The Foolish Baker - The Search for Perfect Batards
It doesn't exist. Perfection is subjective. But yet, foolishly I bake and bake and bake to reach a level that is possibly unattainable. In the this limitless search of the divine bread loaf I am fulfilled. Similar to exercise or brewing or any craft at all, in bread-baking there is no ending goal, we bakers simply enjoy the process.
Got some dutch ovens to end the war between my loaves and our convection oven that has no off switch. No more worries about steam or drying out loaves with lackluster results.
Thanks to brdclc.com for the in-browser dough calculator.
I went below my normal percentage of levian because I didn't honestly know how long until I could bake these batards, well, one of them is a boule. Lowering the percentage allowed the ferment and proof to slow down and I only had to control temp to know where I was in the process.
I did a morning levian build with 20% inoculation as a feeding.
Mixed later in the afternoon after the 100% WW dough autolysed for two hours at 86F.
Bulk ferment in the oven at 85F for about 4 hours with a fold every 30 minutes.
Cold proofed in walk-in fridge, which is set to 38F but gets down to 34F. Internal dough temp is 41F for 17 hours.
Baked in dutch ovens at 400F for I think an hour. Truly I don't watch the latter phase of baking, only the first 40 minutes with steam/lid on the cooker, then the rest of the bake is just for color. FYI if you leave the cover on the DO for more than 30 minutes you get a nice red color on the crust. Just imagine why I do this practice, in a wood-oven you don't take off any lid at any part of the bake, the loaves just bake with steam the entire time. So that is why I don't vent at 20 or 30 min. Let that thing steam for 40 minutes and the rest of the bake is just for your color preference. There's probably science somewhere that says the maillard reaction builds up better with all that steam, I know not.
We don't know what the crumb is like! If I only bake a few loaves they go out the back door into the hands of friends/hired workers on the grounds. I need a minimum of 3 large batards for the brothers.
Perhaps this crumb from a bake just a few days prior will suffice. Identical recipe and process but less baking time. In our kitchen if someone needs the oven then that means you are on a strict timeline to get in and out of that oven. Such is life. The search for the perfect loaf continues...
Comments
Very well done indeed!
Happy baking
Seems a lot depends on the type of oven one has.
Hi Folks some of you may not be aware that the post from "Yogi" is the same man that posted as "Natyam" the baker from Hawaii and the Hindu Monastery at Kulawai. There has been a promotion in the order and hence the title Yogi.has been bestowed. Some of you will remember the first posts and subsequent improvements in the bread that was produced for the monks daily bread.
Using only wholewheat for their their daily bread you can see the vast improvement that Yogi has made, and I commend his dedication, I recently corresponded with Yogi and suggested that he needs to chronicle his workings with bread as he indeed does with the brewing that he also undertakes for the Monestary and up until now has not done so with his bread. Yogi has now realised there are many little details that can slip by, but if recorded can make a huge difference if we are looking to correct minor faults that from time to time occur or creep into our routine , or just wanting to replicate something that has turned out really well.
It will also be an absolute treasure trove and resource for his other brother monks that may be called upon to undertake the baking duties in future years.
The above loaf is a testament to your continuing desire to improve and the appreciation by your brother monks for their daily bread i'm sure is assured . Nice to see you back posting and sharing Yogi .
Yogi has also told me that the monks have banned sugar from their diet and that there has been a significant improvemt to their combined health.
kind regards Derek
I really was stuck for a while there, you got me out of some major baking woes. Now if I could just get to brewing that beer bread.
Great looking bake! Based on Derek's comment above it certainly is a true testament to your perseverance and love of Baking. Regards,
Ian
I don't know how many times I have said "I'm never trying this again."
Thanks Sir.
Wow, folks come and go around here and sometimes they disappear completely. Congratulations on moving up in the Order and I hope that you haven't lost your position of being the main baker. Perfection means different things to different folks, and is rarely if everacheived. And so it is with baking and breads too, of course. You were long ago producing some beautiful output and as far as I can tell from your few posts under your new moniker, you haven't lost beat. Fabulous looking batards!
alan
Not sure why, but I didn't bake for several months. Meanwhile my starter got acetic and funky at 35F. Also having switched from wood oven baking to indoor was quite painful. The dutch oven really counters the convection air that has no off switch!
I hope it was more for the beer and not the bread:-) For those of us like you, me and Derek making bread and beer is just what we do. It is getting too hot here to make beer in AZ , already 95 F every day, so it will be just bread, baked outside in the toaster oven for a long while. Being part Irish, I like my beer and bread on the dark side - really dark! Part, maybe the best part, of my family is from Cork so we prefer Beamish and Crawford Stout and sourdough brown bread with a shot of Jameson's!
and bread is trying to creep its way in surreptitiously. I see myself baking and brewing for many years to come. Speaking of dark beers, we have a stout on tap right now...I only make American stout since I love extremely strong flavors of ash and roasty bitter beer. The loaves are starting to get darker and darker as well.
Been a while...,
Years ago we brewed a "Toasty Stout" after over roasting the malt to the point that it was way past being chocolate and was well on its way to becoming Postum. We went ahead with the brew and it turned out surprisingly well. In fact our patrons after one or two steins came back for more...,
Wild-Yeast