Pullman Loaf in 1.5 ...

... Hours, that is. Today I made a Pullman loaf start to finish, in an hour and a half. And it's pretty decent, too.

I decided to try my hand at baking a bread in such a short time after I'd watched one too many episodes of The Great British Baking Show, known as the Bakeoff in the UK.  Over and over again the baker contestants had to create various kinds of bread in ridiculously short times, usually 2 hours or less. Up until now, I had always thought that a bread completed in short times would have little flavor and a limp crumb.

To start with I chose a lean yeasted dough. Now how can we get rapid fermentation? Lots of yeast, high temperatures, and probably some sugar. With luck, a high temperature ferment will bring some flavor out of the grain, since all the chemical reactions will happen much more quickly than at room temperature.

For this bake, I chose a temperature of 90°F/32C. My counter-top oven has a proofing setting that goes down to 80°F/27C, so I'm covered there. I used 30% stone ground spelt, 70% King Arthur bread flour, 65% hydration, 2 tsp yeast, 2% salt, and 2 Tbs sugar. The Loaf pan is my 4X4X9 Pullman pan, from USA Pans.

With no time for stretch-and-folds, I probably should have mixed with a mixer but I did it by hand anyway. I had in mind to add a little yogurt water or yogurt, in the hopes that it would improve the flavor. It would in a long room temperature fermentation. But I forgot.

Schedule
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- 6 PM - measure water, preheat to 100°F, add yeast and sugar. Let stand while measuring flours;
- 6:05 - measure flours and salt, stir to combine;
- 6:10 - add water mixture, mix by hand;
- 6:15 - put in oven at 90°F;
- 6:25 - knead 10 minutes by hand; put in oven at 90°F;
- 6:35 - remove (needed oven to toast some buns); butter Pullman pan; knead a few more minutes;
- 6:40 - shape, put into Pullman, back into oven for 20 minutes at 90°F;
- 7:00 - set oven to 390°F/200C, bake for 30 minutes lid on;
- 7:30 - bake 3 more minutes out of pan at 375°F/190C.

So all right, the total time was 3 minutes over the hour and a half. But the time included that extra five minutes to toast some buns. At the 1.5 hour mark, the loaf's internal temperature was 203°F/95C. That would have been all right for a sandwich loaf.  The extra three minutes was to dry out the loaf a little more.

As usual, 450g of flour was enough to fill the pan and press against the lid, but not quite enough to fill the top square and flush. 470g would probably fill out the top completely.

The bread is tasty, with a crumb that is on the soft side. The flavor is mild, a little sweet, and very pleasant.  I won't say it's the richest or most complex flavor ever.  I was surprised how good it is given such a short production time. The crust has that tasty, slight crunchiness that tends to come from buttering the Pullman pan.  My partner said it's now her favorite of all the loaves I've baked (that's partly because she likes the Pullman shape, and partly because she likes a softer bread and crust).