The Fresh Loaf

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70% whole wheat loaf

man_who_eats_bread's picture
man_who_eats_bread

70% whole wheat loaf

Edit: embedding photos from Google didn't work, so here's a link to a gallery on imgur: https://imgur.com/a/xmVyw

Of course, if you're reading this is you're probably only after the money shot, so here it is:

I'm (essentially) following the Tartine recipe for whole wheat:

  • 200g mature starter
    • Mine's 20% rye, 80% AP, 80% H2O
    • For this batch, I had just fed it a few hours before using, but it was bubbly.
  • 800 Water (~80F)
  • 700g WW (King Arthur)
  • 300g White bread flour (also King Arthur)
  • 20g salt (which I forgot to add until the second fold!)

I mixed the ingredients in order, mixing by hand in my 6qt tub. Every ~30 minutes I folded the dough over. I want to say I did this 4 times, but it was way more than 5 minutes ago, so I can't remember.

After that, I moved it into the fridge over night.

This morning I pulled it out, and it had maybe tripled in volume (I need to work on my documentation!). I divided it in two, let it bench rest for ~30 minutes. (I'm still not really sure what the point of that is, but I wanted to stick to the original instructions mostly faithfully). Then I shaped the loaves and put in bowls to proof. The first I put on ungreased parchment paper which convinced me to grease the parchment paper for the second one.

I'm going to say I proofed for about 2.5-3 hours. I tried the finger dent test with a wet finger. It held the shape but sprang back (probably took about a minute to spring back). 

The dough smells great (nice and sour!). Lots of CO2 formation, including some big blistery bubbles near the surface... We'll see how those do.

As I write this, they're in the oven at 500F with the Dutch ovens (after ~40 min. pre-heat).

25 minutes baking with the lids on... the color is great, but I didn't do a good job with the scoring! Not as much oven spring as I'd hoped. I've set the timer for 15 minutes. 

PHOTO

Pulled them out after 11 minutes based on the smell. 

Here they are:

PHOTO

Sort of dark, but I'm happy with it. 

PHOTO

You can see some of the surface bubbles. Here's a close up of that bubble closest to the camera:

PHOTO

It's hard to communicate with photos, but here's a close up of peeling the (ungreased) parchment paper off the loaf on the right:

PHOTO

I'm not patient enough to wait for them to fully cool, so I cut open the less oven-sprung loaf. Here's the crumb shot:

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This is a tasty loaf! I don't have a great vocabulary for talking about flavor... but it is delicious! Is this what people mean when they say something tastes nutty? The crust is nice and thick and crisp. The innards are chewy and nicely moist. 

Lessons:

  • Scoring matters! I should probably replace the razor blade I've been using, and maybe I should also spray it with oil.
  • At 500F, this bread cooks pretty quickly. Next time I'll try 20 minutes with the lid and 15 without.
  • Spraying the parchment paper makes a big difference!

Comments

gillpugh's picture
gillpugh

Really nice loaf for such high wholemeal flour ratio .  I havent ventured that much yet, mailnly white for me.  I'm new here  and still not sure of what a bench rest does, but like you I do it too!

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

and bench rest is basically another stretch and fold but this time you're preparing the dough for the final shape. This strengthens the dough and enables it to hold its shape. 

gillpugh's picture
gillpugh

So same as final shape?  but less time spent on it?

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

a rough shaping, relaxing (the rest) and then a tightening up.

Whether you're making the final shape into a boule or a batard the pre shape is always a "round" though.

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

thIs weekend's bake. But the bread tastes very good and therefore I'm happy. A successful bake in my eyes.

Your bread looks lovely. And taste is everything.  

man_who_eats_bread's picture
man_who_eats_bread

And the taste is definitely there! I'll definitely revisit this recipe!

IceDemeter's picture
IceDemeter

Getting a nice, taut outer skin for a clean score can be quite the challenge with such a high hydration, so give yourself a pat on the back for this result :)  As Lechem said, taste IS everything, so getting some bread that you think is absolutely delicious is far more important than a super-spring or decorative scoring.

As for the pre-shape thing, you might find this blog by Trevor Wilson helpful in explaining the reasoning behind the pre-shape stage and why he (and many of us) find it to be important: http://www.breadwerx.com/shaping-the-perfect-loaf-or-the-zen-of-benchwork/

I personally do more traditional loaf shapes (not really a batard since the ends aren't pointed) and am just learning to shape some mini-baguette-type-things, and have found that it is much, much more difficult to stretch out a lump of dough that has been poorly pre-shaped.  I am finding the bench rest after pre-shaping to be especially important for there to be enough time for the gluten to relax and let you basically extend out what you created with the pre-shape without losing any of the surface tension but without fighting / tearing the gluten.  My current favourite pre-shaping method for cylindrical loaves / mini-baguettes is well demonstrated here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUeS2PSXtP8

For your parchment paper, you might want to double-check to make sure that what you are using is actually the non-stick variety which has been silicon coated to not stick after heating.  There is also non-coated parchment paper, which usually is from the same manufacturer and comes in similar packaging and is sold in the baking section, so it's pretty common to end up with the wrong one!

If you do have the correct coated non-stick variety and you are finding that it is still sticking, then you might find it helpful to just spritz it with water and smooth down the creases before putting the dough on to it.  i generally crumple the sheet up to make it more pliable, then place it in the banneton, spritz it with water and smooth it out, and then place the shaped loaf in. 

You also might want to check the temperature rating for the brand that you are using, since many of them are only designed for a maximum of 450 deg F.  If that is the case, then changing your bake to pre-heat to 500, drop oven temp to 450 for the covered part of the bake, and then dropping it to 425 for the uncovered part of the bake might work better for you.   A lot of us use this temperature combination for our bakes, with the "falling" temperatures matching the temperature drop caused by the opening of the oven door.  NOT dropping the temp would cause my oven to turn on the top element to compensate for the heat loss, which could burn the top crust before the inside is fully baked.  Of course, you could also source some non-stick parchment paper with higher temperature ratings from a restaurant or bakery supply store, or it most likely is available on-line (I've never looked).

Looking forward to seeing your next bake!

man_who_eats_bread's picture
man_who_eats_bread

This makes some sense of bench resting for me... basically spreading out the effort of shaping the loaf to give it time to adjust. Sounds like it's definitely more important for batards and other non-circular shapes.

I'll try the crumpling trick next time! My paper isn't non-stick. The oil spray makes a huge difference. Peeling off a strip at a time from the slices in the middle wasn't too bad though.

I'll check out those links later this week.