1/2 and 1/2 Honey Sunflower Seed Bread

I am working with 1/2 & 1/2 dough, half whole wheat and half bread flour which will end up being a Whole Wheat Honey Sunflower seed loaf. Approximately 1/3 of the recipe is sourdough starter, then water, and everything else. I use my K-tec mixer to mix up the dough. I never mix for more than five minutes. After proofing for only four hours, the dough was doubled but too sticky, so I kneaded more flour into the dough with the salt and the sunflower seeds. The dough is now resting in “boule” form before I “twist” it up and place it in the proofing baskets.Here are the boules:

Continue reading

Motherdough

As you know I have been working on Motherdough recipes for some time. I really like Motherdough. The dough is at about 67-70 % hydration. It is a basic white sourdough without anything except the starter, flour and water. I keep it in a bucket in the refrigerator. Here is what it looks like:

Continue reading

Basic White Sourdough Bread

I am baking up some Basic White Sourdough Bread this morning. I read Aussie Bill’s blog on slashing: http://bill44.sourdough.net.au/ So I did have cold dough and it was a bit on the wet side. I slashed deeper to see if I could remedy the “cracking” crust syndrome. The dough spread and the loaf was flat. I couldn’t take a picture because it was cut into from both sides and obliterated faster than I could grab the camera! I will say that it was the chewiest crispy crust with a wonderful sour tang, and I got into the action too! I used Northwest sourdough starter and used the basic recipe found on the recipes page of my site. I did add 1/3 cup of cracked wheat to the recipe. Anyway, the first loaf was flattened, so I cut not so deep with the second loaf but it was still somewhat flattish, I began to think I had not proofed long enough when I noticed that the center part of the first loaf was somewhat denser than the edges. So for my last loaf, I proofed longer and slashed regular, and this is what I got:

Continue reading

Sourdough Doughnuts

June 7 2006

I fried up some sourdough doughnuts last evening for this mornings breakfast. The doughnuts were sweetened with malt syrup and spiced with nutmeg and vanilla.

I used Northwest starter, mixed up the dough and let the dough proof the first time for four hours. Knocked down the dough and rolled it out 1/2 inch thick. I cut slices one inch thick, twisted them several times and pinched the ends together. I found out that cutting the slices 1.5 inches thick was better.

Continue reading