Improvising bread..

Toast

So last night I was building some starter, we had friends for dinner, and by the time they left I was tired. I had plans for it, but with wine and the late hour they went out the window. So there i was after they left with about 180g of 100% hydration unbleached flour starter that had just doubled after it's second feeding. A quick glance in the "pantry" and I found discards - dare I say the "deplorables" of my cupboard.. lost souls without a purpose other than to plead "use me"... so I decided to put them to use.. by sheer coincidence I had about 140 grams each of unbleached flour, whole wheat and dark rye EACH!. So I thought, why not.. but I was going to bed and decided, lets "no knead this". I haven't made a no knead bread in years. But thought there was little to lose..

I ended up mixing: a total of 425 grams of flour (almost exactly 33% each of unbleached white, whole wheat and dark rye which I decided to sift into light rye to get me to an equal weight of each and a total of 425 grams; 300 grams of water; 175 grams of starter, 6 grams of salt. One shaggy mess later, I went to bed.

About 14 hours later, and about a double in size, I had a bubbly risen unstructured mass. It was tacky and there would be no shaping. Thanks to the miracle of rice flour I placed it into a round basket, covered it and left it. Two hours or so later it doubled (ish) and I baked with a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

It turned out more sour than I like. There was NO hope of shaping or getting any sense of gluten aided shaping. And while we cut into it a bit earlier than we should have - about 2 hours after the cook for dinner - it was moist inside. Maybe better described as having a "damp" crumb. I did check internal temp before pulling from the dutch oven - 210 degrees. But we toasted a few slices on the bbq for dinner, it dried out and was nice.

I have no idea how to improve this loaf as it's outside of my 'wheel house'. I would have liked to be able to shape the loaf. I would have liked bloom. But it was an interesting experience.. any thoughts would be appreciated... just sharing my weekend bake..

Bake happy.. bread1965

Successful improvisation is the true mark of a natural hand in the kitchen.  And it doesn't hurt to be emboldened by Bacchus.  Looks delicious!

And left for 14 hours I'm not surprised there was no gluten structure. I could only get away with that with 10% starter. If I had followed your starter to flour proportions I would have at least gone for 2% salt of total flour. Some people do manage to get away with it but I suppose it depends on your starter and temperature of the dough. But with my stater and at room temperature with those proportions I would just make more starter.  

Looks good though and if you like it then it's a success! 

Enjoy. 

I have to think it over fermented and would be a bit sour .  Quick and wet hands keep the sticking to a minimum for shaping.   Next time chuck it in the fridge bulk and you might like it better.

Happy baking