9/16/10 - 34 1/2 Hour Cold Bulk Retarded Dough Pain Au Levain
Hey All,
Me again. This whole baking and blogging thing is a little nutty... It's something one of those things that's fun, tedious and addictive... Anyway, let's get on with this post... How long can you cold bulk retard a dough and still have some good bread? I've done 24 hours with good and bad results. How about longer? Why cold bulk retarding vs cold retarded proofing? Well, from my experience, cold retarded proofing in a linen lined banneton seems to dry out the surface of the dough, so after baking, the crust becomes thick and tough... This is my experience. Also, I have a small under the counter refrigerator that has enough room to bulk retard maybe 4kg of dough in 2 X 4L plastic tubs. So bulk retardation is my only option short of not sleeping if you've been following my baking schedule these days...
Here's my recipe:
Liquid Levain:
150g White Whole Wheat Flour
50g Rye Flour
50g Liquid Sourdough Storage Starter (100% hydration)
200g Water
450g Total Liquid Levain
Final Dough:
1000g AP
616g Water
30g Kosher Salt
450g Liquid Levain
2096g Approx Total Dough Yield
9/14/10
8:15pm - Mix liquid levain, cover and let rest on counter overnight.
9/15/10
8:00am - Mix final dough (in large mixing bowl put in water first, then levain, flour, salt). Mix with rubber spatula until shaggy dough forms. Cover and let rest 20 minutes.
8:25am - Knead for few minutes with wet hands until relatively smooth dough forms, transfer to lightly oiled container at least 4L, cover and let rest.
8:45am - Turn dough in container (stretch and fold), cover, place into refrigerator (40F), go to work.
9/16/10
6:30pm - Come home and take the dough out of the refrigerator and find that it was working on escaping the container
Divide into 2 equal pieces, shape into boules and place into linen lined bannetons and proof for 3 hours.
8:40pm - Arrange 2 baking stones on 2 levels, put steam pan in oven, preheat to 500F with convection.
9:45pm - Take bannetons out of plastic bag, lightly flour and give poke test...
10:00pm - Turn off convection.
Turn boule out onto a lightly floured peel, slash as desired and place into oven directly onto stone. When last loaf is in, pour 1 1/2 cups water into steam pan, close oven door. Turn oven down to 450F and bake for 50 minutes, rotating between stones half way. Then turn off oven and leave loaves in for another 10 minutes.
Loaves are done when the internal temp reaches 205F or higher (210F preferred), and they weigh at least 15% lighter than their prebaked weight. Mine were 1050g before baking, and around 870g after, which is about a 17% weight loss...
Cool completely before cutting and eating... Crumbshots tomorrow morning... I wonder it this is a less stressfull baking schedule... You tell me...
Tim
Comments
I think the reason your bucket overflowed might be because you were not able to degas your dough a couple of times during the first few hours of fermenting.
If they are drying on top. Try not to let them get dry on top before placing them into a very tightly sealed plastic bag, keep them well covered before baking, this should prevent them from forming a dry skin. Sometimes I even give my dough a very, very fine mist of water, if I think they are being exposed to the air to long, at least it works for me and I have seen Cyril Hitz do this in a video.
For me it's so much easier, less stressful with better results, to proof shaped loaves overnight and then bake them...I would throw stuff out of the frig and make room to be able to do this... ; ) How about stuffing some frig items into your little refrigerator, that is if you have a bigger frig, or my misunderstanding you only have the under the counter frig, to make temporary space for those two little banneton baskets of dough ; ) I've also sat my bannetons in a very cold bathroom and sometimes on a cookie sheet over a sink of ice, when I had one refrigerator.
I'm retired and never have been a morning person. I really have to hand it to you to do all that work before leaving in the morning for work...that takes a lot of effort...but the results have paid off with a couple of very nice boules!
Sylvia
Sylvia,
Check this post out... A little farther down. http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/19425/9110-poilane-style-miche-my-wayliquid-stiff-sd-starter-conversion
These are my refrigerators. The one on the right is my fridge, and the one on the left is a freezer... They aren't that big...
Tim
Silvia,
you are probably right with regards to not turning/degassing the dough during the bulk ferment... I probably would have if I was around... Also, I could have reduced the quantity of the levain to slow things up a bit...
My plastic tubs don't seal all that great, so I put a piece of plastic wrap on before I close the lid. This works for me, and saved the parts of the dough that escaped the tub from drying out.
As for my fridges, I would need to eat my way through some of the food to make more room. Sometimes there's more room... but there's no way for me to proof already shaped baguettes, and more than 2 bannetons at any given time...
I've been baking long enough to know that there's really not much work involved in baking bread, it's more waiting around... So for me to spend 5 minutes in the evening to make my starter, and another 5-10 minutes to mix my dough in the morning before going to work, it's not a big deal... I just let time develop the dough for me, and it's ready for me when I get home from work...
I got up too late to post the crumbshot, but I'll tell you that this batch turned out very well, and made my German neighbor very happy this morning...
Tim
Hi Tim, I see and understand that you are very limited on frig space. That does present a bit of challenge. When you said your overnight proofed loaves seemed to dry and the crust was tough... 'I don't know how to insert that statement, so I apologize if it's not exactly what you said'...I only meant to give some suggestions and encouragement about helping to keep the 'overnight proofing loaves' moist, not about the crust drying out on your bulked fermenting.
I was hoping you could enjoy the benefits of an overnight proof. They can have a lovely crust.
Sylvia
Silvia,
I think it's really the same difference if I do a 24hr + cold bulk ferment vs a 24hr + cold proof... I'm getting a long fermentation either way... As far as the drying out of the crust during the overnight proof that I have experienced... The flour + linen of the banneton will absorb the moisture from the surface of the dough that it is touching...
In anycase, these were very good looking and tasting loaves... I didn't even bother toasting the slices this morning... Nicely aerated crumb, moist but not wet, slightly chewy, nice crackly crust... No complaints here...
Tim
Lovely, Tim!
It is less stressful. Watching the dough, not the clock is what you do best, Tim.
You also make recipes in a hurry, which is impressive!
khalid
Here they are... Crumbshot and crust cracks... These were truly excellent loaves... They were happily eaten, and now sadly all gone...
Thumbs Up!