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not.a.crumb.left's blog

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not.a.crumb.left

We have visitor's from London and they wanted to take some bread home so quickly made this

bread...

I pre-mixed the flour with salt the night before and put it into 10C wine cooler until 6AM when I just took it out and added 12 hour leaven via Rubaud. I have found that the pre-mix works on many formulas apart from the Champlain as long as I keep the dough coldish.....

After mixing in the leaven I warmed up dough for 4 hours in the proofer at 80F. Then pre-shape, 30 min bench rest final shaping and back in the wine cooler when we went for a walk for 5 hours...and then baked when back home from a walk in drizzly autumn weather....

Barney looks like he's been to Mars!  :D Kat

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not.a.crumb.left

Friends asked me to bake for them so I made a Tartine Style Country from Trevor on the right and for the first time tried a 'Light Rye' from Martin Field's book Sourdough on the left....

Sadly, no crumb as Barney and I delivered the loaves in my new bag which was a bday present from a friend and used it for the first time..ha, ha....

Then I thought, I just up the rye and baked a 200g rye and 300g strong white bread flour loaf today...

It did turn out less dense than I thought and tastes great! Reminds me actually a lot of some German breads!!!

I used my normal 100% hydration refreshed starter and AL was about 4 hours at 22C room temp.

Added leaven first, 30 min rest and then added salt with some water....bulk was approx. 4 hours/30% rise at 75F, bench rest 30 min and then 1 1/2 hour room temp proofing before baking....I put the baskets on top of the Rofco as it was nice and warm....

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not.a.crumb.left

Hi friends,

I baked 80/20 mainly white loaves letting it go to 50% rise in bulk based on the recent thread discussing the difference between a 30% and 50% rise and considering the thoughts from Trevor and Maurizio....I realized that I probably was more a 50%ish baker.....as it happens but also experimented with 30% rise in the past...

If you go 50% rise then this also affects retarding and 2nd proof and Trevor mentions this actually in his book at the very end....reading it yet again afresh....

Now, there is not that much difference in weight between the two of them but I am intrigued what different shape I get with the 25CM cane banneton (used with a cloth) and the 33Cm long pulp Brotform used just with rice flour.

Some people on IG say that the Brotform can dry the dough out more and decrease  chance of blisters...not sure what I think about this...

Does anyone have a preference in shape and type of banneton...I quite like the Laurel and Hardy on my bench! :D Kat

Oh, sadly no crumb shot as I gave both away!

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not.a.crumb.left

This was a bit of an experiment....my starter peaked in the evening and we needed bread but I realized that a full bulk would mean a late night and I was tired....

so after the baguette and ciabatta approach to bulk I let it bulk for 1 and 1/2 hour with 30 min coil folds until it was bubbly and showed life and then put the dough in the 5C wine cooler for the night.

At 7AM the following morning, I took it out and put it for 2 hours in 75F proofer to warm up and get a little bit more bubbly and lively...I gave it a gentle fold but left it mostly alone...

After that I did a pre-shape and the dough looked like holding shape nicely, 45 min bench rest and final shape of that 'to be named' fold on Trevor's IG.

Then I decided, as we really needed bread, to go for room proof and took dough 2 hours in the sun...

Sadly one stuck to the cloth and I had a close shave with this one.....

Scoring this wet dough at room temp was a 'drag' and surprised I got the ear after all....

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not.a.crumb.left

I could save the crumb somehow but this was a tricky bake...literally the dough stuck on the couche and I had to peel it off..you can see how  the optimist inside me even tried to score.....ha. ha. ha......one baguette I ate out of frustration straight away to destroy evidence while it was warm and Pat was my partner in crime! Barney needs to loose  weight and was not allowed a crumb and Jacob was at school!

Two remained...

It all started so well...nice looking dough from over night cold bulk....

but it was sticky like...and just about managed it on the floured kitchen towel...and yes I did have to use flour Alan!

Well....the towel was so well floured and maybe an indication how sticky this dough was at 73% hydration. It was ok last time so who knows what happened...my hunch is that I let the warm bulk go too far...

Oh, I was so flustered by the whole thing that I steamed the oven too early and because the sticks ended up too long I almost botched up the loading too and dropped the dough. If anyone would have filmed me it would have been a good laugh....

Well...I have to try that again....another day!

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not.a.crumb.left

I was in London yesterday and at Linas Stores they had this very nice Italian 00 pizza flour which I understand is low in protein and gluten but might give me a lovely crunchy crust....(thank you again for the tip Abe, but they did not have the durum anymore.....)

So, I worked with Matteo Festo's low gluten formula as in his book Natural Leavenings and the key difference to my normal process was that he uses much more leaven to speed up the bulk and only a very short rest for the dough after mixing with leaven and then adding the salt.

It made beautiful soft dough but I was very gentle during mix and a much shorter and gentle Rubaud. 

Mix - Very gentle! 68% hydration

Start of bulk...and with 3 gentle coil folds at 30 min interval I left the dough alone until the end of bulk....

end of bulk... I loved that dough...reminded me of my ciabatta bake....

25 min bench rest -

final shape - messed the boule up almost as I shaped as a batard by mistake and then just rounded it up and ended up as boule....

It was was a lovely late summer sunny day to I went with room temp proofing although scoring terrifies me and getting the proof wrong!

and here is the Double O Boule....

The crust felt really crunchy and can't wait till tomorrow to cut and see crumb.....

Here is the morning and crumb shot time......It has this amazing creamy white colour and the crust is really crunchy and thin..

Made me think of a white canvas and what to put on it.......purple blackberry jam of course!!!!  Love this experiment but miss the taste of rye and spelt....

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not.a.crumb.left

After baking the Champlain so often  I was wondering whether it would be time to give this

formula another try...I remember last time I baked it was in October 2017 and one of the bakes that made me realize no I must walk before I run and reduce hydration!!!!

I followed Trevor's formula as on his blog apart from withholding 10g of water and use it for wetting hands....

I used Rubaud combined with a short bout of slap and folds....

Coil folds are amazing to manage wet dough and that's  what I used for the first 4 folds in 30 min intervals.

ALSO - an Italian baker Matteo Festo suggested on his blog that you put a sample of your dough in a glass cover it with room temp water and put it near the bulk. If they piece of dough rises then your bulk has reached optimal bulk...

I tried that and the dough went puffier and puffier...and the piece of dough would not float...

In the end I had after 5 1/2 hours bulk at 75F I decided to do a pre-shape as Barney had to go to the VET for his yearly jabs...

Just as I finished the pre-shape the dough started floating so I cannot have been far off....

BUT boy was the dough proofy!!!

Pre-shape boule was nice and airy and did not loose too much shape after 30 min. Still rounded edges where they meet the counter....

Final Shape was so hairy as it was very difficult to kind of get the dough to do what I wanted as it was ouzing with air...I opted for Trevor's 'puffy' dough shaping technique but the folding over did almost not happen...

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bm137eLHWX1/?taken-by=trevorjaywilson

Wiggly, jibbly dough in banneton!

Then into wine cooler at 4C which actually is more like 5cish....After 4 1/2 hours the dough looked like it had risen and dough temp was 7C and I thought ready to bake.....

I find that call when the proof is ready with retard the toughtest part at the moment!

Ready for square scoring ....

and the dough sagged and ended up in the oven like this with me being reallly quite deflated too...

And then, slowly...go on fella.....

made it...

Very, very happy and can now dabble a bit more in the 80% hydration area....it tastes amazing with the spelt and rye in it! Oh....I need to think about to bake possibly on a tray on the stone to avoid the darker bottoms on my loaves...and dial in temp ...need to ponder on that...

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not.a.crumb.left

Details are in the following thread..http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/57222/warm-bulk-cold-bulk-and-then-cold-retarding#comment-416196

I wanted to know whether a warm , cold bulk combined and then a cold retard would possibly get me a more open crumb as I noticed this with recent ciabatta and baguette bakes.

The above thread has more detail with photos and Solano was trying something similar. My conclusion is that it is another way to time a bake and make it work but result wise from a crumb point of view it compares to my normal process with warm bulk and then straight retarding. I have to say though the oven spring was great...not sure whether to do with the cold bulk or not though...

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not.a.crumb.left

When I was in Germany I decided to do this bread when I am back home and was waiting for Maurizio to post the formula...

https://www.theperfectloaf.com/ciabatta-bread-recipe/

I love the colour and the gentle taste of the Kamut in this bread and boy I know now why he said to use a mixer. However, I don't have a mixer and that is that...so I had to use some slap and folds to manage and for the first time I had dough on the wall!!!!!

I also used some strong coil folds for the three folds during the bulk fermentation and the dough was nice and bubbly going into the wine cooler.

My wine cooler was a bit warmer than the suggested 3-4C at 5.5C but it seemed to be ok and dough had a little rise but not too much...considering it was in wine cooler from 3.30PM to 9AM...

Maurizio said to use lots of flour when dividing and needed not much encouragement to do that!!!

Maurizio said to proof 2 hours but I felt that the dough was looking good after one hour and did not want to push my luck....

I think this bread will be baked more often to sit on our bench in the garden!

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not.a.crumb.left

I had to squeeze in another bake before visiting family in Germany  and as they normally just see photos I wanted to take a loaf with me. I also came across some white spelt from Doves Farm rather than the usual WW spelt and the dough felt much softer.....

Inspired by Ru's scoring I gave a pattern a go for the first time!

The square scoring turned the other loaf into a spaceship....

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