SOURDOUGH BREAD-BOULE

Thursday the thirtieth of April, 2020 was the making of the classic bread country loaf, Boule.  The journey of learning about sourdough bread has been tremendous and alive.  Experiments and after experiments, following the experts are giving me confidence and putting what I learnt into practice. 
I have ready-made my own starter, which I prepared a while ago, and it has been sitting in the refrigerator.  Successfully it has reactivated, it is living well, and I have been nurturing since it starts being active, feeding regularly and noticing at the time it rises high and drops to low. You could tell when it is in the peak of happiness, it rises very high and bubbly, and it relaxes, then drops but stays calm carries a sweet fruity smell.  Now, you know the starter is really living and robust it is ready for the bread baking.  As simple as that.
What an excellent time to be in the experiment during the social distancing, full concentration in so many aspects I have and I can give.  However, ready to face the trial that failed, but yes, the unlimited time I got, will fix it.  I am writing this note while I have the time to do for the next step during this experiment.  I noted, every step all the way, from making the leaven to the baking for the bread.

The night before, made the leaven, mix the starter, flour, water in a jar, close lightly and leave it on the kitchen bench.

The Leaven and The Testing.

The Leven floats, it's mature ready for baking.

Mixing flour, leaven  and water to a cohesive mass, to Autolyse for 1 hour

The Mass mixture, Autolyse  1 hour.

At the end of Autolyse and mix with the salt
and rest for 15 minutes ready for the bulk fermentation

The Bulk Fermentation for two hours, give the Dough the Turns every 30 minutes interval.

The First Bulk Fermentation

Give a vigorous Turns.

The first turn-rest for 30 minutes

The end of the first BF the dough spreading

The Second Bulk Fermentation

Added the olive oil before doing the Turns

The second turn-rest for 30 minutes

The end the second turn after resting.

The Third Bulk Fermentation

Give the Turns well.

The third turn-rest for 30 minutes.

The end of the third turn after resting

The Fourth Bulk Fermentation

Give Gentle Turns.

Followed by Resting in the Refrigerator for 2 hours, undisturbed.

The fourth turns rest 30 minutes.

After 2 hours the bulk fermentation, rest undisturbed
for two hours in the fridge, cover!

The dough after 2 hours in the fridge undisturbed
Total 4 hours bulk fermentation

Shape to around, bench rest 10 minutes

The end of the 10 minutes bench rest

After the bench rest, place the dough bottom-up
in a banneton basket. Keep in the fridge for 15 hours.

Ferment The dough in the Refrigerator for overnight -15 hours

and cover the Banneton Basket with a plastic bag.

The Baking Day

One hour before baking put the oven up to 250 degrees F convection oven, place the baking stone and the Large Le Creuset pot or Dutch Oven for baking the dough.  The temperature has arrived at the heat that is required to take the dough from the refrigerator, transfer to the lined pizza peel with baking paper.  Score the dough, with a pretty pattern, I did with my initial S.  Take the baking pot out, open the lid, slide the dough on it, replace the lid and put it back in the oven to bake for 30 minutes. 

After the 30 minutes is over, open the oven, take the lid off, the Dutch oven and see the beauty-the formation of the bread, beautiful?  Lower the temperature of the oven to 230 degrees, continue baking without the lid for 25 minutes or until it is dark brown.

Beautifully Baked Bread-Boule.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool, cut the bread in three hours, when it is completely cold.  Be Patient!

The fun is over, time for assessment, how did I go, is it a good loaf, how is the crumb and how good the crust is etc.

Cutting and Tasting

It cut well, the crumb was soft, not airy but not dense.  Overall, it could be better if I had the vital wheat gluten, that's the only item I have missed.  During the processed of making the dough, I knew that it is not going to be a light loaf.

Wash up and clean up time!

The recipe is based on Francis Olive sourdough. I love and adore her work, she is so talented, and her artistry is beyond believe-amazingly beautiful, absolutely superb. I believe I could learn from her and following the recipe faithfully well.   I don't think she will see this post, surely she would give me lots of tips and constructive criticism.  Thanking her for the formula and recipe.

I did not have all the ingredients, but I went for it; honestly, I am pleased what I could achieve, as I mentioned before, I WILL GET BETTER IN BAKING SOURDOUGH BREAD.

Since this experiment, I have been baking more sourdough bread based on Tartine, Eric Kaysar and other recipes.  Now, I am organising to bake the Portuguese Bread, reminiscence of our trip two years ago to Portugal, loved the place and the Pao Atelenjano is one of the best bread in the world.

See how I go, I am excited.

Baking has been fun, using the best time during the lockdown-maybe not quite, definitely, it fits to fill the time during the Social Distancing.

Keep Well Everyone and Take Care.

Susy