Age
11Years
Color
Country of origin United States
Taste
& Flavour
Mixture
39%
17%
43%
Liquid
Flour
Other
Ada #2
Since 2013
I always wanted to try baking and I thought sourdough would be a simple way to start since it's only four ingredients, unlike patisserie, pies, etc. Oops. When I was on paternity leave after my daughter was born, I had some time to create a starter and I've been baking sourdough ever since.
Characteristics
My starter tends to produce a loaf that has a light sourness up front, but one that lingers and continues to develop in the mouth. It's not sharp, but has quite a bit of hang time.
Taste & flavour
Recipe
Starting ingredients
- 65% Bob's red mill artisan bread flour
- 80% Crystal geyser mountain spring water
- 15% Kernza perennial grain
- 7.5% White sonora
- 7.5% Pima club
- 5% Rye
- 2.4% Salt
- 20% Ada #2
Feeding ingredients
1
Every morning I discard, keeping only what sticks to the inside of the jar. A typical feed is 100 g flour, 100 g water. I add the water first and stir vigorously to disperse all carryover, and I use the water to rinse down the inside of the jar. Add flour and mix. Use a wet hand to clean the rim and inside of the jar. Stow the jar in a Brod & Taylor Sourdough Home at 30°C / 86°F.
Working method
1
When I bake, I choose a mix of grains to mill and add to artisan bread flour. I mix the fraction of bread flour with cold water and let it hydrate while I mill the grain mix for that bread. The fraction of strong bread flour can be anywhere from 30% to 80% of the total flour mix, depending on what I'm making.
65% Bob's red mill artisan bread flour
80% Crystal geyser mountain spring water
2
I weigh out and mill the additional grains I'll be using for my flour mix.
15% Kernza perennial grain
7.5% White sonora
7.5% Pima club
5% Rye
3
I weigh out Morton's kosher salt into a mortar and pestle and grind super fine.
2.4% Salt
4
I combine the freshly milled grains, starter, and salt with the hydrated bread flour and hand mix.
20% Ada #2
5
I bulk ferment for 3‒4 hours, folding every half hour in an oiled tub.
6
I typically do two 1 kg batards or boules, so at this point I divide and preshape.
7
After 15‒30 minutes, I shape and place the shaped loaves into bannetons well dusted with rice flour (which I mill after the grains from white rice in order to clean out the mill). I place the bannetons in my refrigerator until bedtime, at which point I move them into my wine fridge 10°C / 50°F.
8
The next morning I place two Superstone cloches in my oven and preheat it on convection bake (slow fan speed and top and bottom elements) at 285°C / 550°F. I take the loaves out of the wine fridge to finish proofing on the counter.
9
When the oven is preheated, I turn the loaves out of the bannetons onto parchment paper, brush off any rice flour, and dust liberally with fresh rice flour. I score them and move them into the preheated cloches in the oven to bake covered for 28 minutes. After that, I uncover and remove the parchment, drop the oven temp to 75°C / 170°F and convection bake another ~5 min or until crust is done.
10
Remove the loaves to cool on a wire rack in front of an open window for ~3 hours or until completely cooled internally