Finally!

Good Bread!

I used up the last of my sourdough boles a couple days ago. I was ready for more bread, but honestly, it’s hard for me to chew sourdough all the time. So, I decided to make a modified yeast bread recipe.

I made 2 loaves, using a 60% hydration recipe.

• I did an autolyze at 50% hydration for about 60 minutes.
• I held back 10% of the water for yeast activation and added a little of my discarded sourdough starter to it, along with sugar to activate the yeast.
• I added the yeast mixture (inoculation) and mixed it in before adding the salt.
• I left for a while, so my first “stretch and fold” was done maybe 2.5 hours later. I did 3 sets of stretch and fold then let the bulk fermentation continue till it was doubled in bulk. The “windowpane” went well at that point.
• I put the dough on my table and shaped 2 loaves. One ended up a little smaller than the other, and the smaller one is shown above.
• I baked the larger loaf first at 400F for 45 minutes, then the smaller loaf at 375F for 40 minutes; both with steam.
• When they came out of the oven, I rubbed them with butter to soften the crust a little bit.
• I let them sit overnight to cool, covered loosely with foil.

Oh My!

They are absolutely amazing! The crumb is great – not gummy or overly large holes. It’s evenly bubbly.

The bread is very soft and cooked through.

It smells and tastes delicious. It doesn’t taste like yeast – it tastes like bread.

This is the best bread I’ve made to date.

All that work, getting sourdough to make bread right, paid off in a yeasted loaf.

WOW!