I discovered this great web site: Weekend Bakery that has some wonderful recipes and tips.  So I thought this week I’d try the above bread.

I started with a poolish:

• 380 g bread flour
• 304 g room temp water
• 3 g active dry yeast

I let the poolish sit at room temperature for 1 hour and then transferred it to the refrigerator for ~13 hours.  The poolish had more than doubled in size overnight.

I added the poolish to:

• 380 g bread flour
• 266 g water (room temp)
• 12 g salt
• 1/4 tsp (~1.5 g) sea salt

I used the 1/4 tsp because my scale doesn’t measure half gram increments so I looked up a conversion.  I know it isn’t exact but neither is baking.  One thing I will need to slowly learn is how to make adjustments to the dough due to weather.  The time of year, temperature, humidity all affect a recipe.  I let the dough rest for 10 minutes covered.

After 10 minute rest

I dumped the dough out onto a floured surface and performed a stretch and fold (envelope style – pulled and stretched dough from east side and folded it 1/3 of way over to west side, pulled from west to east, then north to south and south to north).  I continued repeating this process for 2 minutes then put the dough into a lightly oiled bowl for 45 minutes.

I repeated the stretch and fold (2 times instead of for 2 minutes) and could tell the dough was really coming together already.

The next 3 stretch and folds would be separated by 45 minutes with just one stretch and fold each time.

Then I bench rested the dough for 10 minutes.

I divided the dough into 2 and shaped it (following the technique of folding the dough over, sealing the seams and then doing a tension pull).  There were a large amounts of gas bubbles in the dough and I know that this isn’t good for bread so I ended up popping the large bubbles as best I could.  Since I have not yet invested in bannetons, I lined some bowls with lint-free floured cloths.  I decided to try 2 different methods of baking — with dutch oven and on a pizza stone.  Since I couldn’t bake them side by side, I put one of the boules into a fridge.  While I was doing all this bread prepping, I also had to replace a PVC line running to the raised vegetable gardens.  This required me to take a few trips to home depot (since of course you can’t just go once).  The problem was that I started the pre-heat later than i would have liked for the proper proofing.  The oven was preheated at 455 F wtih the dutch oven.  I lucked out and the proofing was just about right for the bread to go in.  I don’t have a super sharp knife so when I went to score it, I messed up the top of the boule a little.

I baked the 1st boule for 10 minutes in the covered dutch oven, then removed the lid and baked for another 35 minutes (internal temp around 200 F at the end).

About 15 minutes prior to the first boule finishing, I removed the other boule from the fridge.  I placed this one on a semolina lined pizza peel and slid it onto my baking steel .  I previously had used a pizza stone but it broke within the first few uses so I figured I’d try something a bit more hardier.  And it has produced some wonderful pizzas on it.  This second boule I baked at 455 F for 45 minutes.

The second boule had a much better oven spring compared to the first.  The first boule kind of spread out more.  The one other difference between the two is that I proofed the first boule with the seam side up and the second boule with the seam side down.  So I’m not sure if the better oven spring was due to how I handled the boules or if it was the cooking methods – in a dutch oven or on a pizza stone.

The wife said the crumb looked like professional bread. 🙂

After cutting into the 2nd boule I realized why it was so tall.  I didn’t de-gas it enough and the air holes were giant.

Definitely need to make sure I de-gas and form it better.

Now to figure out what to do with all this bread!

-StewsCat

So after my last less than stellar bread, I decided to go back to the Richard Bertinet formula and not try too many things at once (poolish, autolyse, new kneading/shaping/forming techniques).  I did want to do an enriched bread though since I know it can last longer before going stale.  Since we haven’t been buying bread for a long time now (I’ve been making tortillas for wraps the last 1.5 years), I figured I could try to make a white sandwich type bread for the week.

I went back to a formula that worked except I substituted some whole milk for water.

Recipe:

• 500 g bread flour
• 350 warm (110 F) whole milk
• 10 g sea salt
• 3 g active dry yeast

I mixed all the ingredients and let it autolyse for 30 minutes.  I pulled the dough out of my metal bowl and realized that the dough was a lot more firm/set than anticipated.  I thought it would be much more sticky and wet.  I read up and realized that when you use milk, the milk proteins require that you use more milk instead of water or add in some water in addition to the milk.  Chemistry fail!  Anyway, I still kneaded the dough (though didn’t have to use the slap and fold method) for about 30 minutes and set it back in the bowl.

I then let the dough bulk ferment for about 1 hour and 10 minutes at room temperature

I removed the dough onto a lightly floured surface and then did an envelope fold.  I shaped the dough into a log and placed it into the bread pan to proof.

After folding (3rds) and then shaping

In bread pan prior to proof

I lightly dusted the top of the bread as well as a light lint-free towel and draped it over the bread pan.  I admit I was a bit distracted as the wife and I were watching a movie while the bread proofed.  I checked on it regularly, though I accidentally let the bread over-proof and it collapsed on half of it.

I pre-heated the oven at 375 F (since bread with milk should be baked at lower temps than when just with water) and baked the bread at 375 F for 10 minutes, then dropped the temperature to 350 F for another 30 minutes (internal bread temp was around 200).

Collapsed right side of bread from overproofing

Overall the bread came out decently though it was drier than I would have liked.  This makes sense given that I had less moisture in the bread than I wanted.  Overall it worked as a decent sandwich bread for the work week.  This time the wife approved and has been eating the bread.

The crumb was tighter but this is great for sandwich bread.

Next up is a baguette boule (found from Weekend Bakery)

-StewsCat

This week’s bread baking session did not go as planned and resulted in a not so great product.  I’ll still eat it because that’s just me but the wife already has given it a big thumbs down.

I started things off by creating a poolish or preferment.  Essentially you mix a small amount of water, flour and yeast and let that sit overnight.  This is then added into the final mixture the next day.  A preferment is used to create more complex flavors in the final bread product.

I have been looking at various techniques for folding dough as well as for the final shaping process.  What I’ve been having a tough time with is getting that nice shaped loaf at the end.  Sure the bread tastes good, but I’d like it to also look the part.  So I’ve been doing more online research (reading as well as watching various videos).  I found what I thought might be a good template (here).  I did take away some good information from the video.

I think it all went wrong right from the start.  I had written down my recipe/measurements.  Though on the fly I decided to change it and along the way my math went a bit haywire.  I remembered to subtract the amount of flour in the poolish (100g) from the total (500g), but forgot to subtract the water (100g) from the poolish from the total water (350g).  Therefore I ended up with close to 100% hydration bread (500g flour – 450 g water).

I also added in a 30 minute autolyse to this recipe, which was new compared to the last one.  Autolyse is supposed to allow the flour to absorb the water better and actually start the gluten formation process with no kneading.

After the autolyse, I realized that I had a very very wet dough.  As I started my slap and fold, I realized my mistake and thought I’d be able to correct it by adding in the additional flour needed to create a ~70% hydration dough.  I also had forgotten to add the salt so that was added in as well.  After adding in additional flour (~150 g) and salt (10g), I tried to incorporate it into the wet dough and march on.  Much of the new added flour didn’t actually incorporate into the dough and I ended up removing it from the surface.  The result was a decently stick dough but one I could continue to work.  Another change from last time was that I only did the slap and fold method about 20 minutes.  My previous attempt resulted in me doing the Bertinet slap and fold method for about 60 minutes.  After watching some more videos on various slap and fold techniques, I did my slap/fold kneading technique until I felt I had a fairly cohesive dough that would release from the counter with my dough scraper (looking back I realize that maybe I didn’t do this part long enough).

This is also where I added in the new techniques from the above video.  I put a small amount of flour on the counter, and did the stretch and fold method (pulling and folding in third, then doing the opposite way – like an envelope).  I bench rested it for 10 minutes covered in plastic wrap and repeated the stretch and fold method 3 additional times.  Each time, the dough did seem slightly more formed and cohesive though in the back of my mind I knew it wasn’t what it should be.

At this point there was no turning back so I soldiered on.

After the last stretch and fold, I lightly floured the dough and placed it in a large metal bowl to bulk ferment (rise).  This is supposed to be done until it is 1.5 times its original size (the video says this can be 2 hours).  I think I messed this part up as well because I let it rise past 1.5 times and it probably was as much as 2-2.5 times its original size.  The dough also appeared to have some large gas bubbles and was not as solid as I expected it to be.

Nevertheless, onwards we marched.  I dumped the dough out on a lightly floured surface and did one more stretch/fold.  Then I tried the tension pull, which did help form a nice smooth surface on the top of the dough.  I placed the dough ball into a flour-sack towel lined bowl (having previously dusted the flour-sack towel with flour to prevent sticking) to proof.  The new video said to proof for anywhere from ~2-4 hours or 1.5 times size.  I knew it wouldn’t take that long so I checked it at 1 hour and then 1.5 hours.  It was hard to say if it had grown 1.5 times.  It was definitely overly gassy (large gas pockets all on the surface).  It hadn’t taken that “firm” texture that I expect after a proof.

At this point I had no other choice but to see what would happen.  I pre-heated by enameled dutch oven in a 500F oven.  Carefully, I removed the dutch oven and placed the bread into the dutch oven and tried to score it.  As I tried scoring it with my knife, half of the dough ball deflated.  I gave up, tossed the lid on the put it back into the oven.  After 10 minutes I removed the lid and dropped the temperature to 475 and baked for another 30 minutes.

Decent shape but flat

Awkward shape

The end product didn’t come out as I wanted.  The oven spring was not as dramatic as I was hoping, but I knew that would probably be the case given the deflation upon putting the bread in the oven.

I let the bread cool as the wife and I headed out for dinner and drinks with a friend who was in town.  As a late night snack I wanted to cut into the bread to see what I had produced.  I didn’t think the taste was too bad but the wife said that she wasn’t going to eat anymore than she had (a small bite).

Okay crumb structure

The overall crumb structure wasn’t too bad.  There wasn’t as much taste and I wonder if it was because I switched from regular salt to a sea salt and maybe it hadn’t mixed properly (with my mishap of adding the salt in much later than I should have and not incorporating it properly).

Summary of mistakes: improper measurements and trying to salvage by tossing in more flour and salt after the initial dough had autolysed, possibly putting in way too much yeast and letting it bulk rise/proof for too long. Mental corrections noted.

Onto the next one:  enriched white bread with milk instead of water.

-StewsCat