The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Saturday Lunch bread

Salilah's picture
Salilah

Saturday Lunch bread

Two loaves underway this weekend - Hamelman's Pain au Levain, and Hamelman's Pain au Levain with Whole-Wheat Flour - both use a stiff levain which I hadn't done before, so I made enough to do a good-sized loaf for each. 

"The white will be baked Saturday late afternoon, and the brown on Sunday morning" I commented to my other half.  "We always seem to have lots of bread when we don't want to eat it, and no bread when we do", he commented.  Oops!  I'm still learning and experimenting - and he wants a bit more certainty about what he is going to eat - well, nothing wrong with that!

Mental note to plan ahead a bit better - and I decided yesterday afternoon to try to do a rapid "Saturday Lunch bread".  Luckily I'd refreshed the starter so it was quite lively and fluffy - so I customised Tartine to make a small boule

60g starter (100%)
200g white flour
22g rye (light)
160 water
5g salt

Mix starter, flour and water and autolyse for 30mins.  Add salt, stretch and fold in a bowl. 
Stretch and fold after 30 mins, an hour, 90 mins, 2 hours
Pre-shaped and rest for 20mins, shaped and into bannetton in fridge overnight

This morning (9:30ish - well, it is Saturday!) it came out of the fridge - very little rising, so allowed to come to room temperature.  Into oven after about 2 hours (had to sort the car out) at 240C on a stone under a cover for steaming for 10mins, then cover off and turned down to 200C for about 30mins

Quite a nice little loaf! 

It didn't rise too much (probably a bit overproofed - not much expansion through the score) but enough, with reasonable oven spring

Before it all disappeared, the crumb:

The crust softened (as mine often do) but it tasted nice, just warm still when we cut it.  There's a crust left in case we get hungry before dinner!

Sali

Comments

varda's picture
varda

and I bet it tastes terrific with that camembert.   If you are finding your crust softening, you could add 5 minutes to the bake to dry it out.   -Varda

Salilah's picture
Salilah

I was a bit concerned as it was already quite dark - I wonder if I ought to bake at a lower temperature in this oven?  All the heat is from above (though I use a slab of granite) so it might be too much at once?

Sali

varda's picture
varda

One approach some people use is to lower temperature after crust color darkens.   Others leave the loaf in the oven for 5-10 minutes with the heat turned off and the door propped open a little bit to ensure the crust is properly dried out.    I guess you have to figure out what works best in your environment.   I keep thinking that the fact you cut into it when it was still warm might be a factor in the crust softening, but I can't think through why that would be true.   But your loaf looks terrific so no worries.   

Salilah's picture
Salilah

Thanks for the crust ideas - I'll try these out and see what happens!

best wishes
Sali

Syd's picture
Syd

Lovely caramelisation of the crust and great crumb structure.

Syd