Jim Shaw (jshaw@serion.co.nz) wrote
>I have made sough dough bread using Peter Reinhart's recipes as a
>basis for about 4 years now - mostly on a weekly basis. Recently I
>have been having a lot better success and there are two possible
>reason I think - probably both are significant. (Note I have adapted
>the recipes based on other books and web postings I have read so
>there are other variables too but these are the most significant.
>
>1. I now feed my starter much better than I used to and ensure it is
>really lively before using it.
That is probably the biggest factor. I get more emails from people
viewing my www.sourdoughhome.com web page because they don't feed
their starter enough. Too many people take their starter out of the
fridge and start making bread. Which is a lot like someone waking
you up at 2:00 AM and insisting you run the 100 yard (or meter) dash.
The mantra I use, which is probably more illustrative than literal,
is "if your starter can't double itself after a feeding, it can't
double your bread either."
I usually take my starter out of the fridge about 3 to 5 days before
I plan on baking and start feeding it to insure it is vibrantly alive
before I start to bake.
>2. I now keep the dough warmer during rising - I don't think 67F is
>warm enough - maybe 75F would be better. It being summer here in NZ
>right now helps a lot and bread tends to rise too rapidly.
Actually, most professional bakers shoot for a dough temperature of
78F. And to get there, they use the "rule of 240." The rule of 240
is something like this, "subtract the temperature of your flour, the
room temperature, and the dough temperature rise while kneading from
240. The result is the temperature if the water you should use to mix
your dough."
The dough temperature rise while kneading is due to the energy
applied to the dough during kneading. If you knead by hand or do
stretch and folds in lieu of kneading, the warm up is usually
negligible. However, if you are using a mixer, especially with whole
grain doughs, there is a very real temperature rise. Use a chef's
thermometer to measure your dough temperature as the dough first
comes together, and then again at the end of the kneading. The
difference is the temperature rise. I have seen a temperature loss
when I had a very cold bakery and a very cold stainless steel mixing
bowl. In that case, you still need to use the temperature gain... of
say, -10 F.
So, if your room is at 85F, your flour is at 80F (though more
commonly the room and the flour are at the same temperature) and you
have a 15 degree temperature rise in kneading, you'd calculate
240-80-85-15, or 60F water. In colder bakeries, you'd use warmer
water; in warmer bakeries you'd use colder water. In some cases,
I've used ice water to get the temperature where I needed it to be.
>What I am doing now is starting with 100gm of poolish I double it a
>couple of days after the last use (from the fridge) and leave it in the fridge.
Poolish? I thought you were using sourdough? Poolish is a technique
for using minimal yeast to make breads. A very different technique
from sourdough After bakers yeast became available in the mid to
late 1800's (depending on where in the world you are), bakers quickly
adopted it. It meant no more feeding starters, and promised a higher
degree of consistency to careless bakers. However, bakers soon
realized there were two problems with bakers yeast. Bakers are very
frugal and they didn't like paying the yeast companies every time
they made bread. Sourdough starter was essentially free since all the
flour and water that went into the starter later went into
bread. Also, yeasted breads didn't have as much taste as sourdough
breads, which bothered customers. The Italians developed the Biga,
and the Polish developed Poolish. The Austrians learned it from the
Polish, and the French learned it from the Austrians. (Some claim
the French called it "Poolish" because they didn't like to credit the
Polish with anything.)
When I make my Poolish based breads, I make a Poolish 12 hours before
I start final dough preparation. Here's a poolish recipe based on
"The Bread of Three Rivers" which I call "Gunnison River Bread," to
show you how a poolish works. This recipe will make ten 1.5lb loaves of bread.
12 hours before you intend to bake, prepare a poolish by mixing:
1440 grams water
1440 grams bread (strong) flour
1.2 grams instant dry yeast
Allow to stand 12 hours. The poolish should rise to a peak and just
begin to fall at that point. The poolish should be light in texture
and should have at least doubled.
When you are ready to make the bread, mix together:
1580 grams water
the poolish from above
3360 grams flour
9.6 grams of salt and
1.1 grams of yeast.
Knead until developed. Allow to rise until doubled. Gently deflate,
form into 770 gram loaves, allow to rise, then bake at 375F until
done, usually about 35 to 45 minutes.
This has been tailored for a high altitude, 7,700 feet above sea
level. You may need to increase the riser and hydration slightly. To
put this in perspective, this is about 2/3 of a packet of yeast. It
makes 10 loaves of bread. Normally a packet is used to make 1 loaf
of bread. The bread has a wonderful flavor, and even people who tell
me, "I don't like WHITE bread" like this one.
Sadly, Reinhart has been a bit loose with some baking terminology,
and has commented that he wished he hadn't used some words the way he
did in his earlier books.
Mike
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