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New weekend, new bake.

So this will probably be the last for me for a few weeks. Well sourdough.

So this one is full strong white flour (starter and flour) and I am very happy with it.


The main difference and the very first one (the one that collapsed) is less water in the mix.
Made it hold together better for me and retained shape.

Todays loaf was not good.

I still think loading up some charcoal, open the dampers and chimney, you will get some heat that will dry out any left over food inside. Which is all you really want to do.
Can try brushing most of it off and should prevent mould returning.

Well, I do BBQ at 110-130°C. I am far, far away from 200°C. As I only burn charcoal I cant even get my smoker to that temperature. And when I burn wood, my neighbours complain about the smoke. So yeah, that might be a problem. 

As usual I forgot to lower the rack in the oven, so it is slightly too high.
But I am not bothered about the crust, it is the colour of the bread I am really trying to keep as white as possible.
I am not adding water to the oven and the flour on the crust is from the proving basket.
I also should use my pizza stone, to get a good crisp bottom of the loaf, but I don't want to change anything yet, it is all about the inner bread for now.

Next weekend is to just use strong flour again, go back to the start and see if that does collapse again.
I don't want to add any other type of flour, that is the challenge. But interesting to see how they react.

As for the taste,  I didn't find it very strong. But what I have noticed is when you add whole wheat you get a stronger sourdough taste than pure white flour. Well I will confirm this next weekend.

I have used my 57cm weber to do indirect, it worked well, but you need the good grill.
I used the side baskets, so you need the grill with the lift up sides, so you can add more as you go along.
https://thebbqshop.co.uk/17436-57cm-stainless-hinged-grid-bbq-accessories
I have seen the snake method, never tried it, but that does need briquettes.

I have not had the mould problem, my friend does.
The difference is, he will finish cooking and close the door.
I will run mine for 15 minutes over 200c to burn off any left over food etc.

Yeah, this looks really good! Crust is too thick for my taste, but that's just my personal preference. Crumb looks great - how strong is the sourdough taste?

To me it looks like heat from above was stronger than from below - is this just the photo?

Well done - take this as a starting point for your next breads!

 

That looks nice! 

I've got mould in my smoker. Never had that problem before. But I am used to my stainless steel grill and that minimal cleaning philosophy of smokers looked very strange to me from the first moment on. I want something, that I can put in the dishwasher (stainless steel grillage) and want to utilize a wire brush to get off remains. That "you need the patina" talk is rubbish.

A bigger kettle grill suitable for nice indirect grilling can do BBQ, too. At least there are tons of videos available on that topic. My problem: I want to use charcoal rather than briquette and don't know, if that would work for BBQ and how you could handle refilling (if that was even necessary). I mean... you have to open the whole thing to put more charcoal in, right?

Next experiment done.
So this is my strong flour starter.
Took 100g of it, added 100g of whole wheat and water.

I let this grow and created a loaf just using strong flour.

I am really pleased with this one, the structure is good and has a good taste.
Plus it still looks like a white loaf.

The bit on the right is not that dark, just how the photo was taken.

Not much to report. Did some BBQ for the street party.

I had a problem with the smoker, so I need to order new parts. I was surprised to see I have had it 4 years now.

Not much to tell, but did a few bits without any rubs, to please the locals

For the everyday scoring I use a sharp serrated blade. Tried many different knifes, but didn't work well for me. My problem: I want a thin "crusty" crust - think of baguette etc. So I try to keep the dough moist which makes it harder to score.

Another good way is using sharp scissors. Do cuts you would use on rolls, but form a line with it. Gives some kind of funny scoring, but works well.