WoodenSpoon's blog

For the past few weeks I've been in my native homeland of New Hampshire visiting my folks. And  being in the north east in the early spring means maple sugar. Some of our family friends have a sugar shack and I went and visited and got some of the sap, One batch I made from full on raw maple sap, then the other batch was made with sap that had been run through their reverse osmosis machine. 

The full loaf in the title image is the one with plain sap 

• 620g BF 78%
• 40g WW 5%
• 40g Rye 5%
• 196g Levain (12%flour 12%water)
• 599g Sap 75%
• 16g Salt 2%

The Crumb shot is from Mel's reverse osmosis sap bread and also has some soaked rolled oats.

• 566g BF 80%
• 141g WW 20%
• 141g Levain 20%
• 566g Sap 80%
• 71g (dry weight) rolled oats 10% (really wring em out after soaking em if ya know whats good for ya)
• 15g Salt ~2% 

We did a one hour autolyse followed by some pretty minimal slapping and folding, the batch with oats took a little more working to get it to come together but it eventually did. Then as all the ingredients were cold we started the bulk ferment at room temp for an hour then retarded it for around 12 hours. Then we let it warm up at room temp for around an hour shaped and proofed until ready, some loaves were proofed in the oven with warm water, those took around three and a half hours and some were proofed on the counter, those took a bit longer.

If you have access to some maple sap I strongly suggest you try incorporating it into yer baking, because why the heck not!

• 527g BF 37%
• 385g AP 27%
• 200g Rye 14%
• 142g T85 10%
• 350g Levain (12% flour 12% water)
• 1022g Water 72%
• 28g Salt 2%

1 hr autolyse

2 min slap and fold

15 min rest

1 min slap and fold

3 hr bulk ferment with a set of stretch and folds every half hour for the first hour and a half

scale/preshape/shape 2+ hr proof

bake at 550 then 475

mmmmm

I'm midway through moving cross country and having a brief stop over at my folks house so I figured I may as well get the ole chef back in shape and make some bread for my family/old friends. it turns out I'd gotten pretty darn comfortable with the temperature of my old house so figuring out the right times to make a relatively big batch in one day was less predictable then I'd expected, I feel like they came out pretty ok non the less though. As always I'm a huge fan of low percentage rye sourdoughs, that smell is like not much else!

• 460g KABF 58%
• 120g KAAP 15%
• 80g Whole Rye 10%
• 40g T85 5%
• 196g levain (12% pre fermented flour 12% water)
• 581g water 73%
• 15g salt 2%

• 1hr autolyse
• 3min slap and fold
• 15min rest
• 2min slap and fold
• 1 set stretch and fold
• into the fridge until morning
• scale/preshape
• 15min rest
• shape
• 3 hr proof
• bake at 550 then 470 then 450

I up'd the preferment from my usual and oh nelly did it make a world of difference, both in taste and aroma. mmm

• 412g KABF 50%
• 247g KAAP 30%
• 91g T85 11%
• 150g levain (9% flour, 9% water)
• 394g water 48%
• 250g unsweetened coconut water 30%
• 50g coconut flakes, dry weight, I soaked em then wrung em out and saved the water 6%.
• 6g coco powder .75%
• 16g salt 2%

I gave this rascal a 1.5 hour autolyse then 3 minutes of slap and folds followed by a fifteen minute rest then another two minutes of slapping and folding followed by another rest and a set of stretch and folds. Then I fermented it at room temp for an additional three and a half hours. Then I shaped it and proofed it in the fridge for about fifteen hours. in the morning I took it from the fridge and allowed it to continue proofing for around an hour and a half then baked em, preheating the oven to 550 then turning it right down to 470 after steaming.

I kept my levain at room temp and used it a little young attempting to keep it on the sweeter side of things. All in all this is a super great smelling really good tasting loaf, mmmm

I was thinking about lemon poppyseed cake but wanted to bake bread so I came up with this. It is great! light and aromatic and pretty darn tasty.

• 462g bread flour 60%
• 238g all purpose flour 31%
• 140g 100% hydration levain (9% water 9% flour)
• 554g warm water 72%
• 46g poppy seeds 6%
• 2g lemon zest .3%
• 15g salt 2%

1 hr autolyse with everything but the salt,

1 min slap and fold 

incorporate salt and 6 min slap and fold

stretch and fold, let rest an hour then bulk ferment in the fridge for 19 hrs

3+ hour proof.

Today I baked off this fennel&date sourdough, 

To make the levain I mixed 10g 100% hydration chef with

                     20g whole rye

                     20g warm water and let it ferment for six or eight hours at room temp, then to that I added 50g whole rye and 50g cold water and fermented that at room temp for roughly 12 hours untill it was right on the verge of falling.

To make the final dough first I toasted some fennel seeds and chopped some fresh dates. Having done that I took

700g KABF (91%)

140g Rye Levain (9% water 9%rye)

546g water (71%)

116g chopped fresh dates (15%)

16g toasted fennel seeds (3ish%

15g salt. (2ish%)

autolyse 1hr

add salt

slap&fold 6min

rest 5min

slap&fold 3 or so min

rest 10 min

stretch&fold a few sets

bulk retard around 20 hrs with one set of stretch and folds about 5 hours in.

scale/shape

proof 3 hrs

bake. around 30 minutes each at incrementally decreasing temps starting at 550 and going to 450

This bread is so darn good, though I did cut it while it was still piping hot (amateur hour I know) and kinda smeared the otherwise a little bit better crumb.

This bread consists of

                                  445g KA BF, 54%

                                   99g Amaranth flour, 12%

                                   206g T85 wheat flour, 25%

                                   150g 100% hydration Levain (flour 9%, water 9%)

                                    66g barley, 8% (dry weight) then scalded/soaked

                                    626g water 75%

                                   16g salt 2%

This bread is great tasting, real earthy, kinda smells like wet hay, I attribute that to the amaranth, or maybe its the barley, maybe its both.

I recently got a bag of t85 flour and I had some whole rye from the same mill as as well. While not as open as I guess I would of loved, this bread is great. its dark and earthy and to be honest a nice change from most of what I have baked lately.

700g t85    85%

50g whole rye   6%

150g 100% levain   (75g flour 9%) (75g water 9%)

667g water   81%

16g salt   2%

Hey yall!, yesterday and today I made this sourdough with kalamata olives and rosemary.

The formula is as follows. 592g bread flour, 29g whole wheat flour, 29g whole rye flour, 452g warm water, 98g olive juice, 130g chef (100% hydration), 72g kalamata olives, 33g rosemary and 13g salt.

First I whisked together my flours and in a separate bowl I whisked together my chef and warm water. I poured my olive juice onto the flour then added the olives and rosemary then added the water/chef slurry. I did my best to pull it together with a bowl scraper then with a mixing spoon, mixing just until the flour was hydrated and then giving it an hour autolyse.

After the autolyse I gave it a stretch and fold, spread the salt on the counter and gave it six minuets of slap and folds each time slapping it on the salt so it grabbed a bit every time. after that I let it rest for three or five minutes then gave it three more minutes of slap and folding, another rest and another minute of slapping and folding. I then put it in a bowl with a cover and let it sit at room temp for an hour, during that hour I gave it three evenly spaced sets of stretch and folds. then I put it in the fridge overnight. an hour after I put it in the fridge I gave it one set of stretch and fold, then another a few hours later.

Today, I removed the dough from the fridge and let it warm for an hour or so at room temp. then I divided/pre-shaped /shaped and proofed it at room temp tented in a damp towel for right around three hours, I popped it onto the preheated stone in my 550 degree oven and splashed a bit of hot water on my preheated sheet pan. after a minute or so I added a bit more water and after another minute i turned the oven down to 470, I baked at 470 for fifteen minutes or so, then rotated the loaves and baked at 460 for maybe fifteen additional minutes then baked at 450 until the loaves were done.

Formula: 615g bread flour, 35g whole rye flour, 460g warm water, 110g chef (100% hydration), 141g coarse ground cornmeal (thats the dry weight), and 13g salt.

Yesterday afternoon I boiled some water and added it to the 141g cornmeal, I continued adding water until all the corn was hydrated, added just a touch more and let it sit for two hours. Next I weighed out my flours and whisked em together, weighed out my salt and set it aside, weighed out and combined my chef and warm water then added the water/chef mixture to the flour grits. I gently mixed with a bowl scraper then with a spoon and once the dough came together I let it autolyse covered in the bowl for an hour.

After the autolyse, I gave it a gentle set of slap and folds and let it rest, after 3 or 5 minutes I spread the salt out on the counter and gave the dough six minutes of slapping and folding on top of the salt so it pulled a little up at a time. After those six minutes I let it rest for 5 or so minutes and gave it anther 3 minute set of slap and folds. After another short rest I gave it another very short set of slap and folds (1 minute or so) a stretch and fold then put it in a clean bowl and let it ferment at room temp for an hour or so. During this room temp fermentation I gave the dough 3 sets of stretch and folds in the bowl, first after the 20 minutes and the second after forty and the third around the hour mark. then I covered the bowl and popped it in the fridge. An hour later I gave it another gentle stretch and fold then another a few hours later.

This morning I removed the dough from the fridge and let it sit at room temp for two or so hours, scaled/preshaped/shaped and proofed for around 3 hours,

Getting on baking time I preheated my oven, stone and sheet pan to 550. then I presteamed the oven with an ounce or so of hot water on the sheet pan, scored and slid the loaf in, gave it another small steam, about a minute later I gave it another small steam waited a minute and turned the oven down to 470. after around 10 minutes I turned it down to 460, after another ten or so I turned it to 450 for the remainder of the bake.

I am extremely happy with how this bread came out, Its got that overnight bulk ferment tang blended wonderfully with the sweetness of the corn and the barely perceptible (maybe placebo) earthiness of of the rye