Forkish's Overnight White - first poolish
Baked at midnight! 12 hour pre-ferment, 2.5 hour bulk ferment, 3 folds in the first hour, 1 hour proof. 425 oven * (see below): 30 minutes covered, 15 uncovered .
The aroma after 30 minutes in the oven was incredible! - like browned butter. I almost slept in kitchen.
I exercised great restraint and waited until morning to try it. The crust is more on the chewy side, as is the crumb.
The taste is mildly more complex than the Saturday white bread - it's a noticable, but not a huge difference
I think the crumb is just OK on this one, the loaf could have benefitted from more folds and maybe a longer proof.
It's also been raining here and I didn't adjust the hydration to account for the increased humidity - details.
This was baked in a Staub coquette. The Staub has a black enamal interior which can make things brown (or burn) faster than you'd expect.
I've learned to keep the heat down a bit. 425 instead on 475. I may need to start the normal temp and lower it after 5-10 minutes and increase the baking time accordingly.
This time the the rack was too low in the oven so the bottom got a bit scorched - not a deal breaker but I need to remember to take these things into account.
Comments
Well done! Baking at midnight, now that's dedication!
Wingnut
it must be required to bake at midnight right? Looks well baked. So did you bake in a DO or covered on a stone? I usually do 20 minutes covered but my breads aren't as big as yours from the looks of it. I also take it out of the DO, if you are using one, at the 25 minute mark (5 minutes after uncovering) and finish baking the bread on a stone. No darker bottom that way.
Nice baking !
Yes - it was baked in a Dutch Oven
In general, Ken Forkish's directions call for 30 min in a covered DO and 15-20 with the cover removed.
That loaf was a little over 1.5lbs
Thanks for the tip - I will try taking the loaf out of the DO and on the stone for the last part of the baking.
Your advice re the dump out of the DO and finish on stone worked out great. The bottom crust prior to that looked much like the picture here. I usually do 15 minutes covered, then ten uncovered, then onto the stone. Last time though I didn't remember to put the stone in prior to baking so I put a double cookie sheet (one of those with air space) into the oven so it was the same temperature as the bread.
Evening, that is lovely looking bread for the tenth time and for looking like this on the first time-congratulations!