Semolina batard - third time’s the charmer?

I’d decided to bake a few rounds of David Snyder’s Sourdough Italian Bread just before the recent flurry started:
David’s: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/42511/sourdough-italian-baguettes
EmmaFeng’s: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/42526/sourdough-italian-bâtard-dmsnyder

I am still getting my bread house in order, so to speak.  My routine as of late, thanks to my desire to recreate some of Ken’s batards from his Portland bakery, has been to complete the bulk rise, chill the bulk for ~30-45 minutes, and then divide, shape, couche, retard until the next day and then bake straight from the refrigerator.

I have a friend who is gifted at arts and crafts, especially in the quilting domain. Her Mother, known back then as a “home maker”, was also quite good, and told Janet that whatever she does, she should find a way to make it her own, to put her personal mark on that creation.  Sage advice from where I stand.  Now I’m generally pretty good at the detail of copying something created by others in order to get it down, but then I sometimes hear Janet’s mom’s voice in the back of my head.  And it is no different here.

I’ve been playing around these past few weeks with 3 stage builds, addition by subtraction, a riff on dabrownman’s build schedule (but changed to “make it my own”).  Instead of a steady build up to the final amount of levain to be used, I’ve been skimming some small portion of the prior step’s levain off – maybe 50g, and then adding more to it, eventually getting to the third stage which is my mature levain.  By the second stage, the levain is already doubling in 2 hours, by the third, in under 2 hours.  And this is what I use.

I have also been using a stiffer levain than what David’s SJSD liquid levain calls for, somewhat a little less hydrated than what is suggested in FWSY.

My batard shaping has been based on King Arthur’s Martin Philip's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmxDKuGLWuE .  Start at minute 6:30.  But breadforfun’s recent suggestion from an SFBI video had me decide to give shaping a try this way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEG1BjWroT0, while still preferring the couche to a banneton.  In truth, I wasn't that thrilled with the shaping doing this way, and questioning what the outcome might be at that time.

With Janet’s mom’s advice in mind – these are my changes from David’s formula:

• stiff levain instead of liquid levain
• I did drop the diastatic malt powder this time
• mixed levain up front with water for a 30 minute “non-autolyse” autolyse
• 300 French folds
• 3 letter folds, 25 minutes apart (my kitchen is warmer than many)
• 45 minute bulk retard directly after 3rd fold
• shape and couche** overnight
• ambient temperature for maybe 1/2 hour prior to bake
  

10 minutes of steam, rotate and ~17 minutes to complete the bake.

**although I am using a flax linen couche, the overnight retard will allow a lot of moisture from the loaves to permeate, and the dough can stick to the couche. Against my own desire, I have to dust the couche quite well for the loaves to release upon transfer to the baking peel

This is a 1500g bake, 50% more than David’s formula, hence three 500g batards.  I did my share to "make it my own".  I’m happy!

Updated: I asked for a photo of the crumb from the person who received one of these batards.  And here it is.  Probably a little more yellow in the photo than it really is.

alan