P. Reinhart's ABED dough handling technique
Since I received my copy of Artisan Brreads Every Day a couple of months ago, I have used the dough handling technique Peter describes at the beginning for lean dough: mix 2 minutes, rest for 5, mix for another 2, rest 10 then stretch and fold with 10 minutes rests x4 . . .
I have added a couple of twists to this and have enjoyed well developed doughs which have baked into excellent breads, both lean and enriched. Peter has clearly been influenced by the likes of Jim Lahey and his 'no-knead' bread as well as the Artisan in 5 minutes a day folks. As always, PR's recipes work very well as stated, making the necessary adjustments, but as a thinking man, I believe he had been perhaps overly influenced by the 5 minute/ no knead, life is simple school and after all the man has cookbooksto sell. I figured a little extra dough handling would probably not hurt the result and on the contrary my results have been stunning!
I have added a few twists: First, I Autolyse for 20 minutes, then add the yeast and salt and begin as above. After the 4th stretch and fold, I give the dough a bulk rise of 1 hour and the dough usually at least doubles. One more stretch and fold, then into an oiled bowl, covered and into the fridge for at least overnight and up to 3 days. After an hour out of the fridge, I divide the dough and either proof and bake or bag and freeze. This technique has worked well with older recipes such as Transitional WW, Transitional Rye and Struan 3 of my fav's from PR's Multi Grain Bread. Peter has updated his recipe for Struan, but not the transitionals. My thoughts are, rather than using the "epoxy" technique, why not mix all of the ingredients except yeats and salt and autolyse overnight or longer in the fridge, then mix in the yeast and salt and work the dough as above? I have an 'epoxy' batch proofing right now. Next time I will try the overnight autolyse and see how it works.
Any thoughts or comments?
Regards, Brian