Basic White with my own Dutch Crunch

I made up some Basic White Sourdough and decided to make my own Dutch Crunch topping because all of the ones available have commercial yeast and I wanted to use my starter. So I made up just over 6 lbs of dough and substituted 1/2 cup rye flour for the added enzymatic activity (I’ve been having good results with adding the small amount of rye). I did the bulk fermentation and shaping yesterday and put the loaves into the refrigerator overnight. I also made some Dutch Crunch topping using sourdough starter.

Here is what is looked like after I mixed it up:

Dutch Crunch

Here is the recipe for the Ductch Crunch Sourdough Style:

2 Tablespoons active starter

1 Cup rice flour (I ground my own brown rice)

1 Tablespoon light Malt syrup

2 Tablespoon Oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup water

Stir all together in a bowl, cover loosely with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature until next day’s baking. It should be frothy with bubbles when ready to use. Then wash the top of the loaf with some water using a pastry brush, and spread on the Dutch Crunch as thick as you would like it.

topping

With my first two one pound small loaves, I tried slashing the bread, but I had made it is a higher hydration dough and with the crunch topping, it did not get a good oven spring it just spread with the extra weight of the topping.

These are the pound loaves that spread too much from slashing:

first pound loaf

second pound loaf

Notice how nice the topping looks. I needed to brown it more so I left in the next loaves longer than I would have otherwise.

With my two large loaves, weighing about 2 lbs each, I did not slash at all and they cracked wherever they felt like it and it looks a lot nicer. My recommendation after doing this topping is to use a lower hydration dough when trying out this Dutch Crunch.

Here is how the larger loaves came out:

2 pound loaf