Norwich Sourdough and a Year in Bread

It is time for a celebration! 

One year ago I started to write about my discovery of bread. And what a year it has been. 

As you all know by now; the result of baking bread shows more than a loaf of bread. It shows the amount of attention you have on that moment or if you were distracted. 

what a crust

Of course I started to learn about the technic of baking bread. How to pamper my starter to be happy, fluffy and bubbly. And how to maintain my starter when I wasn't using it. I also  discovered my starter is alive and has needs. 

I learned about mixing times, bakers formula, kneading, windowpane, sticky vs tacky dough, rising and proofing and how to get good oven spring and singing of bread. And don't forget the shaping of bread. Especially baguette!

But, during this year I learned a lot about keeping my attention with my dough and not being distracted by thoughts. Especially when I bake a bread I've baked before. 

It's as if I don't need to keep my attention with the recipe and then the result is always different. On those occasions the dough sticks to the banneton for no reason, or is sticky in stead of tacky, or there is no oven spring, or it looks like a pancake, or .... 

good looking

Why this Norwich Sourdough? Because I found this recipe (in honor of Jeffrey Hamelman) on Susan's blog WildYeast. She inspired me one year ago to work with sourdough starter and to try to bake beautiful and delicious breads. I'm still learning and there are a lot of great bakers to learn from. Every week I have a look at Susan's blog to see if she has baked something new and always I find something at YeastSpotting. 

2011

Ingredients:

450 g white flour
60 g whole rye flour
300 g water at about 25 C
180 g ripe 100% hydration sourdough starter
11.5 g salt
Method:
In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the flours, water, and starter on low speed until just combined, about one minute.
Let the dough rest (autolyse) for 30 minutes.
Add the salt and continue mixing on low or medium speed for 3 or 4 minutes. This depends on your machine.
Transfer the dough to an lightly oiled container. Ferment at room temperature (22-25 C) for 2.5 hours, with stretch and folds at 50 and 100 minutes.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter. Divide it into two 400g pieces. Pre-shape the dough into light balls. 


Sprinkle the balls lightly with flour, cover loosely with plastic, and let rest for 15 minutes.
Shape into batards and place seam-side-up in a floored banneton.
Slip the banneton into a large plastic bag or cover with plastic wrap and proof at room temperature for 2 – 2,5 hours. I proofed them for 1.5 hours at room temperature, then refrigerated for 2 – 16 hours. The next day I baked them directly out of the refrigerator.
Preheat the oven, with baking stone and steam apparatus, to 250C.
Turn the proofed loaves onto parchment. Slash each one with two overlapping cuts that are almost parallel to the long axis of the batard.


Once the loaves are in the oven, turn the heat down to 230 C. Bake for 12 minutes with steam, and another 15 – 18 minutes without steam.

1 year ago

Leave the oven door cracked open a bit for the last 5 minutes of this time. The crust should be a deep brown. 
Then turn off the oven and leave the loaves in for 5 minutes longer, with the door ajar, to help them dry. Larger loaves will need to be baked longer.


Cool on a wire rack.



I found this on Wild Yeast 

I send this to YeastSpotting. This weeks host is Frankie of Tartine Bread Experience

I also send this to Bake Your Own Bread