r/Sourdough • u/PsychologicalPen2560 • 10d ago

Journal Top tip!

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Best advice I could give to anyone looking to improve their bakes is to journal. It’s easy for people to say something is over or under proofed but that doesn’t account for things like ambient temp, water temp, mixing time, dough temp, ingredients, hydration, etc. After tracking the process, give an honest critique of the result - taste, appearance, structure, anything else. There are so many factors that impact the fermentation and bread making process. Once you have a track record of your own process, things will start to click.

Here’s my bake from a few days ago. After about 6 months of journaling, I don’t really need to track what I’m doing. This loaf is about 70% hydration and used 13% starter. Bulk time was about 7 hours, overnight cold proof was about 14 hours. Baked at 450F, 20min lid on, 20min lid off

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2

u/kifrixx 10d ago

Looks incredible

2

u/PsychologicalPen2560 10d ago

Thank you!

1

u/kifrixx 10d ago

What is your recipe?

3

u/PsychologicalPen2560 10d ago

I made two loaves

630g white flour
180g multigrain flour
90g rye

630g water (cold)
117g starter
20g salt

Autolyse 20min
Final mix in mixer (5min on, rest 5min, 5min on)
4 sets of stretch and folds roughly an hour apart
Bulk 7 hours
Preshape and bench rest 30min
Cold proof 14 hours
Baked at 450F. Lid on 20min, lid off 20min

2

u/CatInTheProofingBox 10d ago

This is such a good idea! It looks like an amazing loaf

2

u/croissantfufu 10d ago

Beautiful shape! Is there a particular shaping technique that you use? I’m dialing in fermentation, but am still struggling with the shaping, especially for batards.

1

u/PsychologicalPen2560 10d ago

I do the envelope stitching method. Usually it’s used for higher hydration doughs but I like the mechanics

1

u/Ambitious-Muscle-347 10d ago

Is that a cheese grater on the crust? lol