Sourdough Friday!

A hot sultry day in the region of 28°C with thundery storms forcast for later in the day. Not the ideal day for sourdough making but the dough has been rising well under these conditions. I started off 2 batches of poolish pre-fermentation last night at 8.15pm using my usual mix of 150g unbleached, organic strong white flour (from the Maud Foster mill in Boston, Lincolnshire), 150g bottled water and 20g of my rye starter. At 8am I started my first loaf (new recipe) - Spelt with mixed olives, spring onions and Alpine rock salt. My second loaf was started at 8.30am - White rye with mixed herbs and Pakistani rock salt. The dough is now rising for 2 hours before de-gassing, shaping and placing in floured bannetons for about 3 hours. Finally my cloche will be placed in the oven and heated to 220°C. The cloche will be taken from the oven, dough slashed and placed back in the oven (with the lid in place) for 20 minutes. The lid will be removed and the sourdough baked for a further 10 minutes.

Recipes on my website http://stwig7.wixsite.com/bread

Photographs later on my website and Facebook account.

I was well pleased with the finished loaves today. Probably amongst some of my best sourdough!