MikeJ

Mitch, great looking crumb texture on that one. When you bake sourdough in a loaf pan, does it still get that characteristic sourdough crust on the bottom and sideS?

Hans, Very interesting! Based on your description of what happened to the loaf in the oven it almost sounds like it was slightly underproved - maybe the alcohol retards the activity of the yeast to some degree. I'm glad to hear it turned out well, aside from the crumb texture. Maybe the alcohol is to blame for that as well. I think I got lucky with my porter experiments, because I've been doing some reading and issues like yours seem fairly common. If you try again, maybe it would help to use a less alcoholic porter or cook off some of the alcohol first?

Baked the double porter loaf today... I ended up using only porter in the recipe (no water), about the same flour proportions as the previous loaf, a handful of porter-soaked raisins and a tablespoon or so each of butter and treacle. The dough rose well, and when I baked it the crust turned dark, dark brown. I glazed it with a water/honey solution, and the finished loaf looked almost like lacquered ebony. The crumb was moist, dark and chewy - very substantial. The flavour was big, rich and malty, and the sourdough tang added an interesting dimension as well. Not the kind of thing you could eat every day, but I was happy with how it turned out. Hans, I hope your stout rye is a success! I look forward to hearing about (and seeing, hopefully) the results. I'm sure it will turn out well - plenty of both rye and porter should do the trick, I think that first loaf of mine could easily have stood up to more of both.

Thank you! I used water for the preferment, but only stout when I built the preferment into the final dough. I guess that would make the total ratio of stout to water about 1:0.75. About a third of the flour was rye, with the rest unbleached AP (and a handful of whole wheat). The bread retains some of the malty sweetness of the stout, which blends well with the rye. It's got a lot of flavour. I picked a mild, sweet stout (2.8%ABV), which may be why the alcohol content didn't cause any complications. The one I'm making now uses a strong (8.6%), dark porter. I boiled some of the alcohol off, added water to make up the difference, and made a preferment with the porter and some rye flour. I think for the final dough I might add some treacle and raisins to make a sort of sourdough malt loaf. I'll be shocked if this one turns out properly, but we'll see.

An experimental loaf I made yesterday... sourdough rye boule, locally brewed stout substituted for water. This turned out so well and tastes so good that I'm trying another one today using local extra strong porter.

I bought a batard-shaped wicker basket from value village yesterday for 99 cents. Today I made a batard-shaped loaf, which was the first time I've tried anything other than a boule.

When it turns out well, a homemade sourdough boule made with good, unbleached white flour (and a handful of whole wheat or rye for flavour) can't be beaten.

Maybe char siu baau? It's sweet as well as salty, but definitely fluffy:

To be completely honest, I don't think I noticed a significant difference in the flavour. It may be that I didn't ferment the firm starter for long enough, or that I didn't retard the dough in the fridge overnight, but the bread didn't seem sourer than usual - although it definitely wasn't bland. However, between my housemates and some people we had over the entire loaf got devoured that evening, which is a good sign.

Weinoo, nice looking pan loaf. I like that shape as well, sometimes slices of boule don't quite fit in the toaster. djyee100, thanks for the tip on the firm starter. I've got one fermenting overnight, so I'l bake tomorrow and see what kind of results I get.

Here's a question: why does a loaf get sourer over time? The one above is definitely a lot more tangy now than on the day it was baked. Surely it gets too hot for bacteria to survive within?

Finally achieved something approaching the open texture I've been after since I started! I think the difference must be that I've been using slkinsey's method of keeping a small quantity of starter, refreshing it with a high ratio of new flour/water to old starter, and using a small but very active inoculation for the dough. Tastes pretty good too, more importantly.

Sometimes I find that when I slash a very high-hydration loaf it collapses before it gets into the oven. This happens even though I use an oiled razor to make my slashes... perhaps my technique is poor, but what I'm wondering is whether anyone has tried slashing the loaf AFTER it goes in the oven - that is, putting it in, waiting a minute or two to let the surface firm up a bit, and then opening the door and making a couple quick slashes to allow for expansion. I can't see any obvious reason why this is a bad idea - thoughts?

Thanks! Can't wait to give it a try, I'll post the results when I do.

That sounds phenomenal... I don't suppose you have a recipe handy?

Oddly enough, before I joined these forums I don't think I'd ever heard the phrase "traditional salmon marshmallow."

Recently I tried a very warm rise, followed by a 2-day spell in the fridge. This had the desired effect, and made for a pleasingly tangy loaf... unfortunately the loaf was a bit of a brick, as I suppose you might expect given the long retard. Tricky stuff, this breadmaking.

Salmon glazed with maple syrup is another popular combination in the Pacific NW, maybe you could substitute some maple syrup for the sugar in the recipe.

Very interesting. Just found a youtube video about them:

I need to apologize for ever doubting the small inoculation method. I tried it again with a longer, warmer fermentation of the starter and an extra warm (32c or so) rise for the dough, and the results were excellent - the best flavour I've achieved so far. Consider me a convert.

I'm no expert, but it looks good to me considering it's day 3. The liquid is pretty common, and is called "hooch." Some people say to pour it off, some people say to mix it back in, some people say it's fine and some say it indicates a contamination. Personally I don't know whether it's just water, or the byproduct of some microorganism, or a combination. Others can probably give more useful information.

I'd like to try this method. Is there a reason you use a stiff dough rather than a sponge? Also, do you think using a high-gluten flour might compensate at all for the degrading effects of the acid? By the way, I baked the loaf I'd made with the 5% inoculation, and it turned out nicely - a much better oven spring than I've been getting, and a nice open crumb as well. It wasn't especially sour, but I didn't do a preferment or retard it in the fridge. Actually, I've tried sourdough from a couple local bakeries and they weren't sour either, which makes me suspect that the local lactobacilli may be inherently degenerate. That's a good idea, and I think I'll give it a shot. Have you experimented at all with refrigerating the dough immediately after mixing, and then proceeding with bulk fermenting/proofing after a day or two?

The problem is, it looks a little TOO much like real glitter, and real glitter just isn't something you would want to eat. Also, in the picture at least, it looks really metallic - like iron filings or something like that. It's interesting in a novelty sort of way, but anyone who's accidentally chewed a bit of tinfoil knows a mouth full of metal is an unpleasant prospect indeed.

Honestly?... It's a thing that looks particularly unappealing in a food/dessert. I Jagermeister? or glitter?

No offense, but it's exactly that sort of comment that turns these conversations into mine fields and makes folks like me reluctant to even bother engaging in them. ← I meant it to be tongue in cheek - I really can't imagine anyone getting genuinely worked up over something like that.