Now here's a little story I've got to tell, about three fresh loaves you know so well - the Yeastie Boys

I used Trevor Wilson’s How to Mix Wet Dough as a guide for this loaf, though I stuck to 75% hydration instead of the 85% he uses (though I think I’ll try 85% next time). In his method he suggests a two hour auto-lyse, which I followed. I realized that for the auto-lyse I have been under mixing this whole time, not grievously, but having watched his video I saw that I could be more vigorous than I had been previously, so I ended up with a nice wet lump with much less flour crust forming around the rim of the bowl.

After two hours I mixed in the levain by smearing it on top and dimpling it in, which is distinctly different than Forkish’s method of cutting (with your hands) to integrate. I also then mixed the dough using the Rubaud method as demonstrated by Wilson, repeatedly using my hand to scoop underneath the dough and lift it up and let the dough drop, which introduces air to the dough. It’s clear this was successful from the crumb structure, I’ve provided the crumb photos of this loaf and loaf thirteen at the bottom to illustrate how much of a difference the mixing made. I mixed for seven or so minutes, waited 15 minutes, then mixed for another five minutes. I could have mixed for more but I’m trying to understand how to make good bread in good time, and the auto-lyse for two hours plus another 30 minutes mixing feels good to set myself up for the day.

I then folded my bread every half hour twice, and then three more times at varying intervals, half an hour, two hours, then another half hour. Wilson isn’t dogmatic about there being a time you stop folding dough, he gives his dough a fold thirty minutes before shaping for the final proof. It was Saturday, I had things to do that were not bread centric.

Ideally I would have let the dough rise more, but it was Saturday and I wasn’t going to sit and watch the dough and I wasn’t going to take the dough with me when I left, and I wouldn’t be home for another three or four hours, so I either had to risk slightly under proving or probably over proving the dough and I chose the former. I didn’t use the heater, which I probably should have, but I was trying to see the effect of mixing with as few other variables as possible. That being said, I will be using the mat in the future.

Two other notes: first, despite leaving the levain in the same spot that just a week before had resulted in vigorous yeast growth, the levain felt like it needed another hour or two when I added it, but again, I’m not trying to let the bread dictate my day. Second, I increased the whole wheat to 40%, which made for a good flavor.

Wilson also suggests using corn meal to line the bottom of the pan instead of parchment paper, which I decided to try. The good: corn meal works just as good as parchment paper, it’s cheaper, you can easily brush it off the bottom of the dough at the end, and it doesn’t leave the texture parchment paper leaves. The bad: nothing. The ugly: the one big pro of parchment paper is I was able to transfer the loaf to my hand and put it in the dutch oven by holding the parchment paper, in this case when I started turning the loaf out of the banneton the loaf began to slide and I didn’t want the loaf to go sideways so I pulled the banneton back and somehow ended with the bottom of the dough up, which is fine, it just made for “natural” expansion instead of me having to use a razor. The sides of the dutch oven are quite high and I didn’t want to get burned so I’ll have to think about how better to transfer in the future.

I preheated the oven to 515, then baked at 475 for 30 minutes top on, 35 minutes top off. I did buy an infrared thermometer, however as I was standing, trying to measure the inside of the oven I realized I was letting out heat at a time when I was trying to get my dutch oven to temperature and the thermometer was registering around 440 and climbing when the oven said 500 and I didn’t know how much heat I’d lose while the thermometer continued to rise so I decided to put a pin in it and take the temperature when I wasn’t actively trying to back bread. I’ve been playing around with baking time but I intend to repeat what I did on the next loaf to see if I can get the same color.

The bread itself ended up looking the color I hope for, and it smells good and tastes quite good, the whole wheat makes for a deeper flavor but also a more chewy bread. I’ll be increasing the hydration next time if I use the same ratio of whole wheat. I’m happy with the loaf and look forward to repeating and focusing on the details.

Dough
300 g bread flour (Central Milling Brand Organic)
200 g whole wheat flour (Central Milling Brand Organic)
375 g h2o
75% hydration
10 g salt

Levain
10 g starter
50 g all purpose flour (King Arthur Brand Organic)
50 g water

What I did right:
I baked the loaf to the color I want. I got a much more open crumb, even if there aren’t huge air bubbles, it’s clear there are far more bubbles in general.
What I did wrong:
Lots of small details. The timing was rough and I didn’t have much I could do to work around it, so setting myself up for better timing in the future
What I learned:
Rubaud. Is. Good. And this reaffirmed my use of the heat mat to maintain a temperature. And 515 / 475 with 30/35 is the standard. Try it again.