First Sourdough Bread...Blah

Note: I'm having trouble with images. I'll get them up ASAP.

I’ve had a bad taste in my mouth (quite literally) since I baked my first sourdough boules, and that’s why Ihaven’t blogged in a while. I followed the basic country white recipe from Nancy Silverton’s book. I was unimpressed with the first rise, but the bread seemed to proof well enough in the basket.

Nevertheless, I put the boule in a 500F oven, then turned it down to 400F after 5 minutes. I misted the oven during the first five minutes as well.

I guess my cuts in the top were not sufficient, because the loaf split in a couple of places. Also, it smelled like burning – because it was. Check out the bottom. I baked it for 35 minutes.

I did let it rest for quite a while (maybe a couple of hours). The interior didn’t have irregular holes and had a sort of dense texture. I actually made two boules and the second was worse than the first. Sad. Also, the crust was very thick and did taste a little burnt. Finally, the bread was actually kind of dry. It just wasn’t something I really wanted to eat.

But I think I know what one major problem was:

This weekend, I made a non-sourdough white bread. It turned out great! It was really tasty and had a great texture. Not too crusty, but that was okay. Now, I think this was useful for my sourdough because although my oven was at the right temperatures (500F, then 400F just like the sourdough), the bread cooked in 15 minutes less time than the recipe said (30 mins instead of 45 mins). I measured it with my new thermapen – the recipe recommended a temperature of 210F. I actually took the bread out at 205F, and was not disappointed. It did continue to cook.

So I think this weekend I’m going to try to bake the sourdough again. I need to make sure my starter is really going strong and this time, I’m going to take the temperature of my sourdough after half the cooking time. If not, I’m going to make my other bread again and hope to have photos either way.