A Very very wet dough!
and I learnt a huge amount today. Decided to make 100% hydration Bread recipe as posted by TigerX on 3rd March. I must admit I nearly didn't carry on when I twigged that it is a 100% hydration starter and dough! Without method to follow I set out to make this bread doing what I thought would work.
Mixed flours and autolysed 1 hour. Added levain (which I had set up last night) and salt. Mixed on medium speed for about 5 minutes (I have an older Kenwood Chef) then poured into large bowl. After 30 minutes I did 2 s&f 15 minutes apart followed by 3 slap and folds. Amazed to see how the gluten had developed but it was still a very loose dough. Left bulk ferment on bench at about 22oC for nearly two and half hours. Did quick preshape, rested 10 minutes followed by the best I could do with shaping. dough proofed okay and after 2 hours I refrigerated for 45 minutes before baking with as much steam as I could get. The dough just ran everywhere (like a mud stream) even before I got it into the oven, and instead of a batard and a boule I have a couple of ciabatta! that are about an inch high.
what should I have done differently? Taste is good, crumb good, and fairly moist.
Would cold proof have changed anything? more stretch and folds? I have a long way to go but It was a huge learning curve.
Comments
...why do you want a 100% hydration dough?
Perhaps longer in the keywood until gluten formation is much more advanced. Then finish off with slap and folds after a 30 min rest.
I'd retard in the fridge for the entire final proofing overnight. Then instead of freestanding better to do dutch oven or a La Cloche.
why 100% hydration - well that is what recipe said and loaf looked great. Mine did not! back to drawing board. I need to get better at 75 -80% hydration before trying something like that again. I should probably have done more research before I baked.
that said, in cases of such high hydration, do you skip the bulk fermentation (just do some slap and folds first, then a short rest) , shape and just do a cold overnight proof before baking?
whole wheat flour like TigerX did but that bread was pretty flat as well and to be expected. A 100% hydration dough would normally be 100% whole wheat too - not 30 % whole wheat.
As Mini Oven told me once.... if it is a white bread at 80% hydration or higher, put it in a a pan or call it ciabatta:-)
A long cold shaped proof in a mold and then baking it cold right out of the fridge in a DO might have produced better height than the inch you got though.
Happy Baking
and kept thinking this dough conststency is very like a ciabatta! I didnt want to overmix it either. my inexperience shows but then again, nothing ventured nothing gained and have learnt from this effort and the feedback is invaluable. i was very funny though, extracting the "batard" from the banneton and trying to get it into the oven! as i am sure you can imagine! what would Lucy have said!