Hi,

Any chance to save a rotten-smelly 85% Wholewheat / 15% Rye dough that has turned slacky when it

has undergone natural fermentation in a cool oven for 4 days (no feeding, nothing, only a mixture

freshly milled grain and drinking water)??

Mebake

I made the Team USA ciabatta from the BBA and was amazed at the results.  I started with BBA's 178% hydration poolish, which hardly had any activity compared to be usual 100% poolish.  The next day when I made the dough, I folded 3x over 3 hours and the dough seemed barely alive, and hydration levels were like pancake batter.  When I went to place it on my parchment, it poured from my hands like silk--by far the most slack dough/batter I've ever worked with.  I decided to retard the dough in the fridge overnight and bake it this morning before work.  The dough had hardly changed and was about 1" thick and flabby, like a deflated toad.  I had zero faith it would turn out.  However, the ciabatta sprung to life in the oven, more than doubling during the oven spring and turning into something incredible.  The smell was heavenly--creamy, salty, and rich.  I won't be able to cut into it until tonight, but I think my faith has been restored.

Has anyone else made this recipe?  It was a complete morale killer right up to the first 15 minutes of baking when it transformed.  I'm thinking the overnight stay in the fridge may have improved flavor, but I don't have any comparison.  Thoughts?

When people hear that I make virtually all our bread, they nod in approval and invariably ask what kind of bread machine I have. Here is how the conversation generally continues:

Me: No, I make it by hand. I don't have a bread machine.
They: No bread machine??
Me: No, all by hand.
They: (awestruck) Wow... that must be hard... and take a long time...
Me: No, not at all!
They: (incredulous) ...really?

Yes, I always knead by hand (except once when I made the mistake of using our food processor to make $35 bread ...not a good idea...). The choice to hand-knead is not necessarily because I'm a luddite. I just don't happen to have an electric mixer large enough to accommodate the amount of dough. And I'm too cheese-paring with counter space (and my wallet) to get one. Besides, it's much easier to wash my hands than it would be to wrestle with a mixer to take it apart, clean off sticky dough and then wrestle it into its storage area.