July 30, 2020 - 7:35pm
Tip - a small portion for control
Recently I stumbled upon this small tip and thanks to it I could bake one of my best loaves so far - so I wanted to share it:
Put a very small portion of your dough into a small jar, mark the height and use it to check your dough's growth. It's especially useful if you have difficulties determining how much it has grown (like me).
(also apparently overshaping, thus tearing the outside skin is a thing? Discovered that as well during research!)
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That's a really cool tip for me. Thank you so much. I don't know why I didn't think about it earlier. It's always a wasting of time thinking has it grown enough or not.
Good photos Bani. I’ve been posting about the aliquot jar a lot lately since I’ve been using it since the spring. Aliquot Jar post here. It is super helpful.
Great tip, Bani!
Excellent photos.
Danny
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The aliquot jar will be a bit different from the main dough for a few reasons, for example each time your manipulate the dough with coil folds or stretch and folds there is some degassing, while the aliquot jar dough isn’t manipulated. However, it allows you to adjust your bulk fermentation objectively bake to bake. So lets say you found that one crumb showed evidence that bulk fermentation could go further and the aliquot jar showed 40% rise with that bake. Well next time you could wait to end bulk when the aliquot jar showed 50% rise.
So I find it so useful adjusting my bulk fermentation bake to bake of the same formula.
Benny
I've found the same. the large mass fermented faster for me too. The couple times i've done it. i've had very little activity in the small jar, while the bulk seemed to bubble up more.. i thought it was just me and my luck that I had picked a bit from the bulk that had less activity in it...
I think in a small jar it's just hard to notice any activity until some time has passed. 10-20% growth is much harder to see in a tablespoon of dough than a large amount of dough without somehow tracking it.
At least my final crumb didn't show signs of over- or underfermentation, so I guess I can trust this method somewhat.
I’ve been trying to use a larger piece of dough so that the rise is easier to measure. At first I was using too small a piece. Definitely can be helpful.
Bani, a small diameter, taller clear vessel works best. It makes the percentage of growth much more observable. The wider the jar, the more difficult it is.
I use 90g of dough in a clear plastic tube, 55mm in diameter. You can always make the dough into a micro-loaf or bun.
Lance
Good ideas, Lance! Larger dough = better reading, and then you get to eat it.
wow what a loaf - are you using a particular recipe for that?
Thank you! My original formula is from Advanced Bread and Pastry (Michel Suas). But I change it all the time and got a grain mill in the meantime. So I can't provide an accurate recipe because I change on the fly based on how the dough behaves, ambient temperature and what I want and have at home (whole wheat, rye, seeds, oats etc.). But it's usually something like:
100% bread flour
60-65% water
25% starter
2% salt
some barley malt
Knead until some gluten is developed.
Bulk ferment for about 4 h, with the small jar to track growth
Pre-shape, rest for 20 min.
Final shape, 1,5-2 h final proof or cold retard overnight
Bake at 240°C for 20 min. with lid on, 20 without
Wow never seen barley malt in a recipe, is that for some additional flavour? And what sort of growth are you looking for in the bulk ferment stage?
It's mostly for color, but it also speeds up fermentation due to its high mineral content (yeasts love those).
If I do a room temp final proof, for about 20-30%, when doing a cold retard, about 50%. It's super easy to track thanks to the small jar.