Jason1876's blog

yeah...just like the title...
I read an article in here about sharing ur learning experience...not all the good ones but the...failed ones as well...
so, here it is.

Recipe
Bread flour 900g
WW flour 100g
Water 750g
Salt 20g
Levain 200g

I followed the recipe exactly and after 3 hrs bulk rise (with stretch and fold every 30 mins) I retarded the tub around 18 hrs (from 11:45 pm to 06:00 pm, I have a full-time job -_-~)
divided and pre-shaped twice every 20 mins before the final shape (really really sticky and slack)
dusted the basket with bran flour (a sorta bread flour with lots of bran~)
final rise for 2.5 hrs. (I was making soup with windows close, so the ambient temp was higher, I did the finger dent test and my guts told me "its time to bake")

there are 2 factors that I'm not really sure about.
1 is the flour thing, like what I mentioned before - summer time - high humidity - quality, I think using less water will fix this problem
2 is the major one - starter and levain.
I discard 80% and feed my starter around 11 pm with 50/50 of BF, WWF and equal weight of warm water.
around 7 am, I do the smell check, not very sharp but just a little bit sour and a bit nutty, that's the levain I used.

yeah, I still have the other half and will continue to bake. maybe after my 100 loaves, I can sum up some tips~
So, guys~please give me some advise and let me know what you think what went wrong.

Thanks

Jason1876

Finally, I got this one right!!!(hopefully)

Poolish

• 500g AP flour 
• 500g water (fridge cold)
• 0.4g yeast

Final Dough

• 400g AP flour
• 100g WW flour
• 230g water (20g water short)
• 22g salt (I love salt)
• 3g yeast

Method

• poolish at 11pm with cold water, stickered the tub, at 6am its doubled in size.

(its summer time, the room temp is always high, so my mind told me `take time and temp as ingredients`~no, its Ken Forkish actually)

• mixed the final dough at 6am. Instead of 250g water, I used less water 230g.

(I tried to follow the recipe exactly before, and the results were really really slack, trust me~so, I cut out some water, mainly because I live in a coastal city and its really moist here, REALLY, so i thought, huh~maybe I should follow my heart a little bit~plus, the quality of the flour I mentioned before can also affect the ability to absorb the water, I guess)

• s&f every 15 mins. 0600 - 0615 - 0630 - 0645 - 0700.
• fridge the whole tub for 12 hrs.(from 7am - 7pm )

(I had to go to work. If I had more time, I would divide and pre-shape and shape the dough, then basket, wrap and fridge them.)

• 2.5 times in size when I got back, divided the dough (its actually not slack this time).
• pre-shaped and rest 15 mins, then pre-shaped again and rest 15 mins
• shaped, basketed and proof 1 hr, did the finger dent test, (ok, its ready, lets bake)
• 250°C, 30 mins lid on+20 mins lid off

(I normally do 20+25 but some part of me always tells me `follow the recipe! then follow your heart!)  

the crumb tasted really really moist and elastic, a bit nutty and milky with a little bit tang(I love the tangy aftertaste).

Finally I got those big bubbles!!!

Its not perfect yet, but I will absolutely keep baking, making more and more and learn from the mistakes.

Guys, please give me some advises judging from these pics.

thanks~

(I shouldnt read the book <Josey Baker Bread>, I mean I baked over 10 loaves per week!!! and the weekends are whole day bread making and baking, my whole apartment smells like bakery. I give away a lot of loaves to my friends and neighbors, well...most of them did not like this kinda bread, because its really chewy, not soft, not sweet with no cream, sausage, dried meat floss... the rest are those who really appreciate the smell of wheat, tangy, nutty, the freshness. to me, its really tasty and amazing to make sandwich and pudding with.)

oh~BTW, I think I killed my 200g levain last night, cuz this morning, nothing really happened, there's no bubbles in the dough and on the surface. I did the floating test <Tartine Bread>, but somehow, nothing really happened.

I'm not really sure but I guess the water is a bit too warm? (not hot!)

well...im not a quitter, so tonight, keep going.

Jason1876