Apr 14 • 💬 General Discussion
I’m always trying to fine tune my warm dough sourdough system…
The recent discovery of a new, too me, High Gluten flour that’s target customer is actually the restaurant industry… only available in 25lb and 50lb bags, just happens to fit my processes perfectly.
Different flours behave differently.
Higher protein flour develops gluten strength faster and holds gas more effectively.
That gives me more control during bulk fermentation and allows me to stop earlier—while still producing a strong, well-risen loaf.
For a same-day system, that strength matters.
I’ve been testing this flour now for a few days and I’m so thrilled with its performance King Arthur and Bob’s Red Mill artisan bread flours have officially lost their bins in my pantry because this new flour gives me better loaves and more flexibility in my processes. The extra bonus fact is that 50lb bag sells for $23.99 with no sales tax added later = $0.48 per pound. Less than half of what the others sell for.🙏🏻
Because of how this dough feels in my hands I made an experimental batch of dough this morning trying to determine if I might be able to change my teaching recipe from a 70% hydration dough to 72% hydration…🧐 I used the 70% hydration originally because it’s easier for beginners to handle. But based on the last few batches of this dough using this flour I might be able to get those beginners a better loaf of bread with a better more open crumb by moving them into this 72% hydration dough.🫣
Today’s experiment… Formula: 100/72/2/25 / 1200g of total flour = 2 loaves
945g bread flour
105g WW flour
714g warm water @105°f
300g Rocket Fuel Hank
24g Salt
Mixing… you are now the Mixing Maven & Gluten development assistant.
1… in 1 mixing bowl I weigh in both flours and the salt and mix it vigorously with a fine wired whisk just to make sure I get even distribution in the dough. Then I take the temperature of the flour.
2… In a different larger mixing bowl I weigh in 300g, 25% inoculation, of my buddy Rocket Fuel Hank. I take Hank’s temperature.
3… I calculate the temperature of water I’m going to need to get the temperature of the dough after the mixing and gluten development steps to 82~84°f by the time I put it in the bulk fermentation vessel. I anticipate I’m going to lose a couple of degrees of heat while the dough is bench resting at room temperature too. Once I have the proper water temperature i weigh it into the mixing bowl with Hank and then with that thin wire whisk I aggressively mix Hank and the water until it’s very frothy with lots of bubbles floating on top.
4… I combine the blended flour and salt into the frothy mixture and mix it very thoroughly with my danish dough whisk . Once there’s no dry flour left I do the pincher method of mixing to make sure it’s very well combined. Then I do a few minutes of the Rubaud mixing method too. The importance of the mixing process is overlooked by many bread makers.
Gluten Development… I choose to get ALL of the necessary gluten development done before I move my dough into bulk fermentation so I don’t have to babysit it every 20/30 minutes with folds for 2 or 3 hours and popping bubbles unnecessarily. That way Hank and his millions and millions of microbe buddies can concentrate on fermentation and rising our dough because we’ve done the hard work for them. I do 2 sets of slap and folds sessions separated with a 15 minutes bench rest in between. The first session I do about 15 repetitions or until the dough starts tearing. Tearing from the aggressive actions of the slap and fold technique, not because I tore it with my misused fingers. I cover the dough with an inverted mixing bowl and take a 15 minute break. The second slap and fold session is not as aggressive you’re really just aligning the gluten strands this time, probably just 6bor 8 gentle repetitions will suffice. You don’t want to overwork the dough… because the first session got most of the heavy lifting done. The dough should be smooth, shiny and cohesive… if you do a couple of tension pulls it should feel very similar to what final shaped dough feels like. Take the dough temperature now. Hopefully it’s still somewhere between 80~84°f. Don’t panic if it’s not… just count on it taking quite a while to catch up.🤷♂️ So at this point it’s been 25/30 minutes since Hank got into the flour and 15 minutes of that time was during the bench rest. This is NOT hard work. Once you get it in the bulk fermentation vessel and on to the heating pad you can take a couple of hours off… Hank and his clan will take over from here.
Bulk fermentation… You are now the Fermentation Manager. You are in charge of regulating Hank’s working environment for the next 2 hours while he and his buddies puff up the ballon. I highly recommend you use a straight sided vessel that you’ve lightly lubricated with oil so the dough can slide up the sides very smoothly. When you get the dough into the vessel tamp it gently to level it, measure what elevation from the bottom it sitting at and mark that starting point with a sharpie. Then measure up to how much it has to rise to achieve the 30% rise we want for this batch of dough, mark that spot with the sharpie. Take the temperature of your dough. Cover the top and set the vessel on your heating set at pad to 84°f. Now… walk the dog, mow the lawn, go to the grocery store, get the car washed, read a book, troll the worldwideweb…
If your starter has been properly fed and cared for your dough will achieve that 30% rise in about 2.5/2.75 hours since Hank got into the flour.
So now that your Fermentation Manager job is complete… your new position is that of Bubbles Security Officer… your main function as the BSO is to protect those bubbles that Hank and his gang have worked so diligently to give you so you get an nice oven spring, a nice ear, an open crumb and some pretty blisters. Every popped bubble has a negative effect on your loaf you’ve been working on for hours.
My experiment dough today reach the 30% rise in 2.5 hours at which time I divided it with my drywall knife/bench scraper and preshaped it with the bench scraper too, without touching it by hand. So I haven’t touched this dough since I put it in the bulk fermentation vessel 2 hours ago. Bench rest the dough for 10 minutes. Final shape both loaves, put them in bannetons. Immediately put one in the fridge and final proof the one I’m going to bake soon. When your dough has been at 84°f for almost 3 hours it doesn’t need much final proofing at all.
Now that you BSO position is complete you’ve become the Oven Superintendent… you prepare the oven to apply maximum heat and steam to so everything Hank’s been doing gets properly rewarded. You are in charge of scoring too.
At exactly 3 hours since Hank met the flour this dough is going onto the bread steel unscored, covered by the Baking Shell. I let it bake in the steamy environment for 6 minutes to firm up the out skin a little bit. Then we remove the shell and quickly score the dough with my handy Stanley mini-box cutter/lame. Replace the shell and continue baking covered for 15 more minutes. Then remove the shell so it can brown to the color I prefer and until the interior temperature reaches 205/210°f at every level… tested with a Thermapen. Total oven time… 50 minutes.
So… we followed all of the rule completed every step… mixing, gluten development, bulk fermentation, dividing, preshaping, bench rest, final shaping, final proofing, scoring and baking in 3 hours and 50 minutes… which gave us an authentic artisan sourdough loaf of bread. Truly a handmade work of art.👨🍳🙏🏻
This is a very simple system for beginners and busy professionals to use to hone their bread making skills and refine their techniques with every loaf.
This was designed using the First Principles of bread making… the best process is no process. Less is more. Only touch your dough when it’s required. Always be looking for things to eliminate from the process but require extraordinary results. KISS.
Happy baking to one and all…
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I’m always trying to fine tune my warm dough sourdough system…
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