crumblingbiscuit

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Bread roll tales - the sequel

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2023-09-02

Last week I held about 25g of dough over. I fed it yesterday morning with 50g each of flour and water. In the evening it had started to bubble.

All 125g of it and some dry yeast went into the bread roll dough.

This time I’m going for bigger rolls, (4 * 150) / 1.67 = 360 g of flour, 67% hydration, 2% salt and 34% starter.

Yeah, I know, forgot about the 5% idea from last week.

4 oblong and 1 round bread roll on baking parchment on a holed baking sheet

5 bread rolls fresh from the oven, fairly blond

b/w picture, 5 rolls on the cooling rack, small bread knife to the right of the rack

our holed baking sheet

pizza/baking steel cooling in the oven

I need to work on my forming and cutting, otherwise quite stoked.

2023-08-27

My dough was getting softer and softer. I dropped hydration to 60%, still soft.

So I searched the internet, as you do. This time specifically German sourdough baking.

I had been holding back a bit of the dough from a bake and stored it in the fridge between bakes. As anticipated this turned into sourdough, with a really nice smell, turning my bread rolls even better tasting.

Than, after a few bakes, we entered soft dough territory.

My “research” suggested that keeping the old dough in the fridge, adding all of it to the new dough, and then fermenting the dough in the fridge over night led to too much lacto bacillus. This leads to enzymatic action that weakens/destroys the starch structure.

So, change of method:

  • still keep the old dough in the fridge
  • take 10g of the old dough and mix with 50g each of flour and water and keep on the counter until well bubbly
  • add 5% (of flour weight) refreshed starter to the bread roll recipe

Continue with normal method.

4 dough balls raising on baking parchment paper, bread rolls in waiting

4 bread rolls on the cooling rack

Much improved, need to up the size though