FWSY 80% Biga White Bread - crumb shot
I've made Ken Forkish's White Bread with Poolish several times, but this was my first time attempting his 80% Biga. This dough was incredible! So bouncy and full of life!
Unfortunately, because I've yet to get any bannetons, I'm still using a cloth lined bowl/cloth on the counter. This time, although I floured the cloths (with what I thought was) very heavily, both batards stuck to them, and there was some tearing when putting the loaf on the peel.
I didn't have super high hopes because my scoring was so ineffective, given the messed up surface of the bread..
–but OH MY GOD the crumb is amazing! I've never ever seen such a glossy crumb. There are these ultra thin shiny gluten membranes that are blowing my mind. (It tastes great too!)
Given the size of the holes I have in there, I definitely should have pressed some more air out of the dough while shaping, but I'm very excited by this new development!
Here's a quick video looking at the gloss as well
Comments
Your crumb looks perfect. What are you using to flour your towels? If you are not using rice flour.....get some ASAP and you won't have the sticking problem again.
Huh, my previous comment didn't post.
I've been reading about using rice flour for that purpose for a while - didn't imagine it could make that much of a difference, but that's good to know!
I got so frustrated with the tearing yesterday, that I finally purchased two bannetons and a linen couche. Hopefully this will make it a lot easier to release loaves in the future..
Thanks for the advice!
Make sure you coat your new baskets with the rice flour until it's seasoned. I also will put some extra rice flour on and around the dough if it's real sticky and brush the excess off before baking.
I floured /seasoned my bannetons with cornflour/cornstarch and I dust the top and the sides with a very small amount of cornflour/cornstarch too and brush of the exess.
Nice job! Too bad about the sticking, but it doesn't affect the taste, and rice flour will help next time. I often line the basket or bowl with a thin cotton towel sprinkled with rice flour or rolled oats. Generally, the basket comes right off and the towel peels easily, but if there's a bit of sticking, try spritzing the towel with water and it should release.
Bake on, Zach!
Cathy
Before I had my banneton's I used bowls in which I put kitchen towels and floured them with cornflour/cornstarch.
No sticking.
I continue doing this with my banneton's and they pop out with no sticking at all.
When I used flour before on higher hydration loafs, the flour would get sticky from the water content in the loafs and they stuck like you won't believe.
Petra
Yeah, I think it's the higher hydration thing. I've been using them on 75% loaves. Today I made the 80% biga bread again and used more flour than I thought necessary – they stuck even worse! I gotta get that rice flour..
Yes, do get the rice flour or cornstarch, they both do a great job to prevent the sticking.
Happy baking:)
I got my bannetons and tried this recipe again.
Much better results with shaping and scoring! I tried to make a very shallow cut at a shallow angle for the batard and got decently close to a nice ear. Same beautiful crumb!
Very nice!