Sourdough pain a l'ancienne

180g 80% hydration starter

460g 12.5% White flour

350g Ice water

12g salt

My recipe was very similar to the one posted by Shiao-Ping here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/14719/delayed-fermentation-method-pain-l039ancienne.

I mixed at about 8pm without the salt, holding back about 35g water, and put it straight in the fridge. I gave it one fold at about 11:30pm. The next day at 8pm I removed the dough from the fridge, gave it a fold, and let it begin to warm. After about 90 minutes, I mixed in the missing saltwater with another fold, and folded 2 more times at 45min intervals. At midnight I put the still bulk-fermenting dough into the fridge.

The next day, I baked the loaves at about noon, giving 3 of the 4 simple stirato style stretches to shape. The fourth loaf I shaped as a mini-baguette. I scored 2 of the loaves, but the dough wasn't having it and I ended there.

The one loaf that looks like a camel was the mini-baguette, and it sprang like crazy. The next time around, I am going to shape them all as with the baguette, but roll them out to normal length. Even with the super-slack dough, the extra tension seems to help.

They were all baked on a baking steel, with steam provided by damp towels & misting.

I was quite surprised that this recipe resulted in very ciabatta-esque loaves. There is very little cruch in the crust, and the predominant texture is chewy. The texture of the crust vs the moist crumb is almost bagel-like. These are delicious, sweet, mild textured loaves, with a nice open crumb. I will give this one another shot...