Made my first loaf at home with my homemade starter – I mostly followed GrantBakes Masterclass sourdough recipe and method, since it seemed pretty straightforward, but then made a few tweaks from my (possibly wrong) intuition. More details in comments! Also made a meme for us.
by hellaxninja
4 Comments
Hey, hi! I am an ex “professional” baker, but not confident in skills after burning out of the industry (passion went “poof!” and replaced with anxiety and shoulder injury from repetitive motion). I mostly made croissants, but learned a bit about bread production (never experienced the bake, unfortunately). I never made sourdough or croissants at home though, so I sometimes doubt my individual skill without a team of other bakers around for support. Took a few baking courses for fun at community college, but the rest of my knowledge I gained from either working in a couple bakeries, or nerding out on my own time. I definitely feel more confident in my shaping (which I mostly did at work) versus the mix and fermentation (which is more important, but less fun for me- can’t beat that sweet jiggle).
To work through my imposter syndrome after not baking in a long time, I decided to make a starter and start baking sourdough at home. I finally decided to just go for it with my starter, but it may not be strong enough. It does double, though.
I mostly followed GrantBakes Masterclass sourdough recipe and method, since it seemed pretty straightforward, but then made a few tweaks from my (possibly wrong) intuition.
What I did:
Fed 25g starter 50g each of water and KA bread flour (I had established the starter with rye when I first made it, but switched feedings to bread flour). Starter doubled the next morning (kept it in an insulated lunchbox with a warm water bottle overnight).
300g room temp water, reserving some to dissolve salt and set aside to add later (Here I deviated from Grant a bit).
100g starter – Mixed in water to dissolve.
450g bread flour (250g KA and 200g Bob’s Mill that I wanted to use up).
10g salt
Mixed flour with most of the water with dissolved starter til shaggy. Covered and let sit for 30 minutes.
Add remaining water with dissolved salt and incorporate into dough (*this deviation was inspired by Josh Weissman’s video, but screwed up because I misremembered only adding the water/salt, but not that Josh also withheld the levain until after autolyse).
This may have been my first screw up, aside from not using warmer water in the mix. Incorporating the salt water was difficult, so I had to squeeze/tear/mush the dough to absorb it, compromising the first set of stretch and folds. I did the best I could, stretching up and folding down 4 times rotating the bowl N,S,E,W each time. Cover, rest for 30.
Stetch and fold #2 was easier, N, S, W. Cover, rest 30.
Stretch and fold #3. Same, N, S, E, W, but I worried I didn’t get enough development in my botched first stretch and fold. So I let the dough rest for 15 minutes, and did an extra coil fold on all four sides to attempt better development. After a short rest, I shaped into a ball and placed in covered bowl for my attempt at bulk fermentation.
About 7.5 hours into bulk fermentation (from mix), the dough showed bubbles, but small, and there wasn’t much “poof”. I turned on heat lamp above stove to raise temperature (house temperature was 69F). Starter too weak? House too cold?
About 10 hours into BF, it finally seemed to jiggle and double in size, which Grant called for (realizing I should use a clear, straight sided container to better gauge this). This is where my confidence really left me!
My house was cool, but I have definitely left my starter in the oven with the light on and forgot, finding that it got waaay hotter than I realized. I felt the heat lamp on my stove top might be a better way to not forget about it, but my dough did get up to 81F internally. I was panicking and looking on here for BF charts, but the overload of debates regarding proofing to 30%, 50%, 100%, etc. made me worry that the yeast activity in my dough with a possibly too young/weak starter was dying off. And my timing was bad, so it was getting late, and I wanted to shape and put it to bed!
The dough passed the poke test (looking back, it was maybe still too early), so it didn’t seem over (but we all know the poke test is subjective and most of us just like poking dough and use the poke test as an excuse to poke).
PRE-SHAPE TIME! Ball, uncovered bench rest for 30 min.
Shaped into batard (I shaped how I learned at work, so it was a tighter looking loaf than Grant’s, which was a simple folded into thirds and rolled- I do more of a knitted shaping with more closed ends), dusted with rice and AP, and put in the fridge overnight. Why does life not go as planned??
Day 2 I wanted to tend to loaf in AM, but had to help my bf with something, so I left it in fridge to cold proof – Grant’s recipe says you can leave the dough up to 24hrs.
When I took the loaf out of the fridge in the afternoon, it still looked small and tight, compared to Grant’s. First indication I cut BF too short. I decided to bring it to room temp before baking to see if it would poof anymore, and it did!. Poke test also showed a lot of resistance, and the dough still had tension, so I decided to extend the proof with the heat lamp on.
This went on for a lot longer than intended, but it was still growing without the sides collapsing, and the poke test still showed a quick bounce back. I would say it was out from the fridge tempering at RT for about 2 hours (internal temp 66F), then an additional 6 hours with monitored heat lamp, getting up to an internal temp of 79F.
Long story short, it kept growing and looking more airy, and by the time I was happy with it, I was too tired to bake, and cursed at myself and poor planning. It still seemed to not be fully proofed, so I wet a banneton liner, covered the loaf, and put back in the fridge to hopefully finish the proof without going too over.
This morning I had another delay (morning appointment) but could finally bake the damn thing. I forgot to take the internal temperature 🙁
Pre-heated oven with Lodge 3.2qt Combo Cooker at 500F for 30 minutes (GrantBakes says to do 450F).
Took out the loaf to assess shape – it did look more deflated than last night, so I opted to not score it right away. Guessing the proof went too long?
I baked it for 5 minutes covered at 500F, then scored it and put it back with cover for an additional 15 minutes. This was a cheat I saw on an YT short, and it did produce a nice ear, so thanks to that person!
Reduced temperature to 465F, and baked uncovered for 20 minutes. Internal was at 210F.
Now it is cooling, and I am awaiting to see the crumb- the loaf looks decent, maybe small, so I am assuming the BF or proofing was off, but at the same time, I am happy my first at home loaf at least looks like a loaf to be proud of on the outside!
Update: cut into it and it doesn’t look too bad! The crust tasted good, and it wasn’t too sour –
The interior felt a little gummier than I would want… I know underproofing can cause dense, gummy crumb, but does over proofing (which I understand can hurt the gluten) also cause that?
Or do I just need to eat more bread for crumb comparison, and deciding what I like best?
All that build-up *and* the meme and no crumb shot?!
killin’ me
Well at least your meme is partially incorrect, cuz you did NOT eff up your fermentation and proofing! That rise, that ear, and the crumb all look like a pretty perfectly fermented loaf, but I’m no professional.
I am in this meme and I don’t like it