Bread - What are you baking today…..
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Project cabin bake went pretty well. Judged water temp by running it on the inside of my wrist, took a little extra yeast in while mixing the final dough (about half a gram more than Forkish asks for), and didn’t have bannetons so they were proofed and baked in a bread tin and a flat tin. Came up pretty nice:
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Congrats - I thgink, in the main, the water temp thing is flexible, it just alters subsequent timings….
That is what I figured. Forkish says 41C, better to be too cool than too warm though, and the ambient temp at the cabin was such that I figured bumping the yeast a little was the best answer.
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I feel equally cursed and blessed when it comes to this baking lark. On the one hand my family appreciate it and eat it all, giving me lots of practice, on the other it is becoming a full time job…
Two 80% Biga today, one all white, one with 40% wholemeal done on tins. I used tins as Alfie my 4 year old doesn’t trust boules as he believes them all to be «Sour bread» and that can’t be good to eat, right?
Feel like I’ve got my folding and timing down pat and got some great oven spring, especially on the white which hold it’s form out of the oblong bannetons really well.
The white was put to use straight away with an open sandwich of entrecôte, halloumi, avocado and mushroom…
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All that bread looks AMAZING! ???
Turns out this kind of bread baking is a skill that requires regular maintenance. Since starting to learn about it in April, I baked regularly up until the start of July with varying degrees of success, but steady progression. Then I went on holiday for two weeks. Since coming back it has been one flat blobby loaf after another…
All the techniques are there but my timing is screwed. Oven spring isn’t happening, over-proofing is the new normal it sucks. Part of it is seasonal temperature variations. We’ve had a lot of warm weather and Norwegian houses are built to retain heat, so that is playing a role for sure. A Biga pre-ferment is taking 8-10 hours and not 12-14 and the bulk ferment is going so quick that the loaves barely get proofed in Banneton a before they get dangerously close to failing the finger dent test.
It’s pissing me off [emoji23]
So here are some less than glorious limited successes and partial failures from the last few weeks.
White Biga with rye… acceptable.
Wholemeal Biga “pancakes” [emoji28]
Wholemeal Biga frisbees [emoji849]
And a marginally better white Biga batard
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In the face of such half arsed efforts the only thing to do was double down and try something even more challenging [emoji1]
I have a rye starter (very acidic, very tasty) and a spelt starter (mild and more lactic to taste, but really powerful), but no wheat starter.
Having read the Forkish book recently I decided to follow his method for developing a starter with an eye on baking his Overnight Country Blond (the recipe caught my eye because it reminds me of my wife when we were first dating [emoji6]).
We have had some lovely weather here so the starter required feeding twice a day and grew fat, bubbly and potent in now time. I prepared for what would be my first pure levain bake in about six weeks and was excited.
The Forkish recipe is different to how I’ve baked with levain before. It called for an overnight bulk ferment at around 20C and a 3-4 hour proof the next morning. I knew I was in trouble when the mixed dough came in at 29C… the room temp was high after a sunny day, so the only thing to do was find the coolest place in the house and cross fingers. In retrospect I should have just stuck it in the fridge.
The bulk ferment ended in a lovely bubbly, smelly dough, but it was running hot still.
Despite passing the finger dent test the dough was obviously too active during proofing so I shortened the time to two hours and got it in the oven. It was like soup out of the bannetons and the results were predictable.
At least it looked nice from the top down.
I was gutted. However despite the flub, it tasted great. Tangy and mildly acidic but with a buttery depth to it as well. I need to be more aware of room temperature next time and adjust my timing accordlingly.
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It is a consolation…
I’m in the habit of having two doughs on the go at the same time, basically because of the small army living here. That complication affects my timing and coupled with the higher ambient summer temperatures is clearly my issue when it comes to the lack of oven spring. Time and temperature... the fifth and sixth ingredients.
The overnight country blond was my first stab at a new method with a new starter so with the benefit of hindsight I can live with the failure.
80% white biga is a safe place for sure. Happy baking.
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Well, we'll need to see the crumb…
I'm pretty happy with this one, it was done in a Dutch Oven):
This one was done in the steam oven and looks challenged in comparison:
Normally I would brush off as much flour as I could before putting into the oven, but the dough was spreading so fast I couls see it flattening, so had no time for de-flouring (I set that one up for you Reuben)…
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the dough was spreading so fast I could see it flattening, so had no time for de-flouring…
There should always be time for a bit of de-flouring. On the other hand, if things start losing their rigour, then «use it or lose it» is a good motto to live by…
(I couldn’t let you down).
