Based on

http://www.sourdo.com/recipes/san-francisco-recipe/

Influences

http://www.varasanos.com/pizzarecipe.htm

Ingredients

  • 455 grams King Arthur Bread Flour
  • 275 grams filtered water
  • 1 1/2 tsp (7 grams) kosher salt
  • 300 grams Ischia Island (Italy) sourdough starter at 100% hydration

Process

Feed starter and allow to ferment at 77.4 degrees Fahrenheit for 6 hours. I use a sous vide circulator to maintain temperature while fermenting starter.

Mix flour and water until combined, cover, and rest (autolyse) for 40 minutes.

Add salt and sourdough starter.

Mix using Kitchen Aid mixer with dough hook on the lowest speed for 12 minutes.

Cover and bulk ferment for 9 hours at approximately 68 degrees Fahrenheit (I did 9pm to 6am).

Flour work surface. Pull dough and fold into thirds 5 times.

Lightly oil a bowl. Shape dough into a round, and place seam-side-up in oiled bowl and cover.

Preheat oven to 410 degrees Fahrenheit with a cast iron skillet on the bottom rack.

Proof at 68 degrees Fahrenheit, until dough passes the poke test (about an hour).

Turn dough out of bowl, onto parchment paper. Flour the top of the loaf and score with a razor blade at a 30 degree angle.

Place loaf and parchment paper in cast iron skillet, spray with filtered water, place top on skillet, and spray sides of oven with water. Close oven door immediately.

Bake with top on the cast iron skillet for the first 20 minutes, then remove top and spray top of loaf and sides of oven again with filtered water. Close oven door immediately and bake until internal temperature reaches 194 degrees. NOTE: this temperature is much lower than normal since I’m baking at an elevation of ~8700 feet.

Notes

Crust is nearly perfect–crackly and flavorful, crisp and not tough.

Oven spring was not great. Dough was very wet after bulk ferment and needed lots of extra flour to allow folding without extreme stikiness. Bulk ferment may have lasted too long.

Needs more salt.

Very mild sourness.

Images

Top

Crumb

Crust

Bottom

Upcoming experiments

Increase salt content (see what ratios others are using).

Consider refrigerating the dough during the proofing phase to encourage acetic acid forming bacteria.

Consider refrigerating for a several-day-long bulk fermentation.

Consider feeding the starter some rye flour before using. Rye flour is supposed to have lots of nutrients that sourdough cultures really like.

Consider starting to bake the bread in a cold oven. The idea is that this gives the yeast more time to create gas as the inside slowly warms up.