Fresh Off The Presses

OK, so for all my dedicated fans, of which I'm sure are numerous, I apologize for my negligence in updates. You might have though I was outta the game forever, but you were so wrong. That is to say, I have recently concocted some delish-ass bread. The inspiration came from my long time friend and college Armun Liaghat, to whom this loaf is dedicated. Enough with the babble lets dabble.

This is a 25% Whole Dark Rye, 75% white loaf. I used some of that chronic Red's Mill Whole Dark as night Rye and some regular Trader Joe's AP. I also added about a cup of flax seeds. Usually, I DGAF about a bread flour, but this time it ended up biting me in the ass (more on that later). I made about a cup of preferment with rye flour, a little water, and finished up the hydration with my all time favorite beer.

Yes that's right. It's not from Michigan, it's not an IPA, it's California Ale. Side Note to all the beer snobs: check it out. At this point, my starter was looking like some chunky diarrhea. Let that sit for 24 hours feeding every 8. Then I mixed up my dough, autolyse, and blah blah blah. Bang! Super dank loaf.

Well, almost...

While the crumb is acceptable as a sandwich bread, it was not at all what I was aiming for. With the hearty pre-ferment, I was hoping for large gelatinous bubbles, but instead got what amounted to the crumb of under kneaded WW:

I will try the guy again, only with two differences. I will substitute in bread flour, and add a ~24 hour retarded fermentation in darkest corner of my fridge.

So I ask my devoted readers; Do you think this aught to help my crumb? And with that, I say goodbye from Doughboy Fresh and stay crispy.