Sourdough Boules

My latest experiment was looking at my bulk ferment process.

My process for feeding my starter, making my biga, mixing etc all stayed the same.

I bumped up my temp 4°F in my fridge drawer (33°F to 37°F). I also bulk fermented for 36 hours before dividing/shaping my loaves.

This time I separated my loaves into two, 842g balls and preshaped. Bench-rested for 45 mins, shaped and put into my round bannetons. I left them on the counter until the oven heated.

Scored then Baked them per my standard 35 minutes in Dutch Ovens at 420°F (convection) lid on.

I then removed them from the Dutch Ovens and baked another 4.5 minutes on a cold pizza stone to keep the bottoms from over baking.

Overall I’m pretty pleased. Crust looks good. Oven-spring looks good. Overall shape and color looks good. We’ll see how the crump comes out once they’re cool.

Ah… the joys of tweaking your sourdough baking technique!