Experimenting
Been perusing this again and it has inspired me.
I'm doing an experiment, the dough is 90% hydration and I'm going to let the autolyse go for 5-6 hours, then add salt and starter, bulk ferment and shaping in the evening, bake in the morning
I think it's likely to be more or less a failure, but i realized that the loaves I'm getting from the tartine recipe look almost nothing like the ones in the book, so i gotta shake things up
4 replies
Bread like that is pretty in an artistic way, and impressive in a technical way, but difficult to spread condiments on so I don't see the point.
That's why I'm striving for it, not because it's the most functional, but because it's the most difficult
It's like French carpenters making absurdly complicated trestles to demonstrate skill
This guy's Champlain Sourdough, and variations where I increase the percentage of whole grain flour, is my go to for a crusty sourdough loaf. I've also reconstructed a mostly wholegrain sourdough sandwich loaf (in loaf pan) from one of his blog posts, and it has become another go to loaf for me.
I really like his dough handling techniques and think he explains then in a way that no one else seems to, while always emphasizing that this is a way to do it that achieves such and such effect, but you can do it differently for a different effect. His YouTube videos are well worth watching to get a feel for that.
I haven't seen his YouTube channel yet, I'll have to check it out. I just have immense respect for the admission that he isn't a scientist and it's all just his experience, but also the absurd detail that he goes into. Putting the instinctive knowledge built by decades of experience into words is such a gift
And absurd detail in anything is my jam