Discovering Sourdough

I had a stellar baking day today. I mixed up a batch of sourdough  yesterday using the Northwest Starter. I mixed up:

•  2 cups starter at 166 % hydration (like thin pancake batter)
• 3 & 1/3 cups water
•  ten cups of flour
•  1/3 cup whole wheat flour
•  1/3 cup rye flour
• 2 Tablespoons oil
• 2 tablespoons of Kosher salt (put in less for regular salt, about 4 teaspoons)

Mix this up (add salt after autolyse) and let it autolyse for 20 minutes. Then on low, mix dough for about 3 minutes. Let the dough bulk ferment for 4 – 6 hours. Shape. Refrigerate overnight and bake the next morning after it warms up and finishes proofing. Slash, steam, bake as usual at a hot temperature. More specific directions for baking sourdough is on my website. Here are some pictures:

Closeups of the crust:

More pictures of the loaves of basic white:

Crumb:

It is sooooo much fun to bake sourdough.  Just persist until you get it. 

Yea, you can bake this kind of bread too, try it!