) is crust, sauce, an uninterrupted layer of thin pepperoni, cheese, parmesan, crushed raw garlic.
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That looks pretty darn good! I find that a moister dough will produce a more open crumb, my doughs are typically a bit on the hard to handle side.
I want to move towards a wetter dough, but I've found one thing with working with this culture is that if the acidity is too high it will totally annihilate the gluten structure and the dough will turn to sludge, and with dough that is already wet and looser I'm wondering how that will work out as far as getting the loaf to keep it's shape. It will take practice I'm sure, but I'm definitely open to any suggestions.ChefRex said:That looks pretty darn good! I find that a moister dough will produce a more open crumb, my doughs are typically a bit on the hard to handle side. Hopefully I will have pizza tomorrow and sadly you guys will only have pictures
That looks pretty darn good! I find that a moister dough will produce a more open crumb, my doughs are typically a bit on the hard to handle side.
Hopefully I will have pizza tomorrow and sadly you guys will only have pictures
I think this is where beer making knowledge lends a hand. The culture is sort of like a sour beer. Upon discarding most of the starter and feeding, the yeast will take off first, creating a mild, sweet and yeasty starter. Then as you let it ripen, the bacteria, probably mainly lactobacillus, will start to ferment the more complex elements of the flour and have more of a presence in the starter. So to have a nice sour loaf, I would let that mainly occur in the starter and then add the sour starter to the dough. I don't feel that long cold ******* are beneficial for sourdough, because of the effect the acids have on the dough. Now, I know very little on this subject, but I did have one very qualifying experience lol... I made some dough that by my experience should have baked a perfect loaf. I let the sponge do a 2 day ferment and it got sour as hell. I then mixed in the proper amount of flour to achieve a medium to well hydrated loaf. It looked fine in the proofing basket. And then when I dropped it out onto the stone - this. The lactobacillus had totally destroyed the gluten structure. Which made sense to me after, because in my pie crusts I add a tablespoon of cider vinegar to achieve this affect - it makes the flakiest and most tender crust ever, based on the same principles. This loaf would not do well in the state fairmccumath said:
That is a sad lookin loaf!I think this is where beer making knowledge lends a hand. The culture is sort of like a sour beer. Upon discarding most of the starter and feeding, the yeast will take off first, creating a mild, sweet and yeasty starter. Then as you let it ripen, the bacteria, probably mainly lactobacillus, will start to ferment the more complex elements of the flour and have more of a presence in the starter. So to have a nice sour loaf, I would let that mainly occur in the starter and then add the sour starter to the dough. I don't feel that long cold ******* are beneficial for sourdough, because of the effect the acids have on the dough. Now, I know very little on this subject, but I did have one very qualifying experience lol... I made some dough that by my experience should have baked a perfect loaf. I let the sponge do a 2 day ferment and it got sour as hell. I then mixed in the proper amount of flour to achieve a medium to well hydrated loaf. It looked fine in the proofing basket. And then when I dropped it out onto the stone - this. The lactobacillus had totally destroyed the gluten structure. Which made sense to me after, because in my pie crusts I add a tablespoon of cider vinegar to achieve this affect - it makes the flakiest and most tender crust ever, based on the same principles. This loaf would not do well in the state fair
There is a stone lol... It had to be pried out after baking. I actually loved the whole experience because I learn a ton from things like this, and from a humor stand point it was hilarious. It was amazing to see how the structure of the bread had been compromised, but it made total sense. Especially thinking about how the structure of the starter changes - upon feeding, mine is like thick pancake batter. Then is puffs up and hits almost bread dough like consistency. Then after a few days, it is like heavy whipping cream; just a thick soup. I guess this bread had headed down the soup road.ChefRex said:That is a sad lookin loaf!
I realized I didn't answer your questions. About the salt, yes, I add salt just after I've added in my initial flour. It's important to regulate the metabolism of the wild stuff because it seems that it is more likely that it will gobble all the food up and then leave itself tired and lifeless when it's game time. I think adding the flour in two stages helps with that too, because it will have new fresh food for the second rise. I did a long cold-ish rise with the bread-fail loaf but there was too much else going on to say that the cold ferment did it. This last loaf I let the sponge go for about 3 hours, then I added the rest of the flour and let it rise shaped for 2 hours and then baked it. One huge advantage of using the starter is that you can get all the complexity of a long ferment in a much shorter time. But again, I am no where near qualified to be giving advice as you can now seemccumath said:
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