Redux: from Latin, from reducere ‘bring back’.

I started making sourdough bread in 2011.  As I’ve described in previous posts, Chad Robertson’s book, Tartine, was my bible for the first few years.  It was also a favorite since I had often been to Tartine Bakery when I visited San Francisco.

Now that I have explored and made good use of Ken Forkish’s book and bread-making techniques, I’ve been looking for ways to improve the breads I bake.   A week ago I pulled Chad’s book off the shelf and re-read the key sections.  I also examined my bread log notes from that era, to see what I liked best.  One item stood out: the day after Christmas in 2011, I made an Olive-Walnut bread, per instructions in Tartine, page 88 (albeit with half the quantities specified for olives and walnuts).  My bread log noted that this was a Star.

I decided to try to do it again yesterday (actually beginning last night, making the levain), finishing the baking today.  Like all of the breads in the book, the recipes are pure levains, with no additional dried yeast.  Last time the two loaves for this recipe were made with 800 g KAF bread flour and 200 g whole wheat.  This time I had only 126 g of the Turkey Red Flour already milled for my whole grain.  Not wanting to open a new package of the Turkey Red Wheat Berries for just 74 g, I changed the formulation to 874/126, with the same 750 g of water.  I was a bit worried that my sourdough starter was not vigorous enough, but it was too late to do anything about now.

Below are the two loaves that resulted.  Pretty good lift, structure, and taste.  I’m planning to use some for dinner to accompany Roasted Red Pepper and Eggplant Soup.