JoeV
Washing Up
My starter was feeling lonely in the fridge, so I took it out, drained off the juice, and gave it three good feedings before throwing together the Panera Sourdough Bread recipe (assembled by weight). The first thing I noticed was that this dough was really slack. I must have added a whole additional cup of flour before the dough would pull away from the sides if the bowl. I then kneaded in almost another 1/2 cup before sending to bed in the fridge until morning. In the morning I pulled it out and let it get to room temperature before dividing the dough into four small loaves. I still needed to flour my hands and the work surface because the dough was so sticky.
I then let it raise on the counter for 2 hours, turned on the oven, then let it raise while the oven and stone came to temp (about 40 minutes). When I went to slit the top of each loaf, I noticed that the loaves were already starting to deflate. Into the oven they went for 30 minutes at 400 F, but there was no oven spring going on with these babies.
Yep, they just stayed in the deflated position, but the crumb and taste is fine.
I would appreciate some analysis on this recipe, because I like the taste. The problem appears to be in the viscosity of my starter, which is NOT the Panera starter, but is my own. I don't need other recipes (thank you anyway), but need help to get this one refined to where it has more body to the dough, if in fact it should have more body. I've never made this before, so maybe this is what the finished product should look like.
Thanks
Joe
I then let it raise on the counter for 2 hours, turned on the oven, then let it raise while the oven and stone came to temp (about 40 minutes). When I went to slit the top of each loaf, I noticed that the loaves were already starting to deflate. Into the oven they went for 30 minutes at 400 F, but there was no oven spring going on with these babies.
Yep, they just stayed in the deflated position, but the crumb and taste is fine.
I would appreciate some analysis on this recipe, because I like the taste. The problem appears to be in the viscosity of my starter, which is NOT the Panera starter, but is my own. I don't need other recipes (thank you anyway), but need help to get this one refined to where it has more body to the dough, if in fact it should have more body. I've never made this before, so maybe this is what the finished product should look like.
Thanks
Joe