The Fresh Loaf

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Forkish Double Fed Sweet Levain and Grilled Cheese

David Esq.'s picture
David Esq.

Forkish Double Fed Sweet Levain and Grilled Cheese

This weekend was a "disaster" in terms of baking waste. I don't even recall what I was trying to bake, but I got distracted and used the wrong quantity of water.  I determined this because the autolyse was very dry and when I weighed my container it was short by a whole lot.  Unfortunately, it was not possible to incorporate the missing water at this point. I tried to overcome the problem with time, and eventually the pools of water in my dough bucket began to subside and I had a crappy looking dough that felt awful.  More time passed and it seemed almost passable except for the tumors of hard matter which I can only assume were clumps of drier dough in the mix.

At this point, I had already started down the path of making the Forkish Double Fed Sweet Levain bread and given the huge quantities of discard that he calls for, I had enough to make four loaves by the end of the second feeding. (I did not do a full forkish feeding for the first one, but did so for the second).  When I got to adding the salt to the Sweet Levain dough, I realized I forgot to add it to the first dough disaster I had created, so I just dumped the mess into the trash and said, good riddance.  I promise to have my notebook nearby next time I bake so I can keep better track of things.

Anyway, back to the double fed sweet levain bread -- his process calls for 1/2 tsp of yeast, he says, because the levain he uses is not particularly active, having been recently fed before mixing.  I decided to experiment and skip the yeast for the first batch and then add the yeast for the second batch.  The second batch also contained rye and more ground white whole wheat.

The dough is supposed to grow 2-2.5 times in size, and the one with the yeast, which was started nearly an hour after the one without, rose admirably and allowed me to shape and put in the fridge before bed.  The second set of dough started an hour earlier and without the yeast was barely budging, I think it came to just above 1 liter in the cambro container when it started just below 1 liter. I had no idea how long it would take to get to nearly 3 liters, but I put the bucket in the pantry which is a bit cooler than the kitchen this time of year, and went to bed.

In the morning, my shaped and yeasted dough had grown quite a bit in the baskets and were ready to bake first thing (6:30 a.m.).  I had added rolled oats to the proofing baskets and even sprinkled them around the perimeter of the dough, in addition to using rice flour.  These babies dropped out without leaving any bits behind FINALLY!

Scored Dough

The loaves baked up very nicely though they did not open up much.

And, as you can see, the crumb is beautiful.  It is very soft. No sourness at all. Just lovely to eat.

Even though it was baked fresh that day, I decided to make some grilled cheese for dinner.  I have been using my cast iron skillets to grill my sandwich, using the second skillet as a panini press. This makes the bread toast up beautifully.  I am using coconut oil and cheddar. Yum!

Comments

David Esq.'s picture
David Esq.

You may be wondering how that came out -- well, by the next morning the bread had hit about 2.5 times in volume, and it was showing some gas bubbles at the surface, so I removed it from the tub onto the floured counter and shaped the dough as best I could. I found it a bit gassy and did not want to deflate it.  I shaped, put in the baskets and stuck in the fridge for about 4-5 hours and then baked it.  Unfortunately, before baking it , one of the doughs stuck terribly to my super peel (I did not flour it and it stuck like glue, for the first time).  This meant  I had about a foot of stretched dough that I peeled off the peel and just flopped over the dough.  Surprisingly, it baked up fine.  A little squatter than normal. The second loaf was a bit smaller than usual. Not sure if that is because I needed to let the dough proof longer. 

No photos of those loaves and they have not been cut yet.

David Esq.'s picture
David Esq.

This is the pure sourdough version. I think it came out a little dense, though it apparently toasted up very well.  I will see how it does for a sandwich tomorrow, but I think it was under proofed based on the bite I took this morning. It looks better than it tasted, but that may be because I had just eaten three pieces of toast before I tried it. Still, it felt denser and moister than it ought.

Mebake's picture
Mebake

Fine looking bread, David. Love the crumb and the oat garnish.. it does help release the dough doesn't it.

I'm sure you've learned tons from your yeast free mishap. Now go get that sourdough version, soon:)

Khalid

David Esq.'s picture
David Esq.

Ate the sandwich today and it was pretty good.  Not as soft and tender in the crumb, but not nearly as dense as I had feared. The picture above still looks a little better than the bread feels though.