Dawn of the Bread

Not all 90% hydration loaves are created equal, considering this loaf has an amount of rye in it, I imagine that helped absorb some of the water, so that when I handled it, it was not nearly as soft. Also, I was more confident with this dough. This really only matters when turning and folding the dough, so before handling it, I watched a video of woman from a bread institute shaping loaves and practiced a few times before turning the dough. Using the soft scraper (which I got wet) I pulled the dough into a taught ball, then laid a metal bowl over it on my wooden cutting board, letting it rest for 20 minutes. I then folded it, laid a piece of parchment paper on the bottom, and using a hard scraper, flipped it over. I replaced the metal bowl and let the final prove to happen in the laundry room of my house, which is around 50° for a few hours while the oven heated to 550°.

I dusted the top of the dough with salt just before putting it in the dutch oven then baked at 475° for 25 minutes with the top on, an aforementioned splash of water applied to the top of the dutch oven before I closed it, (this water began to vaporize immediately), and another 25 minutes top off at 450°.

Dough
20 g caraway seeds
50 g rye flour (Bob’s Red Mill Organic)
150 g whole wheat flour (King Arthur Brand Organic)
300 g whole wheat flour (King Arthur Brand Organic)
450 g h2o
90% hydration
10 g salt

Levain
10 g starter
10 g rye flour (Bob’s Red Mill Organic)
10 g whole wheat flour (King Arthur Brand Organic)
40 g all purpose flour (Kirkland Brand Organic)
60 g water

What I did right:
Adding some water to the dutch oven just before I closed the lid created steam inside and produced some nice bubbles and shine to the outside of the loaf.
What I did wrong:
The salt was a little heavy handed, I need to get better crystals if I’m going to add them to the top because what I added was too hard, and too much salt in a single bite.
What I learned:
Caraway loaves are delicious, salt on the top of a loaf is delicious, just a little bit of water inside the dutch oven helps the crust a lot.