Playing with sourdough Hearth Bread and Flatbread Discuss Playing with sourdough in the Brick Oven Cooking forums; Here is the crust and the crumb. It came out pretty well, so I'm feeling a little better about my ...

[james]

Here is the crust and the crumb. It came out pretty well, so I'm feeling a little better about my sourdough. Lot's to keep learning.

Sourdough is so nice, because the crust has serious crunch and crackle, and the crumb has nice holes and it's moist and chewy. We'll see how sour the taste is with dinner.

James

[Frances]

Wow, those are way springier that mine! How did they taste? They look really yummy. And I love that star shaped slash pattern.

Well, it certainly looks as if I need to try some new recipes...

[chuckster]

Speaking of "slash patterns" I have two questions.

How deep am I susposed to cut into the loafs?

And, do you slash it when you form the loaves or just before baking, so the oven spring pulls it apart? I can't seem to get those ridges and peaks that crust up so tastey.

[Dutchoven]

Originally Posted by chuckster

Speaking of "slash patterns" I have two questions.

How deep am I susposed to cut into the loafs?

And, do you slash it when you form the loaves or just before baking, so the oven spring pulls it apart? I can't seem to get those ridges and peaks that crust up so tastey.

Chuckster
We generally look for about 3/8ths of and inch deep but in truth you can go shallower or deeper depending on your taste...too deep is bad though as your loaf will likely fall...angle your blade a bit when you make the cut...makes for a nicer "grigne"...the ridge that you are looking for...and they defininitely get slashed just before baking
Have fun!
Dutch

[james]

Hi Chuckster,

You score right before you put the finished loaf in the oven.

This is from Hamelman -- "Incisions with the straight blade are generally slightly deeper than those made with the curved blade, to encourage maximum expansion in the oven, and because the baker is not attempting to develop the kind of 'ear' associated with baguettes. Again, strive for symmetry, evenness of line length and depth, and a balanced pattern that not only is pleasing to the eye, but that also encourages good dough expansion."

Earlier, in baguette slashing, "To score baguettes so that they have pleasing 'ears,' only a thin flap is opened with the blade. If the blade cuts too deeply, the tendency is for the sheer weight of the cut to simply collapse back onto the loaf, resulting in little or no opening of the cuts."

And later on scoring an oval loaf from end-to-end, "the cut should be straight, and, as in scoring a baguette, only a slight piercing of the surface skill is necessary."

Hope these help. I just keep reading and experimenting.
James

[james]

Originally Posted by Frances

Wow, those are way springier that mine! How did they taste? They look really yummy. And I love that star shaped slash pattern.

Frances,
We ate the star loaf last night with a slow cooked beef stew -- it all felt very authentic -- and our 10 year old (bless her), said, "Dad, this tastes just like that bakery in Paris."

I'm not making this up. That's pretty cool. My multi-grain sourdough is proofing now. I gave it a 12-hour build, and mixed the dough last night. It had 12 hours in the kitchen (pretty cold) overnight and it has a lot of lift. The build seems to have worked.

Fun, fun.
James

[rlf5]

They look great!

Yea, try to cut the proofing time down so you don't go over. The good thing about proofing in the refrigerator is that its hard to go over. That way you can leave the loaves in there until the oven gets to the correct temperature.