The Holes Are Right

I have been experimenting with my sourdough bread for about a year now. The flavor of the loaves has been nice for a long time but I just couldn't get the holes right. By holes I mean the texture of the loaf. Gluten development traps water which turns to steam and makes the holes.

After trying what I thought was everything, at least everything I could find in online sourdough bread baking sites, I had given in to the no hole texture bread. It is very good, just not what I was looking for. I guess what I was looking for would be sourdough French bread style.

By accident I discovered the resolution. The main application I have been using was a San Francisco style sourdough style website. The author suggests using a covered stoneware bread baking dish. This has distinct advantages as it keeps the heat very uniform and traps moisture inside while baking. The trapped moisture makes for a nice glossy topped loaf. He also says not to preheat the oven. So, I didn't preheat...ever.

Come Alton Brown and his "Need Not Bread" application. Alton uses a dutch oven that is preheated to bake sourdough (which in my opinion is not true sourdough) bread. I tried it, burned it (too many briquettes) in my camp style dutch oven, and got perfect holes. Mary was happy and I was happy.

After experimenting with my "real" sourdough, cooking it in a preheated stoneware dish, in the gas oven I found, that was it. Very happy with my bread loaves now.

Dutch Oven Sourdough Biscuits

Yes that is my old satellite dish. I tried to give it away, nobody wanted it. Let's see if it makes a good redneck cook-top.

I was up by 5:30 this morning to make a batch of biscuits for breakfast in my new Dutch Oven. I have never cooked with this method before so I wanted to try it on Mary and me first. They were done much quicker than the directions I had said to cook them. That was OK because I checked them at just the right time.

Some of the recipes I read said you figure briquettes at 25 degrees each, others said to use another formula. It is to use the number of briquettes equal to your oven diameter plus three for the top and minus three for the bottom, ie; 10" oven = 13 on top and 7 under. My calculations showed that to be 500 degrees, 20 briquettes x 25 degrees each. Maybe that is why they cooked quicker.

They still came out good. The recipes warn they will not be light and fluffy as it is a cowboy method. Anyway I'll try some meat another time. For more photos take a look at the previous blog: Dutch Oven Cooking

Dutch Oven Cooking