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7h โข ๐ฅ Saturday Bake Along
๐ Remember the Starter Experiment? Hereโs What It Baked.
๐ Last night I posted about my starter experiment water versus pineapple juice, the scale that died at midnight, and the volume measure I had to fall back on. You followed along all day. The coil folds, the toasting, the shaping, the pre-shape, the bench rest, the final shape, the bake.
This is the loaf.
๐พ The Loaf
Poppy seed sourdough from the Recipe Pantry, with one swap: I toasted black sesame seeds instead of poppy and folded them in at the first coil. The water-fed starter from the experiment is what raised it. The pineapple-fed jar got set aside.
Same recipe. Different seed. Toasted, not raw. That's the whole change.
๐ฅ What I Got
๐น Bloom that opened clean and proud where the score caught
๐น A crumb that's open, glossy, evenly developed, with sesame distributed all the way through
๐น Decorative scoring around the perimeter that held its shape because I kept those cuts shallow and the main score deep
๐น A crust that's deep amber where it should be and lighter where the flour protected it
๐น The kind of ear that makes you pause for a second before you slice it
๐งช The Lesson Worth Naming
The high hydration sounds intimidating until you remember the wholemeal in this recipe is thirsty. It needs that water. Drop the hydration and you starve the dough. That's the whole reason the recipe is built the way it's built.
And the toasted black sesame is the move I'd recommend to anyone who wants to take this loaf up a level. Two to three minutes in a dry skillet, shaking constantly, until you smell them. Then fold them in at the first coil like the recipe says. The toast wakes up the oil in the seed, which is where the flavor lives. Black sesame in particular has more oil than poppy, so the difference is dramatic.
๐ What Made This Bake Work
๐น A clean, water-fed starter at peak (the right jar from yesterday's experiment)
๐น Toasted seeds folded in at the first coil for crunch and flavor
๐น 3.5 coil folds, not 4, because at 75% hydration with wholemeal in the mix, four is too many
๐น A proper pre-shape with a bench rest before final shape
๐น A clean off-center slash with the lame, ยผ inch deep, at 30 degrees
๐น Full hour preheat at 482ยฐF before the dough went in
๐บ The Video
I had the camera rolling for most of it. I'll be cutting together a silent pre-shape walkthrough first โ just dough, hands, and technique. The full bake walkthrough comes after that.
๐ฅ Recipe Links
๐ Sourdough Version
๐ Yeasted Version (no starter required)
Both versions now call for bread flour at 75% hydration. T55 used to be the primary call. It's no longer required. Bread flour, AP, or T55 all work. Use what you have.
๐ To Everyone Who Followed Along
Days like this are why I keep showing up. You don't just watch the bake. You bake with me, you ask the questions, you push me to think out loud. The kitchen feels less like a one-man show because of you.
Perfection is not required. Progress is.
Henry โญ๐ฅ
16
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๐ Remember the Starter Experiment? Hereโs What It Baked.
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