A Hit and Run Spiked 5W Sourdough Loaf

 As usual, my starter which sometimes goes by the nom de levain Nelson, is taking its duties with a wintertime casual attitude. In order to get my loaves finished in a reasonable amount of time, I resort to spiking the dough with a 1/4 tsp of either ADY or IDY. I just don't bake often enough to ever presume or pretend that I'm a purist kind of home baker. My most recent loaf was done with another venial sin, an oversized portion of starter. It could've been worse, ending up as food for the squirrels that have been enjoying the bounty of bird seed that I provide for our feathered friends.

 

The wrinkle in the latest two stage starter build was to add some wheat bran just because I wanted to do so. No harm done at all.

Starter

Stage one

15 g starter

30 g water

25 g KAF AP

5 g wheat bran

Stage two

50 g water

50 g KAF AP

Main Dough

I have a practice of starting with adding the starter, all of my water, and about 100 g of the flour, along with the dry yeast to mix and then soak for about 20-30 minutes. I think it might make mixing the rest of the ingredients somewhat easier. It's a no harm, no foul thing that I do.

30 g locally grown and milled whole wheat flour

30 g KAF WWW flour

40 g KAF bread flour

190 g water at 84F

170 g starter

In order to keep my work area clear of obstacles, I scale the remaining flour and blanket the first mix. I put my salt on top of that to prevent absent mindedness from ruining a good loaf. Dish washing ensues.

200 g KAF bread flour

8 g kosher salt

After the initial soak, I do a rough mix to incorporate the rest of my ingredients. After another twenty minutes of rest, a series of three or four stretch and folds at 25-30 minute intervals begin.  45-60 minute intervals are doable as well if you want. I just like to run errands or go to the gym during the remainder of the bulk ferment which in this case took another four hours.

Once the dough had doubled, shaping, a retarded proofing, and baking followed. While cooling, the finished loaf chattered away as fast as Brian Blade hits his cymbals during a drum solo. Mrs PG and I like this one a lot.

Even though the polar vortex that afflicted much of the central states came through here and put a big chill on us, we weathered through without power failures and only minor snowfalls. I did have to find the heavy thermal underwear and a pair of ugly boots meant for such times. I'm hoping that those wind chills hitting as low as -24F will have killed the oak leaf itch mites that torment me in the summertime.This week is different with the high today expected around 56F and tomorrow will be a day to grill outside when the thermometer hits 64F. 

Other than a few daffodils sending up their leafs, there aren't any other signs of Spring. Well, maybe the long lines at the car washes might be reason for optimism but mostly we're seeing bare trees and brown grasses. Lately, a Carolina wren or two, have been added to the list of feathered friends and usual suspects at the feeders. According to my  copy of "Birds of Kansas", they're a year round resident in this area. They're known to have quite a repertoire of songs so if they bring more family or friends with them, I won't mind at all.

Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.

New Year, New Pan, Slightly Different Recipe

I'm not the easiest person to shop for at Christmas time so Mrs PG suggested I do some for myself.The simplest thing I considered was a new pan that could be the "Goldilocks" pan among my collection. Not too small and not too big either. The first time around I tried a recipe that totaled 390 g of flour which was too small. This loaf is 420 g total and just about right to develop. The flours used are all KAF- all purpose, artisan, and white whole wheat flour. The loaf turned out to have a good crumb that didn't tear when sliced despite the quantity of AP. 

Poolish

60 g white whole wheat flour

40g AP flour

100 g water at 84F

1/4 tsp active dry yeast

Main Dough

160 g Artisan Flour

160 g AP Flour

194 g water at 84F

9 g kosher salt

1/2 tsp active dry yeast

The oven started out at 425F for the first 24 minutes and then 400F for 22 minutes after turning the pan around. Then I let the loaf rest for five minutes on a wire rack in the oven as it began cooling with the door cracked open. It's a good loaf for something I started without too much of a plan. 

I suspect that I'm becoming either a small time alarmist or a hoarder of baking supplies because it's easy to rationalize having more  than usual around the house. Costco has the KAF AP in 12# bags for less than $6 so these days I always have at least 20# of AP on hand. The KAF BF was like $2.59 for a 5# bag at Christmas so I got three. When I saw a 1# block of SAF Instant Dry Yeast for $3.59 where the small glass jars were almost $6, I had to grab what I thought had to be a mistaken price tag and a real deal. The next day at a different supermarket the same item was priced at $2.49 which made my purchase not quite as big a bargain as I thought. Compared to what we were seeing if we could find IDY back in April and May 2020, I can still laugh about it. It doesn't take that much room in the freezer. If 5# bags of rye flour started showing up on the shelves again at a reasonable price, I'd be all set to go to work on a brown ale rye bread.

My bird feeders are now under daily attack by grey squirrels. The feeders are supposed to be squirrel resistant but I know for sure they're not squirrel proof when one can be seen hanging up side down to get at the sunflower seeds. If they didn't sit on top of the shepherd's hook pole and stare in the window at me while they ate, I wouldn't be as annoyed. There are at least four that have found out about the feeders and they all run around like LSD and methamphetamine was a majority of their diet. This area has a 4" deficit in snowfall so far for the season and what little fell melted away quickly so leftover grains and seeds are still easily found by the area birds. I'd like to see if they would try to protect their feeders and territory should more return to my backyard.

Comments, humor, and questions are always welcome.