The Fresh Loaf

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Improved Loaf

mwilson's picture
mwilson

Improved Loaf

This morning I was on the way to making some lovely artisan bread using a long-fermented Biga starter but unfortunately I over-mixed the dough! Over-mixing creates a horribly sticky mess and it took me half an hour to clean everything, including my hands. Hopefully those that have experienced this will sympathise.

Pressed for time I decided to make a quick loaf with some improving ingredients available in most kitchens.

The result: Ridiculous volume.
 
 

Ingredients:

  • 550g Flour (250g Hovis bread flour / 300g '00' flour)
  • 390g Water
  • 30g Rapeseed Oil
  • 1-large egg yolk ~18g
  • 11g Non-diastatic malt powder
  • 11g Salt
  • 5g Instant yeast
  • 5g Lemon juice
  • 5g Vinegar

Method:

I scaled the water (40C) and placed in a bowl along with, malt, lemon juice, vinegar, egg yolk, yeast and finally the oil. I added the flour and salt and mixed to a shaggy dough. I then turned out and kneaded à la bertinet for 10-15 mins to  reach full development. I left on the counter and balled up a couple of times. When doubled I shaped very, very tightly and plonked it in the tin. Let it rise until passed doubled. Slashed and baked with steam.

Notes:

Improvers: Acids are for tightening the gluten and therefore increasing dough strength. Egg yolk contains an abundance of lecithin - a natural emulsifier and along with the oil they soften the crumb. Malt is food for yeast.

Slashing was an absolute joy! I made cuts very deep with my ultra-sharp Japanese cooking knife. The dough, even though very highly risen didn't move - no loss of volume whatsoever. The cuts just opened slowly. All this can be attributed to the high degree of dough strength. It was amazing to see the detail of the exposed crumb being so voluminous!

Weight out of the oven: 834g. It will lose some more. I always aim for 800g.

Enjoy!

Update1:

A slice from the end:



You can see a centre circle where it's a tad denser. The rest of the crumb is feathery soft and ultra light.

Update2:

Centre slice: It's as light as a croissant.
 
It also toasts very well, due to the improving ingredients. 

Comments

mwilson's picture
mwilson

.

Juergen Krauss's picture
Juergen Krauss

your loaf, and your masterful hadling of natural bread improvers!

I learned a lot from this post.

Thank you,

Juergen

mwilson's picture
mwilson

Thanks Juergen.

Feels good to pass on knowledge.

Michael

Juergen Krauss's picture
Juergen Krauss

It is interesting the slices have this hourglass shape.

It reminded me of this blog about Vienna Bread.

What I like about your post is the clarity. I t is brief, tells what each component does, and shows the end result.

This sparks curiosity.

Juergen

mwilson's picture
mwilson

Thanks for the link. So this effect can happen when the tin is too small, or if overly improved. check and check!

Brief and to the point... Sounds like me!

Cheers Juergen,

Michael

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Where is that amazing crumb shot?

If the inside looks as nice as the outside I'm sure it was a success.

Do tell.

mwilson's picture
mwilson

It had just come out the oven when I posted about this. So tomorrow I'll take a picture of the crumb and update you...

mwilson's picture
mwilson

crumb shot now included.

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Very nice.

Looks like you had a nice light and moist loaf.

Good job.

FlourChild's picture
FlourChild

Great save, and a very nice crumb and pretty top!  Ridiculous volume, indeed. :)

mwilson's picture
mwilson

Thanks FlourChild. It was like eating a cloud.

nicodvb's picture
nicodvb

to a monster! It's marvellous to see how much you make your doughs sing and dance:)

mwilson's picture
mwilson

Cheers Nico. I'm always pushing flour to its limits.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Wonder Bread should look like !!! What a great loaf of white sandwich bread.  Nice baking indeed and thanks for the tips on improving dough naturally. I'm guessing your fine formula would be great with Yeast Water too.

mwilson's picture
mwilson

Thanks dabrownman. I had a sandwich with it today. Perfect it was!

I'm sure yeast water would be perfect although you might not need the added acidity because the yeast water may already be acidic. I've only made yeast water once and mine was pH ~3 but that may be because I used a couple of satsumas.

mrfrost's picture
mrfrost

Nice loaf.

What size(dimensions) tin is that?

Thanks.

mwilson's picture
mwilson

Cheers. 2 litres from memory.

edit1: see hear http://www.cnpackaging.co.uk/800g-farmhouse-bread-tin-p-387.html

edit2: I've done the calculation, closer to 2.5 litres actually.

 

All at Sea's picture
All at Sea

... with that first shot of yours - I took a glance and it looked for all the world as if you had very neatly balanced an ordinary (but highly respectable) bloomer on the edges of the loaf tin. How the bejezus did he get THAT out of the tin, thunks I ...

A veritable Marilyn Monroe of shapely breads - congrats!

mwilson's picture
mwilson

Wow. Thank you.

That's quite a compliment!

Funny, yeah it does look as you describe...

Cheers,

Michael