How About Lid Baking?… My Best SF Loaf Ever!
Well, here it is…. my best San Francisco Sourdough Bread ever!
But I am getting ahead of my story!
It started like this… I took out my San Francisco Starter from the refrigerator and warmed it up and fed it for several days. My last blog was on trying a SF technique from the manager of the Boudin Bakery of San Francisco. I felt that the starter I prefermented was too warm for too long and so I decided to do a shorter preferment at 72 degrees. I kept my eye on it and when it was super bubbly and doubled, I went ahead and mixed up the dough. I then let the dough ferment for another four hours at which time I shaped the loaves and put them into the refrigerator overnight:
Next morning I took out the dough and let proof for two hours:
I had shaped one batard style loaf and two boules, they were two lbs 2 oz each.
After two hours proofing and one hour preheating my oven, I baked the first loaf:
It came out pretty nice with a great crust and the crumb is nice too. Then I baked the second loaf which was a boule:
It came out okay, but I wanted a better color to the crust and bloom to the slashes. So I decided to take out my large roasting lid used for the Turkey pan and preheat it and use it to cover the last loaf:
What was neat is that the bread was still slid onto the stone first, sprayed once, and then covered by the lid. I had heated up the oven to 500 degrees. As soon as I had placed the lid and shut the door, I turned down the oven to 425 degrees and left the lid on for 15 minutes. After the fifteen minutes were up, I took off the lid and turned the loaf around. It already looked awesome! Here it is all finished:
Well, anyway, as you can see, the color is terrific! The crust is also wonderfully chewy, and crispy. There are some drawbacks for me to baking in a pot, although I do like it. I must say, there are no drawbacks to the lid method, at least I haven’t found any yet! Having the loaf sit right on the stone and have the close steam generated by the lid covering it, has given me one terrific San Francisco Sourdough Loaf!
Here is the crumb:
I will write up the technique and recipe and put it into the Special Recipe folder. Have a great day baking sourdough, I know I did!
