The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Joining TFL

amberartisan's picture
amberartisan

Joining TFL

I've been avidly baking and reading this site for 6 months now, so I thought it was finally time to join. This week I baked a 50/50 levain using my new liquid levain culture as well as a test batch of baguettes to propare me for an upcoming production for a winery (My town has like 5,000 people and none of them can bake- well none except one:) . Anyways, my levains have usually been going flat inexplicably out of the refrigerator; any tips on how to make a wet dough hold up after removing from a basket?

My baguettes formed a skin when I retarded them, covering them with moistened couche, so I have decided to switch to a trash bag instead. 

My baguette method uses 75% of the flour cold autolyzed, 25% in a 4 hour poolish, and a total of 75% hydration. The skin severely inhibited the overnight rise. Also, I used the "Magic Towel" method to steam my oven :)