He’s bread, Jim

I was expecting to begin this entry on a much more dour note. I thought I had completely blown it, but the bread turned to be a solidly better than mediocre loaf, which at this point feels painfully par for the course.

Each bake, I heat the dutch oven and set the loaf inside and notice how much space there is and think that the dough is swimming in there and maybe I should increase the size of the loaf. Finally I did. I started well. Not actually, I started poorly, the cup holding the my yet to be mixed levain slipped out of my hand and spilled flour and water all over my floor. I didn’t know where the starter ended and the newly added flour began and I had already discarded half of my starter and mixed in new flour and water. The time was nine pm, it was Thursday, and I was tired. Fortunately I had reserved a lump of starter as Rin had told me to try mixing in spent starter during the auto-lyse to get a better rise. I pulled the reserved starter out and weighed it. Fifteen grams. So I remade my levain and left it overnight.

The next morning the levain was a good soup, bubbling and ready. Now my timing was good. I mixed the flour and water and set it aside for two hours. When I came back, the levain was a soup, pourable. My timing was working well. I added the levain and salt and mixed for five minutes, waited for fifteen minutes, and mixed for another five minutes. I made an 82.5% hydration dough, I don’t know why, I just wanted that hydration, push it, why not. I folded the dough every half hour for about four hours, and by the afternoon the dough looked good, lots of bubbles on the surface.

I wanted to fold and shape the dough without flour, which is a stupid thing that I should not have done. Yet I did. I watched as the tacky dough stuck to the hard scraper, to my hands, to the cutting board, and how each time it stuck to something a surface bubble popped telegraphing what I assumed to be many more I could not see. This was the bed I had made for myself. I folded and shaped the dough, then realized it was far too large to fit in the banneton, so I got a linen towel, one that was a gift and has earned several compliments, so why not potentially ruin it with flour and dough. I put the dough into a bowl on top of the towel and set it in the fridge for the final proof.

I thought I had blown it enough. I had started poorly, recovered by getting my timing right, and somehow got the loaf in the fridge to prove. The next morning I preheated the oven with the dutch oven inside to 510, then I pulled the dutch oven out, put a dusting of thin cornmeal on the bottom of the loaf, and realized that there was no straightforward way for me to transfer the loaf to the dutch oven. It was too malleable to pick up and set in the dutch oven, and the bowl the dough was nested in was larger in diameter than the dutch oven. I could have tried using parchment paper but I had already dusted the bottom with cornmeal and didn’t think the loaf would adhere. I was left to pour the loaf into the hot dutch oven. Of course a part of the loaf caught on the edge, burning as the rest poured in. And of course despite a rather liberal flouring, the linen towel stuck to large swathes of the dough so I had to try and separate it in places, it tore in several, undoubtedly releasing air. I closed the dutch oven and shoved it in the oven, wanting to be rid of the loaf.

Two hours later (35 top on, 35 top off, 50 oven off but loaf still inside) I extricated what turned out to be a not terrible loaf of bread. That doesn’t mean I’m happy either with the method or the outcome, but I was happy to eat bread.

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

Levain
15 g starter
75 g all purpose flour (King Arthur Brand Organic)
75 g water

What I did right:
The timing for the levain and the bulk prove.
What I did wrong:
I think I need to use parchment paper if I’m going to have this high of a hydration otherwise I will have a lot of difficulty transferring the dough to the dutch oven.
What I learned:
I’m improving my timing. Also I think maybe I’m going the wrong direction with size, I’m going to try a smaller loaf next time.