This morning I cut into a croissant that I baked yesterday afternoon (and ate it soon afterwards!) I’ve been trying my best to see what I can do to affect the cross-section crumb to get the “honeycomb” I see mores skilled bakers attain. On this last bake I had played with my lock-in technique. AndContinue reading “Sourdough Croissant Observations”
Tag Archives: Iterative
Technique Tweak Wasn’t a Fluke!
I was able to recreate similar oven bloom results applying the tweaks to my feeding and autolyse methods. The results from my experiment were NOT a fluke! Yay!! I’m pleased with these results and will continue to use them going forward as my “standard method”. Always learning…
Sourdough Experiment (Part 2)
Whoa! Nice oven spring!! I am VERY pleased with these results! I took the dough out of fridge at 8am, divided it and pre-shaped into rounds. Bench-rested for an hour covered with a towel before final shaping and then placing into bannetons. I then put the loaves into my proving box for another 1.5 hoursContinue reading “Sourdough Experiment (Part 2)”
Sourdough Experiment (Part 1)
I’m continuing to experiment and tweak my technique. Lately I’ve been wondering about the oven spring and how my technique early on in my bakes are affecting my end results. Tweak #1: Starter Feeding I typically bake sourdough bread once a week. Pre-COVID-19 I traveled for work Monday – Thursday. I would store my starterContinue reading “Sourdough Experiment (Part 1)”
Turmeric-Cinnamon Sourdough (Part 2)
Today is bake day for my Turmeric-Cinnamon loaf experiment. I’ve baked my normal loaves first. A chia-covered Boule and a regular Batard. They came out nicely. As the loaves above were baking I pulled out the banneton with the Turmeric-cinnamon dough. As expected it wasn’t filling the banneton as full as the other loaves. IContinue reading “Turmeric-Cinnamon Sourdough (Part 2)”
Turmeric-Cinnamon Sourdough (Part 1)
Thought I’d try my hand at a laminated sourdough leveraging some different techniques than I usually employ. These techniques involve adding Spelt flour, dividing the dough into two parts adding Turmeric to the second. I started by mixing the flour with water and letting it autolyse for 2 hours. I added sourdough levain and saltContinue reading “Turmeric-Cinnamon Sourdough (Part 1)”
Sourdough Croissants – Pushing the Envelope
Today I “pushed the envelope” on my final proof. To be honest, this whole batch is going to be suspect. My head wasn’t in the game due to work commitments et al. Had a really difficult time focusing. As a result I was impatient in my butter lock-in and shattered the butter. My folding/lamination wasContinue reading “Sourdough Croissants – Pushing the Envelope”
Sourdough Croissant (Inadvertent) Experiment
Well … today is an (inadvertent) sourdough croissant experiment! The variable I adjusted was proving time. Basically I forgot I had them in bags proving and got buried in client calls. Two hours later I go “Oh no!” Normally I take my croissants out of the fridge where I had left them covered in theContinue reading “Sourdough Croissant (Inadvertent) Experiment”
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 loavesContinue reading “Sourdough Boules”
Sourdough Croissants
I’m working on my sourdough croissants technique. I’ve determined this is going to be a lifelong journey… For Christmas my wife gifted me Jimmy Griffin’s The Art of Lamination I’m experimenting with his lock-in and lamination technique. Another change he mentioned was allowing for the heat drop and “ice cube effect” of putting your trayContinue reading “Sourdough Croissants”
Baked By Bear Sourdough 