I’ve got another bread proofing right now that I’m pretty happy with so far. Although I baked no bread yesterday, I’ve been baking almost every day out of my home oven. My note taking has devolved a bit, but thats because I like to blend the hard numbers with a general look and feel way of doing things.
Considering I’m using mainly white flour right now, I’ve decreased the hydration in each batch I’ve done. I do like wet breads, but at this point I’m aiming to get a bit more strength and volume in my loaves, which happens at lower hydrations. So I started at 74%, moved to 72%, and am currently doing a 70% hydration bread. The other thing I’ve started doing is playing with a bit of the rye flour that I’ve got. This batch has 15% rye, meaning of the 901g total flour, 135g are rye, and the rest white (Artisian Bakers Craft. I started my loaves around 10:30AM today, and since I was trying to bake it same day (meaning not a huge amount of fermentation), I used 409g Dulce (my starter) for my 1550g of dough (two 750g, and some extra); that would be a 3.8X expansion factor, which is a decent amount of starter.
Even at 15% rye flour, I’m starting to once again notice how rye is different from wheat. Its a lot stickier, and needs to be handled much more gently. I did my initial mix in the container, just getting most of the water covered with flour, and the starter mixed around. When I got everything onto the bench, the dough still felt dry, but as I massaged it, I felt things getting wetter. I stopped touching the dough at that point, leaving a few lumps in it, and let it rest to absorb a bit of the water and to relax. I came back about 15 minutes later, got all the lumps out, and then let it rest again. I believe I might of worked it 2 or 3 more times over the course of a few hours, each time having it smoothen out, tighten up, and get less sticky. I would have liked to give it one more stretch and fold before its final pre-proofing fermentation, but I had to get on with my day (first of to my Farm to pick up some white squash and collard greens, then to the Free Farm Stand to drop off, pick up, and socialize). When I got back home around 3:30, the dough had risen a bit, but possibly could have gone more. But considering I want to bake these loaves not too late, I got it onto my floured bench, cut it in half, and shaped my loaves into boules.
It’s now been about 3 hours since I shaped the loaves, and I can tell that they are definitely rising and holding their shape. I put the covered bannetons in my sunny windowsill to speed along the process. I’m beginning to realize that with our temperatures in the 60s, things move a lot slower than most bakeries, or even homes across the country (or world) in the summer time. The way many bakeries and home bakers add fermentation time to improve flavor is by retarding at very low temperatures (like in the fridge), but I’m beginning to appreciate more the balance of using moderate temperatures; it’s definitely more difficult than warm temperatures.
I’m going to continue to wait several hours before baking these loaves. My main mistake I believe was not starting the loaves earlier in the day. However, I was sleeping then, and I think the loaves are going to be just fine regardless. One benefit of slightly underproofed loaves, assuming they are stiff enough, is a nicer blooming of the ear. I’m still waiting for a really awesome ear, which I have not gotten in a long time.
Tomorrow is Bagel Monday, so I will hold off on baking any other bread, but I will be back at it on Tuesday. I’m only baking 2 loaves at a time now, and I imagine I might want one of them, but there is another that is up for grabs; let me know if you’d like it.