No matter where I go, I see the same dough - Tupac

Let’s talk about salt. Most recipes I have seen use around 2% salt. The loaves I’ve baked with no salt have tasted flat. Salt inhibits yeast formation, so too much can slow your fermentation. The last loaf I baked had 4% salt because percents in baking are silly and are a ratio of whatever thing you are adding divided by the amount of flour you have. Funny enough in my last bake the salt was actually 2% (1.99%) of the entire loaf. I pulled the last loaf out of the oven, sliced it open, added butter, and took a bite. It tasted good, like fresh bread, what’s better? But after a little bit of time, the bread came to room temperature and developed its flavor. Bread will not taste like what it tastes like until it has settled. Once this loaf settled I could see why 2% salt is why folk use, 4% was too much, I could taste how salty the loaf was. So I’ll be returning to 2%.

I also switched from 70% bread flour to 80%, I don’t know anything about bread versus whole wheat flour so I’m just shooting from the hip.

The levain was happy but not quite as alcoholic as I think it should have been, but I only decided that retroactively. My kitchen happens to be in the coldest part of my house and sits around the low 60s (degrees). This isn’t particularly conducive for a vigorous bulk proof as I’ve read folk like to keep their dough in the low 70s during the bulk proof. I realized that I have a seedling heat mat which is meant to keep seedlings between 70 and 90 degrees, which should help keep the dough warmer. I only realized I had the seedling heat mat halfway through the bulk proof so I can’t say what I did was the faintest bit scientific. I put the seedling map under the cambro to warm it up. I think it helped, but I’ll have to do a proper A/B test in the future.

I did the final proof overnight in the fridge. After folding and turning the dough I put it in a banneton, but the banneton is made out of wood and semi porous below so I can’t wrap just the top in cellophane, but I don’t want to wrap the entire thing in cellophane, so I put the banneton in a 12 quart cambro. The next morning I baked the bread and ate it with butter and jam. It feels silly taking a hot loaf of bread out of the oven and letting it come to room temperature only to toast it again to warm it up but it really improved the flavor of the bread to let it rest.

The loaf turned out well, and the crumb is good, but not quite as open as I’d hope, so I still need to work on the bulk proof.

Baked in the dutch oven, 30 minutes lid on, 25 minutes lid off. The color of this loaf is much lighter than the previous. While the timing is different, this loaf was cooked (correctly) as 450 degrees. I want to increase the bake time for the next loaf to get it darker.

Dough
400 g bread flour (Central Milling Brand Organic)
100 g whole wheat flour (King Arthur Brand Organic)
375 g h2o
10 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 good loaf of bread. The levain was at the right spot.
What I did wrong:
I need to keep pushing the bulk proof (maybe I’ll get this right eventually). I need to turn the bread better.
What I learned:
Resting the bread after baking allows for the flavors to develop more.