Musings From A Beginner

I've been playing with Artisan bread now for a couple of months and this weekend feel I've had another small breakthrough. No where near some of the pro bread I've seen around here, but nonetheless, a small personal success.

I used this Pain Au Levain recipe ( http://www.breadcetera.com/?p=71 ) . I have been using wild yeast  almost exclusively and hand mixing only. I though I would share my bread pics and give a couple of observations.

Mixing- Not only the most difficult thing to master, in my opinion, but it is made much more difficult for the novice by all the different styles and contrary methods. Where one great baker is doing a few gentle stretch and folds and thats it, another is beating the tar out of it for half the afternoon.  On this dough I did the french folding tecnique for maybe 6 to 8 minutes, maybe 70 to 100 folds, and at the time really don't know if it was enough or too much.  5 minutes after I got done mixing, I realized I forgot the salt and when I went to mix it in, I was shocked at how much the dough had firmed up, which made me think I had done enough mixing and the dough would continue to progress on its own. I did one stretch and fold half way through the first fermentation.

Shaping- Consistency in handling the dough is what I am practicing, and I have a long way to go. These started off as a round oval, but got kind made into somewhat of a batard shape. I wanted to control my dough without overworking it, and I guess it was in control for a bit.

Proofing- It seems like most folks blame poor outcome on under/over proofing. I proofed these in a couche for 2 1/2 hours as the recipe suggested. Maybe someone could look at the pictures and tell if the crumb could have been improved. I have no clue how to judge this, but figured I got it pretty close to right.

Scoring - I tried something new this time as my razor kept dragging the dough. First of all when it is time to divide the dough after bulk fermentation is a great time to make a practice slash in your dough where you are going to divide it anyway. I used a really long, wet,  slicing knife and it made nice clean cuts for me. The practice slash on the dividing dough was very helpful.

Anyway, thanks for letting me share my new obsession, and this site has been a huge help.

Oh and thanks to Steve for his very informative website/blog.

Keith