Over the weekend I got another batch of sourdough going. This particular make-it-up-as-you-go recipe included rye, whole wheat and unbleached flours, and potato flakes. I started what I call the sourdough sponge on Friday afternoon, and took the bread out of the oven Monday afternoon.
Most of the three days the sponge sat in a bowl on my kitchen table getting more and more sour. It was essentially a big batch of starter itself by Monday. After I added the last ingredients it took a few hours for the final proofing, shaping, and baking.
I watched a couple of videos of how to shape “high hydration dough.” Before its final rising you don’t want to add flour if you can help it, because that will spoil the lovely “custard” crumb you are aiming for. It’s a challenge to keep the fairly runny dough from just flattening out on the baking sheet. I liked the YouTube videos “Bake with Jack,” because Jack’s attitude and accent are entertaining; he does talk a little too much about the Why but eventually he gets to demonstrating the How, which is, after all, what I watch a video for. As in “How to stop your dough from spreading out flat!”
Another baker man on YouTube — they seem to be 80% men — poured his white and incredibly wet, stretchy dough out on a board and used a wide putty knife to cut it and and scoop it around, tucking the sides under in a series of rotating sweeps to get the lump shaped into a beautiful ball (boule) with a tight “skin.”
I went into the garage to dig around and found an almost identical putty knife, and it was even stainless steel, so I scrubbed it up and tried it out, but it seemed that the structure of my dough was heavy with ingredients low or lacking in gluten. It would not tighten up. I put the half I had tried to shape on a pizza stone anyway, and poured the rest into a large loaf pan. It was a total of about five pounds of dough.
How pleased I was to see that the free-form loaf got some height soon after it went into the oven at 450°. It must have held more tension than was obvious. My slashes in the top were so timid and shallow as to nearly disappear in baking, but that loaf has a nice shape and didn’t crack along the sides.
The pan loaf, on the other hand, had needed me to use the razor blade with a fearless will. Next time I will try to envision one of the Three Musketeers with his sword, and be brave. Swoosh! But right now, I have a loaf with a horizontal fault line along which the slices break, not quite halfway down. This makes the bread annoyingly inconvenient for toast or sandwiches. Enter the Brick Trick.
The section on “How to Slice a Brick” in Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book is written for those times when your loaf of bread for some reason does not get height, yet you want to get more useful and normal-looking slices out of it. I thought this technique would work for at least the bottom half of my loaf, so I wrapped it in foil overnight to allow the crust to soften a bit, and in the morning I went at it.
I didn’t know what would happen when I got to the upper part of the loaf, but I was able to slice along the “fault line” so that I ended up with 10 large square slices with only two crusty edges each, and five “heel” slices, two of which started out as the bottom of the loaf, and two of which are from the top. (Plus the heel I ate fresh from the oven.) I can see eating all those crusty edges myself, as well, so it looks like there will not be more than a few crumbs wasted. 🙂
I ate one of the thick Super Heels this morning, and I’d say I’ve never tasted better toast. Yesterday I had been feeling silly for giving “so much” effort to my Sourdough Project, even though the time commitment is not that great; bread spends a lot of time on its own in and out of the oven, giving the baker plenty of freedom to work on other tasks. This whole episode has only made me want to keep experimenting and having fun in the kitchen. Not to mention I need more opportunity to work on my sword skills!
Gladsome Lights 
Ah, you would be a very cute musketeer…I will start looking for a feather for your cap!
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it makes me happy to see you baking bread! it can be so healing to bake bread! 🙂
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I enjoyed this post immensely!! Your bread looks wonderful!
I will have to remember that trick of slicing the bread next time I get a “fault line”.
I watched Jack’s interesting video then got caught up watching a few more…. you know how that goes.
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Looks wonderful! Someday, when I have more counter space, I’d love to get back into bread baking. Eat some toast for me! 🙂
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Good luck! I love making bread, although am trying to eat less carbs. That’s why I haven’t tried sourdough, because I think that works better when you’re baking bread regularly.
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I’ve given up on the sourdough bread especially since we don’t eat as much bread as we used to, but I do love this easy “artisan style” bread from Jenny. Her videos are SO helpful.
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Thank you, Jody! That was fun 🙂
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I thought I was just leaving a link to the bread video, but I guess it’s on your blog. Sorry to hijack your blog post, Gretchen.
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No need to apologize – I never mind if people include links in their comments! I moderate all the comments so I could always leave out anything like that if I did mind! ❤
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My husband built a bread oven (looks like a brick igloo) in our backyard, we use it mostly for pizza and foccacia. It’s interesting to me how many women bake, but men take certain things in their care. Rob makes his own yeasty dough, lets it rise in the fridge. I think the heat is harder to control & get a nice even bake in the woodfired outdoor oven. You were very careful in cutting your loaf into useful slices…good job!
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What a delight to read about your sourdough bread adventures! Your bread is a beautiful sight. I have yet to be brave enough to try making bread from my starter…I’ve only made sourdough waffles and pancakes. But you inspire me!
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Mmmm I can almost smell it!
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What lovely sourdough. I would love to begin making it. I bet it was good toast. I think its just that time of year. It is just cozy.
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I loved your Muskateer references! You would be a good one, I am sure! Your bread looks marvellous despite the slight tin disaster- you cut those slices so well. I am so pleased it tasted good- it’s nice to spend time on something like this!
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That’s a great trick! I’ll try it on my next loaf. I put so many grains in my last loaf that it was a bit hard to digest (ahem). Oh well. It was delicious. Yours looks great. Sourdough is my favorite.
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Your bread looks lovely, I imagine it smells so delicious as it’s baking. I borrowed a book from my local library today and it has some lovely baking recipes in it. I want to try the recipe for soured wholegrain pizza bases. They can be frozen too. Meg:)
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I should try making this bread.
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When I was growing up the heels of Mama’s bread were always mine by my right as first born. I don’t bake bread much anymore, but your bread always makes me want to again. I’m not a student of the art like you are but my mother was, always checking bread books out of the library. Whenever she’d fly up to visit us after she and my father moved to Florida, she would bring a Tupperware container of her sourdough starter to me. She knew I would probably have let mine die.
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That’s a lot of bread!! It looks wonderful. Adam also has a very, very moist dough/loaf he makes. He just about pours it into the blistering hot cast iron dutch oven. It turns out lovely, with the best crust!
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