Basics: 1 day bake, ~6 hr levain and simultaneous autolyse. 85% hydration. 3 hr bulk rise with 4 (?) coil folds, 3 hr final rise. 30% whole rye, 30% Turkey Red Heritage white, 40% Baker's Field sifted bread flour. Starter was only fed for one day (twice) out of fridge before starting levain. Flavor okay - a little sour and thin. Baked flat, dense. Takeaway: don't cut corners too close on feeding starter?
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| Side by side of slices of this week's bake (top) and previous bake (bottom). Noticeably smaller loaf, denser and less even crumb. |
I've had a lot of successes lately pushing my bake schedule to fit my life and seeing how much flexibility the recipe can take while still turning out great bread, but you can't win em all. I can't be sure the starter is where I fell down here. The turkey red is another possibility, only because it's new to me and I had a problem with a pizza bake this week that also used it, but in that bake I used unfed starter so I really can't judge.* It was my original intention to feed the starter another day but I realized I had some scheduling conflicts and decided to just give it a second feeding on day one out of the fridge, do the bake the next day, and see how it went. The bread didn't look or feel overproofed going in to the oven (no pics) but it sure did coming out.
I'll experiment next time with the same ratio, same flours, and see if doing a proper few days feeding gets me back on track, or if I have more work to do to learn this flour and/or to get back in the swing of one day bakes. Pre-COVID I was all long-bulk and long-final rises in the fridge, but in the COVID era I am able to do a turn here and a shaping there between zoom meetings, so I've been trying more one-day bakes.
* About that pizza: I didn't take any pics because we were so exhausted by the end of dealing with it, but the problem may have been similar to what I'm describing above, so I'll just note here that it was downright bizarre dough. Mostly Turkey Red Heritage white flour, but rather than build a levain I started with a bunch of discarded sour, just to see if I could (takeaway, I can't), short bulk counter rise, multi day fridge final rise, looked fine, stretchy but every touch produced a hole. No tensility whatsoever, so much so that when we squished it back together and kneaded in more flour to each ball as a last ditch attempt to save it, rather than becoming unworkable, which is often the case when you realign the gluten structure, it rolled out just fine, no pulling back or tearing. The final product didn't produce pretty bubbles, but did hold together and wasn't tough. I thought it tasted good, husband thought it tasted like cheese, in other words, too much sour. So again, but in extreme, I learned (I think) that a less-fed or unfed starter may produce a rise, but also other problems. That said, with fresh garden eggplant, kale, rapini, plus sausage, mozzarella, and ricotta, it was still good. Then we cooked a chicken and a calzone with the remaining fire and I couldn't complain, even if I will try to improve.
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| I know it's not bread or pizza, but isn't that a pretty oven? |
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