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Sour Dough Balistics

If Aunt Sheila is really into sourdough she will be happy to give you another starter. Tell her you are coming over with a jar and ask when would be a good time.
😎


Quit screwing around and get some flowers and a bottle of her favorite hooch.
 
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Or hey I know a guy that knows this guy in New Orleans----------------

My wife had me bring a sourdough starter through the New Orleans airport that she got from a pastry chef….well worth the TSA scrutiny. She’s been making all kinds of good shit, I feel like I’m watching breaking bad when she’s in the kitchen.
 
Had a little time earlier, actually a lot of time but it's worth it. This loaf came out light and the taste was great. Thanks to the OP for starting the thread.
 

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I had a small corner of a loaf go stale in the corner of the bread box. Tossed it out for the birds and it made 25 yards before any noticable drop.

Last nites loaf.
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Not sure of the crumb on this one gave it to the naibor .
It had a good rise.

The loaf before it had decent rise and I'll call it a medium crumb, but the picture my friend from next county sent was on some stupid format I can't reproduce?
 
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Today's loaf is on a 2 hour delay, my wife needed the oven the starter was rising in with the oven light keeping it at about 80-85 degrees .

Does anyone know how to make it with olives in it?

I'm thinking 1/4 some up and mix in at initial assembly?
 
I don't know what I'd go for olives.....just try and envision the taste....not so good :(
Sun dried or fire roasted tomato's....pickled jalapenos....extra sharp or bleu cheese....maybe even goat cheese ?
Fresh rosemary, fresh thyme, fresh oregano.
The *right* giardenara, maybe, chopped very fine.
Ortega/Hatch chilis well chopped.

Yes you put them in when initially mixing.
You want to drip/dry the stuff getting most of the moisture out, but don't be tempted to "pat dry" and get the stuff too dry, needs a bit of moisture.
 
Thanks.

I will give it a try it is a special request.

If the taste is off we can use it for more ballistics testing .

It will still be the cheapest powder I use.
 
Well I cheated and took a picture of a screen (screenshot ) . lol

This is 2 loves back, could use some scrutiny from the sour dough melitia.

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It's good bread but not close to some of the artisanal work I have seen here.
 
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Well I cheated and took a picture of a screen (screenshot ) . lol

This is 2 loves back, could use some scrutiny from the sour dough melissa.

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It's good bread but not close to some of the artisanal work I have seen here.
You're getting too much browning on the bottom and not enough on the top.
Maybe try using a different rack height in the oven or maybe an egg wash on top might get a little more crisp on the top.
Experiment dude.....that's what it's all about.

Another thing is flour choice.
Bread flour will work much better than all purpose.
King Arthur or Blue Bird (out of Colorado in the canvas sack) brands of flour will work better than the usual shit on the grocery shelf.
You can also add rye. whole flake oatmeal, fennel seed, a tiny pinch of ground coriander seed or cumin seed.
I haven't tried celery seed but I can definitely see it having some good effect.
 
Today's loaf is on a 2 hour delay, my wife needed the oven the starter was rising in with the oven light keeping it at about 80-85 degrees .

Does anyone know how to make it with olives in it?

I'm thinking 1/4 some up and mix in at initial assembly?

I just tossed them in while I did my folds. I used a mic of kalamata and green
 
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Well 2 AM my loaf hit the cooling rack, dang.

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I got to work on my timing. Lol

I have been running a no pre-heat game for 2 reasons,
1 no parchment paper needed.
2 less burnt fingers.

I have figured out why most people don't do that. It's all about the amount and timing of the steam inside the Dutch oven, preheated makes steam quicker possibly more.

That gets a better oven (spring) rise.

I have not been slashing the loaf deep enough to let steam out better.

On the plus side figured out the easiest way to get the loaf out of the Dutch oven, two tools an old spoon and a pot holder. Gets right under it to lift and hold the too in place with the pot holder.

Also I stuck a pizza stone on a shelf one notch under the Dutch oven solved the problem of bottom crust darkening.

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Need to figure out a way to offset some starter and prep to make 2 loves a day with the only Dutch oven I have that fits.

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Well my family gifted me a couple empty pans for Christmas.

Guessing it was a hint .

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Finished with stretch and folds and into the proof box / oven with the light on for bulk rise.

Upped my water by 10g and starter by 25g looking for more open crumb since I noticed people with wetter / tacky dough got that result it seems.

Had to learn to embrace the wet hands method instead of flour on the hands, easier that way.

The official Lodge pan seasoning spray (canola oil) kinda smelled at 450 degrees Fahrenheit . They come pre-season but I like to add layers.

Note: the repurposed spice container is a great bench flour dispenser.
 
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So thermaldnyamics and critical mass equations for the perfect loaf.

Today the house was cool and I stuffed my dough into the oven with the light on.

Still not much action so let's see, a pizza stone, a couple new cast iron bread pans and a flat pan . Like the Bahamas now inside there.

Got to watch for critical mass now so as to not over proof.

 
Well apparently I over proofed the damn things.

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What a poor shot that was.
 
Yeeha, redemption.
Not cutting it till daylight, can't wait to see the crumb.
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I redid a recipe, not exactly half at all is what worked in the small sandwich pan.

I rounded off the stupid odd numbers, upped the flour to fill the pan better, upped the water ratio and upped the starter ratio as well.

I was also not getting a good second rise and zero oven spring.

I took care of that by using the starter before full double ie still on the way up. Also on bulk rise stopped shy of double there as well.

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Yes I keep a balistics card on my flour container with a rubber band.
300g bread flour
200g filtered water
100g starter
10g of olive oil
5g salt
About as basic as is possible.

That said I screwed up two things. I didn't cut the top but luckily it split in a decent manner.

I didn't keep a written time line.
The starter was fed and refrigerated at midnite last nite pulled out at 630 am and put in the oven with the light on at 8 am cooked at midnight, in between is vauge.
 
Crust was lightly crisp, loaf was soft / would spring back when squeezed and not sure what's a standard but I'll go with medium? crumb.

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Warming up starter for more of this.

Son grabbed it and ran out of the house to go with potato soup.
 
I need to bake another loaf.

I'm dog tired from last weekend, 3 days worth of ranch work.

Clearing ceader, mesquites and small / dead oaks piling brush cutting small logs for smoker and fireplace . Opened a new larger pasture by fixing some fence and simply closing a gate to some bad fence areas.

Hope I can knead the bread my hands hurt.
 
Got tired of reading recipes for Rye bread. Molasas, honey, some kind of malt crap.

So rolled my own from my basic boul recipie.

It's 600g of bread flour 400g filtered water 200g of active starter 10g salt 20g olive oil.

400 cold start covered 30 minutes 30 minutes uncovered in a 5 qt Dutch oven.

So consensus was 1/4 KA lite rye would work for beginners.

That made it 400g of gold medal bread flour, 150g rye and 50g unbleached all purpose. About 3 teaspoons of caraway seeds maybe more used scant palm full.
Not sure the reasoning for the 50g of ap flour but came up in some of the recipes I read.

Everything else remained the same.

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I added some caraway seeds and coarse salt to the top. But they didn't all stick, guess maybe a egg white brushing next time? It did take longer to bulk proof but not as bad as I thought.

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The crumb came out slightly tigher than I like, I bulk proofed it to 100% instead of 75% that gives me a more rustic open crum, better oven spring.

Texture is good, I could add 5 minutes or more for browning since the rye holds water more?

Taste is good, mild, I actually want to make it stronger somehow.

Not a piece will go stale I promise.

I'll give myself a B+ taking off for crumb, exterior additions fail.

Many people will enjoy the mild flavor, it's personal so I wont discount that.
 
King Arthur baking company their site is a gold mine of recipe's and learning.
I mail ordered my Rye flour from them since local grocers didn't stock any.

KA is kind of the SMK of baking.

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My wife tried her hand at a different recipe today, with a mix of all purpose, a little bit of a pizza dough flour, and Manitoba flour that her mom sent from Italy. The texture and flavor were good.

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Manitoba flour, from Italy? What's that about? I'm here IN Manitoba....
Not sure. It could actually be from Manitoba but flour that is similar is called the same thing.

She said that she cannot buy "manitoba" flour here but maybe I should try and locate a similar type.
 
Thank you for that, and yes, I appreciate learning things. As it is, when we used to make a lot of bread, we found a particular grower in Southern Saskatchewan produced the best wheat.

That was a Hard Red, iirc.

And yes, grinding your wheat into flour truly does make a difference for flavour, texture, and NUTRITION of the bread. "Whole Grain" takes on a whole different meaning, when you grind your own. But I digress....
 
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That sounds like good flour to try.
Wonder if they will ship to Texas before the Italions grab all of it. Lol
In my research, it sounds like you can get the same results from grinding hard red wheat. I have some hard red, as well as a grinder, and will be doing some tests soon.

The last time I was in Italy, we took a tour of a little bakery that made pastries and taralli. They had a bag of potato flour that was used in making things. It was from Idaho 😎
 
I read where potato flour and or instant flakes can help make a very soft bread / pastry.

I think it was in K A's sight.
 
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I remember my mom would buy bread at the bakery called Potato Bread. It had a great flavor and texture.

Looking at the ingredients online, the ingredients included potato flour.

I knew a woman that would keep the water after boiling cubed potatoes for mashing. She said she liked to use the water in her bread recipes but I didn't get any details. I lost touch with them when I moved.
 
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I believe this to be a area limited availability type of product.
It's "Blue Bird" flour from the Cortez milling company in Colorado.
This is the best info I could find about it, but the price is about 3 times what it should be so don't be tempted to order from these rip offs.


And yes it's true, the best native fry breads will probably be made from this flour.

Funny how in this day and age so little info about a product is available.
 
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Had to dig around marketing hype for this info on blue bird.

Grocery stores that stock Blue Bird flour include T&R Market, Lowe's, Bashas', Kroger, Albertsons and Safeway.
 
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Had to dig around marketing hype for this info on blue bird.

Grocery stores that stock Blue Bird flour include T&R Market, Lowe's, Bashas', Kroger, Albertsons and Safeway.
I used to get it from "Food City" in Az when I was able to do the whole snowbird thing a few years back.
BTW, great grocery chain....killer prices but I think they are only Phoenix/Tucson area.
 
They sell potato rolls and hamburger buns but I prefer a crusty bread as apposed to the really soft texture.

But if I can get a sack of this it's strait up fry bread time.

Not sure which Indian Nations I was on in Northern Arizona, Hopi, Navajo, Havasupai ? Maybe more.

They even sold frybread at the beeline drag races in Phoenix.

That's dragsters not drag queens however I think Shirley Maldowney won the winter nationals that year in her all pink dragster, truck and crew so that would have made her Queen of the dragsters not a drag queen. If I remember right her crew set a record time for an engine swap @ 4 minutes.

Names like Big Dady Don and Paul the Snake were there as well.
Eventually they moved the Winter Nationals to Ennis Texas for the "new concrete " track? No fry bread.
 
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By the way, I really am enjoying reading about these sour dough breads as they all sound delicious and are making me hungry. I’m particularly fond of breads with flavors if they are fresh made from scratch.

Thanks for the thread. 👍🏻😋
 
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Well you don't need much.
Unbleached flour, water without chlorine and salt and a 5qt Dutch oven is a good start.

I add oil in some recipies.

It took me a while to get a starter going. Stupidly I tried regular bleached flour, nope, then I tried city tap water, nope. And that is about all the hardcore rules that are chiseled in stone.

Plenty of good flours are available in local chain stores and the chlorine has been killed in plain old bottled water, in fact it may be better than some super whammy home filters that filter out trace minerals?

Some one in the know should school us on that.

Don't be stubborn like Snuby642.

K A's site has dry measure and grams on thier recipe's but a kitchen scale is the way to go. I had to have one to make sausages and jerky to make sure I got the right amount of cure in the meat anyway.

I round off my measurements to what is practical for breads but keep pretty precise on the meat cure.
 
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It was a windy, snowy day so I decided to break out the flour mill
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I cheated and used yeast but substituted 30% freshly ground soft white wheat in the dough, the rest was AP flour.

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Baked at 450F. The crust is thick and crunchy, and the middle is soft with a ton of flavor.

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My wife told me to save the recipe, so it's a winner.
 
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