sourdough bread — 2026-03-07
i put the levain in the jar. i did 10g starter, 40g bread, 10g rye and 51g water to make the levain and then i put it in the jar. it had good bubbles this time and wasn't dried out actually!
then i used 350g water, 400g bread, 100g rye flour, 10g salt to make the dough
i kneaded the dough at speed 2 for 2-3 minutes. it ended up quite wet and sticky. i'm going to listen to evan's advice of just letting it rest and ferment after the initial kneading. i'll check back in an hour. maybe after an hour i'll do some hand kneading
after 1 hour, dough is a little springy and less wet. you touch it and it sort of springs back a little. i do 4 stretch and folds going around. the dough was really stuck to the mixing bowl
next time i make bread, im gonna do what claire saffitz doe
i've decided im going to do 4 stretch and folds every 30 minutes for 2 hours and then let it rest. i let it rest for 1 hour at first so idk i guess ill do 2.5 hours
i'll let it proof overnight on the counter i think. or no i'll let proof for awhile on the counter and move to the fridge after a couple of hours or so
this is what it looks like after 3rd stretch and fold sesh
apparently rye flour can make your dough sticker/gummier and less open. 20% (what im doing) is about the max you can do without getting weird results allegedly so i hope im fine. also maybe supposed to do more water?
depending on how this goes, i might go down to 10% rye
4th stretch and fold and the dough feels very doughy. maybe i even overworked it a bit idk
i then let the dough rest for 2 hours before pre-shaping
this is the bread after pre-shaping. i ended up doing like 12 or so of folding the dough under itself
bench rest 30m
this is the dough post shaping. i folded it 5 times
here it is after 1h15m of proofing 
here it is after 2h30m of proofing. i'm putting it in the fridge now ![[Pasted image 20260307203651.jpg]
he was in the fridge for what probably 12ish hours
this is what he looked like after scoring
this is after 25 minutes with the lid on 
he exploded! i need to score him in an X i think. i also bought a bread lame because ive been struggling with scoring him using the pairing knife alone
after 20 minutes in the oven alone. he's beautiful and smells so nice. just fresh sourdough, faintly yogurt-ey
i might have overproofed him. we'll see once i cut into him
also again might should have cooked a bit longer to get him browner on the outside. or go to 20 minutes with the lid on
he looks and tastes good! i think 20% rye flour was too much. i'm probably going to stop him down to 10% because it's a little gooey and have more of a rye flavor than i wanted
alice said it could be a bit saltier and i agree
kol says the flatness was probably due to insufficient gluten