November 21, 2024

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

November 21, 2024/ Jenny Morris

November 07, 2024

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

November 07, 2024/ Jenny Morris

October 25, 2024

Sweet and Salty Chocolate Chip Cookies

October 25, 2024/ Jenny Morris

October 16, 2024

Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies

October 16, 2024/ Jenny Morris

October 12, 2024

Sourdough Tools: The Essentials for Beginners

October 12, 2024/ Jenny Morris

What are the tools you need to get started making your own sourdough bread at home?

Not much, honestly! Part of the beauty of sourdough is its simplicity. It’s extremely simple to make, needing only flour, water, salt, and some sourdough starter (which itself is made from just water and flour). There are many, many factors that will affect your bread, which is where it can get complicated and scientific, but it is a beautiful and addicting process that I hope you embark on and enjoy!

If you’re brand new to sourdough, maybe you’ve never made a loaf before or not even entirely sure what it is, I’ll walk you through what you need to get started. As already stated above, you probably already have everything!

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Sourdough Ingredients:

Flour - either all-purpose flour or bread flour. Small percentages of whole wheat and other types of flour can be added in, as desired. For the sake of simplicity, it’s nice to start out with 1 - 2 flours.
Water - sourdough likes spring water, filtered purified water, bottled water…it doesn’t do as well on distilled water, tap water that has been treated, or hard water.
Salt
Sourdough starter - you can purchase one, find a friend who will share with you, or start your own. Soon I’ll put up a little guide to starting your own starter. It’s very simple, but sometimes can require a little troubleshooting. You only need flour and water.

Sourdough Tools

Getting Started

To make a basic loaf of sourdough bread, you’ll need:

a bowl for mixing
a kitchen scale*
something to cover the bowl with (plastic wrap, beeswax wrap, clean towel, etc)
a small workspace
parchment paper
an oven
oven mitts
a sharp knife
Dutch oven or similar enclosed baking vessel*

Simple, right? With these things, you can make sourdough bread. It is more than possible, and a good place to start before investing in more tools. It may not be the perfect loaves you see in bakeries or in pictures, but even if you start with allll the tools, your first loaves probably wouldn’t be perfect anyway.

*It IS possible to make sourdough without a scale or Dutch oven. However, the vast majority of recipes are by weight, as this is key to understanding sourdough. So while there are a few kind souls out there who have shared sourdough recipes that include weight and cups/teaspoon measurements, it is really worth getting a scale. You can find inexpensive ones for less than $15. Same goes for a dutch oven. Starting without one may offer more discouraging results than encouraging. Yes, you definitely can bake sourdough straight on a pizza stone, baking steel, or even a cookie sheet, but it’s trickier to get the proper amount of steam for optimal bread when you open bake like this. Starting with a dutch oven eliminates one more variable you may have to work with.

Not to mention, with both a scale and dutch oven, they are multi-purpose. Even if you don’t continue with sourdough bread, scales offer more consistent results for baking, and dutch ovens are wonderful for cooking.

If using a scale doesn’t appeal to you, for sourdough or any baking, consider reading this article to understand the benefits to baking with a scale.

There is not much between you and your first loaves of sourdough bread. Honestly, sourdough baking may seem intimidating, but if you can take that first step and simply try it, a whole new world of fun will be open to you, not to mention fresh, homemade, healthier bread.

Other kinds of bread:

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Favorite Blueberry Muffins

Morris House Rolls (Parker House Rolls)

Jenny's Favorite Cinnamon Rolls

Flax Bread

Whole Wheat Garlic Knots

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Overnight Bagels

Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread

Buttermilk Bread

Whole Wheat Bread

Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Muffins

October 09, 2024

Pasta ai Quattro Formaggi all'Americana - Four Cheese Pasta

October 09, 2024/ Jenny Morris

Pasta ai Quattro Formaggi is an Italian dish, luxuriously creamy yet deceptively simple to make. It simply requires boiling pasta, melting four different cheeses into some milk, then tossing the pasta in the cheesy sauce. Voila. Pasta ai Quattro Formaggi.

Italian version coming soon.

This is essentially the same dish, but Americanized. Instead of simply melting cheese into milk, this version takes the roux route. A few more ingredients, a touch more time, but more foolproof and able to be more inexpensive. Allow me to elaborate.

More flexibility on the cheeses

Because the Italian version melts cheese straight into milk, you have to be more mindful of which cheeses you’re using lest you end up with gummy chunks of cheese in the sauce. The cheeses used are often taleggio, Parmigiano reggiano, gorgonzola, and gruyère. Other alternatives include brie, pecorino, grana padano, fontina, emmental, Edam, stracchino or robiola.

Do you know what all of those cheeses have in common? They are all specialty cheeses, highly unlikely to be found in the cheese aisle at any grocery store. If you’re lucky, your grocery store might have a specialty cheese section where you can find all or some of these. Otherwise you’ll have to go to a specialty cheese place to find them. This makes this dish both expensive and elusive to make.

Enter, the Americanized version. When you make a cheese sauce with a roux, it’s more forgiving of which cheeses you add. Now, I still wouldn’t be reaching for fresh mozzarella, but it frees you up to use a combination of four different cheeses that might not normally work in the Italian version.

That said, two cheeses that seem to be classic in quattro formaggi, whether it’s the pasta or the pizza: Gorgonzola and Parmigiano. Sure, use the American made parmesan (just not the plastic-y pre shredded or grated kind though, ok?) rather than exclusively Parmigiano, but still use some kind of real parmesan. The other two cheeses you can be more flexible with. Sometimes I’ll use Asiago or mozzarella (low moisture, not fresh), Monterey, cream cheese, or other inexpensive yet decent melting cheeses.

Pasta, I Love Thee:

Pasta ai Quattro Formaggi all'Americana - Four Cheese Pasta

Simple Sesame Noodles

Shrimp Scampi

Herbed Six Cheese Pasta

Crispy Gnocchi with Brussels Sprouts

Broccoli Cheddar Pasta

Greek Pasta Salad

Butternut Squash and Sage Pasta

Roasted Red Pepper and Goat Cheese Pasta

Garlic, Oil, and Pepper Pasta - Aglio, Olio, e Peperoncino

Spinach Artichoke Pasta

Spaghetti with Tuna - Spaghetti al Tonno

Pasta ai Quattro Formaggi all’Americana

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1 lb / 500g short pasta of choice
2 Tbsp / 28g butter
2 Tbsp / 15g all-purpose flour
2 cups / 474g milk
2 oz / 57g low-moisture mozzarella, shredded
2 oz / 57g parmesan, shredded
2 oz / 57g Gorgonzola crumbles
2 oz / 57g cream cheese
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, generously salt; cook pasta according to package directions, just 1-2 minutes less than stated cooking time.
In a medium-large pot over medium heat, melt better. Add flour, stirring for 1-2 minutes until flour is absorbed and lightly toasted. Add about 1/4 cup of milk, whisking briskly. When milk is mixed in and mixture has thickened, add in another 1/4 cup milk, whisking constantly. Continue adding in milk slowly, whisking all the while. Bring to a simmer.
Add in cheeses and stir until melted and smooth. Salt and pepper to taste.
Drain pasta, reserving 1 cup water. Add pasta to cheese sauce and mix to evenly coat pasta. Add some reserved pasta water as desired, to thin out and create an even creamier sauce, mixing for a couple more minutes until sauce coats and clings to pasta.

Jenny’s Notes:

The four cheeses can be swapped out, however to stay tastefully close to the Italian version, keep the Parmesan and Gorgonzola.

Yield 4-6

Author Jennyblogs

Prep time

5 Min

Cook time

25 Min

Total time

30 Min

Pasta ai Quattro Formaggi all’Americana

Four Cheese Pasta inspired by the Italian classic "Pasta ai Quattro Formaggi" with an American twist: made with a roux and cheeses that can be interchanged more easily. This dish is luxurious and cheesy, and easy enough for quick weeknight meals.

Cook modePrevent screen from turning off

Ingredients

Instructions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, generously salt; cook pasta according to package directions, just 1-2 minutes less than stated cooking time.
In a medium-large pot over medium heat, melt better. Add flour, stirring for 1-2 minutes until flour is absorbed and lightly toasted. Add about 1/4 cup of milk, whisking briskly. When milk is mixed in and mixture has thickened, add in another 1/4 cup milk, whisking constantly. Continue adding in milk slowly, whisking all the while. Bring to a simmer.
Add in cheeses and stir until melted and smooth. Salt and pepper to taste.
Drain pasta, reserving 1 cup water. Add pasta to cheese sauce and mix to evenly coat pasta. Add some reserved pasta water as desired, to thin out and create an even creamier sauce, mixing for a couple more minutes until sauce coats and clings to pasta.

Notes

The four cheeses can be swapped out, however to stay tastefully close to the Italian version, keep the Parmesan and Gorgonzola.

Nutritional information is approximate. Based on 4 servings.

https://jennyblogs.com/blog/2024/10/7/pasta-ai-quattro-formaggi-allamericana-four-cheese-pasta

four cheese pasta, quick easy weeknight meal, dinner party pasta, Italian cheese pasta, pasta ai quattro formaggi

dinner, pasta

Italian, American

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @jennyblogsandbakes on instagram and hashtag it #jennyblogs

More Dinner Recipes:

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

Pasta ai Quattro Formaggi all'Americana - Four Cheese Pasta

Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry

Taco Salad

Cozy Lentil Curry

Simple Sesame Noodles

Shrimp Scampi

Green Tofu and Vegetable Curry

Smooth Potato and Vegetable Soup

Sticky Lemon Tofu

Herbed Six Cheese Pasta

Tofu and Broccoli Stir Fry

October 05, 2024

Adding Inclusions to Sourdough Bread

October 05, 2024/ Jenny Morris

Last updated October 8, 2024

Sourdough bread is delicious, but once you start playing with flavors and inclusions, a whole new world opens up. From cheddar jalapeño, pesto, or rosemary garlic, to double chocolate, lemon lavender or pumpkin, the options are endless.

The three main questions when it comes to inclusions are how much to add in, when to add them in, and how to add them in.

Sourdough Tips:

The 5-Minute Score Method

Avoiding the Sourdough Dark Bottom Crust

Sourdough Tools: The Essentials for Beginners

Sourdough Terminology

How much to add?

There is a general rule of adding not more than 20% of your flour weight in inclusions.

This is a good place to start, but certainly not where you have to stay. There is also confusion on this rule, as some say it’s 20% of the flour weight while a few say it’s 20% of the total dough weight. I actually read the latter way when I first started adding inclusions, and I must say everything turned out fine, for adding more than I was “supposed” to. Really fine, actually.

The best way to find out how much you should add is to try it out in your dough and environment with the inclusions you have in mind. You can start with 20% of flour weight, and work form there. Too much really only exists when your loaf starts getting too flat (for your tastes) or the flavor is too strong.

I noticed from the moment I learned the 20% rule that what seemed like every. Single. Recipe for flavored sourdough included more than the 20% rule, and I was really wondering why have a rule at all if everyone is going to break it anyway?

Cheddar Jalapeño with different percentage inclusions

I’ve played around with different percentages and found that I like 30% of flour weight. Anything above 30%, and my loaves start to get flatter than I prefer. Lower than 30%, and I don’t get enough of the inclusions. I like to use Kirkland’s (Costco) all-purpose flour (protein 11.5%) because it is organic, but I could probably push the inclusion percentage a bit more if I were to use King Arthur’s Bread Flour (protein content 12.7%). Stronger flours and lower hydrations can help hold more inclusions.

As with anything sourdough, there are many variables that go into this conclusion, so you’re welcome to try out 30% but also don’t be surprised if that’s not your favorite. It depends on what the inclusions are, how strong your flour is, how well the loaves are fermented, etc.

For some visuals, I baked off 4 different loaves, all cheddar jalapeño, but each with a different percentage of inclusions. First I went all out and did 48% and 36%, then another batch with 35% and 30%. I love lots of cheese in my bread, so didn’t prefer to go below 30%.

First batch with 48% and 36%:

Second batch with 35% and 30%:

Scoring to help differentiate between loaves: a wheat stalk with 3 spikes on each side and one with five on each side, for 35%. The 30% loaf had just one wheat stalk with three spikes.

It’s fairly easy to see the dough with the most inclusions is the flattest, while the dough with the least is the highest.

When to add in inclusions?

Inclusions can be added at 3 points, really. Which one you choose depends largely on what you are adding.

They can be mixed in right when you mix your dough.
This is best for smaller amounts or lighter inclusions, such as citrus zest, extracts, sugar, cocoa powder, etc. Heavier inclusions such as cheese chunks or even spices like cinnamon can have a negative effect on the bulk fermentation and it’s best to wait.
They can be added during bulk fermentation (during stretch and folds or coil folds)
I often do 4 sets of stretch and folds and find the sweet spot for adding in inclusions is the 2nd or 3rd set. This gives them time to get decently incorporated while still giving the dough a leg up in bulk fermentation. When I have too many things going and don’t get the inclusions added in until the 4th stretch and fold, the inclusions don’t get dispersed quite as well.
They can be added in during the shaping.
If you do a pre-shape, you can add them in then. If not, then you can add them in while you fold and roll your dough into its final shape, before placing it in its banneton.

For a small example of what it looks like to add inclusions in at different times and how that affects the final loaf, here are two loaves of pesto bread.

One has mixed the pesto in right at the beginning, with all the other ingredients.

The other, the pesto is laminated in instead of doing a 4th set of stretch and folds.

Lamination created a bit of a swirl effect, but it was harder to work with. Any time the oily pesto would pop through during shaping, the dough wouldn’t want to hold its shape, and it was difficult to shape it with the proper surface tension. You can see that I had difficulty shaping it by it’s slightly flatter profile, compared to the other loaf.

Mixing pesto in at the beginning creates a loaf with pesto evenly distributed, and was much easier to work with. In fact, the oil in the pesto getting mixed straight in even made the crumb a bit more tender, and was really lovely.

Taste overall was very similar, but for ease of making and the extra tender crumb, I would definitely just mix pesto straight in at the beginning rather than laminating.

While this is certainly not indicative of all inclusions, it’s a small insight into when and how you add inclusions can affect the final loaf.

How to Incorporate Inclusions?

How you incorporate inclusions depends on when you add them.

If making a chocolate espresso loaf, for example, you’d just mix in cocoa powder and espresso at the same time you’re kneading everything else together for your dough.

Otherwise, for chunkier things like cheese, fruit, etc, you can add them in during stretch and folds/coil folds as mentioned above or you can laminate them in.

To add during stretch and folds:

Start by sprinkling about a 1/4 of the inclusions over your dough in the bowl, then performing one stretch and fold/coil fold, stretching dough over inclusions and gently pressing dough into dough in other side to seal it shut. Sprinkle another 1/4 of inclusions on top and repeat a stretch and fold. Continue two more times until all inclusions have been added and each side has been stretched and folded.

If performing coil folds, it’s a similar idea, adding a little at a time while you pick up and coil your dough down, doing your best to get the inclusions evenly dispersed.

To add during lamination:

Lamination is a technique used in sourdough to strengthen the dough and is a great time to add in inclusions.

Spreading pesto over dough before folding back up

Start by lightly misting a clean workspace, then stretching the dough in as large and thin a rectangle as you can, being careful not to tear the dough. Evenly sprinkle inclusions over dough, then fold dough several times to get a tight and neat little ball again.

Lamination is my favorite way to get evenly distributed inclusions. I enjoy the lamination process, but it does take a bit extra work to clean a work space before and after rather than just adding the inclusions straight into the bowl with the dough for a stretch and fold. Lamination also isn’t as friendly when working with large batches of dough.

Tips for success when adding inclusions:

Play around with the percentage you like. It might not be the same for all inclusions!
If your loaf is going flat, you might have exaggerated with the amount of inclusions. Otherwise, rule out any other factors such as a weak starter, under or over fermented dough, lack of proper gluten development, lack of proper shaping, etc.
Using a stronger flour (higher protein content) can help to hold inclusions better.
Keep in mind that some inclusions will add moisture to your dough. You may want to lower dough hydration accordingly. I find great success with lowering hydration to under 70% when working with heavier and wetter inclusions such as cheese and fruit.
Some inclusions will affect the fermentation. Fruit and sugar will cause dough to ferment faster, so start checking your dough earlier than you normally would.
Try to keep inclusion chunks away from the outside of the dough when it bakes, otherwise they can burn. This is especially true of sugary things like fruit, dried fruit, chocolate chips, etc. You can help this by simply sticking any outside pieces back under and into the dough when doing the pre and/or final shape.
I would recommend against using silicone bread slings for sourdough with any kind of messy inclusions, and stick with parchment paper. The slings are designed to just barely cover the bottom of loaves, avoiding leaving any kind of indentations on the bread. However, the edges of the loaf then often come into contact with the dutch oven, which can bake cheese, fruit juices, etc. right onto your dutch oven. Not fun to clean. Using parchment paper will skip the mess and keep your dutch ovens cleaner.

If you've read this far:

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

The 5-Minute Score Method

How to Test Your Flour's Hydration Capacity

Cold Retard: Does It Matter How the Dough Is Covered?

Avoiding the Sourdough Dark Bottom Crust

Sourdough Tools: The Essentials for Beginners

Adding Inclusions to Sourdough Bread

Is an Autolysis Necessary for Sourdough Bread?

Using All-Purpose Flour vs. Bread Flour in Sourdough Bread

Sourdough Terminology

New Sourdough Series

Favorite Blueberry Muffins

September 28, 2024

Is an Autolysis Necessary for Sourdough Bread?

September 28, 2024/ Jenny Morris

When I first started making sourdough loaves at home, I wanted to have as much success as possible right from the get go, so I started by using as many techniques and tricks as I could, rather than starting with a basic recipe and adding in techniques as needed. Spoiler alert, my bread wasn’t perfect, and I ended up working in the opposite direction. Rather than adding in more things to make my bread better, I started taking out certain steps and techniques one by one, to see if they were really serving their purpose, or just wasting my time.

One such technique was the autolyse method. Some of the people I respect most in the sourdough world use an autolysis. So I did, too. It wasn’t until one day, reading another respected sourdough person who went off on a bit of a rant, that they claimed that autolyse isn’t necessary, and in fact they do not recommend it. As they said, autolysis is a process developed and intended for breads made with commercial yeast, whose rise time is shorter and would benefit from an autolysis. Since sourdough bread has much longer fermentation times, autolysis isn’t as beneficial, or so this person was saying. I haven’t been able to locate any one reliable source that states anything as clearly as “autolysis was developed for commercial bread products and yeast, not so much sourdough”, but let’s run with it for the purpose of this mini experiment.

This intrigued me, and in a way, relieved me. I’ve heard many a baker explain and laud the praises of an autolysis, and yet, I secretly did not enjoy the autolysis process. It just felt…cumbersome. Adding on more time. Harder to mix the dough. More on that later.

King Arthur has an interesting article on using an autolysis, including experiments with both sourdough and instant yeast. Their article tends to give confirmation toward an autolysis being the most beneficial for commerical yeast over sourdough.

On the other hand, Maurizio of The Perfect Loaf does a similar experiment, but with his loaves showing a marked difference with autolyse. He also really gets more into the science of autolysis and explains it very well.

What is an autolysis?

Autolysis (noun) - Autolyse (verb)

Simply, an autolysis is simply mixing flour and water together and letting them sit for a period of time. The water helps to activate some of the enzymes in the flour, developing gluten, before adding other ingredients which can have an effect on gluten. Adding salt “tightens” the dough, and adding the starter commences fermentation. When just flour and water are combined, they are free to act in a way they otherwise wouldn’t when salt and starter are present.

While I had already been wanting to experiment and see what the difference might be between a loaf that got an autolysis and one that didn’t, I felt spurred into action when that knowledgeable sourdough person said they don’t recommend autolysis. Now I knew that, should I decide to not always faithfully autolyse, I wouldn’t be alone in that camp.

I’ve now done this experiment two separate times. In my first experiment the result didn’t feel overly conclusive to me, as there were several other factors going on that affected the fermentation and bake. It didn’t feel safe to say one way or another if the autolysis was the reason for the differing outcomes, but now that I’ve done this experiment twice, I feel a little safer in sharing my results.

Before we finally get into my little mini experiment, a couple of things to note:

Sourdough is highly dependent on environment, ingredients, etc. so while I hope you find the results below interesting and informative, I would encourage you to do your own experiments for your own kitchen environment!
The results below are tested solely on unbleached white flours. One of the benefits of autolysis is that it can help break down bran, so may show more benefits in breads that use some percentage of whole grain flours.

Autolyse vs No Autolyse #1

Method:

Both loaves were made with 100% Kirkland organic all-purpose flour, 71% hydration, 1.6% salt, 20% starter.
For the autolyse loaf, water and flour were mixed together and let rest for 1 hour before adding in salt and starter.
For the No-autolyse loaf, all ingredients were mixed together.
Both loaves got 3 sets of stretch & folds
Autolyse loaf temped at 74°F, while No-autolyse loaf was at 77°F after the 1st set of stretch & fold and 75°F by the end of all stretch & folds.
Both loaves bulk fermented for 8 hours, pre-shaped for 35 minutes, then final shape for 35 minutes before into fridge for cold retard overnight.
Both loaves were baked in dutch ovens in oven preheated to 450°F for 35 minutes with lid on.

Observations:

Mixing the Flour and Water for the autolysis is not my favorite. I don’t enjoy using the autolysis technique when making bread for this reason. Unless working with high hydration doughs, which I don’t often go higher than 75%, it takes a few minutes to adequately mix the flour and water. Usually a bit of water is reserved from the autolysis to help mix in the salt after the autolysis is done. This means you’re mixing the dough without it having its full hydration, thus a stiffer dough. Then after autolyse, trying to mix just salt, a bit of water, and starter into an already formed and fairly stiff dough is not easy and may not get mixed in as well.

The Autolyse Loaf gets an advantage in gluten development. Because of the thorough mixing just mentioned above in order to incorporate all ingredients after the autolysis, the dough gets a leg up in gluten development. The No-autolyse loaf dough comes together easily and thus doesn’t require the same amount of mixing. During the stretch & folds this was quite apparent, with the Autolyse dough already showing good gluten-development and the No-autolyse loaf still being quite loose and elastic. By the end of the third stretch & fold set, however, the doughs felt quite similar; the No-autolyse loaf had mostly caught up.

Despite Bulk Fermentation starting at the same time for both doughs, they were not the same temperature. The reason for this is simple, and I really should’ve taken this into account for this experiment. I was using water that was slightly warmer than room temperature. When the bulk of the water is added for an autolysis, the time the dough is resting allows the water to cool to room temp, so by the time you add the starter and bulk ferment starts, everything is nicely at room temperature. Without doing an autolysis, the warmer water is added right in with the starter and all other ingredients, so the dough and bulk ferment temperature starts a bit warmer, although it will inevitably cool to room temperature over time. Because of this, my doughs had differing temperatures and thus different projected bulk ferment times.

Both loaves slightly over-fermented. Using the wisdom and work of Tom Cucuzza from the Sourdough Journey, I usually reference his chart for bulk fermentation times and rise %, although my starter does tend to ferment slightly faster than said chart. Despite my (even written down) projected bulk ferment times for each dough and times to start checking them, time got away from me and my three young children were needing me. By the time I was able to get to the dough it was already almost 2 hours after when I had originally planned to start checking the dough, and 1 hour after the realistic time of when it probably would have been ready. I pre-shaped both doughs at the same time since they were both already slightly over, with the No-autolyse being a little more over-fermented than the Autolyse dough.

Conclusion:

Despite some of the above noted variables, I loosely concluded that including an autolysis did not provide a noticeable difference in end product due to over-fermenting the dough. I decided to repeat this experiment, and specifically to get the doughs fermenting at the same temperature with a better targeted bulk ferment so it might be more obvious the effect of autolyse on the crumb rather than fermentation problems.

Autolyse vs. No-Autolyse Experiment #2

Method:

Both loaves were made with 100% Kirkland organic all-purpose flour, 71% hydration, 1.6% salt, 20% starter.
For the autolyse loaf, water and flour were mixed together and let rest for 1 hour before adding in salt and starter.
For the No-autolyse loaf, all ingredients were mixed together.
Both loaves received 2 sets of stretch & folds.
Autolyse Loaf temped at 77°F at beginning of bulk ferment, 75°F by end of second set of stretch & folds, then 76°F again at end of bulk ferment.
No-Autolyse Loaf temped at 76°F at beginning of bulk ferment, 75°F by end of second set of stretch & folds, then 78°F by end of bulk ferment.
Both loaves bulk fermented for a total of 6 hours 10 minutes. Autolyse loaf had a rise of approximately 70% while the Autolyse loaf rose approximately 45-50%. (Very much eyeballing that, so take that with a grain of salt.)
Both loaves were pre-shaped and rested for 20 minutes, then final shape into bannetons, rested 10 minutes, and into fridge for cold retard overnight.
Both loaves were baked in dutch ovens in oven preheated to 450°F for 35 minutes with lid on.

Autolyse Loaf (wheat design to mimic an "A" for Autolyse, if you will

No-Autolyse Loaf, wheat design mimicking an "n"

Observations:

Intersetingly, temperatures varied quite a bit between the 2 loaves. Despite being very careful this time around to use all ingredients at room temperature, the temperature varied not only between the two loaves but also at different times. Sure, it’s late summer so my kitchen ends up a few degrees warmer by mid and end of day, but the two loaves did not reflect this consistently. This leaves me with more questions unanswered than answered.

Why did the Autolyse Loaf end up 1 degree warmer still at start of bulk ferment? You would think, if perhaps the water from the measuring cup I was using was 1 degree warmer, the 1 hour that the dough sits to autolyse would be more than enough to bring the dough to room temperature. And IF the water was 1 degree warmer, the No-Autolyse Loaf would have ended up the 1 degree warmer since it gets all of its water at the beginning of bulk ferment. Not to mention, I used a large measuring cup of water, measured out for the Autolyse Loaf, and that water also sat out on the counter for an hour. It doesn’t get any more room temperature than that!

Moreso, why did the No-Autolyse Loaf end up a few degrees warmer by end of bulk ferment? The two bowls were side by side, no drafts or sun or any other factor that I am aware of would have heated up or cooled down one dough over the other. The Autolyse Loaf maintained temperature at 76°F while the No-Autolyse Loaf increased temperature by 3 degrees during bulk ferment. Fascinating. Its rise clearly reflected the warmer temperature, as it was significantly puffier than the Autolyse Loaf.

Despite the difference in rise % between the two loaves, I ended bulk ferment at the same time. I was trying to maintain absolute consistency between these loaves in method, rather than guessing different bulk ferments, pulling them at different times based on rise, temperature, and time. The bulk ferments were intended to be identical after all, as the doughs were made identically save autolyse, but the temperature fluctuations threw me for a loop!

The crumb ended up quite similar. Noting the difference in rise % and temperature between the two doughs, they still ended up with a very similar crumb. Reading the crumb and trying to ignore that information, I would not have guessed that.

Crumbshot, No-Autolyse Loaf on left, Autolyse loaf on Right

The Autolyse Loaf ended up with a slightly wonky shape. While overall I don’t think it has too much bearing on this experiment, it still bears noting. As you can see in the overhead shot of the Autolyse Loaf both before and after baking, its shape is not symmetrical. This is possibly due to shaping error, or also likely, the linen lining the banneton was pressing into the dough on one side and left an impression. I tend to think this caused the rise during the cold retard to more easily expand on the side where the linen wasn’t holding it down.

Conclusion:

Four loaves of bread is hardly conclusive. Again, and always with sourdough, there are variabilities. My home kitchen is not temperature controlled, sometimes life and children pull me away, among so many other nuances. However, I still enjoyed this experiment and thought you might find it interesting as well, so I thought it still worth sharing.

Overall, I think I will find myself skipping autolysis more often now, but will still include it in some instances.

Happy baking, friends!

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September 25, 2024

Homemade Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

September 25, 2024/ Jenny Morris

Last Updated September 28, 2024

Ranch. The quintessential American dressing and dip. It’s white and creamy, tangy, and flavorful from the herbs and garlic.

Many Americans use Ranch on everything from their pizza and chicken tenders to their vegetables and salads. Some feel very strongly about it, they must have it to eat certain foods. In Italy, I had some American friends who would always request big jugs of Ranch if anyone was coming over to visit them.

Once when I was in Austria in a supermarket, I saw some bottles of salad dressing, one of which was named “American.” Why of course, if in America we have Italian dressing, French dressing, then other countries would have an American dressing. And yes, it was white and creamy so I can only surmise that it was some version of Ranch.

I like Ranch, but have never really understood the hype around it. I’d rather eat my pizza and taste pizza rather than eat pizza and taste Ranch, you know? Especially when you look at the ingredients in a bottle of Ranch or even Ranch packets that you make at home, the ingredients are not the best.

That’s where homemade Ranch comes into play. Not only is it super simple to make, but you know exactly what ingredients are going into your dressing, and it tastes fresher and better. After making this, you may never go back to store-bought again!

Use Ranch on salads, as a dip for vegetables, and yes, even on your pizza or however you like it best! I just made a quart of this the other day and mixed some with Frank’s Hot Sauce as a dressing for some buffalo pasta salad, yum!

Recipe from my mama

More make-ables:

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Ingredients:

Directions:

Jenny’s Notes: