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Long mixed wet dough - following the Leader

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

Long mixed wet dough - following the Leader

I bought myself a copy of Daniel Leader's "Local Breads" just before Christmas. It's a very good read for one thing - lots of stories about his travels to different parts of Europe, learning the secrets of many traditional regional breads from France, Italy, Poland, Germany, etc. There are lots of techniques to try and recipes scaled for the home baker.

I was very intrigued by the consistent recommendation throughout to mix aggressively, preferably by machine. Leader tested all the recipes using a KA Classic. One of the recipes I really wanted to try was a 50% whole wheat Genzano bread from Italy. This is a fairly high hydration (80% water to flour, but the 'biga naturale' starter is quite stiff so the overall hydration is lower than this) with both a stiff sourdough starter and added dry yeast. It is half unbleached bread flour and half stone-ground whole wheat (I milled it myself, so no additives).

I followed the recipe quite closely for this first try, wanting to see how it turned out. The mixing instructions are like nothing I've ever seen before - 10 minutes at speed 8 (yes, you read that right), followed by 8-10 minutes at speed 10! I had to spend the entire time holding down the mixer so the head didn't bounce around too much and the mixer didn't jump off the counter. It got quite hot too, but soldiered on. When finished, the dough was wet and drippy but very, very stretchy, and it cleared the bowl completely as it mixed. The temperature was a bit high at 95F.

I turned it into a lightly greased bowl to rise. The recipe said 1.5 hours, but it rose very quickly. I did let it go for 1.25 hours, then turned it and let it rise again. It deflated a lot after the turn but rose again, doubling in less than an hour.

Here it is before the turn:

After the fold:

And after the second rise:

As instructed, I covered a peel (a piece of 1/4" plywood in this case) with parchment paper and sprinkled it with wheat bran.

I turned the dough out onto a floured counter and cut it into two pieces. It was very, very soft and billowy; a bit sticky but a little flour tamed that easily. I patted it out gently into two rectangles and did a simple letter fold, then flipped each over onto the peel, nudging it into shape with my bench scraper. It was very much like a soft, stretchy ciabatta dough.

Before final proof (shaped very roughly!):

And after proofing for about 40 minutes:

The loaves were baked on stones pre-heated to 450F, with steam, for 20 minutes, then turned and baked at 400F for another 15 minutes. Excellent spring and gorgeous crust.

I barely restrained myself to wait until it was cooled before I sliced it and had a look inside. There has been so much debate about over-mixing resulting in close crumb, tough crust and chewy bread. This dough was about as over-mixed as you can get - 18 minutes at high speed on a stand mixer! And ... drum roll please... here is the crumb shot:

This is about the lightest, fluffiest 50% whole wheat lean bread I've ever made (or seen, for that matter). The crust is delicate and thin, and the crumb soft, tender and moist. Leader says the bread should keep on the counter for up to seven days! We'll see about that, but I seriously doubt it will last anywhere near that long.

To be fair I should try the same recipe with minimal handling and see how it turns out. Maybe I will, but I also want to try it with less added dry yeast and a bit longer ferment. With the biga naturale the flavour should be fine though, and it's nice to have a bread that can be mixed and baked in four or five hours.

Comments

PalwithnoovenP's picture
PalwithnoovenP

That crumb is wonderful! How was the flavor? It is said that "overmixing" depletes the flavor of the grain. Can't wait for you next experiment of the same recipe with minimal handling. Thanks for sharing!

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

Actually, the flavour is wonderful. I was quite astonished at the aroma that released when I first cut into the loaf too; just mouth-watering! The biga naturale is probably responsible for a lot of that but there is also a very nice 'wheaty', fresh bread aroma and taste that is absent in a lot of 4-5 hour breads.

I had a slice last night with unsalted butter, and two slices toasted this morning. It toasts up crispy and light with a delicate crust, and untoasted it's creamy, soft, easy to chew and very tasty. This is one of those breads that I could go through half a loaf in a day. :)

dosco's picture
dosco

Seems to be quite a bit of similarity to the "That's a Lot of Ciabatta" recipe and approach ... mix with a Kitchen Aid on "as fast as it will go" until "the dough doesn't stick to the bowl. (my old-ish, unrebuilt, KA can only reach "3" ... switching to higher speeds doesn't result in faster mixing). My current approach for "generic sourdough" is 77% hydration and mix for a total of 15 minutes (5 minutes of mixing, then 5 minutes of rest ... repeat for a total of 15 minutes of mixing).

It has helped the gluten development of my breads. I don't get the "big holes" which I am beginning to think are related to my handling after bulk fermentation (too much degassing) ... others have suggested that I'm overmixing, but I have been 100% unable to get (what I think) are decent results with "gentle stretch and folding."

-Dave

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

Thanks Dave, that's good to know. I have sometimes been disappointed with breads that use the minimal handling approach, though some of them turn out very nice with just the 'gentle stretch and fold' approach, particularly if you have time to bulk ferment them overnight. Now I just need to figure out which ones to 'beat the living daylights out of' and which ones to treat gently!

I do make a ciabatta that has quite minimal handling, and just made it the other day. It turned out quite nice but did have much larger, webbier holes than this half-whole wheat loaf. Personally I like this one better.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

yeast in the mix. I'm nit sure it has much ti di with the mixing.all that much other thn the crumb is more uniform without too many irregular holes.  Just beautiful!  Has to to be tasty as well, maybe a bit less sour and more yeasty.  Well done.

I'm doing a 9 sprouted grain, bran levain bread today but have just made a poolish for it as the levain ripens so I can see the difference in the crumb for one nit so intensively mixed - so I might beat you to it.  But sprouted multigrain isn't quite the same either.

Happy baking LL