Vermont Sourdough bread

February 4, 2018

Sometimes it feels like I’ve had enough of baking. It does however look like baking has not had enough of me. I got back to Master Hamelman.

Czasami mam już dość pieczenia. Wygląda jednak, że pieczenie nie ma dość mnie. Powróciłem do Mistrza Hamelmana.

I’ve been struggling with it for quite a while. Long working hours, little time with family. And the oven. Our oven broke down and the new one is much worse than the previous one. I thought it wasn’t possible to bake a nice bread in it. Until last weekend.

Gosia got a baking glass dish with a lid and I decided to put it to test as quickly as possible. For the recipe I chose Hamelman’s Vermont sourdough with wholewheat flour (sources).

Vermont sourdough with wholemeal flour

I keep a white wheat flour starter on my worktop all the time, so I used it as a base for the levain. I also used a mixer to make the dough and after that it was all by hand (till baking).

I did bake a basic version of this loaf before the blog era, in the good old days when a recipe requiring more than 10 minutes attention before baking was insane and extremely difficult to make.

Planning

I made the starter around midnight, then mixed the dough for autolyse (or fermentolyse) at 2:00 p.m., mixing at 3:00 p.m., one fold at 4:10 p.m., shaping at 5:30 p.m., setting the oven with the dish in at 7:30 p.m. and baking at 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. The loaf that had to wait more went into the fridge for the baking time.

I used a glass baking dish, a mixer, a banneton, a lame for the cuts, a couple bowls, a scale. Out of all of that you really really need a scale and a couple bowls. And a baking dish if your oven is my oven’s twin brother.

Vermont sourdough with wholewheat flour

Ingredients

Makes two loaves 700 g each.

Levain

140 g strong white wheat flour
170 g water
30 g sourdough starter, ripe

You will have a bit of it left as the recipe assumes you will reuse it for the next levain.

Final dough

300 g levain
680 g strong white wheat flour
90 g wholemeal wheat flour
420 g water
20 g salt
Vermont sourdough with wholewheat flour before proofing

Preparation

Mix the levain ingredients together and leave in about 21C for 12-16 hours
Place all ingredients except salt in a bowl and mix them just until a shaggy dough gets formed. Leave it for 20-60 minutes for autolyse (or fermentolyse as some call it when you add the levain at this point)
Add salt and mix for 2 minutes
Leave to rise for 2.5 hours. I did one stretch and fold after first 70 minutes of that time
Form the loaves. I made batards. Put them into proofing baskets, cloth or whatever you use.
I usually don’t degas too well and shaping is not my grates strength. This time I flattened the dough significantly, made a bread trifold. Next I let it rest for 5-10 minutes, flattened again, made another trifold, rotated by 90 degrees, then another flattening, a trifold and rolling into a batard shape
Leave them for 2-2.5 hours to rise. The bread will be ready if it passes the test: stick your finger in the dough, just push it in by 1-1.5 cm. If the dough returns slowly, it’s ready. If quickly, it’s too early. If it doesn’t, it’s too late, do not score the loaf before baking
30 minutes before baking put the baking dish into the oven and start heating it up to 250C (you will lower the temperature to 240C after putting the bread in). I used a fan assisted baking. Know your oven
I prepared a square sheet of baking paper, took the bread out of the banneton and lined it diagonally, then scored it, took the dish out of the oven, placed the bread in, sprayed water on the cover, covered and popped back into the oven
Bake for 40-45 minutes in 240C
Vermont sourdough with wholemeal flour, the crumb

I was very pleased to see that the dish works. It doesn’t hold the steam very well, so I might need to think of some trick to get more steam inside.

The bread opened nicely inside and baked evenly. The crust formed a bit too quickly and then cracked a bit uncontrollably. Perhaps I should use a lower temperature.