A quick French bread
So yesterday around 11am we decided on a meal that a loaf of fresh bread would be good with. I didn't have a refreshed starter or preferment going, but I quickly mixed up a cup of AP flour, a cup of luke warm water, and about a third of a teaspoon of yeast and let it sit while I figured out what I wanted to do with it.
About two hours later I took a look. It wasn't even close to ripe and had just a few bubbles, but it was better than nothing, so I mixed it is with around 600 more grams AP flour, 400 or so grams water, and 15 grams kosher salt. Oh yeah, and another 2/3 teaspoon yeast. Mixed it up real well until I could see good gluten development and then let it sit.
Folded an hour or so later, around 2pm, then again around 3pm. I split and shaped it around 4 and baked it around 5.
It came out really nice. The crumb is lovely, I think, about as nice as I've ever gotten from a dough without a meaningful preferment and with such a short rise time. I guess that is the sign of the better gluten development?
The flavour is a bit plain, as one would expect, but not bad at all. It is also staling slower than I typically expect a straight dough to stale. I'm not sure what to make of that, but I'll have to try this again.