FWSY "Overnight" Country Brown - failure to success
Hi everyone.
New poster here.
Let me add my voice to the chorus of those who like Forkish's FWSY but who had difficulty with one or more of the recipes.
Critically, though - this forum helped get me past them!!
Here's the story:
Two weeks ago I decided I would start learning how to make bread from this book.
First I made the Saturday white, and it turned out great. I followed the recipe to the letter and everything was fine. It wasn't particularly complex or interesting but I knew that wasn't the expectation.
Next, I made the Poolish white. This also was followed to the letter and while the dough was a little tough to handle (very wet and sticky), the bread turned out fine. Still lacking a little complexity.
In the interim, I made his levain. I was amazed by how much I was throwing away each day but I followed the instructions. Trust in the process, right? Anyway, I have ended up with a nice levain at the end of it which I have named "Lionel."
So, the day before yesterday I used Lionel and followed the instructions to the letter again to make the overnight country brown. And it was a disaster. Dough was soaking wet at all times, stuck to everything, impossible to handle, stuck to the proofing baskets, didn't rise, and when eaten tasted vinegary. I would love to share a photo but I deleted them in disgust.
Last night, annoyed by this turn of events (and seeking a distraction from the news), I started reading this forum and I learned a lot more about these FWSY recipes. In particular, @dmsnyder's posts were really helpful in suggesting that I concentrate on watching the dough rather than following the recipe.
So, last night I fed Lionel and then today did the "overnight" country brown all in one day. Bulk fermentation took about six hours until I was at about 2-2.5x volume. Proofing took a bit over an hour before it passed the "poke" test.
And here's the result! Looks great to me! And it tastes lovely.
Some other minor excursions from the recipe:
- I used my levain when it was bubbly and goopy, probably the equivalent of 12 hours after feeding.
- As mentioned earlier, I used much shorter bulk fermentation and proofing times
- I didn't do the whole "put the levain in a puddle of water" thing. I think that just makes the dough more wet. I was still able to handle it just fine.
What a great outcome!
Thanks to all on these forums for sharing advice with me, especially @dmsnyder whose advice was invaluable.