I love how crispy sourdough waffles are as I tried making them. They have lots of air pockets here and there, so I searched online recipes of sourdough bread with baking soda. I would like to make sourdough bread with lots of air pockets like cibata bread. I found one and tried it yesterday:
Sourdough UN-sour Whole Wheat Bread
2 cups of very warm water
2 tsp. salt
2 TBS. coconut oil
2 TBS. honey
1 tsp. vanilla
4 cups or more of whole-wheat flour
2 cups sourdough starter
2 tsp. baking soda
Directions:
1. In a mixer, place all ingredients with baking soda on top and reserve 2 cups of flour.
2. Begin mixing, slowly adding flour until the dough pulls away from the sides.
3. Cover the mixer with a towel and mix for 7 minutes.
4. Knead dough 15-20 times
5. Place dough in bowl and let rise 3 hours in a warm oven.
6. Knead dough again 15-20 times and shape into loaves.
7. Place dough in bread pans and let rise 1 1/2 hours in warm oven.
8. Remove bread from oven, preheat to 350, and bake bread for 40 minutes.
First off, my bread wasn't done in 40 minutes, because the recipe is calling for 50% water to flour ratio. Usually for bread recipes it's about 35-38%. Thus, I added 15 more minutes. The crust was very chewy hard, but not the flaky hard type of crust that some French or Italian breads have. I'd like to learn the science of what ratios of ingredients and interplay with the them yield what kind of textures and so on. My questions:
1. I have found that more water content yields more chewiness. Is it just me feeling this way, or it is indeed what more water would do. My earlier thought was that more water would make bread tenderer, yet it was not true when I tried baking bread with more water with my past experiences.
3. The texture of the bread I made by using THIS recipe looks and tastes similar to English muffins. Is this texture so because of more water in it, less oil, and with baking soda to have the gases here and there? Is cibata bread using similar recipe ratios with baking soda? Regular bread always has this stringy texture that stretches, while English muffins and cibata bread have big air pockets here and there. Yet English muffins’ texture are almost like half bread and half cake, which is different from cibata bread. The latter still has the stringy texture yet with big air pockets. Is it because baking soda? The dough of this recipe was very stringy and stretchy before being baked. When it’s done baking, its texture is less stretchy. Although sourdough waffles recipes call for baking soda and yield crispiness, baking bread which requires much longer time than making waffles get bread crust hard in a chewy way???
4. Of course, this recipe is towards healthier side with less oil or sweetener. Is it contributing the chewiness as well? I know that more butter or whole milk content yields softer textured bread.
Please shed your light with me. I am much to learn, and I would like to know the theory behind.
Thanks
Sourdough UN-sour Whole Wheat Bread
2 cups of very warm water
2 tsp. salt
2 TBS. coconut oil
2 TBS. honey
1 tsp. vanilla
4 cups or more of whole-wheat flour
2 cups sourdough starter
2 tsp. baking soda
Directions:
1. In a mixer, place all ingredients with baking soda on top and reserve 2 cups of flour.
2. Begin mixing, slowly adding flour until the dough pulls away from the sides.
3. Cover the mixer with a towel and mix for 7 minutes.
4. Knead dough 15-20 times
5. Place dough in bowl and let rise 3 hours in a warm oven.
6. Knead dough again 15-20 times and shape into loaves.
7. Place dough in bread pans and let rise 1 1/2 hours in warm oven.
8. Remove bread from oven, preheat to 350, and bake bread for 40 minutes.
First off, my bread wasn't done in 40 minutes, because the recipe is calling for 50% water to flour ratio. Usually for bread recipes it's about 35-38%. Thus, I added 15 more minutes. The crust was very chewy hard, but not the flaky hard type of crust that some French or Italian breads have. I'd like to learn the science of what ratios of ingredients and interplay with the them yield what kind of textures and so on. My questions:
1. I have found that more water content yields more chewiness. Is it just me feeling this way, or it is indeed what more water would do. My earlier thought was that more water would make bread tenderer, yet it was not true when I tried baking bread with more water with my past experiences.
3. The texture of the bread I made by using THIS recipe looks and tastes similar to English muffins. Is this texture so because of more water in it, less oil, and with baking soda to have the gases here and there? Is cibata bread using similar recipe ratios with baking soda? Regular bread always has this stringy texture that stretches, while English muffins and cibata bread have big air pockets here and there. Yet English muffins’ texture are almost like half bread and half cake, which is different from cibata bread. The latter still has the stringy texture yet with big air pockets. Is it because baking soda? The dough of this recipe was very stringy and stretchy before being baked. When it’s done baking, its texture is less stretchy. Although sourdough waffles recipes call for baking soda and yield crispiness, baking bread which requires much longer time than making waffles get bread crust hard in a chewy way???
4. Of course, this recipe is towards healthier side with less oil or sweetener. Is it contributing the chewiness as well? I know that more butter or whole milk content yields softer textured bread.
Please shed your light with me. I am much to learn, and I would like to know the theory behind.
Thanks