Loaf #8

This was an experiment.

I took a spoonful of my rye-based sourdough culture and mixed it with 800 grams of water. I mixed in 400 grams of soy flour and a gram of salt, and let the mixture ferment for 15 hours. Then I mixed in 200 grams of bread flour and kneaded in another 200 grams. I let the dough ferment for eight hours and then moved it into a pan. I let the dough proof for four hours, and then baked it in 120 °C for nine hours with a panful of water in the oven. I heated the oven to 150 °C ten minutes before taking the loaf out. Crumb temperature was 95 °C immediately after removal from oven.

Loaf #7

Today's first dough is a rye bread, made into two pan loaves as seen in the picture. The recpie is similar to what I have described earlier on this blog:

I took most of my rye-based sourdough culture (about 200 grams, with 150 % hydration), which had grown for about half a day in room temperature since being taken out of the fridge, where it had been put just after feeding. I added 900 grams of water and a gram of salt. I whisked it well, and added 400 grams of traditionally threshed (smoked) rye flour, and whisked again. This pre-ferment I let sit in room temperature for about twelve hours. Then I added about 500 grams of rye flour, and mixed well; this batter I let ferment in room temperature. After about one and a half hours the batter had doubled its size (surprisingly fast, that), and I poured the batter in oiled pans. I let the larger loaf proof for three hours and the smaller four hours. I baked both (separately) in 150 °C for about 60 minutes with a water pan in the oven. The crumb temperature after removal from oven was 91 °C for both loaves.

Loaf #6

Loaf #6 is also two loaves from a single dough. This one is based on the rye bread recipe of Loaf #4, only I started with a culture with 100 grams of rye and 150 grams of water, added 100 grams of rye flour and water after about 12 hours out of the fridge (and after taking a spoonful to start the other dough), and finally added 800 grams of rye flour and 900 grams of water, and a couple of grams salt (removed a seed for the next culture before this). Yes, this was more a thick batter than a dough, with a hydration of 115 %. Final fermentation time was about six hours, and proofing (in the pan) took about eight hours. I baked the loaves in 200 °C for about an hour, then lowered the temperature to 150 °C for a while and raised it back to 200 °C. After two hours, the loaves still had a low crumb temperature (about 70 °C) so I turned the oven off and let it cool with the loaves in. There was a water pan in the oven all the time.

Loaf #5

Okay, so today's first loaf is actually two loaves, but it's made of a single batch of dough, made according to the Loaf #3 recipe. I didn't want to fill a pan too full, so I used two pans. Fermentation time was 13 hours and proofing time (in the pans) 6 hours. No oil was used this time. Baking took about an hour in 200 °C with a water pan in the oven; crumb temperature was about 90 °C when the pans were removed from the oven.

ETA: Lovely texture!

Loaf #4

Today's second loaf was a variant of Loaf #2. This time the process was a bit different: I let my sourdough culture sit, after removal from the fridge, for about 18 hours, at which point I removed a small bit to use in the dough for Loaf #3, and then merely doubled the culture's mass by adding water and flour. Again, I let it sit for about 18 hours, and again about doubled its size by adding water and flour (after removing a small bit for use as a seed for a new culture that went in the fridge), and also some salt. I let this dough to ferment for about two hours, then transferred it to a pan where I let it proof for about an hour. I baked it in 200 °C with a pan full of water in the same oven for about an hour; crumb temperature after removal was about 90 °C.

Texture and taste report will be added later.

ETA Crumb looks very nice with unexpectedly large holes. Taste is as one expects from sour pure rye bread.

Loaf #3

Today's first loaf was a variant of Loaf #1. Fermentation time was about 12 hours and proof time in the (transparent) pan was about 6 hours; I forgot to add oil in the dough, but again used it liberally in the pan. I have been thus far unable to remove the loaf from the pan without breaking it.

As usual, taste and texture report will be added later.

A day in a culture's life

This sourdough culture has just been removed from the fridge where it had been placed on Sunday evening just after feeding.


This is how the culture looked like after 14 hours in the room temperature.