This was my “great sourdough loaf” from a week ago. Never one to be satisfied, I thought I’d try a couple variations that I’ve read about. Bakers talk about hydration. It’s their secret code so they know who is in the know and who is a wannabe like me.
Jordan introduced me to Aaron from 1000 Park Baking Co. in Winona Lake when we went out for breakfast during his recent visit. Aaron makes absolutely beautiful bread with huge airy holes. His first tip was to put in a real hearth oven… I settled for my dutch oven and made peace with the fact that I could always go to 1000 Park if I wanted a true artisan loaf. Aaron gave me a quick lesson on dough hydration. You talk about hydration in terms of water as a percent of flour by weight. If you have 10 ounces of flour and 6 ounces of water, then you have 6/10=60% hydration. This is “normal” 5:3 ratio basic bread dough according to Michael Ruhlman’s book Ratio. Aaron said that his sourdough can be up to 80% hydration. If you’ve never tried to mix up an 80% dough, it seems more like pancake batter that acts more like a liquid than a solid. This is a little beyond my skill level, so I settled for a 70% hydration attempt. Here goes…
1 cup starter
10 ounces whey
20 ounces flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon raw sugar
2 teaspoons salt
The batter…er… dough mixing in the KitchenAid. You can tell how liquid-y it is.
This is my mixed dough literally poured out on floured parchment paper. The parchment paper will go in the dutch oven to make it easier to move the risen loaf without deflating it.
I attempted to cut a # into the top of the loaf, but it is so wet that it didn’t really work. I skipped brushing it with water or oil since it is already so wet. I sprinkled with Himilayan rock salt.
I preheated the dutch oven in the oven this time to see what difference that would make. The parchment paper did indeed make transferring the loaf easier without burning myself or messing up the loaf.
After baking, you can see the crust is a little darker with the preheated dutch oven and the parchment paper survived the 450°F oven.
You can also see that cuts in the crust are a little more random than the loaf at the beginning of the post.
A glamour shot of the sliced loaf with a few nice big holes. And the taste test with homemade cultured butter out of the butter bell…
So what do you think? The first loaf with lighter crust and pretty # cuts in the top or the darker rustic crust with bigger holes?