babblings...words...random thoughts: Life in the time of COVID-19: Another take at Sourdough bread (13 June 2020)

I haven't baked for quite some time and being in a new FB group of sourdough bakers pushed me to give it another go. I also learned that some people used sizzling plate as a substitute for cast iron skillet or dutch oven. My sister has one so I borrowed it.

I used Foodgeek's sourdough recipe and scaled it down using baker's percentages which my husband helped me understand. So here it goes.

70% bread flour
30% whole wheat flour
70% hydration

70% BF, 30% WWF

840pm. Autolyze.
Dough seems drier than my usual doughs but considering that I still have to add the starter, this actually looks like it's going to work.

950pm. Add salt and Starter
It looked like my pretzel dough accident. I thought of adding water but stopped myself from doing so. The dough, after resting, will become softer anyway.
Also, when I did the float test, my starter sank to the bottom of the glass but floated after some time. It also looked like flour soup. It smelled well but not too many bubbles. It's something that I've noticed after changing my starter feed from Bob's Red Mill APF to the regular Redman BF.

1022pm. S& F 1 (before)
Not as easy as the other ones because it's drier. Tempted to knead it but managed to stop myself from doing so.

S & F 1 (after)

1056pm. S & F 2 (before)
It looked like a regular dough at this point. It's very tight so Im not sure if it is going to puff. It didn't look like it has a lot of air/bubbles in it.

S & F 2 (after)

12mn S & F 3
Dough seems to be a bit more wet and soft than when we started but still no air. I don't see any bubbles. I stopped using the wet towel as cover. Just used cling wrap.

1240am S&F 4 (before)

S & F 4 (after)

110am pre-shape (before)
I thought of doing another S & F but it was too late so I went
ahead to pre-shape it.

Pre-shape (after)
Another indication that this may be working. Managed to shape them into a ball without deflating and even incorporated a bit of tension into them!

Final shaping

I was already happy when I reached this stage. The dough didn't stick to my hands and I shaped them the way I wanted to. 1 batard and 1 boule

8am Pre-heat oven, tray, and sizzling plate for 30 minutes at 240C. The sizzling plate has a bit of rust on it so I put several layers of baking paper. Now Im worried that the heat from the sizzling plate will be insulated by the baking paper and wont benefit the dough.

I also took out the batard from the fridge. The dough spread sideways I guess because the bowl was not oval shaped to begin with. The dough was supposed to be oval but the bowl was round.

835am Scored the bread and sprinkled some water. When I placed it inside the oven, I saw some steam coming out from the dough. Yay!
Baked it covered for 20 minutes at 240C. I used 2 deep cookie pans, one on top of each other

855am. First 20 minutes is done and I had a good oven spring!!! It also looks like I will have an ear. This one looks very promising! I removed the cover for the next 15 minutes of cooking and reduced the temperature to 220C

910am. Batard sourdough done! Woohoo! It looks so good! And it has a nice hollow sound when you knock the bottom part of the bread. It also has a tiny ear :)

Top view of batard sourdough

Side view

915am. Now for the boule sourdough. I scored it straight out from the fridge. Since it's my sister's birthday tonight, I scored her name on it. I might have sprinkled more water than the dough needs. You can see that the dough is very wet. I also cut it deeper as I wanted it to rise higher. I didn't see any steam when I placed it inside the oven. But let's see.
Again, 20 minutes at 240C, covered.

940am. This is after the first 20 minutes of baking. It looks good but it didn't have an ear. Time to put it back in the oven. Baked it for 20 more minutes, uncovered at 220C. At 10am, I checked it and saw an ear developing! So even if the baking time is up, I left it inside the oven for 5 more minutes.