Sometimes you just have to start over...
So last night I threw out over 5kg of dough. After making 2 succesfull attempt at making a variation of based on Shiao-Ping's Artisan III class at the SFBI:
"Miche, Sourdough with Two Levain Builds: 230% in Final Dough"
I decided to increase the recipe to about 5kg of dough... as I have an office party to bring bread to tomorrow...
I went through the steps that had afforded me successful loaves (2x660g loaves, and 1x2.2kg loaf)... Since I live in an NYC apt, we don't really have control of our heating system, so my apartment tends to be hot and dry... Anyways, I did the 1st levain build successfully with a 10 hr fermentation, but when I got home from work to check on the 2nd levain build, it had already collapsed and had turned into a bubbly foamy mess... I think I let the 2nd levain build go for 12 hrs, instead of the 6 from the previous batch... In retrospect, I should have just tossed the levain build and start over, but stupid me, I decided to continue with making the final dough and hope that it would work...
So I ended up making the final dough, and it was basically a sticky mess that got worse the more I tried to work with it... It would stir, but never firm up... As I worked with it, I just kept getting my hands trapped. I decided to divide up the dough (snot-like glop) into 2 plastic containers and fridge them to see if that would help... As you can guess, it didn't.
I put one of the containers of dough back into the mixing bowl and tried to work it with my hands/spatula to no avail... At that point, I decided to throw it all out and start over...
So I started over... with just a simple french bread... I checked the new dough (3kg) this morning after 8 hours in the fridge, and it looks good so far... I turned it again before I left for work and put it back into the fridge for another 8 hours...
I'm keeping my fingers crossed for tonight's bake...
Quoting Kenny Rogers:
You gotta know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold em
Know when to walk away
Know when to run...
Tim
