Couronne Bordelaise with Lievito Madre (Didn't Go as Planned)

Continuing with the French tradition and looking for something more ... fancy than a simple boul, etc, I remembered yesterday that I could also bake a "Bordeaux crown". The last time I baked a Couronne Bordelaise (with fresh yeast) it was 3 years ago.

This time I went for a recipe with lievito madre. Actually it was more a freestyle compilation of 2 yeast base recipes (homebaking.at and marcelpaa.com):

10% low extraction rye flour

45% Ruchmehl (or First Clear in the US)

45% white flour

25% LM

2% salt

70% overall hydration

The original idea was to bulk ferment at 26ºC until double, deflate the dough, let it double again, shape, final proof at 24-25ºC and bake at 210ºC with steam. The goal was to get nice even crumb with small regular alveoli.

After mixing I realized that it's too late in the day for bulk at 26ºC. I decided to bulk over night at 16ºC. When I wanted to punch to dough down it already almost tripled in volume and the gluten structure was not as good as I expected. I completely forgot, that with higher extraction flour (Ruchmehl) and rye a too long fermentation is not necessarily a good idea. Punching down the dough when the volume increases by 50% would have been probably a better idea. Too late.

Without a plan B, I punched down the dough, let it rise again by 50%, shape it ... (the gluten structure 😬)

final proof at 25ºC, bake at 220ºC on steal with steam.

And a crumb shot (couldn't wait until it completely cooled down):

Not quite as initially planned. A good motivation to make it better next time ;)