A small mistake last bake and Pulla Zilla!
Wow, this is the biggest rise and oven spring I have EVER had! Now the working part of my peel measures 8"x14" and this loaf filled most of it using 460 grams of flour! Best pulla ever, with a soft almost shreddalble crumb.
Normally, I will do a sponge of liquid levain, sugar, egg, flour and scalded milk infused with cardamom. After this got happy, I would put it in the fridge at bedtime, remove it in the morning and mix after about an hour of warm up.
My mistake? Last bake I forgot to put the sponge in the fridge. I would describe the resulting dough as the most alive feeling I have ever worked with. I do 4 sets of stretch and folds with 10 minutes rest and yo could see the dough rise visibly after 10 minutes. So this time I deliberately left the sponge out overnight. Wow, between a freshly fed levain and the overnight sponge, I had an 'alive' dough. I increased the bulk proof to 1:30 from an hour as it just kept coming up. I then divided braided and proofed about an hour.
The oven spring was more like oven explosion and this is certainly the largest volume I have ever achieved from this well used recipe. It sure is nice when things work out!
Happy baking! Ski
Comments
when the Spring snow has melted and baking becomes the terrible step sister:-) Looks like you have figured oit this formula once and for all! Well done and happy baking - extra bold bake this time too! Happy baking Ski since you can't ski for a a while.
Yes it was an early, ugly end to the ski season this year thanks to El Nino. I am still shaking my head at the volume this loaf achieved! I will do things exactly the same next bake and see if I get another giant. One of the fun things about baking is even after baking dozens of loaves of pulla, I am still learning and making things just a little better.
Happy baking! Ski
If I have done that, the yeast would be so exhausted and the dough will have a tendency to have a weak rise. Yours is just the opposite, there must be something in the air in the Great White North.
Love the color of this bake!
I guess there must be enough sugar in the sponge to keep the wild yeasties happy. In letting the sponge develop on the kitchen counter over night, the resulting dough feels almost alive compared to refrigerating the spo9nge overnight. This was a surprising and pleasing revelation. Frankly, I am still shaking my head in amazement at the volume of this loaf with only 460 grams of flour! I hope to be able to reproduce this result next bake.
Happy baking! Ski