I've been trying minor variations every week in hydration and flour blend. This one should have had at least another 2%of water but otherwise I'm pretty happy with it.
20%type 70 malted
30% whole wheat
30%AP
15%barley
5%rye
16%starter @100%hydration
total hydration 76%
Overnight autolyse, mix and stretch&folds then about 4hours room temp and overnight bulk in the fridge. Warm up, shape, proof, bake next day.
I'm starting to feel reasonably confident that I can come up with something presentable and avoid the many pitfalls!
I've been baking TXFarmer's 36 hours+ baguettes nearly every weekend because I thought it would be instructive (and good to eat!). I clearly need to work on my slashing skills but I'm thrilled at the bread I'm getting. Today's was the best yet, super crisp crust and the crumb is fantastic.
I've been baking weekly and making progress with the occasional step backward. Today's bake is a wheat levain with sunflower and pumpkin seeds. I'm finally getting better at shaping my batards, this is dramatically better spring than in the past.
I've noticed something curious: I've usually made boules, two at a time, one baked in a combo cooker, the other in a Le Creuset enameled casserole of the same diameter. The one in the Le Creuset always has noticeably better spring. I've done this often enough that I'm pretty sure it's not my imagination . Has anyone else come across this?
