The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Overnight Bread

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Overnight Bread

Hello,

I participated in World Bread Day in October, and wanted to bake an “Overnight Bread” for November’s Bread Baking Day.

I have a new, beautiful bread book (Flour Water Salt Yeast, by Ken Forkish), with a formula for an 82% hydration,
75% whole wheat levain bread (there’s a tiny bit of instant yeast, too). I wanted to try this one, adapting it for a long, cold overnight fermentation, encouraged by the lovely result David achieved recently.

The dough was hand-mixed after a 90 minute autolyse; three sets of stretch-and-folds in the bowl with 10 minute rests in between yielded a gluten window like this (tried to stretch a gluten window with one hand while holding the camera in the other):

Dough temperature was 73F prior to mixing and had cooled to 69F, at the start of bulk fermentation. Bulk ferment was two hours at room temperature with a fold after one hour. The dough showed signs of movement after the two hour bulk ferment; it was then refrigerated overnight.

The dough was removed from the fridge after 18 hours (the dough had doubled at this point). The dough was warmed at room temperature for one hour, then divided, preshaped and rested for 25 minutes. After shaping, proofing was at 80F (humidity added) for one hour, prior to baking.  
In the Professional Baking class at Kneading Conference West this past September Jesse Dodson mentioned that for whole wheat breads, proofing has to outpace the loss of gas and so recommended a warm, fast proof for breads for these types of breads. Phil’s comment in David’s post reminded me of this.

David and Phil certainly get wonderful results with their bakes! so I was curious to see what might happen if I attempted similar fermentation and proofing temperatures/times.

I was thinking of Eric Hanner’s beautiful version of Katie’s Stout and Flaxseed Bread when I shaped this loaf, the natural, organic opening of the seams that was so pretty after baking. I tried proofing seam-side-down, for this bake, grateful for Eric’s example.

Baking started at 460F, in a reducing oven, final bake temperature 435F and loaves left in oven for 10 minutes with door ajar at the end of the bake.

The baked bread, and crumb (crumb shot is from the loaf on the right)
 

 
In his book, Mr. Forkish writes about bringing his bread back to the place where it was born.
It was nice to read that, as I was using locally-grown whole-wheat flour, baking one of these loaves 
for my local farmer and his family :^)

Very grateful to Mr. Forkish for his lovely book (full of so many gorgeous breads), and to Eric and David for their inspiring posts; and happy to have baked this for November’s Bread Baking Day (we loved the flavor of this one)!



Happy baking everyone!
:^) breadsong

Comments

ananda's picture
ananda

Hi Breadsong,

Everyone's getting into baking with high amounts of wholewheat at the moment; I love it!

Gorgeous crumb that you showcase here.   The wonders of fermentation; skill and knowledge applied.

Lovely, and thanks for including some information about your new book.

All good wishes

Andy

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Thank you, Andy!
The book is something I know I'm going to enjoy exploring further...some amazing pizza in addition to the breads.
The flour seemed to like the long autolyse and the dough developed quickly.
I was happy to come back to the dough after refrigeration and see that it had bubbled up so nicely during the cold bulk ferment.
Thank you for the compliments - this bread was a joy to make.
:^) breadsong

Mebake's picture
Mebake

What a gorgeous looking crumb structure, breadsong! With all the wholewheat, and hydration level, you've aced this bake.

Excellent! Top notch all the way. Mmmm.. How was the flavor? Is it grassy, sour?

Thanks for reminding me about the virtues of desem starter,.. I'll have to develop one as soon as i get well again, though i'm a bit worried that cold fridge temperatures ( 8c-10c ), may be past the optimal coolness recommended for a desem.

Care to shed a light on this? I don't have a cellar, nor a cool spot at hom, be it in winter or summer.

Khalid

 

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hi Khalid,
Thank you so much! I hope your recovery is going well, and I wish you the very best.
I was thinking of you as I was mixing this dough - employing the mixing technique you so beautifully illustrated for TFL (thank you!).
This bread had a very pleasant acidity and I didn't taste any grassy flavor.
Re: desem starter, the levain for this bread was 80% bread flour and 20% whole-wheat flour, 80% hydration.
Phil wrote lots of helpful comments about how he maintains his desem starter in this beautiful post.
He mentioned storing the desem starter in the fridge, and feeding it more frequently when temperatures were warm. Hopefully there are answers to your question there; that desem bread is another beautiful bread I've always wanted to try making!
:^) breadsong

Mebake's picture
Mebake

Thank you, Breadsong :) i'll study Phil's thread closely.

Khalid

bakingbadly's picture
bakingbadly

Beautiful, elegant crumb... Hypnotic, too.

I'm convinced that the flavour of your loaf was more than delightful. It has to be, and I wish I had a slice of that beauty. :)

Zita 

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Thank you, Zita.
I baked this bread twice - once with my local farmer's flour (2011 crop - still had a bit of that flour left, this is the bread pictured in the post) and again with flour from my local farmer's 2012 crop (I was curious to see the difference in flavor/performance between the two years). Perhaps because the new crop flour was more recently milled, but I found the bread to have a sweeter flavor, and it felt softer for the same hydration. This may have been due to growing conditions/protein quality or quantity, or again due to recent milling. 
Either way, we found these breads to taste delightful! :^)

This was the crumb from the bread made with the 2012 flour:

With these bakes, I had plenty to share and I wish I could have given you a slice!
:^) breadsong

bakingbadly's picture
bakingbadly

Oh my...

You tempt me, Breadsong. Very much so do you tempt me. ;)

I'm rather envious as I do not have access to recently milled flour, nor do I have a grain mill. With that kind of flour, your loaves must've bursted with flavours that I've yet to experience...

Oh, how I wish I had a slice. *Drools.*

Zita 

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hi Zita,
If you get a grain mill and try milling your own flour, I hope you enjoy the flavors!
I remember the first time I baked bread with recently-milled flour; the taste of that bread was *amazing*.
I haven't started milling my own flour yet, but when I do, I'm pretty sure I'll wish that I would have started sooner...
:^) breadsong

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

a well baked high % WW bread and yours is no exception.  Love the openness and color of the crumb along with the crust that bloomed so well.

Very nice baking breadsong

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hi dabrownman,
Thank you!
After I turned the dough out of the banetton, there was a hole about the size of a quarter on top, that really blossomed during the bake.

As I wrote to Zita, 2011 crop flour was used to bake the bread pictured in the post. I baked this bread again using 2012 crop flour, and the dough felt wetter for the same hydration; trying the same shaping using this dough caused the seam to seal more tightly and not as much bloom during the bake:

Next time, I'll try using some more flour when shaping and see how it goes.

Thanks so much - glad you liked this - Mr. Forkish has a great formula!
:^) breadsong

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

how these, what I call un-slashed upside down breads, bloom different every time?  I have made David Snyder's Pugliesi  Capriosso many times and each time it blooms differently. One time it puffed up boldly and never split at all!

So, year old flour takes more water in the mix - if you don't want it to bloom beautifully as much :-)  I'm kind of glad that one can't figure things out perfectly ahead of time so that we can still be amazed at the results.  I like being amazed more than satisfied....

Our Crumb's picture
Our Crumb

Heroic outcome for such a high ww formula, great tidbits on proof time/temp theory/practice, link to what looks like an interesting book (impressive page sample on S&F!), nod to Eric, alert about these BBDs -- it's all there. However, I have to say re: your windowpane picture:  This is a family website.  Maybe three fingers next time :-)

Never tried a 75% ww before.  85 (CY), 50(SD), less.  But never 75(WY).  Added it to the list...

Thanks breadsong!

Tom

 

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hi Tom,
That was a hard picture to take, guess I should have asked for help!
Glad you liked the post, and this type of bread, if you make it.
:^) breadsong

varda's picture
varda

Gives me a model to shoot for.    Thanks for the great post.  -Varda

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hi Varda,
Thank you very much! That's very kind, and I think the same of your breads.
I just took a tour back through your blog; so many beautiful breads, all with *outstanding* crumb; this one was a favorite of mine :^)
And if I ever made a desem bread, your 99% whole-wheat desem will be the goal I shoot for.
:^) breadsong

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

This one is my favorite crumb of all time.  Chocolate Rye Malt Bread.  Incredible!  That's why my apprnetice calls her a really great, if crumby,  bread baker.  Her crusts aren't bad either :-)

breadsong's picture
breadsong

lovely choice, dabrownman...that rye was a beauty! :^)

varda's picture
varda

I wasn't saying that I NEVER made bread with a good crumb.   I was just saying that Breadsong's lovely loaf will  be my model for high percentage whole wheat breads, which I am just trying to learn to make now.    So thank you for all your support.   It is always welcome and I hope reciprocated.  -Varda

Song Of The Baker's picture
Song Of The Baker

Oooooooo I can picture walnuts going into this bread nicely. 

Great bake!  I'm inspired.

John

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Thank you John!
Walnuts are an excellent suggestion - I just found some sweet-tasting locally grown ones at the market in town -
a good pairing for the local flour.
Looking forward to seeing your walnut bread, if you make one!
:^) breadsong

Song Of The Baker's picture
Song Of The Baker

Breadsong, I will have to wait another week to try a walnut bread.  I am still playing around with my rye adventure.

I just saw the crumb of your bread, and thought wow, nice and hearty and wheaty.  Perfect for some earthy flavour additions.

If you bake one up before I get to it, please let me know how it turns out!

John

 

Franko's picture
Franko

Hi breadsong,

Amazing crumb on both those loaves from flours 2011 & 2012, and the organic opening top of first loaf looks great! I've tried so many times to do that one handed camera maneuver while holding a windowpane, it's good to know I'm not the only one who finds it tricky. You certainly pulled it off better than I've ever managed though. Lovely breads breadsong!

Franko

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hi Franko,
Thanks - had to take the picture fast, while trying keep the camera from getting covered in flour and/or dough :^)
Thanks too re: the crumb - was really happy with how this dough developed, and I think that helped.
:^) breadsong

Farine's picture
Farine

I love the crust and the crumb is just perfect! What a fantastic job, breadsong!