Rubaud Pain au Levain - No FFs
Redundant because I've done this bread quite a bit, but a new experience in that I relied solely on the KA, plus the regular accordion folds, for development. Usually I rely on the KA minimally - to mix roughly for autolyse, then to incorporate the levain and salt just barely before doing hundreds of FF's.
Lingering heart issues make it difficult to do FF's in the way I used to (at least for now). So I thought I'd see it through with just using my humble 4.5 tilt-head with the after-market spiral dough hook. KA 1 x 4 minutes, KA 2 x 3 minutes, where I checked for what I call "90% windowpane," a habit learned from Hamelman's recommendation to take the dough up to but not all the way in the mixer bowl, finishing development by a fold or two. I would normally have developed the dough almost completely through FF's and accordion folds in the bulk fermentation bins.
Here, after this KA improved mix, my normal accordion folds: every 30 minutes x 2 hours, every hour to 4 hours (in this case). Proof was 1 1/4 hours, surprised me a bit as I expected longer.
What have I learned? I must craft a way to justify a dedicated "knetemaschine" without getting killed by my wife.