Introduction and my first sourdough.

breadgeek

Greetings one and all!

My name is Josh and even though I've been a member of this community for a little while this is my first time posting anything I've made before.

 Following the excellent tutorial from this site on how to make a starter, I was able to start and maintain a 100% hydration starter for the past couple weeks. Earlier this week my starter was starting to double in volume within 12 hours so I thought it was time to see what I can make with it.

 For my first sourdough attempt I made a whole wheat "no-knead" sourdough with the recipe I found over at Breadtopia. I followed the recipe for the most part except I added two cycles of 30 second kneading for the first hour of bulk fermentation ( the majority of no knead bread I've made always came out somewhat bloblish looking and I thought the kneading would help with the overall structure of the final loaf).

After a 15 hour bulk fermentation at room temp I shaped fermented dough and placed in a floured proofing basket for its final rise. About 1 1/2 hours into the final rise I preheated my La Cloche to 500°F for a half hour. The dough was turned out onto a peel and slashed (my slashing stills needs a little work :) ) and baked for 30 minutes with the lid on, then removed the lid and turned down the temp to 450°F  and let the bread bake for another 15 minutes.

 Overall I am very pleased with the results of my first sourdough. The color of the crust is fantastic and has a nice crunch to it. The crumb is pretty tender but a little compact in the middle, I think it was a little to rough with the final shaping. The bread itself had a mild sour flavor that the family enjoyed quite nicely :). 

I am making a second loaf tonight and will bake it off tomorrow for my father-in-law. I am tweaking the procedures a little bit for the second loaf and hopefully it will produce an even better loaf!

 

 

 

 

 

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