Ear loaves and other things you may want to hear about
Here are a couple of nice loaves from today's batch. Finally seeing some nice ears with crisper edges which I believe is a result of a shorter final proof (~45 minites-ish) and a little extra time before oven flipping. Being that its colder in the mornings its quite a challenge to get the final proof timing right and have recently been a bit disappointed by flatter loaves due to over-compensating. The last couple of bakes I have done the final proof above the oven to inject a little life into the yeast and it seems to allow for the usual 40-50 minute proof. Then as the oven opens for the first flip its been obvious that the spring is more pronounced.
That's all great but what else can be noticed here is that I have recently been experimenting with soy and its apparent that I have over done it this time as the crumb is a little too gummy. Its amazing that just a bit of soy can change the bubble structure to that of more smaller air pockets which at least for me is desirable. Not a big fan of 1 inch pockets. So it looks like time to scale back on soy maybe 1/2 g max. Although it makes for a beautiful yellow color this batch is just ok on the interior.
The balance of everything on this loaf - the baguette, is just insane to perfect !
Comments
like the cold is becoming another factor. You did get smaller holes this time and the c=scoring a bit better. I think if the scoring was a bit more longitudinal rather than horizontal that might help some. These are pretty nice as they are.
Well done and happy balking
I walked away with a bit of a frown today - if i,made up on Saturday well no big deal there's still Sunday but blowing it on sunday is depressing. However after grazing back to the kitchen and making a sandwich I was really happy with the crust and flavor - as many know bread is best about an hour or so later as continues to cook and so, it seems cutting these soy infused loaves early is a really bad mistake - there's a real district nutty tone going on and it just adds to the complexity of this particular flour.
As for the scores I admit its a choice to score across more aggressively as I really like Louis lamore's style (if you've seen his YouTube he pushes the limits of scoring and his loaves are very distinct [also beautifully dark brown which is a total mystery how he does it]). I should probably go more shallow though.
I will try to post some better score pics if this darn site would respond today !