Recipe:
80g stiff starter (60% hydration)
240g water
400g bread flour (15g protein per 100g)
8g salt
Mixed all the ingredients together and kneaded the dough for about 10 minutes. Rested for an hour, did one set of coil folds, then left to bulk ferment.
Shaped the dough 8.5 hours after mixing, and then let it sit in the banneton at room temperature for another 1 hour and 15 minutes, bringing total bulk fermentation to 9 hours and 45 minutes. Cold proofed in the fridge for a total of 14 hours.
Open baked in a convection oven at 230°C with steam for 35 minutes, then removed steam and lowered temperature to 190°C for another 15 minutes. Cooled for 4 hours before cutting.
The oven spring was amazing. The hydration for this loaf was intentionally lower, but I think maybe a touch too low. The dough was very different to my normal doughs, was not sticky at all throughout bulk fermentation, so I just tried to discern when to end bulk fermentation based on how airy it seemed (hence the extra time sitting in the banneton post-shaping). Any thoughts on the loaf?
by throwaway080405
4 Comments
Looks delicious! It looks a bit underproofed. How old is the starter? And what is the room temp it was fermenting at?
I think you did everything really well except timing the bulk fermentation.
You really wanna push it more. Judge by jiggle and texture, not by time.
Do it exactly the same next time (because you clearly know how to shape and bake) but push BF further. When you shake the container the dough should have a nice jiggle to it and sort of a matte texture.
And once you have that down, try to keep the same dough weight with the same container, so in the future you know how big it needs to be to be ready.
That’s a good looking loaf when I like about the structure of it makes a good sandwiches and it’s gonna be a good chew nice crust. Good color good job.
A bit less bulk ferment. Perhaps a bit more slap and folds.