You can’t handle the proof! - Nathan R. Jessup

I wanted to make a single loaf, for one, partly as a personal challenge, that larger fermentation is more vigorous, partly because it’s not sustainable to be making two loaves of bread every time I bake bread, partly because I want to work on my process and again, doing that with 1100 grams of flour are table stakes I’m not looking to play with.

While I correctly recalculated most of my measurements for one loaf, I did not correctly do this for the salt. I added the same as before, 20 grams (4%). Salt can inhibit yeast growth, and I imagine that to some degree that happened here.

As established in loaf seven my process is more or less set. At this point the two variables are final proof, whether I choose to prove for an hour and a half at room temperature or overnight in the fridge. This is more or less dictated by my timing. Those who know bread say that the overnight final proof develops the flavor more. In this case I did an hour and a half at room temperature. I gave the loaf four slices across the top and baked it. I put the dutch oven in, turned the oven in to 500 degrees, waited about 20 minutes after it reached temperature, then put the loaf in on a sheet of parchment paper. I had been using flour but Rin turned me on to this and it is a far superior method.

When I put the loaf into the dutch oven I forgot to turn the oven down to 450 degrees. I’m going to guess at the affect because I will unfortunately repeat this error a few times. It seems to make the crust harder than when the bread is baked (correctly) at 450. Crust it supposed to be hard, but baking at 500 makes it harder than I prefer. Additionally as can be observed from the crumb, the bread isn’t at the photo finish crumb, which I need to work on. In the first few loaves the levain smelled alcoholic and had tons of bubbles and was very wobbly when shaken. This time the levain was nearly there but not quite, nor did the bulk proof go quite as long as it should have. I intend to work on getting the levain more vigorous and extending the bulk proof. And baking at the correct temperature.

Baked in the dutch oven, 30 minutes lid on, 25 minutes lid off.

Dough
350 g bread flour (King Arthur Brand Organic)
150 g whole wheat flour (King Arthur Brand Organic)
375 g h2o
20 g salt
75% hydration

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

What I did right:
I made a decent enough loaf.
What I did wrong:
I didn’t turn down the oven to 450 after putting the loaf in. I added too much salt.
What I learned:
2% salt is the standard for a reason. And I’m getting to understand the smell and texture that the levain needs to be before it’s ready.