Loaf made with Rye (wholegrain) and whole wheat.
All mixed together with 13C/55F water. Few minutes of mixing. 3 stretch and folds, 4 coil folds all within 1.5 hours of mixing.
Then bulk fermented for 24H in the fridge.
But…. when dividing I thought "ahh this would look great as a single 1.2kg loaf". So I decided not to divide it. I did preshape it, let it rest for 30 minutes and the gave it the final shape.
Proofed for 3 hours and then into the oven (in a dutch oven) and 250c (480F). 30 minutes with the lid on, 30 minutes without.
It looked really nice, from the outside… but it was still very wet inside. How long should I have baked it, and at what temperature?
by Gabalawi
3 Comments
Answer: lower temperature, longer time than your normal bake. Drop it 25-50°F (15-30°C), and bake it an extra 15 minutes.
Basically you’re going to have to bake a lot longer for the interior to get fully cooked, and the outside will get more toasted. The solution is to lower the temp so that when you bake longer, the outside doesn’t turn into a carbonized crouton.
The actual time/temp will depend on your crust preference, oven setup, and the shape of your bread (longer time for boule, shorter time for loaf).
There are two foolproof ways to tell if a loaf is done: water loss and internal temp. An instant read thermometer will tell you if the inside of the loaf is fully set, while checking the weight at shaping vs weight while baking will tell you how much water has evaporated from the bread.
Thanks! And might be a stupid follow up question but is the lower temp / longer bake due to the volume of the loaf? Or is this the norm for whole grain breads?
Until it reaches 93C internal temperature, and loses 10% of initial weight due to water evaporation.