Related post: Meet the Baker: Diane Andiel
Diane borrowed her recipe from The Fresh Loaf and I won’t point you to any specific post in the thread because she doesn’t recall whose recipe she is using (the original one was posted in 2007 on Wild Yeast).
Ingredients (for 6 loaves):
- 1800 g organic all-purpose flour
- 240 g organic dark rye flour
- 1200 g water
- 720 g levain (100% hydration)
- 46 g salt
Method
- Build the levain 12 hours before mixing and let ferment at room temperature
- Mix in flours, water and levain
- Autolyse for 20 minutes
- Mix 3 minutes in first speed (adding water as necessary)
- Mix 3 minutes in second speed
- Ferment at cool room temperature (about 55°F) for 12 hours (Note: Diane doesn’t give the dough any folds because she goes straight off to work after mixing on Friday mornings but she said the dough would probably benefit from a fold and she recommends that it be done if at all possible)
- Scale at 680 g
- Set to proof on parchment-paper lined sheet pans and slide into large clear plastic bags making sure they tent over the dough and do not touch it
- Proof for 12 hours at cool room temperature
- Slash and bake for 35 minutes in a convection oven set at 430°F
- Cool on a rack.
Since Diane doesn’t have a blog, I am sending the Norwich Sourdough to Yeastpotting in her name.
Great article MC and amazing photos. I know Diane and her farm and you've really captured it all so well. Bravo!
Thank you very much, Lesley! I am glad to hear it. Diane is a very inspiring person!
I enjoyed the "Meet the Baker" very much, your photos are beautiful!
The long and cool proofing sounds very good for me. I like the Norwich Sourdough and will test Dianes version this weekend 🙂
Thank you, Stefanie! Good luck with the baking. Is it still cool enough where you live for a long fermentation? It is getting a bit tricky here in the Northwest these days. The house definitely warms up during the day!
I love how Diane uses a knife to score with. I spent boo-coddle years thinking one needed a special tool to score properly. Ha! Only recently did I realize that I had trouble scoring because I always over-proofed my loaves. Ha!
Not only does she use a knife but she goes over each slash twice! She knows conventional wisdom says you are not supposed to but she likes the way it opens up better when she does it. Whatever works, right?
I too use a knife for scoring but not a serrated one. I will have to give it a try…
Brilliant Article MC! Thank you so much. I have read it now 20 times and still new things come to my mind. This article is art. There are messages behind. I like the way of integrating things in your daily life – e.g. bread baking. I am currently working on the overnight room-temperature proofing with reduced sourdough/yeast to prepare the dough in the evening and baking in the morning (after 10 hours proof) without buying a new fridge – will post it the next days – and it's working.
I also like the idea to exchange goods/food with others without using money in between. I am really impressed…
Thank you so much for your kind words, Bernd! I am so happy you liked the article. I too love the way Diane is able to ferment/proof her dough overnight and I am glad you found it is working for you too. Can't wait to read about it on your blog!
I have the working day dilemma too. Don't always get a chance to do all the folds so give it a good knead before setting off to work and then shape into the cane bannetons as soon as I walk in the door. Still tastes delicious!
And that's the main thing, right? Whatever works rules! I too am a great believer in being pragmatic, especially if the alternative is not having enough time to bake!
Hi Farine,
Thanks for introducing your friends to us! And they all bake such beautiful and delicious looking bread! I love Norwich Sourdough, I just baked one with sunflower kernels, poppyseed and grind flax seed: delicious as always.
Hello Connie, thank you for stopping by! Sorry it took me a while to respond: I have been without the Internet for a few days. I would love to see a picture of your multigrain Norwich bread. It must be gorgeous!
hi MC… left you a comment here already but I can't see it… mysteries of the net.
I am totally impressed by this bread. what does she do that I don't do? 🙂 I guess the fact that she leaves the levain ferment for a whole night, at lower temperature, may be part of it. then maybe the oven technique. absolutely beautiful pictures you took, especially those of the animals. and I am always enchanted by your writing.
oh my… this is another post on the same woman… lol. that's why I could not find my comment 🙂 forgive me, I just woke up.
and here I got the method for the bread too…
I do use retardation in the fridge, but I guess it is not the same as 12 hours in a cool room (could be something like 14 degrees Celsius? that would be nice because it would not stop the fermentation like the fridge does.
I think maybe the temperature in the cool room is around 55 F (which might be 12 or 13 C, I am not sure) but in any case it is a huge plus to be able to bypass the fridge completely. I wish I had a cold room too. But the best I can do is the garage and it is too cold most of the winter and of course too warm the rest of the year. There might be a few weeks where it would be okay but I can never be sure that the temperature won't drop too low during the night…
What a disaster! I should’ve known. A 12 hr ferment followed by a 12 hr proof?! Only possible if your starter is half-dead and/or your “cool” room temp is like a refrigerator! Waaaaaay overproofed. Very disappointed.
So sorry to read your dough overproofed. And yes you are right, I should have stressed the fact that most of the year the room where Diane retards her bread is at 55°F. Her starter is definitely not half dead (in fact super lively) and her bread turns out beautiful each time. I will modify her recipe to indicate the right temperature for the proofing.
Something I’d like to stress though: never go blindly by a recipe. As opposed to cake batter, bread dough is alive. Your dough will tell you when it is ready to put in the oven and you’ll be the judge of that, no matter what the recipe says. Different flours, different starter, different weather, different temperatures, all this plays a role. If you press the dough slightly with your finger and it resists, then you know it is still proofing. If a bit later, you do the same and it yields a bit, then you know it is ready. The more you practice, the easier it will become to make the right call.