#ken forkish

I'm pretty shit at pictures, but that bread I was making the other day came out baller. It's the Saturday white bread from Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast by Ken Forkish. She's topped with a garlic anchovy butter.

bread log (blog) 7

Because I’m leaving for college soon, I decided to hasten my bread-making schedule so I can hone my sourdough skills. The goal is to make a perfect sourdough loaf for my English teacher, the person who gifted me my first starter. I’ve realized that making sourdough and creating a levain takes soooo long. Even getting started was a FIVE DAY process...and I used up all my whole wheat flour in the process.  

Ingredients:

740g King Arthur’s all-purpose white flour

60g whole wheat flour

620g water

20g fine sea salt

2g yeast 

360g of BEAUTIFUL levain

Stats:

water temp: 91.8°F

autolyze time: 22 min

temp after mixing in salt and yeast: 80.9°F (too high)

Fold 1: 25 min into bulk rise

Fold 2: 50 min into bulk rise

Fold 3: 1 hr 15 min into bulk rise

Fold 4: 2 hr into bulk rise

Total bulk rise: 4 hours 30 min

proof: 12 hr

bake: 30 min lid on 15 lid off

Final product:

Commentary:

I’m not going to get too attached to my levain since I’m leaving for college soon, but I just have to say that it smells so good. In the first few days when it was getting started it smelled kinda funky, but by day five the acidity started smelling cleaner. About the bread itself...easily the best I’ve ever made. It’s not as beautiful as Saturday White Loaf #2, but the chewy texture of the crumb and the complex flavors the levain creates make it really stand out.