The Fresh Loaf

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Problems with Bryan Ford's Coco Rugbrød bread.

EC77f19's picture
EC77f19

Problems with Bryan Ford's Coco Rugbrød bread.

Hello again, 

Just made Bryan Ford's Coco Rugbrød. It seems counter intuitive, but his recipe call for a cold retard of the dough prior to final shaping and baking the next day. So, I followed the recipe anyway, After a 14 hour cold retard (it should have been 12 hour) - but that would have meant me waking up at 2:30 am - anyway, I started to shape the cold dough just as per the recipe, it starts to crack when I rolled it. It was breaking up in chunks, so instead of a perfectly round log, I had a square cracked log. I tried to shape it using the tension roll as much as possible and let it proof for another 4 hours. After 4 hours, it didn't rise that much and the cracks are still there. 

So I just baked it. With cracks and all. 

Has anybody had the same experience here with this recipe? I looked at his other recipes in the book that has the same cold retard method and start to wonder would I have the same problem with them as well?

Your suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Ed.

 
semolina_man's picture
semolina_man

18 hour ferment+proof seems like a long time.  Overproofed? 

rondayvous's picture
rondayvous

Unless you live in a place with the same humidity, altitude, temperature and use the exact flour and water as the author you will likely need to adjust your ingredients to match their results. That is why I like authors that describe what the dough is supposed to feel like and how it should respond to shaping. Under kneading, low hydration are two possible causes.

Recipes are guidelines, unless they include environmental and unreasonably precise ingredient specifications.

EC77f19's picture
EC77f19

Guess you're both right. But I still don't like his method of cold fermenting the dough overnight in the fridge before finally shaping it the next day. And fermenting it in the fridge for 12 hours then proofing it again for 3-4 hours the next day? Of course it's going to be over proofed. No wonder the bread came out heavy like a brick. 

It was still tasty though. I'll give him that. 

Thank you for you help guys. I'll try increasing the hydration next time maybe the flours were too dry. I live up here in Toronto, Canada. I think I'll stick to final shaping then doing a cold retard in the fridge over night and bake it the next day.

Ed.