Run run fast as you can, you can’t catch me I’m the Gingerbread Man

I had a chunk of each fontina and gorgonzola leftover from the flatbread and I wanted to try Rin’s method of integrating them in during the final fold. Also I wanted to see what happens when I turned the salt up to 3% from 2%.

I integrated the cheese and dates on the final fold and it turns out that I should be integrating a small amount of ingredients in each of the folds. Instead I got a big lump of cheese and dates, and because I added too many dates this resulted in cloying mouthfuls of date which had me hunting for cheese. Additionally, with all the weight of the cheese and dates, the love didn’t grow nearly as tall as its sibling. Also 3% salt is a little too much, I do not believe bread be salty as a baseline, and that is what 3% salt yielded.

Again, both loaves turned out well, good open crumb, good crust, and most importantly, bread flavored. I’m happy with being able to turn out loaves like these but I want to get a more open crumb. To that, I plan on reading up on how to improve the crumb for the next loaf. I’ve seen the Rubaud method mentioned a number of places and plan on trying that next time.

Additionally, I have found mixed results with my crust with the oven at 500 and 450, at 500 it’s yielded a very crispy crust, sometimes a little over crispy, and at 450 the crust is good but could be a little harder. I’ve been told most home ovens are 100% accurate and I know my oven leaks so I imagine 450 is actually a bit lower and will be buying an infrared thermometer to see what temperature truly is when I turn it to 500 and 450.

One loaf turned out a bit oddly shaped because I baked it in the oval shaped green dutch oven and it ended up expanding lengthwise. Comparing the color on each, the loaf baked in the green is darker, which is no surprise as the green dutch’s walls are twice as thick.

Dough
700 g bread flour (Central Milling Brand Organic)
300 g whole wheat flour (Central Milling Brand Organic)
750 g h2o
75% hydration
30 g salt

Levain
20 g starter
100 g all purpose flour (King Arthur Brand Organic)
100 g h2o

What I did right:
The crumb was good, the loaves were good. The last bad loaf I did was loaf eight, and this is five loaves later, so I think that’s good.
What I did wrong:
I put all of the cheese in during the first fold, and added too many dates. I need to spread the ingredients out through the folds.
What I learned:
2% salt is standard for a reason.