Been a while since I posted something. We´ve had quite a heat wave here and it has been very dry for the past two months. I started baking sourdough bread only last November, so it has been quite a test learning how to let the dough ferment at these temperatures.
A few days ago I found a brand new clay pot in a recycle store. I wanted to bake bread in one for a while now, so I didn´t hesitate and got it. I must say that I´m totally hooked
I know a lot of you already bake in clay pots or cloches, but since it´s new to me: I like the bread better than baking it in the cast iron pan, actually. It has more tenderness, while at the same time the crum is less sticky. I think because the clay pot is porous and the bread can breathe more, while at the same time you do create the enclosed steam chamber for the bread to bake in.
The bread has a more earthy taste and it seems to bring out more of the flavours of the bread´s ingredients. It´s almost af if the bread gets a kind of coolness and natural relaxation from the clay, whereas the cast iron gives it a tougher, more forced bake, if that makes any sense to you.
I soaked the pot in water while the dough did its final proving and preheated it in the oven before adding the dough. At the start of the bake I added water on a baking tray beneath to get some extra steam. I was a bit anxious whether I should do that or not, fearing a thermal shock that might crack the pot, but it worked excellent.
The bread itself is my staple one, with strong white, whole wheat and rye flour, soaked wheat berries and flax seeds, roasted sesame seeds, sunflower kernels and coarsely ground buckwheat, fermented overnight.
Beautiful bread. I would love that recipe. I agree with you about the clay pot. Any stoneware also works similarly. I have never used ground buckwheat. Interesting…
56% strong white flour
33% whole wheat flour
11% rye flour
61% water
11% starter (½ whole wheat / ½ rye; 100% hydration; fed approx. 8 hours before adding to the dough)
1,8% salt
22% wheat berries (broken, soaked)
7% linseed (soaked)
10% sunflower kernels (roasted)
7% buckwheat grits (roasted)
7% sesame seeds (roasted)
The recipe is only part of the story of course, so here´s my method as well:
Autolyse 4 to 5 hours
Fermentolyse 1 to 1½ hours
Adding salt and other ingredients (soaked linseed and wheat berries are drained but still wet, so this is where you see an increase of the hydration). I literally squeeze the filling into the dough, breaking the initial gluten formation.
Bulk rise 4 to 5 hours (stretching and folding every hour with wet hands; hydration increases further and ringing the dough under tension inside the bowl every time)
When the dough is roughly doubled in size, fluffy and has a satin shine I put it in the fridge for overnight fermentation
After approx 10 hours I degas and stretch the dough and shape it on a slightly wet stone bench and put it in a basket for 1½ to 2 hours for a final rise.
The rest is in the original post.
If I had to guess, my final hydration is around 72/75%
Yeah, autolyse is the period after water and flour(s) have been mixed; fermentolyse (french) is the period after adding the starter and the actual fermentation starts (so no salt added yet at this stage).
Ah yes. I just never heard the name before. That looks like cracked uncooked buckwheat. I will have to search a bit. Mine is whole roasted buckwheat. Thank you very much. Looks so darn good.
I just wanted to respond to that quote. I must say, with temperatures in the Northeast over 90F and with massive humidity, I have put my bread baking on hiatus for this hot summer. Indeed, my wife has forbid me to turn on the oven, never mind go to 500F. But I did relent a few weeks ago, and went with the Forkish Sourdough Brown, and it was a challenge.
I did the Autolyse in the morning, then stretch and fold a few times, and left in the Cambro. Usually I leave until 9pm, divide and baton and then in the fridge overnight. But I came back from playing golf, and there was a family injury, so I had to head to the emergency room. When I came back, at just 6:30pm, the Cambro was like the blob, with the dough out of control and overproofing half way up the side.
I punched her down, folded and then into the batons and then into the fridge. Luckily, the next day, the loaves came out great. I think the key at this time of year is leaning heavily on the refrigerator and retarding overnight. Here the batons went in for 13 or so hours.
One other thing, lately I have been using parchment paper to do the “death defying drop” into the cast iron pan. Turn over the baton, release the dough onto the parchment, lame, and lift easily into the scorching pot. I remove the paper at the 15 minute point uncovering of the pan, to add some char, and find no difference whatsoever in the quality. And its safer. So no more sloppy drops for me.
Thanks!
(Y)