The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Return to Wild White

albacore's picture
albacore

Return to Wild White

I haven't baked a white loaf since my disastrous encounter with Leckford Estate bread flour, so I thought it was time to excise some demons and have another try - with a different flour!

Having had success with a bulk retard in my last bake A Trio of High Extraction Loaves I decided to use the same technique again.

The only thing I wasn't totally happy with last time was the scoring and ears on the loaves baked uncovered, so I thought I might as well give the "double retard" a try on one of the loaves; I've always had good loaf appearance after a retarded final proof.

Flour mix

  • 3% Aldi whole grain rye passed through a fine kitchen sieve
  • 20% Walk Mill stoneground BF
  • 38.5% Marriages strong BF
  • 38.5% Waitrose strong Canadian BF


Levain

  • 22.5% young levain at 56% hydration, 30% of flour is Rubaud wholegrain mix

 

Other

  • True hydration 72%
  • Salt 1.8%

Process   

  • Levain made in a 2 1/2 stage build at e5, e11, m8. The half build is a small top up one in the morning 1:0.21
  • At m11, autolyse all flours in all water for 20mins. in mixer
  • Add levain, mix in, stand 15min
  • Add salt, mix in
  • Mix on high speed 1mins 55secs
  • Turn out of the mixer into proofing bowl, dough temp 25C (I was looking for 27C)
  • Bulk ferment at 28C for 2hrs with in bowl S&F at 45mins and 120mins
  • Transfer to fridge for retarded bulk
  • Out of fridge next day (14 elapsed hours)
  • Rest 50mins at 24C
  • Preshape to 3 rounds, BR 25mins
  • Shape to 2 650g boules, 1 680g bat
  • Boules FP in woodpulp brotforms for 1hr 15min at 24C
  • Boules baked with steam for 12mins, 13mins without.
  • Bat FP for 15mins at ambient, then into fridge for rest of FP (8hrs 30mins)
  • Bat baked same as boules

Thoughts

  • Nice loaves with good flavour and very open crumb. The double retarded bat was much easier to score than the boules, as you would expect with chilled dough.
  • It baked with a good ear and nice blisters.
  • The flavour of the single and double retarded loaves was similar
  • The double retard makes for a long process cycle, but seems to give the best of both worlds - a good flavour from the retarded bulk and good appearance from the retarded FP.

    After the mix:

Start of Bulk Proof:

Out of the fridge:

Nice & bubbly!:

Onto the bench:

Preshaped:

Ready for FP:

Baked boules:

And the batarde:

Nice blisters!:

Lance

 

Comments

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

and wonderful crumb...I also love going back to whites as part of routine and the Marriages Strong White is a great flour to bake with, I find... Have you tried the strong wholewheat...that is good too......Happy Eating!   Kat

albacore's picture
albacore

With having the Mockmill, I tend not to buy too much wholewheat flour, but I do use Marriage's Golden Wholegrain bread flour, which I think is their version of white wholewheat - the only source I know of in the UK. It's not quite as strong flavoured as the standard wholewheats.

Lance

Solano's picture
Solano

Great breads! The crust looks uniform, the bottom does not look any harder than the rest, how did you bake the breads? I always have a hard bottom, I think I need a bigger oven to bake farther from the flame, but maybe I can have other ideas to solve this from the experiences of others here.

albacore's picture
albacore

I bake on a 3/4" bakestone in a domestic oven. A european fan oven as I call it, made by Bosch. It's quite big, but probably small by American standards. I can  just get two 900g batards in side by side on the bakestone.

I get it up to temperature on fan, then switch to top and bottom heat just prior to putting the loaves in. I do some steaming for the first 10 mins or so.

Lance

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

I'm betting the flavor could be enhanced with some more whole grains in there say 15% total with some spelt, WW, Kamut, added. to the rye say 4% each to make 16%.  But this one has the 3 B's and OSM  .  Very nice!

albacore's picture
albacore

I tend to agree with your flour mix - those sorts of blends make very flavoursome loaves, as do high extraction blends. But a nearly all white (it had about 4% wholegrain from the levain) loaf is very tasty now and again as well.

Lance

Ru007's picture
Ru007

Very nice. 

Happy baking 

Ru

albacore's picture
albacore

Thanks Ru! It's nice when everything comes together right - which it doesn't always!

Lance

PalwithnoovenP's picture
PalwithnoovenP

other than WOW!