Variation on Field Blend #2 or How to Muck it Up and Still be OK

I decided to take the new dutch oven for a test drive using Ken Forkish's Field Blend #2 recipe.  So I studied the recipe trying to decide on a way to bake it the Wendy way.

Levain

50 gr Wheat Sourdough
50 gr Rye Sour
400 gr KA Bread Flour
100 gr KA White Whole Wheat
400 gr Water

I mixed it all up in my 2 quart container and put it in my proofing box, aka the microwave.  The next morning it was all nice and puffy having more than doubled in volume.  

Then....the first red flag.....I realized that Ken Forkish has you make huge amounts of levain and toss most of it away….next time I’m going to scale the levain for the recipe…in the meantime I did something dangerous…I used the entire amount of the levain, lowering the amount of water and slightly increasing the bread flour.  Not a fan of higher math, The Baker’s Percentage formula has taken me a while to understand but I think the lightbulb has finally lit.... but in my unscientific way, I ended up with a 74% hydration dough….his is 78%!  A big thank you to Abe (AbeNW11) for patiently answering my questions!

For the final dough I decided to skip the Whole Wheat and use all Rye flour since rye bread is a staple in this house…the final dough mix:

600 gr KA Bread Flour
250 gr Rye
600 gr Water
ALL of the levain
20 gr salt
7 gr yeast (more than he called for….cockpit error on my part…but what the heck).

I mixed the flours and water and let it autolyse for 30 minutes, then added the levain, salt and yeast.  I put it back in my proofing box and and every 20 minutes for the next hour and a half I pulled it out and stretched and folded it in the 6 quart container.  It was wet but workable with watered hands.

Back  into the proofing box and bulk ferment until 2.5 times its original size.  This took about 3.5 to 4 hours.  It was quite fluffy and bubbly.

I poured the dough out onto a well floured counter and worked it with the dough scraper lightly, splitting it into two and gently working each half into a boule.  After a five minute rest, I reshaped each boule and gently placed it into one of my new, well floured bannetons,.  Each dough filled banneton...this was my second red flag... was then encased in a plastic bag and placed into the refrigerator for what I hoped would be a lengthy overnight retardation (about 4 p.m.).

Checking on the refrigerated loaves at 9 p.m. I realized they were not going to make it the entire night and were overflowing their bannetons due to my mucking up the quantities in the recipe.

I baked at them at 450 dF in their dutch ovens after gently coaxing them out.  In retrospect I should have scored them a little as the seams I had hoped would bloom had apparently sealed shut from the wetness and weight of the dough in the baskets.

Removing the covers after about 20 minutes they were rising and browning up nicely and one had a bit of a split.

And upon removing them from the oven, they had the nice circular design from the bannetons and were a rich, golden brown.

Impatient after 30 minutes to check the crumb and taste the bread, I cut into one of the loaves to reveal a nice crumb structure and a sour rye flavor which….to quote Ron….was phenomenal!  Guess its a keeper.

I plan to make this bread again with the correct amount of levain and yeast so it doesn’t overflow its containers!

All in all it was a successful bake even though I did my best to muck it up!

Truly an adventure,
Wendy