He will win who knows when to bake and when not to bake - Sun Tzu

Confess! I started this loaf ten minutes before loaf twenty six. I woke up at 6:45 am, went downstairs to start a loaf, checked my levain and saw it was nice and happy, measured out 500 g of flour, then added 400 g of water from the tap and as I was mixing mixing the dough I wondered to myself, as if my mind instinctively understood what the conscious portion had forgotten, “But when do I add the 95° water?” In the past. That’s when. The auto-lyse was meant to be flour plus 95° water. So it was too late. I decided to just let it ride and make a third loaf without 95° water. For about fifteen minutes. Then the shame of admitting I had forgotten got to me and I returned to my kitchen, put the dough for this loaf in the fridge, ran the water until it got hot, and used that to start loaf twenty six.

After I got loaf twenty six going I had to decide if I wanted to throw out the cold cold dough, but I thought better of it, I decided that the two previous loaves, having proved for 21 hours each, had probably been fully-proved around fourteen to sixteen hours, so if I fridged this dough until 6 pm I could then let it prove at room temp and wake up in time for. However, now I needed another levain, so I quickly measured out the starter, flour, and water, and put it in a plastic container inside a cast iron skillet filled with…95° (plus) water from the tap.

I pulled the dough from the fridge at 5:30 pm (about 10 hours), then set it in the warming drawer because why not, but also I wanted the dough to be warmer than my fridge. I pulled the dough about an hour later and measured it at 81°. At this point it was late enough that I could let the dough go overnight without as much fear of over proving, I wasn’t going to set it on the seedling mat. I mixed in the levain and salt and folded it a few times, but without any particular discipline.

The next morning I decided I didn’t want two loaves of bread flavored bread so I sautéed potato and mushrooms in butter and added some scallion then parmesan and set the veggies aside to cool to room temperature. The dough needed another hour anyway, I was correct, the final bulk prove time was 16 hours. Again I wet the surface slightly and turned out the loaf, adding filling each fold. Then I put the loaf back into the fridge for the final proof.

After eight hours I pulled the loaf out of the fridge, scored it, seeing some filling in the top cut, and baked, preheating the oven (with cast iron) to 500° then baking at 450° again for 30 minutes top on, 25 minutes top off.

There had been some excess olive oil in the top cast iron and this seems to have aerosolized and soaked into the top of the loaf, giving it a visual affect and crispier finish, which is something to experiment with in the future.

Dough
400 g bread flour (Central Milling Brand Organic)
100 g whole wheat flour (Central Milling Brand Organic)
400 g h2o
80% hydration
10 g salt

Levain
10 g starter
50 g all purpose flour (Central Milling Brand Organic)
50 g h2o

What I did right:
I added the filling during the turn and fold, the dough was well proved and pliable so I was able to put a handful in each time and get good distribution.
What I did wrong:
The potatoes were too heavy, they compressed the bottom of the loaf, next time I’ll chop them smaller, and add less of such a heavy ingredient.
What I learned:
I have been reading about adding water right before baking, but it seems having some oil in the pan gave the loaf a rather interesting crust, I’m curious what else I can do with this for future loaves.