Golden Boule - Experiment with Long Ferment
Last week, I had to go out during a bake, and didn't expect to get back in time for shaping. Usually I would have placed the dough in the refrigerator to suspend operations during my absence, but in the spirit of experimentation, I decided to leave it on the counter in a 70degF kitchen. When I got back the dough was very soft and bubbly, and I was afraid overfermented, so I shaped (not that easy given how full of gas it was) and proofed but cut the proof short (45 minutes) as I was worried about losing the whole bake. Long story a little shorter, I underproofed it significantly and got an exploding loaf. But an exploding loaf with a boatload of flavor. Today I decided to retrace these steps, but with a normal proof. I observed two differences between today's loaf and last week's. One is today's loaf expanded normally in the oven, and two, the crumb isn't nearly as open. Same rich flavor though.
And now, the real reason I wanted to post:
I love this bowl. It was a poor unwanted reject at the Kohl's housewares sale. It has a crack in the bottom. I never grabbed anything off the shelf so fast. Perfect. Just perfect.
But back to bread.
Formula and method:
|
1st feed |
2nd feed |
Mix |
|||
|
2/15/2013 |
4:15 PM |
10:00 PM |
9:30 AM |
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|
Seed |
41 |
||||
|
KAAP |
23 |
75 |
96 |
194 |
95% |
|
Whole Rye |
1 |
5 |
4 |
10 |
5% |
|
Water |
17 |
55 |
68 |
140 |
68% |
|
344 |
8.4 |
||||
|
2/16/2013 |
Final |
Starter |
Total |
Percent |
|
|
KAAP |
200 |
141 |
341 |
57% |
|
|
Whole Rye |
8 |
8 |
1% |
||
|
Golden* |
250 |
250 |
42% |
||
|
Water |
300 |
101 |
401 |
67% |
|
|
Salt |
12 |
12 |
2.0% |
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|
Starter |
250 |
||||
|
0.73 |
1012 |
||||
|
Autolyse flour and water for 45 minutes |
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|
Add salt and starter and mix until smooth and supple |
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|
(Speed 1 around 10 minutes) |
|||||
|
BF 45 minutes |
|||||
|
S&F |
|||||
|
BF 3 hours |
|||||
|
Shape into boule and place in bowl |
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|
Proof until soft but still a bit springy |
|||||
|
Bake at 450F with steam for 20 minutes |
|||||
|
without for 22 |
|||||
* See this post for description
Comments
Beautiful! And that bowl sounds like quite a steal, lovely texture on the crust!
I've been making boules just so I can use the bowl. Thanks so much. -Varda
the bowl puts on your boule. It's really cool to see the crack in the bread - what character! Odd the normal proofed and oven spring bread has a less open crumb but bread does what it wants and we are always surprised:-) Well, you can't eat the holes and there isn't much little flavor in them either.
I still think that that 1 lonely gram of rye in the levain needs a twin and upped to 2 grams just to make sure it knows what it supposed to be doing, someone else is watching it to make sure it does it and mindful of who they are doing it with.
Nice baking Varda
DA, There are 8 grams of whole rye in my bread - a veritable crowd. This just reflects the fact that I learned the basics from Hamelman who has a 5% rye starter for his pain au levain. And so my white starter is 5% rye, which can lead to tiny amounts of rye in the seed. I also keep a 100% rye starter and a coarse wheat starter. One too many I guess to care for them properly. And yes, I am always surprised when I cut into a loaf - never know what will be inside. Thanks for commenting. -Varda
Beautiful bake Varda. While maybe your crumb is not holy enough for the Church, it sure looks good enough to eat to me :). Love that bowl. What did you pay for that steal? I never thought to look in Kohls for bowls, but now I will have to be on the look-out.
Ian
And note that the second photo was done with a tripod, toward the end of the day, so not much daylight. Thanks for the tip. First one is daylight and the last two are shot with my worklight. As for the bowl, I paid $10 for it after a little haggling over the crack. There was nothing else even remotely like it in the store. -Varda
Hi Varda,
Love the bowl and the marking it left on the bread - beautiful. Isn't it fun finding something to improvise with? I always have an eye out for something new and unique but you 'fine' tops anything I have found in awhile....
Glad you 'let yourself go' with the experimenting just to 'see'. I hated veering from a set schedule when I first started baking but now I find myself improvising all over the place when something unexpected happens. For instance, last week a loaf proofed much more quickly than I had anticipated while I was out and about. The oven was stone cold. It was a lean loaf and I knew I wanted it going into a hot oven so I popped it into the refrig. for 45 min. while the oven heated up and it still turned out great. Never would have know what to do before reading about 'tricks' like that here and now I am willing to let myself experiment.
Anyway, lovely loaf and beautiful bowl!
Janet
Hey Janet, I'm sure I would never have given this bowl a look did I not have my bread filter on almost constantly. Thanks so much for your comments. -Varda
Beautiful bread with very atttractive pattern on top, Varda! A rare find that bowl.
khalid
Thanks Khalid. It's fun to try new formats, with unexpected objects. -Varda
truely a golden bake!
evon
I guess I could come up with a more technical name, but for now Golden seems to do. -Varda
I think it's good not to be too timid or rigid to experiment, and some of my insights also came from accidental finds.
And what a pretty rising bowl!
Karin
Hi Karin, It's easy to fall into the same old, same old pattern until you end up boring yourself let alone everyone else. Of course I've never seen that from you with your infinite variety of breads. Thanks for your comments. -Varda
Lovely bread again Varda
Best wishes
Andy
Thank you Andy. -Varda