weird white wheat flour?
Hi: I think I had one of those bread-baking days that warrants a root-cause analysis...I'm sure multiple things went wrong to cause me to end up with a hockey puck that got frisbee'd out to the groundhogs. Maybe you can help me trouble-shoot this one?
I made a WW starter from Reinhart's WGB, with pineapple juice and KAF white whole wheat. Once the starter got going on day 4, it really took off. When I split the 'baby' to make the mother starter and added in more flour, the texture became crumbly but moist. No gluten at all, but I was still getting nice yeast action. I was using flour from the same bag of WWW for all stages of this starter and in the baking of this loaf.
So with my allegedly perky starter I make the Multigrain Hearth Bread. For the soaker I use some muesli (rolled oats, rolled wheat, rolled rye, wheat bran, etc), all 'soft' grains that the recipe says do not need pre-cooking. The dough seems a little drier than usual, but kneads up in the KAM for 4 minutes and probably about 4 min by hand...it's sticky and yet 'crumbly', as if I have NO gluten formation at all. I cannot get a windowpane but tend not to rely on that for breads with a large WW component anyway, and this has NO white bread flour at all. (it does have both yeast and starter, tho)
For first rise I fridge the dough--had to go to work--and it sits out for a good 2 hrs after I get home to come to room temp. Rising nicely in the container, at least doubled. I shape it into a boule and place in on a peel for the proof--covered with plastic wrap. I do get doubling, but...
the oddest texture on the surface of the loaf: the surface was consistently moist to the touch but also "cracking" as IF there were a skin...but there wasn't. It was as if the yeasts were moving entire land masses rather than strands of gluten.
When I bake I get no oven rise at all, crust that needs a chain saw, dense and moist crumb (I baked to 205F internally and then let it hang out in the oven for another 15 min for good measure as I suspected internal moisture), and horrible flavor: a nasty combo of overly sour SD and Thunderbird Ripple.
So...is my starter bad?
Did I get a bum bag of WWW flour? (which is mercifully gone, now...it didn't seem to have a detrimental effect when mixed with other flours, but solo? :-P
Did I underknead? Overproof? All of the above? All insights appreciated.
I have made several of the transitional breads from WGB with success, so I was surprised by this bomb.
If I get intoxicated wildlife in my yard, I'll let you know!
Windi