A Second attempt at my version of Paul’s Infinity Bread

After the problems of the first attempt, I reread the feedback I received and here is my reworked version. 

First up, the starter.  It was looking good on the first refresh so I decided to stay with an all bread flour starter.  This means that that percentage of white flour in the dough is higher and and there is less whole wheat.   Secondly I started early in the day while the starter was fresh and bubbly. 

Soaker:  I mixed the 20 g rolled oats with 30 g milk and left for the duration of the autolyse.  I soaked 25 g cranberries in some hot water.  

The main dough:  I decided to do a short autolyse, something I haven’t done much lately.  I mixed 93 g bread flour + 93 g whole wheat (milled 27 January and stored in the refrigerator) + 133 g Emmer, added 188 g water and left for just 20 minutes.  It was a little on the dry side but I held off adding extra at this point.  I then added  196 g of the nice and bubbly starter and mixed.  It was a little hard to combine so I added another 10 g water, the rolled oats , the drained cranberries and  6.5 g salt.  I kept the mixing time short, shaped the dough into a ball and left to rest. 

40 minutes later I laminated the dough very gently and sprinkled over 20 g chopped pecans. 

40 minutes later I did a gentle coil fold and repeated this one more time. 

3 ¼ hours after mixing it had increased in size and was a little puffy.  Scared that it would over ferment again, I opted to turn dough out and preshape at this point.  After 20 minutes I did final shape.  I watched the dough very carefully and 2 hours later turned loaf out of banneton, slashed and baked for 17 mins at 240 degrees C covered and 19 minutes uncovered at 235 degrees C.  

It smelt amazing during the bake.  Definitely a better bake, and whilst not a huge oven spring, I am very happy with the outcome.  

The crumb is much better this time. 

So there are minor changes to the soaker, but the possible issue of insufficient gluten seems to have been resolved with the higher % of bread flour.  Maybe the whole wheat flour worked better because it had aged a bit,  Not sure if that is the total answer but next time I may be able to allow bulk ferment to go a bit further. 

Leslie