Suggestions for measuring out dough into dutch oven
First time poster, long time lurker.
I recently acquired a small Le Creuset vintage 70's dutch oven pot that's about 4qt in size (apprx). I'm following a no knead bread recipe from King Arthur's website and just wondering how much dough would anyone suggest using for my small size pot?
Preferably in grams or ounces is great as I have a scale and ready to go. I'm proofing it in the fridge for 7 days as recipe states but I want to try and do one loaf per day starting at day 3 so that I can see the difference in taste and quality. The recipe yields a lot of dough which is why I am willing to try this experiment over the course of a few days.
In case anyone is interested in the recipe to further assist I would like to post it.
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/no-knead-crusty-white-bread-recipe
FYI, this would be my first attempt at making bread (other than using a bread machine).
should work just fine for that size.
Alright thank you, I will give it a try tomorrow and hopefully upload a nice pic of my newbie loaf!
on the height you'd like your loaf to have. I most often use a round DO that is ~2.7 litres in volume to bake anywhere from 600 to over 800 grams of dough, not counting seeds, nuts or other add-ins.
I would say that you need to use 2.5-3 cups or 350-400 g. of flour
So if I have remaining dough left over can I just freeze it for another time? Also, am I letting it rise in the dutch oven and then put it in the oven with the lid off, and 15 minutes before remove lid?
So here is the short answer: Cut the recipe in half.
Long answer: Bakers percentages.
Bakers percentages is the ratio of ingredients to the amount of flour used. There is a whole branch of science around this called Stoichiometry.
Much easier to do in metric, I highly suggest you buy a digital scale, under $20 from amazon, and you can weigh everything. This keeps the ratios very consistent over measuring.
So it calls for 32oz of flour, or 907g of flour.
and 709g in water.
The flour is always 100% of the weight, and everything else is measured against that 100%.
In this case, 700/900 (rounded for ease of calculation) is 77.7%
Salt is 17g or 17/900 or 2%
Yeast is 4.7g or 4.7/900 or .5%
Now that you have your ratios, you can alter it by any amount you want, just pick a starting flour weight and get the calculator.
Lets say you want to do 2000g of flour:
2000 x .77 = 1554g of water
2000 x .02 = 40g of salt
2000 x .005 = 10g of yeast. Yeast is tricky, you should put less in as you go up higher, but you will get a feel for it.
You can make the same calculations for 500g, 700g, 3000g, 5000g, it is all the same. Poke around here and you will even find spreadsheets that will do the work for you!
Part two: shorthand.
Bakers sometimes use shorthand for these ratios, called "Percentage hydration" which means how much water to how much flour. In this case, we have a 77.7%, or 78% hydration dough. 2% salt and .5% yeast are assumed unless otherwise noted.
The nifty thing here is you can adjust the hydration to taste. Dough too slack, or soft/sticky? Reduce the hydration 5% to 72% and try again. Still not what you like? Go to 68%. Too stiff? add a few percent back in. Too dense? Want bigger holes in the bread? Raise the hydration a percent or two and see what you get.
Yes, 5% hydration is plenty to make a difference in the consistency of the dough, which is why a scale is so important!
Sometimes it is just the amount of water pre-existing in the flour that will make a difference. I buy in 50lb sacks, and I have to adjust a few percent after starting a new bag.