The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Bake #2 - With Modifications

Colorado Tim's picture
Colorado Tim

Bake #2 - With Modifications

First of all, I want to thank everyone for their feedback, suggestions and kind words after my first boule. You made it very difficult for me to wait until the weekend when I knew I'd have the time to make a second trial run. I wanted to put your suggestions in effect as soon as possible.

I got pretty good results again with a slightly more open crumb. Not a lot of flavor difference that I noticed and the chewiness was pretty similar. Maybe ever so slightly less chewy. Still very tasty.

Unfortunately, in my excitement at reading all your suggestions, I think I made too many changes at one time to really know what helped and what might have been unnecessary or even counter-productive but I definitely moved more towards what I was hoping to see for crumb.

Changes I made - First, this was my first bake with a refrigerated starter. My last bake was from a fresh starter that hadn't been stored before. When I removed it from the fridge, it was quite sour smelling. I'd planned to feed twice before starting to build my levain but the smell was still more sour than previously. Since it was more than doubling fairly quickly, I went ahead and squeezed in an extra feeding and built the leaven a couple hours later than before. The bread is pleasantly sour now, probably a bit more than the original boule. I might go ahead and start feeding my starter a day earlier in the future just to make sure I have control over the sourness.

I swapped about 20% of the bread flour out for KA All Purpose. I raised hydration from 72% to 75%. I probably should have gone higher but since I'd added the AP flour, I was concerned about the dough being too sticky for my under-developed folding and shaping skills. That probably turned out to be a good idea because while the folding and shaping went much better, the dough stuck to my banneton quite a bit. I had to drop it a couple times on my peel to get it to release which cost me quite a bit of the gas I'd manage to maintain earlier. Degassing the dough late in the process is definitely an area I need to work on. Anyway, If I'd gone much higher on the hydration, I might not have gotten it out of the banneton at all.

Other changes - Turns out I miscalculated the whole wheat percentage in my first boule post. It was actually 16%, which was close to what was recommended in the feedback so I kept it about the same, but I did add a couple hours of rise time at my semi-frigid room temp on the counter after shaping. I kept the fridge retard time the same and kept a couple hours of counter time at the end.

Not sure how much my (uneducated) guesses matter, but I'm thinking that, aside from discovering new and interesting ways to de-gas the dough late in the process, the cold Colorado weather is probably my biggest issue. I really don't think I'm getting enough rise out of my dough because my kitchen is basically 68 to 70 degrees at it's warmest times. Other than my levain, overnight temps don't really matter much but I have a programmable thermostat on each floor of my house. I let the downstairs where my kitchen is drop to 62 overnight since all of the bedrooms are upstairs. I'm starting to think I might just change my timing and let that be my overnight cold retard. I suspect I might overproof, but I'd love to hear what others think. I'm already at 4 hours total 68 to 70 degree rise time (2 hours before retard, 2 hours after), so I'm thinking that if I time the shaping to be right around the time the temp starts dropping at night to 62, then inspect right as it's getting back up to 68 in the morning, I might be able to judge from there the appropriate time to start the bake.

Thanks in advance for any input you all might have and thanks again for the suggestions that lead me to this loaf!

---

Tim

 

David Esq.'s picture
David Esq.

Actually, it looks picture perfect. If you can repeat that loaf consistently, you ought to be very happy!

You may have warmer spots in the house where you can proof the bread -- the oven with a light on (or a heated cast iron pan in the oven), the basement, a small room that heats up more than the others.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

High hydration dough still won't ever stick to rice flour!  That is probably the only thing you have to change next time.  This one came out very nice.

  Well done and happy baking

mc_janine's picture
mc_janine

Use a blanket. I know it sounds silly, but here in Vancouver (BC) I have a cool kitchen this time of year as well and I find wrapping the covered dough in a blanket helps insulate it and allows it to rise in a more favourable time period, without jacking up the heat in the condo. Find a table, give it a try.

dobie's picture
dobie

Tim

Sorry to take so long to get back to you.

The bread looks wonderful. I know you will continue to refine, but as others have said, that's good bread.

And you had a good WW percentage all along, how 'bout that.

The above responses have plenty of good advice on temperature control of the proof that doesn't require you to turn up the heat in the house, or try to schedule things to 'colder' times. That could be expensive and/or drive you crazy.

I don't know if you (or anybody else, for that matter) does this, but what I've found useful recently is to do that circular, swirly tensioning move just before I slash it and put it into the DO and then right into the oven. Gets the dough ball nice and tall without significant de-gassing.

I've also been cutting little 'tab' handles to my parchement paper which makes loading delicate dough into a hot DO a lot safer for both myself and the dough.

dbm is right about rice flour. It is the best option I've yet tried to prevent dough from sticking to bannetons (or anything else). You can grind up your own in a little coffee grinder.

And you are right, one adjustment at a time is best, however improbable. You seem to be thinking things thru clearly tho as you dial it in.

Keep on keeping on.

dobie