The path to better flavor
As I said in my introductory post, I'm attempting to marry the flavor of my early no-knead loaves with the shape and form of my more recent, well-risen loaves. My early loaves were definitely not very photo-worthy, but they tasted good. And my recent loaves are generally pretty attractive, but are definitely lacking in taste.
My standard recipe is a pretty basic sourdough -- 68% hydration, 30% starter, 2.5% salt.
Until very recently (i.e. the last few days) I've been doing shortish bulk rises while building the dough (approximately three hours with turns at every 30 minutes) followed by shaping and a very long proof -- overnight at room temperature, albeit in a fairly cool room (mid-60s, of late). This approach has worked wonders for my bread shape, with some of the loaves actually pushing against the insides of the pan and flattening on top. Certainly better looking than my earlier attempts.
I'm now branching out a bit in order to try to improve the taste. With cool weather upon us, I decided I would start experimenting with a very long bulk rise to go with my very long proofing, and have cut way back on the starter to compensate. I pushed one loaf up to about 40 hours total (bulk + proofing), but have settled on 24 hours as it fits into my schedule really well. I still do two-three hours of 30-minute turns, but then let it sit for 10 hours overnight, shape it in the morning, and then let it proof all day while I'm at work.
So far, I'm liking the direction it's headed. I'm still getting well-risen loaves, and my latest attempt (the one shown here cut open) was moist (but not too moist) and very tasty. I don't usually push the loaf this dark, either, but the crust on the one without sesames was amazing and had some of that shatter-in-your-mouth quality that I've only achieved accidentally before.
Next, I'm going to try higher hydration. I've really hated handling high-hydration dough in the past, and made a right mess of things on more than one occasion. My dough handling skills are a little better now, though, and I don't fear the sticky dough quite as much as I used to. That said, I've been using sesame seeds as a defense mechanism on almost every loaf I've made for the last year, to keep it from sticking to the banneton and ending up in a disaster at bake time. This was the first loaf in as long as I can remember that I was brave enough to bake naked, and it came out pretty well.