Never tell me the odds - Han Solo

I have the habit of trying to do several things at once when starting projects, that was no different here. I tried to bake sourdough loaf and a brioche (which I will not be discussing here) simultaneously. Not that I believe either suffered for my efforts on the other, but that they both turned out more or less sub par.

While I read Tartine’s Country Bread Recipe and more or less tried to follow the directions, I wasn’t over-concerned with following exactly, and, as they say, the proof is in the pudding (bread). At the beginning I did not fold the loaf every half hour for three or four times. I did not pay attention to the temperature of dough during the bulk proof nor to the temperature of my refrigerator during the final proof. Temperature of dough is an element many bakers pay attention to, for now, I will not be, nor do I know when I will be. Nor did I use a banneton (wicker basket, optionally lined with linen), I let the dough sit in a cambro (large plastic bucket) until I was ready for the final turn and bake. Also I did not wait long enough for the levain, it was not bubbling with life when added to the dough. This snowballed into a bigger problem when I followed a strict eight hour timeline for the bulk proof, leaving me with a dense crumb.

After eight hours I transferred the dough to the fridge for the final proof, where it sat until the next morning. In the morning I pulled the dough out by hand (which is apparently a baking sin), made a messy fold, scored the dough with the first knife I had handy, and baked. I baked the loaf in a thin-walled dutch oven for 20 minutes with the lid on and 20 minutes with the lid off, and because I didn’t have a stone or baking steel (both stone and steel increase heat intensity and evenness of the oven) I just put a bunch of cast iron pans in the oven as a heat sink. I had the oven up to 500 for 30 minutes before baking, and baked the bread at 450.

I produced a loaf of bread flavored bread. Nobody was proud of it but it was eaten nonetheless. There are a lot of things I did wrong here, too many, in fact, to address all of them but generally my takeaway was for the next time to let the levain ferment adequately before adding it to the dough. Also I needed to add salt.

Dough
565 g bread flour
85 g whole wheat
420 g h2o

Levain
10 g starter
50 g bread flour
50 g h2o

What I did right:
I made bread and making bread is always good.
What I did wrong:
I underbaked the bread (20 minutes top on 20 minutes top off). I under proved the bread. I had no salt in the bread.
What I learned:
Don’t rely on time for proving, rely on rise and smell. Bake for longer, 25 minutes top on 25 minutes top off.