The result was a nicely formed loaf. The crust is much better but still a bit hard, especially on the bottom, and covering in the oven for 30-minutes helped the color a bit.
The crumb is not as airy as I would like but still soft and chewy. Quite delicious, actually. I don’t like to store the bread in plastic but it seems to help soften the crust. Anyway, a huge improvement over the last few loaves.
Okay, thanks Tom. The changes to the original recipe made a huge difference.
Next I want to try LittleOven’s suggestion of adding an egg-white. I plan to repeat what I did this morning to get a comparison but that will have to wait a few days until I eat what I got :-)
Much thanks everyone for your support and patience.
Katie
That's good progress, Katie! Good to know that it tastes good, too.
You keep writing about using so little water for the flour. If there hasn't been a measurement error, 3 1/2 cups of flour should weigh about 440g (flour usually runs around 125g/cup), and 7 US ounces of water would weigh 7 * 28.3 = 198g, for a hydration of 198/440 = 45%. That's pretty low, but nowhere near as low as 25%, the number that you wrote.
Anyway, the low hydration makes me wonder if the flour isn't really a meal (that is, coarser than flour usually is) instead of a flour. A coarser grind would tend to absorb less water, explaining both the low hydration and the difficulty of making a good dough.
Thanks Tom. I probably have it wrong but I did 7oz fluid divided by 28oz of flour equals .25 and... the flour "looks" like flour. Powdery and comes pre-sifted. Don't know... could be anything...
But the bottom line is I got a very improved loaf. It's a bit pale and you have to watch your teeth, but it tastes really good! So I'm pleased.
Again, thanks
Katie
How did you arrive at 28 oz from the 3 1/2 cups?
Katie is using fl oz. 8 fl oz x 3.5 cups.
Oh, of course. Katie, flour is not as dense as water, so don't go thinking 8 oz per cup. Most flours I see are shown as 30 - 33g/1/4 cup, or 120 - 129g/cup So I usually go with 125g/cup, which is 4.4 oz/cup, not 8.
If you can measure the water in ml, instead of fl oz, that will give you an accurate figure for the liquid. Water in ml and grams is the same. So, 7 fl oz of water is ~207ml or 207 g.