Late Super Bowl Sunday Sourdough Recipes

I thought it over and decided to post my ingredients and a few notes about the breads that I baked for yesterday's Super Bowl. I'm skipping most of the procedures since I expect that anyone who looks at the ingredients and bakes bread will use their own. People who don't bake probably aren't interested in my obscure blog so there's little risk in offending them. As for the members of my family and friends who keep current with this blog, I know you'll forgive me because you've put up with greater eccentricities and have let me live despite them.

150g active sourdough starter at or about 100% hydration

25g white whole wheat flour
20g whole rye flour
355g bread flour
266g water at 85F
9g kosher salt

After a 3 hour bulk ferment with a couple of stretch and folds, I shaped the boule and placed it in a well floured towel inside a colander. I used a plastic bag to cover my contraption and let it rest on the counter for about 45 minutes before I put it in the fridge for a retarded proof. The loaf needed about 2.5 hours to warm up on the counter before baking.

The oven was preheated to 450F and turned down to 425F after loading. The loaf baked at 425F for 15 minutes when I pulled out the parchment paper, turned the loaf around and turned the temperature down to 400F for 25 minutes. The internal temperature read 206F at that point so I turned the heat off and left the loaf on the stone for 5 minutes with the door cracked open.

I bake this sourdough walnut and raisin loaf every now and then. To me, it's more of a holiday bread for desert or for toast at breakfast. I might have "borrowed" the formula from a book but I suspect that it just fell into place one day and people liked it so I bring it out for occasions.

133g active sourdough starter at 100% hydration

320g bread flour
60g white whole wheat flour
20g rye flour
56g chopped walnuts, toasted at 350F for 10 minutes
56g raisins, raisins were soaked for 1 hour before mixing
20g brown sugar
260g water at 85F

This particular loaf didn't get my usual soaking of the WWW flour since I expected that the raisins would bring some moisture of their own to the dough. During the bulk fermenting, stretch and folds aren't called for due to the walnuts and raisins in the dough. My large loaf pans are 9.25" x 5.25" and usually swallow up the amount dough but I found that baking at 400F, rather than 450F brought about better oven spring in the loaf. The loaf baked for 20 minutes when I turned it around and left it to bake for another 25 Minutes to get the pictured results. Internal temperature was 205F when pulled from the oven. It is on the sweet side in taste so reducing the brown sugar by half might be something to consider for a baker using a 100% poolish instead of a starter. Unsalted butter makes a nice addition this bread though if you've got a better than average cream cheese by all means try that.

Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.