- 500g 100% cairnspring mills Trailblazer bread flour (package says 14% protein, Type 85)
- 375 gr water (75%)
- 10 g salt
- 75gr levain (15%) - made with 100% hydration and trailblazer flour, using right at its peak, nearly tripled in size.
- dough temperature stable at 78F
Mix in KA stand mixer for a few min, Fermentolyse for about 30 min, 3 coil folds, 30 min apart, bulk ~ 4hr until bubbly and 20-30% rise. Dough slightly slack and bit wet still, pre-shape, 10 min, final shape using letter folds/stitching, baneton and fridge for around 12 hr. Oven set at 550F (actual temp more like 525F). Pizza stone in oven with couple ice cubes, spray some water on loaf and cover with aluminum pan for 15 min, then turn oven down to 450F and bake until golden and probed temp at 210F. Crust if perfect, thin and crispy, flavor is fine. Have also tried bulk proofing longer until nearly doubled, crumb was better but still no ear and dough always too slack, not holding shape. Should I lower inoculation further? Lowering hydration perhaps? maybe this flour is not as strong as its advertised and should absorb more water than it is?
Only concern is the "slack" dough. If it reaches that state - is done - like put it in something and bake it. At least that's a start. Enjoy!
20% rise at the end of the bulk fermentation is not enough. The dough is definitely under-fermented. Try next time 30%-50%.
It looks also like the dough has not enough structure. A lower hydration would help. Additionally you should probably knead the dough a bit longer. How was the windowpane test? Or maybe 1-2 additional stretch&folds.
You could lower the hydration, maybe to 67-70%. It makes life easier. When you are happy with the results, you can start increasing the hydration.
Ambient final proof would give you also a bit more control over the fermentation.
I’ll try lowering hydration and bulk longer and report back tks!
Q: do you feel the dough gaining strength and elasticity with each fold as you do your three coil folds?
Rob
Not as much as I see everyone else’s . I do tend to wet my hands before folds not sure if that’s part of the problem. The dough never seems to get tight enough, it’s extremely extensible. I’ve tried adding a bit of whole wheat and was worse. I’ll try perhaps a bit of gluten flour?
Some flours do badly with too high a hydration. They may never tighten up, and may even get slacker as time goes by no matter how much they are stretched. I have used flours where a change in hydration from 58% to 62% made a huge difference (for the worse).
I don't know anything about your flour but reducing the hydration until it does clearly tighten up with stretching would be a very good thing to try. Note that the dough will still probably relax over time even after it's been stretched. That's OK. You just need to stretch it again, until it seems to hold a shape reasonably well for a few hours.
TomP
Weird. I've never used Cairnspring Mills flour, but I'd expect a 100% bread flour dough to come together more and more with each fold. Perhaps you could do a bunch more folds with only 20 minutes between them.
Trailblazer gets lots of love online (and apparently lots of famous west coast bakeries swear by Cairnsprings), but a few homebakers wrote on reddit with the same problem you outline. One of them said they had to add some King Arthur Bread Flour to get their dough to come together.
One additional q: what's the expiration date on your bag? I'd expect artisanal flour to be fresh, but I figured I'd ask.
Rob
Flour is fresh as I just got it delivered. I was also under the same impression as I know few famous bakeries use it including tartine has a 100% trailblazer bread that’s to die for. They’re the reason I chose this flour. But then again they may be using a c of flours to achieve their results
Fwiw: here's a higher hydration Tartine Trailblazer recipe with sprouted buckwheat groats -- https://cairnspring.com/blogs/recipes/tartine-bakery-sprouted-buckwheat-bread -- that features the potential of a longer fermentolyse, more folds, serious attention to shaping & a more minutes with the lid on during baking.
Rob
Not as much as I see everyone else’s . I do tend to wet my hands before folds not sure if that’s part of the problem. The dough never seems to get tight enough, it’s extremely extensible. I’ve tried adding a bit of whole wheat and was worse. I’ll try perhaps a bit of gluten flour?
You should always include the levain when calculating hydration. Your overall hydration is nearly 77%; I'd try reducing that to 72% and see how it goes.
I also note that Trailblazer is a stoneground flour and may not exhibit the strength characteristics of a roller milled bread flour. So yes, I would also consider adding in say 30% roller milled strong bread flour.
Lance
good point on the flour characteristics, which flour would you recommend?also def reducing hydration on my next loaf TIA
I'm in the UK, so not familiar with your flour brands; but I would think King Arthur bread flour or something similar would do the trick.
Lance
Aside from lowered hydration, assuming you still want to do it within higher hydration range, I found it is helpful to do true autolyse and stiff levain. I also found higher hydration dough is better off be mixed by hand, since I feel it's easier to get dough be elastic by hand mixing.
And no, vital wheat gluten won't improve handling or help to keep the shape, but chilling the dough beforehand will. Only use VWG if you have problem with extensibility.
Happy baking!
Jay