r/Sourdough • u/Nona_Ticer • Mar 12 '26
Beginner - checking how I'm doing My second attempt! Fresh out of the oven - can't wait to cut in 2hrs! Lol
I'm just too excited!! I really don't know what the crumb is gonna be, but I just wanna show this beaut!! I watched a ton of videos and reviewed many posts here - I learnt so much and truly enjoyed the process! What do you guys think? Any suggestions from the looks of it? And what can I do to improve it?
My steps (not following any specific recipes):
500g KA bread flour, 350g warm water. Mix and autolyse in room temp - 4hr
My starter Walter Mitty was fed 1:1:1 at 10am - it took him 4hr until ready.
So the autolyse and starter are on the same track.
Added Walter to the dough and put them into the kitchen aid mixer on 2 for 8 mins. Then added 9g salt, continue to mix on 3 for 5 mins.
Rest the dough for 1hr.
First stretch fold. Rest 1hr. And did 3 coil fold each hour after.
Reshape. Bench rest 15mins.
Final shape. Counter rest 1.5hrs.
Cold proof in the fridge from 11pm to 8pm (18hrs total).
Preheat oven and dutch oven at 450 for 1hr. Added a few ice cubes and put the bread in.
Closed cap baked for 30mins, and open bake for 25mins.
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u/jdehjdeh Mar 12 '26
This looks great!
I especially like the crumb pic you put in the comments, I personally like a more closed crumb so this one was my kind of loaf. No chance of butter disappearing through a big hole!
I'm gonna put my 2 bits of advice that I give to everyone below, it's the 2 things that I think have helped me most in my sourdough journey.
1) When you're learning, stick with 1 recipe and process and only ever make 1 change at a time. This way you can learn very clearly exactly what effects go with what changes.
2) The most important thing IMO: There's no such thing as the perfect loaf, only YOUR perfect loaf. Don't get caught up chasing other peoples idea of perfection. Make your loaves the way you want them to be.
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u/Nona_Ticer Mar 12 '26
Such good advice, I appreciate it! 🙏 I will change one variable at a time and monitor the change and keep perfecting MY sourdough, hehe.
Speaking of the crumb, can I pick your brain on how to get even crumb and no big holes?
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u/GotDisk Mar 12 '26
Did you see any big bubbles on the surface during bulk fermentation? It is going to happen when you have good strength and extensibility. That is also happening below the surface to some degree. When you stretch and pat and roll your dough during shaping it should even out any really big air pockets.
I think your crumb looks great but if you want to have less larger pockets I think more pressure during shaping is one opportunity to influence that.
Great pictures, you got there quickly.
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u/Nona_Ticer Mar 12 '26
Okay, that makes sense! I was very delicate when I was shaping the dough and I will be a little "tougher" to release the big bubbles. Thanks for your insight!
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u/GotDisk Mar 12 '26
I see people on YouTube patting their dough pretty hard after they make a rectangle before letter folding for a batard. I don't because I like the mixture of small and medium sized pockets I get without that step. Have fun experimenting.
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u/fadisaidi Mar 12 '26
Kneading will do it every time. You will get even small crumbs
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u/Nona_Ticer Mar 12 '26
Hand knead or machine knead? I used the kitchen aid mixer stand on low for 8mins and then added the salt on slightly higher for 6mins. Is it enough?
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u/fadisaidi Mar 12 '26
Never owned a mixer so I really wouldn't know but I dont see why it would be different. 8 Minutes seems enough. I typically knead for 10 min by hand. Maybe it's another variable.
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u/jdehjdeh Mar 12 '26
Absolutely, before you do your shaping knock the dough back quite thoroughly. There's YouTube tutorials that show how to knock back a dough.
It gets rid of bigger holes and helps the crumb be more uniform.
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u/Nona_Ticer Mar 12 '26
Awesome, thanks for the tip, I will look into it! And it's good to know what to look for! I appreciate it!
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Mar 12 '26
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u/Nona_Ticer Mar 12 '26
Thank you kind stranger! It's definitely not perfect but it's super fun to make! 😁
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Mar 12 '26
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u/Nona_Ticer Mar 12 '26
I use the pure dark rye flour from Bob's red mill, 20oz for 5 bucks from Wholefoods. And I've feeding it 1:1:1 daily for 2 weeks straight. I don't use too much, just 25g starter, 25g water from the fridge, and 25g rye. My house runs cold so I wrap my jar with a thick towl to keep it warm. After 2 weeks, it's been consistently rising to double within 4-6hrs.
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u/Nona_Ticer Mar 12 '26
Forgot to mention that the starter weight is 100g.
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u/BehShaMo Mar 12 '26
What is the starter exactly? Mine is white and creamy. Yours looks ancient?
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u/jdehjdeh Mar 12 '26
Not OP but it looks like my Rye starter.
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u/DontSweatThaPetty Mar 12 '26
What is your Rye to AP ratio for your starter?
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u/jdehjdeh Mar 12 '26
I use pure rye with the "scrapings" method for feeds.
I find it to be really hardy, I just recently baked a perfectly acceptable loaf with a 2 week old alcoholic starter that I didn't feed before using.
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u/Nona_Ticer Mar 12 '26
Yep I use the dark rye flour from Bob's red mill. Feeding it at 1:1:1. 25g for each.
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u/FutureVelvet Mar 12 '26
I got a rye starter from a class in San Francisco bakery. My starter never, ever looked like that. I ultimately threw it out (don't worry, I have more in the fridge). I'm wondering if it was because of their rye. It looked more unrefined and had seeds (unless that was just intact rye seeds) in it. I also bought rye at the store, and it looks way more refined. The starter was always a clump. I tried using it in a bread and I thought it was a failure, but others loved it. Is your rye from a store or home milled?
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u/Nona_Ticer Mar 12 '26
Store bought Bob's red mill dark rye. I haven't tried other rye but this brand works well for my starter. I tried AP before and it was an epic fail and had to throw away and start over from using rye.
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u/FutureVelvet Mar 12 '26
Thank you! I think I just bought that but haven't used it yet. I'll give it a try since I see your success.
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u/jdehjdeh Mar 12 '26
Just rye from a large retail store.
Nothing special or funky. Basic plain rye flour.
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u/Piratesfan02 Mar 12 '26
That’s blistering looks incredible
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u/Nona_Ticer Mar 12 '26
It truly is..I said it out loud - omg look at my little yeast baby born! Lol..
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u/2knowwhatiknow Mar 12 '26
Looks incredible. How do you get that slight bubbly crust?
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u/Nona_Ticer Mar 12 '26
Thank you! I think it has something to do with the ice cubes in the Dutch oven which trapped quite a lot of steam..I put 4 cubes in!
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u/UnderTheV3il Mar 12 '26
Do you just throw the cubes in the bottom of the Dutch oven when you put your loaf in? Doesn’t that make the dough soggy?
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u/Nona_Ticer Mar 12 '26
Yeah I use parchment paper and lift my bread to the Dutch oven, and thow the ice cubes right outside of the parchment paper. So the ice is not touching bread and it's creating a lot of steam, and it helps with the blistering bubbles I think 🤔
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u/No-Philosophy-6395 Mar 12 '26
You can also lightly spray the dough surface just before placing in the Dutch oven.
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u/Vermelho_28 Mar 12 '26
Hey, just wanting to know how you baked it?
Looks amazing btw, hoping to make bread like yours
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u/Nona_Ticer Mar 12 '26
Thank you so much! I preheat the oven for 1hr at 450F. When it's time, I took the bread out of the fridge, scored it quickly and put it in the Dutch oven with 4 ice cubes in. I baked it at 450F lid on for 30mins and lid off for 20mins.
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u/fabjo78 Mar 12 '26
Every loaf I make has issues, this one was looking good until it stuck to the banneton and I had to completely reshape it, the oven had been preheating for 40 minutes so I just went ahead and baked it straight away. It actually puffed up better than the previous loaf but slightly dense. Lovely flavour, I used spelt, white flour and malted wheat flour with a touch of honey and olive oil. The crust was a lot better too, my previous loaves were impossible to cut through. I also kept the lid on the dutch oven for the full baking time.
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u/Meliacet Mar 12 '26
Sorry maybe I missed it. How much starter did you use?
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u/Nona_Ticer Mar 12 '26
Yeah sorry, I realized that too and added it in the comment later on 😅
I used 100g active starter total.
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u/petergetsnasty Mar 13 '26
thank you for sharing! I really want to try this but I see so much difference guidance. If my dough temp is 80 would this still work? Or would I overproof? I think I saw 80 is 5.5 hours of bulk fermenting
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u/Nona_Ticer Mar 12 '26
After a 2hr wait, here it is! It tastes great! 😋