Austrian Sourdough
Austrian Sourdough
I have my Austrian Sourdough Starter going and made up a batch of Austrian Sourdough bread. This is what I did:
In the late afternoon around 4:00pm I made up a batch of dough in my mixer using:
- 1 lb 12 oz of 166% Austrian Sourdough Starter
- 18 oz water
- 6 oz evaporated milk
- 3 lbs 3 oz of bread flour
- 1.2 oz salt (added after autolyse)
I did the usual of mixing up the dough just enough to incorporate all of the ingredients. Then I let the dough rest for 20 minutes (autolyse). After Autolyse was over, I added the salt. Then I mixed the dough for about one more minute. I let the dough bulk ferment and turned the dough a few times during the ferment (either fold the dough or turn it in the mixer a few turns). The dough fermented for six hours and then I shaped the dough into loaves. The dough was bubbly, stretchy and very nice. The gluten was well developed. This was at 10 pm at night. I did the timing so late because I had to go to town in the morning and I knew I wouldn’t be back until around lunchtime. I didn’t want the dough to be ready to bake first thing in the morning or overfermented when I was ready to bake it. I actually did that last weekend and it was a disaster, so I wasn’t going to repeat it. Last weekend, I had dough ready to bake first thing in the morning, however, I forgot I had to go out in the morning. When I finally baked it, later in the afternoon, the dough was crepey feeling and over fermented. It baked up flat and the crumb was a tacky feeling fiasco [Yep, I still can bake a brick or two (three actually) 🙂 ] So…. don’t forget about timing!
Anyway, for this batch, when I got home, the dough was ready to warm up, finish proofing and bake. It worked out great. You all know how to do the bake now, so I will just show you the pics of the loaves:
All three Austrian loaves
Side view
Lots of blisters
Crispy crust
Crumb
