so bad). Any tips??
by manic_pixie_centaur
9 Comments
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For a first loaf this is really bad. It needs to be much more like a flat and very dense pancake. So congratulations! You did good.
Terrible first loaf. It should be a dense undercooked pancake.
You are looking at something that you created by your own hands.
Wildly good for a first loaf, it should look way worse. Tweak your bake time and you are already on the right track.
Very good. Even crumb. Good rise, well proofed. At your hydration level, the crumb is as expected, so don’t feel disappointed if you were expecting a more open crumb.
One thing that I caught in your recipe: when you say mix all ingredients then 30min autolyse, it sounds to me like it’s actually the start of your fermentation. Autolyse should be strictly water and flour, before adding starter and salt. I may have misunderstood your post however.
I’m on loaf 10 and still don’t have one that looks like this… so I say this with all the love and hate that entail… good fucking job! 👏👏👏
incredibly bad, throw it away (in my direction) and start again