The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Parchment paper is my new best friend -- and two thank-you's

neoncoyote's picture
neoncoyote

Parchment paper is my new best friend -- and two thank-you's

I was having a devil of a time getting my loaves into the oven without some type of malfunction. I've been using cornmeal on a pizza peel since I started baking bread, about 6 months ago, and after setting the oven on fire by flinging cornmeal (in the process of rotating loves), I've been paranoid about doing it again. To boot, I had in error fed my starter with too much water, which didn't hurt the starter, but made my dough too hydrated when I didn't compensate for that in the total recipe. In short, I was having shaping problems from the hydration being too high, and sticking problems for the same reason when I transferred my loaves to the stone. It was just a mess. Having figured out the hydration issue, and having read about parchment paper being perfectly usable in temperatures over 450, today was my first experience with the adjusted dough hydration and the parchment paper. 

I finally got my decent oven spring back, since I could finally shape tight enough again:

The good oven spring finally resulted once again in a decent crumb:

...and, most exciting of all...a nearly perfect bottom without the maize-like blowouts I was getting from poor shaping:

I am just amazed at the bottom of my boules looking solid like this -- it has never, ever happened. I'm convinced that it was not only the result of better shaping, but also because the dough was not resting on cornmeal, which may have the same effect as flour (preventing seams from sealing). 

Thank you to everyone who recommended using parchment paper. I trimmed it around the loaves before I put them in, and slipped the paper out from under the loaves when I took out the steam pan, half-way through the baking time; the paper came off very easily and was hardly brown around the edges. And thank you to dmsnyder for your boule shaping tutorial -- I used your technique and it worked very well!

Mary Clare's picture
Mary Clare

Have you posted the recipe for your lovely bread?  I would like to make some loaves like yours!

Mary Clare in MO

neoncoyote's picture
neoncoyote

Hi, Mary Clare -

I use the recipe here:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/extra-tangy-sourdough-bread-recipe

I use a scale to measure the flour (4.25 oz/cup), as well as the water (8 oz/cup); I think that's almost a necessity for turning out consistent dough. 

Slight process modifications I've made to the recipe: on step 1, I use the whisk attachment on my Kitchenaid and mix for about 5 minutes; on step 3, I use the dough hook on my Kithenaid and mix for 6 minutes on medium speed after all the flour is incorporated.

Let us know how you fare!

Carmen