Live, Laugh, Loaf

I am struggling. I’m getting good crumb on all of these loaves, it’s open, the bread flavor is good, but I just cannot get that photo finish loaf with big air pockets, all the air bubbles are very uniform. I don’t know what I need to do to get the photo finish. Using the Rubaud method has improved my crumb, and some of my loaves have been close, but as Frank Robinson said, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

For this loaf I decided to switch back to parchment paper. I have been using cornmeal to create separation between loaf and pan for the last few loaves and I personally liked it. I’m sold. However I do have to brush it off at the end and for some it might be blasphemous considering it’s technically another ingredient. I’m not trying to apply the Bavarian Purity Law to bread, but I do like the idea that bread is flour, water, salt. Using parchment paper isn’t exactly the “old way” as I doubt the peasants had access to disposable sheets of cellulose-based composits, but they didn’t have access to a lot of things and I don’t need to go back in time and tell my parents not to vaccinate me or take me to the doctor in order to make a proper loaf of bread. So parchment paper. I’m just going to say, I don’t like it for bread. This is my conclusion, and here is why.

First, it’s ugly. It gives this smoothed and unnatural look to the loaf wherever it’s in contact, and because I put the loaf on the paper, then cut it, then transfer it to the oven, I pick the loaf up using the parchment paper, which creates contact on the sides around the bottom of the loaf. Most people probably don’t care about this. I do.

Second, you have to peel it off. Not all parchment paper is edible, and apparently bleached parchment paper can have chemicals in it. And sometimes with a loaf the paper can be trapped in a fold, which you then have to extricate the parchment paper from.

Third, and this may seem persnickety, it’s wasteful. Yes, it’s compostable, but what about the box it comes in and that little serrated metal cutting edge they add and also it’s financially wasteful as the cost of a sheet of parchment paper is higher than half a handful of cornmeal or flour (bread, white, whole wheat, rice, whatever).

Cornmeal is better, as is flour, or even rice flour as some use.

Dough
300 g bread flour (Central Milling Brand Organic)
200 g whole wheat flour (King Arthur Brand Organic)
400 g h2o
80% hydration
10 g salt

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

What I did right:
This is kind of a standard loaf of bread, it’s good bread, but not great.
What I did wrong:
The crumb is good, but not great, I need to push the bulk proof longer. I need to get better at knowing when the bulk prove is done based on the smell of the dough.
What I learned:
Cornmeal on the bottom.