this is the recipe/process i have used thus far-
PM Leaven:
1tbs-40g of active starter
100g of 50/50 Flour (50% whole wheat, 50% white bread flour)
100g of warm water
rose for about 12 hours overnight (doubled)
Dough (morning):
700g warm water
Add the Leaven
Add 900g white flour
Add 100g whole wheat
Mix
+30 min
Add 20g salt and 50g warm water
Mix
+30 min
First set of folds – 4 folds total
+30 min
2ND set of folds
+30 min
3rd set of folds
+30 min
4th and final set of folds
BULK FERMENT 8 hours (was visually doubled)
Remove dough, split in 2
Flour the top, roll it over so floured surface is against the counter.
1 fold so that there’s a floured surface on top again.
+30 min
Roll dough over so the top is on the
bottom
Perform a set of folds on each loaf
Transfer to a floured bannetons
went in fridge overnight about 12-13 hours
Heat oven + Dutch oven to 500F
Flip dough out of banneton into dutch, score dough, place cover, reduce oven temp to 450F
+10 min
Remove Lid
+20 min
Bread!
by Interesting-Try4171
17 Comments
wondering if the ear is just a matter of scoring deeper or if it’s something in my process
Score deeper. Looks like it’s trying to break through- there’s some tearing where your score is. Try deeper next time and see what happens
Looks lovely to me. I don’t hardly ever get an eat either…but the bread still tastes great and that all that matters.
Am I the only one who doesn’t want an ear? I always get one though. I don’t like them because they’re always almost burnt and so sharp you could almost use them to slice the loaf.
Perfect for sandwiches. Open crumb is overrated
I think it looks great! I like it without an ear personally just for nice uniform slices. A few things to try is adding some ice cubes in the Dutch oven with the bread, look into a “seven minute score” (basically you don’t score the bread until after it’s been cooking 7 minutes). Are you preheating the oven with the Dutch oven in it for an hour or until it just preheats? I like to preheat both the Dutch oven and oven for a full hour at 500 degrees, put the bread in, take the top off after 25 min, then drop the temp down to 425 for 30 min.
Keep up the great work it looks really good
Have you tried a cold proof and a very hot pan/pot? I used to never get an ear until I did that. However I find an ear makes it a lot harder to cut!
You can’t eat an ear but that crumb looks mighty fine!
Hi. Very nice-looking loaf. Well done.
This is a high hydration dough and probably difficult to handle. Perhaps reduce your total hydration by 5%, around 40g. I feel you could develop your folding methodology and perhaps curtail bulk ferment a little earlier.
Happy baking.
Your crumb gets a 👍🏻 from me.
If I use a dull blade I won’t get an ear. I knew it yesterday and didn’t get one when I always do ! Blades are only good 2-3 times used. IMHO
Ears are overrated. How did it taste?
11/10
Over all it is very even crumb but could have probably proven a bit longer. Very nice effort. 10/10
In addition to the tips above, I would add that making sure your dough is not overproofed is critical. Also, if you really want to ensure you get an ear, do the 7 minute method, where you put the loaf in the oven without scoring for 7 minutes and then immediately score and put back in. This gives me amazing ears. Also score at angle as others have said. You could also do what I call scalping which is where I score once and then go back and cut again but this time pretty much like I’m trying to peel off the crust.
Looks great
6.1 out of 10