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Open crumb surprise

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

Open crumb surprise

This bake was quite a change in method for me.  Normally I mix, bulk ferment and shape during the day, cold retard overnight and bake first thing in the morning.  This time I started late in the day. 

I had some levain left from another bake so just added a bit more flour, some bran and left it to mature.  My formula was a simple white 74% hydration sourdough with 8% prefremented flour.  I made 2 loaves, 1 with a pinch of ascorbic acid (to see if it made a difference) and 1 standard.  This was just something to try after DanAyo had brought this topic up recently.  The loaves were both 550 g. both loaves treated exactly the same.

5:30 pm Mix flour and water for a 1 hour autolyse, Ascorbic acid treated dough felt very wet and I worried a bit.

6:30 pm added salt and levain, gently dimpled levain and did a few stretch and folds followed by 80 slap and folds (I am still working on getting good strength in my doughs).  

7 pm 15 stretch and folds in the bowl followed by 4 of Trevor's coil folds. This was repeated 3 more times and just before 9 pm I placed dough in covered bowls in my conservatory with windows cracked open. Overnight temperature was forecast to be 10 - 11 deg C and I kept my fingers crossed that the bulk ferment would hold till this morning.  Both doughs were very soft but had come together well.

8:15 am this morning I preshaped dough, rested 15 minutes then shaped.  the ascorbic acid treated dough felt and looked a little puffier.  The dough was proofed for about an hour and a half only.  The heating was on in the house so room temperature was probably about 21 deg C,  I prefer scoring cold dough so this was a bit of a challenge and it looked quite flat as it went into the oven.  Standard bake 15 mins lid on in DO and 15 mins lid off at about (230 deg C) 475 deg F.

Left hand loaf is treated with ascorbic acid. 

Ok, they look good, sprang very well in the oven.  Not a great deal between the two in fact.

Late afternoon I cut the loaves to slice and freeze and got quite a surprise.

Top slice is the standard bake, the lower slice is from the Ascorbic acid treated dough.  I am a happy camper. Didn't set out to achieve this but will definitely attempt this again.  Not sure if it was the long long bulk ferment at relatively cool temperatures or the slap and folds or something else all together.  No retardation either.  I don't make many straight white breads anymore and while I don't always want a crumb like this, it is really fun to have achieved it.  

Earlier in the morning I had baked 2 loaves of Trevor Wilson's European Peasant bread a l Danni3113.  I remembered to fix the levain % and this too turned out really well.  I won't write out method etc it is a repeat of an earlier bake.

Crumb

Must admit this is a very nice bread indeed.  I mucked up the actual weights of the differing grains but I think I got it about right in the end.  It didn't matter, it tastes wonderful and we really had to hold back at lunchtime.

I think I need a rest now, I have "baked up a storm" over the last few days but we have an interesting selection in the freezer.

happy baking everyone

Leslie

Comments

not.a.crumb.left's picture
not.a.crumb.left

eating indeed! Looks amazing and I just can imagine your face when you cut it! I also tend to do evening bakes now as a bit more calm in our house and retard over night and bake first thing in the morning...

Interesting that you did the shaping in the morning....I find scoring cold dough difficult enough let alone warmer loaves!!!!! Intrigued about the ascorbic acid...hmmmm...I have dabbled with diastatic malt but never noticed a difference there....

Amazing bakes..!!!! Kat

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

the scoring really was funny as the dough felt very slack, but as you can see I must have got some strength there ?

the effect of the ascorbic acid was not huge but you could feel and see it. I might put a little more next time and see what happens.  A straight white every now and then is nice, even if it doesn’t have heaps of flavour.

thanks Kat, and bake happy

Leslie

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

When I make a white bread I always have a hard time waiting for it to cool so I can cut it open and look at the crumb.  It is usually a surprise.  When I think it should be open for sure it isn't and when I think it shouldn't be open it is.  I blame it on fickle bread gods or Lucy but never me.of course:-)  One thing you can always count on is that bread with some kind of whole grains in it will taste better than white bread every time because the holes are smaller and holes have no taste at all.  Lucy always says - smaller holes means more taste-)

So The peasant bread had to taste better than the white one right?

Happy baking Leslie

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

I always hate waiting before cutting - I can never guess the crumb unless the loaf is heavy.  so now I need to make it repeatable!! so that I can do it when I want not just by accident.  but I learnt a few things too so all good.

thanks dabrownman

Leslie

Ru007's picture
Ru007

The crumb looks great all round. I've never tried letting my bulk go all night, maybe I should take advantage of winter and give it a go! 

Well done Leslie and happy baking to you too

Ru

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

and kept getting up to check it, lol. I think it would only work here during winter but why not utilise the change of seasons to our advantage.  The only disadvantage is not being sure how long final proof will take and I guessed a bit I think.

thanks Ru

Leslie

Elsie_iu's picture
Elsie_iu

and I mean both bread not just the white one. Some may be captivated by the huge holes of the first loaf and pay little attention to the other with more whole grain. To me the later is more attractive for sure :) Its crumb is nicely open for such kind of bread and must taste really delicious.

You nailed both formula. Great bake!

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

the European peasant bread is very good, and I liked the crumb.  The white was really a simple loaf to experiment but for a basic white it is good but hopeless with butter and jam, lol.

Leslie

bread1965's picture
bread1965

Those look like terrific loaves.. it almost seems that the loaf without the acid rose less and was more contained from the crumb shots.. open crumb is still a mystery to me but you seem to have solved the riddle, intentionally or not! What's trevor's coil folds?

bread1965's picture
bread1965

ignore the open crumb comment.. i see now, i had mixed up which was which..

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

you lift the douhg in the middle (in the bowl) and kinda fold it gentleover itself. I don’t know how to add a link here for it but perhaps on the Breadwerx website or Trevor’s instagram which is where I saw it. it is quite a gentle process similar to stretch and fold and you rotate container as you go.  sorry I don’t know how else to describe it. maybe Kat will see this as I think she knows the link.

Leslie

bread1965's picture
bread1965

I think it's called rouard (spelling is wrong) method or something like that.. but I know what you mean from the description.. thanks!