After 8 weeks neglecting my sourdough starter in the fridge, I revved it up with a series of refreshes and then made a simple Dutch oven loaf ... came out great. It reminded me that I need to make sure my starter is sufficiently active if I want good results.
Here's my explanation for why I chose one loaf ... it's just my husband me in this household. Try as I can, he eventually defaults to store-bought bread (uggghh). Unfortunately, we live at least 20 miles away from the closest serious bakery like Bread Furst (had slices of their bread in the basket that was served to us last night and the waiter was so very helpful to give us the name). So one loaf is the most that can reasonably be eaten up by us before it goes moldy. I can always scale up using my fractional calculator if needs be.
Slice and freeze extends the shelf life so much for small families if you have enough freezer space! I have a small family too and when I bake bread I just slice it immediately once it’s cooled and pop them into larger plastic containers that have seals. It toasts up super nice. If I left it out everything would mold before we ate even a fraction of the bread!
Oh sorry, I didn’t fully explain. So once the bread is fully cooled, I slice the whole loaf up and pop into the containers and throw the whole container into the freezer! And then when we want bread I just take the number of slices out from the freezer that we need and put directly into the toaster, and it tastes pretty fresh for a long time stored like that. I used to bag them up in gallon ziplock bags but they kept getting holes in the freezer and I felt guilty about my plastic bag usage so I found some loaf sized Tupperwares from the Container Store to reuse and they’ve been working great for me. But bags with good seals work too! I save a few slices to eat fresh on bake day but we don’t eat bread that fast and it stales or molds too quickly, so direct to freezer has been great to extend the enjoyment of the bread. I usually make 2 loaves at once if I’m going through the process of baking, give away a little, eat a little fresh and freeze the rest.
Living in Madrid for a stretch, and taking a four-session "intensive bread course" on Sunday afternoons. Yesterday we did variations on sourdough, including a rye with a beer-infused poolish, a multigrain rustic boule and nice baguette-style bread with a garlic/parsley rub.
Just last week I baked a sourdough version of your Shokupain (so good!) For one loaf I use 100g of 100% starter. Since I am too lazy to write out the recipe I just use the Substack app, and do the math on the fly. I am always worried I will forget to divide something. Maybe the book could have the recipe in a table with 2 columns filled in for 1 and 2 loafs and some space left for the baker to use for their own notes or custom sizes?
Anna - I've considered that, but I worry it will make the text too cluttered and hard to read. I regularly transfer recipes to scratch paper, so I think readers can too when they want to use a scale other than my own. (And I have some ideas on e-versions of formulas that can be scaled in a snap.)
It was a bread-y weekend in chilly Vermont. I made The Loaf 1.0 as I do at least once a week -- so so good. Plus your sourdough gingerbread which is the best. As I am always on the look-out for interesting ways to use sourdough discard, I tried the cheezy-its but didn't love them. First recipe from your compendium that didn't work for me.
I fiddled with a yeasted oatmeal sandwich loaf for a zine I'm making. Working with yeast after sourdough is nuts. Amazing to see how quickly doughs boogie, and the difference in bread textures!
tangzhong “brioche” is my evergreen quest for perfection as well! these days i make it vegan and use oat milk for the tangzhong, riced potato and the potato water for body and liquid, and olive oil for the fat (all dumped in a pullman pan). Thanks for the tip there - looks DEEEELISH
Definitely one loaf- to your point about the formula relating to the thing being made- this is empowering newer bakers to learn how to read the blueprint. And it's so easy to scale up. I am also personally biased to making one loaf, so I can repeat and learn from each bake!
We’re a one loaf household as it’s just my husband and I and rarely mix and bake 2 loaves. I usually have English muffins and other rolls in the freezer for backup.
Yesterday I made the dough for pizza al taglio from Maurizio’s book (for dinner tonight) and also his “My Favorite Sourdough” which uses Carin Spring’s Trail Blazer flour (Challenger pan is preheating now). Last week I had 2/3rds of a can of coconut cream leftover from a dessert I made. Found a vegan coconut cream bread recipe online that called for a whole can. I threw in 100g of discard, used 3g of yeast (recipe called for 24g/5% which seemed excessive) and subtracted 100g of bread flour to compensate for the discard subbed some spelt into the mix as the recipe was 100% bread flour and added the rest of the coconut cream I had. I let it proof for a few hours & baked it in a 9” Pullman pan (the only part of the recipe I followed). Was quite impressed with the results! It’s not uncommon for me to end up with a very wonky loaf when I deviate from a recipe like this & was pleasantly surprised it worked out. Lol, now I’m not sure if I can ever recreate this same loaf again!
Looking forward to baking your brioche recipe Andrew. Glad you finally figured out why it was collapsing … who knew too much structure is not always a good thing!
I think one loaf is better, especially ones that need to be baked in a Dutch oven or similar. I just don’t have the space to have two of them and don’t have the time to bake them sequentially.
Here are the results of my frenzied bake sale baking this weekend:
High-hydration focaccia: 3 loaves (sold by the half-loaf)
50% Whole Wheat: 4 loaves
Shokupan de Mie: 6 loaves
B&H Challah: 4 loaves
Classic Sourdough Hearth: 4 loaves
Dinner Rolls: 6 1/2 dozen
All total, 30 items raised about $250 for our school's PTO. I used about 20 lbs of bread flour.
Everything turned out fantastically (except the dinner rolls, which were too few to the pan). The only issue I had was one of capacity: fridge, pans, mixer... Having to make multiple batches separately nearly did me in. I started early Wednesday and finished late Friday. 3 days of baking on my feet (plus trying to work simultaneously) had me exhausted by the weekend.
Andrew, your comment to Anna T: “And I have some ideas on e-versions of formulas that can be scaled in a snap.” Does this possibly mean an app to do this? I’m good at math, halving or doubling, though I prefer doubling for some reason, which is why I voted for one loaf. But something that would do the math for me—that would be awesome.
sort of, Nancy, and it will be the kind of thing I share with paid subscribers as an perk. (It will involve using a 3rd-party app that I can enter recipes into.)
I bake a loaf of sour dough bread every four or five days. I have the recipe memorized and can make it without checking. When I do bake a different recipe and it is a recipe for two loaves, I have to print out the recipe and write on the paper the correct amounts, carefully converting 480 grams to 240, etc. Otherwise, any interruption — a phone, tripping over the cat or moment of forgetfulness — and a mistake is made. This is a pain in days when so many of us cook from online recipes or look at electronic versions of cookbooks.
I made your no-knead focaccia this weekend which is always popular at my house. :) Also pumpkin pancakes with souradough discard.
After 8 weeks neglecting my sourdough starter in the fridge, I revved it up with a series of refreshes and then made a simple Dutch oven loaf ... came out great. It reminded me that I need to make sure my starter is sufficiently active if I want good results.
Here's my explanation for why I chose one loaf ... it's just my husband me in this household. Try as I can, he eventually defaults to store-bought bread (uggghh). Unfortunately, we live at least 20 miles away from the closest serious bakery like Bread Furst (had slices of their bread in the basket that was served to us last night and the waiter was so very helpful to give us the name). So one loaf is the most that can reasonably be eaten up by us before it goes moldy. I can always scale up using my fractional calculator if needs be.
Slice and freeze extends the shelf life so much for small families if you have enough freezer space! I have a small family too and when I bake bread I just slice it immediately once it’s cooled and pop them into larger plastic containers that have seals. It toasts up super nice. If I left it out everything would mold before we ate even a fraction of the bread!
After you put the bread into the container do you leave the container out on the counter? Thanks
Oh sorry, I didn’t fully explain. So once the bread is fully cooled, I slice the whole loaf up and pop into the containers and throw the whole container into the freezer! And then when we want bread I just take the number of slices out from the freezer that we need and put directly into the toaster, and it tastes pretty fresh for a long time stored like that. I used to bag them up in gallon ziplock bags but they kept getting holes in the freezer and I felt guilty about my plastic bag usage so I found some loaf sized Tupperwares from the Container Store to reuse and they’ve been working great for me. But bags with good seals work too! I save a few slices to eat fresh on bake day but we don’t eat bread that fast and it stales or molds too quickly, so direct to freezer has been great to extend the enjoyment of the bread. I usually make 2 loaves at once if I’m going through the process of baking, give away a little, eat a little fresh and freeze the rest.
Thank you
Living in Madrid for a stretch, and taking a four-session "intensive bread course" on Sunday afternoons. Yesterday we did variations on sourdough, including a rye with a beer-infused poolish, a multigrain rustic boule and nice baguette-style bread with a garlic/parsley rub.
ooooh, nice!
Just last week I baked a sourdough version of your Shokupain (so good!) For one loaf I use 100g of 100% starter. Since I am too lazy to write out the recipe I just use the Substack app, and do the math on the fly. I am always worried I will forget to divide something. Maybe the book could have the recipe in a table with 2 columns filled in for 1 and 2 loafs and some space left for the baker to use for their own notes or custom sizes?
Anna - I've considered that, but I worry it will make the text too cluttered and hard to read. I regularly transfer recipes to scratch paper, so I think readers can too when they want to use a scale other than my own. (And I have some ideas on e-versions of formulas that can be scaled in a snap.)
Makes sense. Then my vote is for one-loaf recipes in the book. Thank you!
It was a bread-y weekend in chilly Vermont. I made The Loaf 1.0 as I do at least once a week -- so so good. Plus your sourdough gingerbread which is the best. As I am always on the look-out for interesting ways to use sourdough discard, I tried the cheezy-its but didn't love them. First recipe from your compendium that didn't work for me.
I fiddled with a yeasted oatmeal sandwich loaf for a zine I'm making. Working with yeast after sourdough is nuts. Amazing to see how quickly doughs boogie, and the difference in bread textures!
oatmeal forever! (share the zine with me!!!)
I voted for one loaf, because we have a small household and a small freezer.
Busy baking weekend. I made pizzas on Saturday, pumpkin chocolate cookie bars and a sourdough boule on Sunday.
tangzhong “brioche” is my evergreen quest for perfection as well! these days i make it vegan and use oat milk for the tangzhong, riced potato and the potato water for body and liquid, and olive oil for the fat (all dumped in a pullman pan). Thanks for the tip there - looks DEEEELISH
Definitely one loaf- to your point about the formula relating to the thing being made- this is empowering newer bakers to learn how to read the blueprint. And it's so easy to scale up. I am also personally biased to making one loaf, so I can repeat and learn from each bake!
Glad you agree, Odessa!
We’re a one loaf household as it’s just my husband and I and rarely mix and bake 2 loaves. I usually have English muffins and other rolls in the freezer for backup.
Yesterday I made the dough for pizza al taglio from Maurizio’s book (for dinner tonight) and also his “My Favorite Sourdough” which uses Carin Spring’s Trail Blazer flour (Challenger pan is preheating now). Last week I had 2/3rds of a can of coconut cream leftover from a dessert I made. Found a vegan coconut cream bread recipe online that called for a whole can. I threw in 100g of discard, used 3g of yeast (recipe called for 24g/5% which seemed excessive) and subtracted 100g of bread flour to compensate for the discard subbed some spelt into the mix as the recipe was 100% bread flour and added the rest of the coconut cream I had. I let it proof for a few hours & baked it in a 9” Pullman pan (the only part of the recipe I followed). Was quite impressed with the results! It’s not uncommon for me to end up with a very wonky loaf when I deviate from a recipe like this & was pleasantly surprised it worked out. Lol, now I’m not sure if I can ever recreate this same loaf again!
Looking forward to baking your brioche recipe Andrew. Glad you finally figured out why it was collapsing … who knew too much structure is not always a good thing!
I think one loaf is better, especially ones that need to be baked in a Dutch oven or similar. I just don’t have the space to have two of them and don’t have the time to bake them sequentially.
Plus the reasons you mentioned above.
Here are the results of my frenzied bake sale baking this weekend:
High-hydration focaccia: 3 loaves (sold by the half-loaf)
50% Whole Wheat: 4 loaves
Shokupan de Mie: 6 loaves
B&H Challah: 4 loaves
Classic Sourdough Hearth: 4 loaves
Dinner Rolls: 6 1/2 dozen
All total, 30 items raised about $250 for our school's PTO. I used about 20 lbs of bread flour.
Everything turned out fantastically (except the dinner rolls, which were too few to the pan). The only issue I had was one of capacity: fridge, pans, mixer... Having to make multiple batches separately nearly did me in. I started early Wednesday and finished late Friday. 3 days of baking on my feet (plus trying to work simultaneously) had me exhausted by the weekend.
holy moly
I find it easier to scale up a recipe than cut it in half, so I prefer one-loaf recipes most of the time (even though I do double them sometimes).
Andrew, your comment to Anna T: “And I have some ideas on e-versions of formulas that can be scaled in a snap.” Does this possibly mean an app to do this? I’m good at math, halving or doubling, though I prefer doubling for some reason, which is why I voted for one loaf. But something that would do the math for me—that would be awesome.
sort of, Nancy, and it will be the kind of thing I share with paid subscribers as an perk. (It will involve using a 3rd-party app that I can enter recipes into.)
Awesome!
I bake a loaf of sour dough bread every four or five days. I have the recipe memorized and can make it without checking. When I do bake a different recipe and it is a recipe for two loaves, I have to print out the recipe and write on the paper the correct amounts, carefully converting 480 grams to 240, etc. Otherwise, any interruption — a phone, tripping over the cat or moment of forgetfulness — and a mistake is made. This is a pain in days when so many of us cook from online recipes or look at electronic versions of cookbooks.