Home Bread-Bakers v097.n049.8
[Advanced]

Sourdough Question

ilenewar@starnetinc.com
Sun, 27 Jul 1997 23:41:09 -0500
v097.n049.8
Hi Everybody,

I have recently discovered that I *like* sourdough bread (at least in 
some of its incarnations) - don't know why I thought I didn't. Like 
Heidi Wittenberg, I would be interested in seeing recipes that are a 
little less sour than, say, a San Francisco style. But, anyway, here 
is my question. I have a starter going, and it seems to be coming 
along nicely. It is very young at this point, but is healthy and 
developing a nice tang.Have baked a couple of loaves - a couple of 
loaves of sandwich sourdough in the ABM and a couple of batches 
French-style sourdough baguettes (some with and some without 
additional yeast) in the oven. They have all turned out with good 
flavor and good crumb, vacuoles etc.  But the crusts seem to be 
lacking something. *All* the loaves have come out with a really 
*really* pale crust. Is that normal?  I don't think so; that isn't how 
they look at the bakery! Also, the baguettes that I baked in the oven 
had rather doughy chewy crusts. This happened in a recipe that 
included yeast as well as one that used sourdough starter as the 
exclusive leaven. I can't seem to figure out how to get them to crisp 
up more. I had a pan of hot water in the bottom of the oven, and 
sprayed too the way I do to get a crispy crusted regular baguette. So 
? any advise?

TIA,

Ilene Warfield
ilenewar@starnetinc.com