I'm new to this and have only done around 7 breads so far (each one progressively better than the last for the most part)  However, since my first attempt at a pain rustique didn't fair well, I decided to give it another shot today.  I mixed my poolish last night (100% hydration) but ended up having to t'fer it to a larger bowl very early this morning (put it in one that was way too small for some reason).  I have to say, the wonderful fragrance that leaps from the bowl when you first remove the plastic wrap from this stuff is just incredible!  Here's what it looked like after 13 hours:

Here's the formula that I calculated based on Hamelman's pain rustique.  I simply typed in my figures into a  "design worksheet" pdf along with my notes.  I guess I got it right considering the end result :)

I proofed 900g of dough in a 8" X 10" X 3" homemade banneton (cost me all of $2).  After 20 min I inverted it onto a peel.   I had trouble scoring (as usual).  The dough, while manageable after the stretch and folds, was still pretty sticky so the knife tugged on the surface of the dough.  Maybe this will be easier after I get my lame this week.  After my pitiful scoring, the dough somewhat deflated...

However, after just  10 minutes (at 465F on a stone), it seemed to perk up a bit.  I did pour a cup of hot water into a pan on the bottom of the oven for steam as well as sprayed the top of the loaf and the oven walls (twice).

I continued baking while keeping an eye on the color... at 40 minutes, I decided to take it out.  The internal temperature was 205.  Overall, this one looked the best to me.  No "singing" was heard but there was a lot of nice crackling going on.   (The oval shape somehow got a little distorted getting it from the proofing basket to the peel)

The crumb came out better than any of my other breads.  It smells and tastes great but I'm wondering just what the "bite" of the crumb should be like?  This has some resiliance to it; chewy but not tough and it does dissolve in the mouth nicely.  Is it that I'm tasting good bread for the first time or did I screw this up and simply produce bad bread?  :) )

Here's a cross-section of an end piece.  The larger air pocket has a bit of a sheen to it.  I've read somewhere this is a good sign?

 One would think that making bread would be relatively easy but I'm learning that's not necessarily the case :) Well, that's about it :)  Thanks in advance for any advice or comments.

Po Jo 

I posted this pic under comments somewhere but I am posting it again because I am so happy with the results!

This was my first time using a pre-ferment.  All my past bread baking as been more about speed and convenience.  Basically, I love a fresh loaf but couldn't commit to the time!  

So glad I did this last night because I will now be making it a (delicious) habit :)

Hi there

I have a great baguette recipe but I struggle with ensuring that the pre-ferment that I've prepared the night before gets evenly distributed through the dough.  It's a tricky problem, since you're trying to blend a soft gooey mixture through a new batch of flour, yeast, salt and water.

Anyone got any tips?  Common sense tells me to make up the fresh four/yeast/salt first, blend thoroughly, and then add the pre-ferment before adding the warm water.  I've also reversed the adding of warm water and pre-ferment.  In both cases, the resulting mass is susceptible to have lumps.  I have tried the dough hook but it doesn't seem to get the job done.

A Pocketful of Yeast has begun.  Check out the blog at http://veggieinmilwaukee.wordpress.com.  This blog focuses on mastering the art of baking.  Comments are greatly appreciated.  If you have recipes or formulas that you would like to share I will gladly post them with credit to you.

Greetings!

I'm a newbie, consumed with bread baking . . .

Yesterday, I made Dan Leader's Whole Wheat Sourdough Miche. I got creative after preparing the pre-ferment; I wondered what would happen if I mixed the dough portion of the recipe (combined it with the water, less the remaining yeast) while waiting for the pre-ferment to do it's thing. Everything seemed to combine normally. I got a good first rise, but not much on the second rise after forming the loaf. I did not get a huge oven spring. The taste and texture were very good, not too dense, but not much in the way of an open crumb.

Has anyone got thoughts on the merits/advisability of doing this? Waste of time, or potential flavor enhancer?

BTW- I am in AWE of the amazing breads you all create!

Phxdog.

Hi all,

 I've been baking from Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain cookbook for about a month now. I'm not an experienced bread baker, but I've slowly been increasing the hydration of my dough, learning to shape slack doughs, and improving the crumb of my hearth breads. 

I'm having a bizarre issue with my pre-doughs (the soaker and the biga in Reinhart's terminology); both the soaker and the biga tend to develop a greyinsh-brown film on top. If I leave the soaker out at room temp, this film becomes pronounced and very hard (I lose a good portion of the dough by trying to pick it off).  It's diminished by storage in the fridge, but still noticeable as a darker coloring, only on the top of the dough that is exposed to air.  This seems to happen whether I use water, buttermilk, whey or milk as the liquid in the recipe, and it happens both with yeast (biga) and without (soaker).  It seems to get worse with time (if I leave the pre-doughs in the fridge for 2 or 3 days it is more pronounced than after 24 hr).

Does anyone have experience with this?  It doesn't seem to always happen; I've been using the same batch of flour (25 lb batch of organic, freshly-milled hard red wheat flour from a local farm); I haven't gotten around to buying a different source of flour from the store and checking it out.

Anyone know what this is, or have ideas as to how to prevent it? 

Thanks much,

Kaela

Hi all,

I have a question about the hydration of a pre-ferment. I realize that changing the hydration makes it either a biga or a poolish, but I don't care so much about the name as I do the result! I just made Hamelman's Rustic Bread with a few changes, and the family loved it. I doubled the ww (there's not that much to begin with), and used it in the pre-ferment instead of the final dough. It worked wonderfully, but I'd like to go a little further and up the ww % even further, maybe to 50% eventually.