I have been experimenting with low hydration, extremely aged motherdough in the 40% and 60% hydration range. This post is about the 40% motherdough or seed dough as I often call it.
Posts tagged bread baking
There is a new addition to my Magnificent Sourdough page. Baker Judd Friedman’s bread, Pain de Campagne is showcased.
Those of you who like to bake without thinking about what’s behind it… might want to skip this post….
This is a follow up experiment to the post Experiments with Autolyse #1 (length of autolyse)
To autolyse means to give your dough a rest period after mixing and before adding the salt to the dough. Professor Raymond Calvel pioneered this dough development stage which helped produce superior bread. When the flour and water are combined, the gluten strands are hydrated and begin to bond. Enzymes are activated and they begin their work on the dough. One of the enzymes called Protease when activated, starts to break down or digest the gluten strands. You might think this would ruin your gluten network that you are trying to build up, but used properly on the right kind of dough using the right flour, you can direct the outcome of the bread in different ways.
Visiting with some of my family:
My niece, Dominica with her daughter, Mattie and their new puppy
I have been busy and haven’t posted or baked much lately. However I always seem to be thinking about sourdough anyway. While visiting family in California, I came upon some “California Sourdough” baked in the Midwest and shipped to the coast. I think it should have read, “Midwest Sourdough.” I decided to pass on it. I would like to find more local Artisan sourdough style breads to review.
No, not 70 years old! 70% hydration! I baked up some motherdough bread today. Bread made with motherdough is out of this world delicious. The flavor of the wheat is brought out to it’s fullest. The smell is heavenly. The crumb is soft and somewhat custardy moist and tender. This is really good bread.
Yea, I am at it again. I found out that adding more diastatic malt to this kind of dough is a good thing. The salt can initially make the this kind of dough somewhat tough, the crust too thick and crunchy. It can be difficult to obtain a good color to the crust.
