As we often say in our welcome to new members, we like to post disasters as well as successes. Today I’m batting for the disaster team, although I like to think of it as a learning opportunity. ;-) I want to develop my bread baking skills further in 2015. On my list are higher hydration doughs, incorporating autolyse, using different ferments and controlling dough temperature and fermentation better. Today I tweaked my basic recipe (which is a 60% hydration dough) to increase both the final dough weight and the hydration to 65%. I also used an autolyse (the flour and water are mixed and left to rest before incorporating the salt and yeast/levain) which kickstarts enzyme activity. The problems: - No oven spring. - Low volume. - A tight crumb. Compare today’s bake (left) with a previous bake (right) which used the 60% hydration dough and no autolyse. So what might be the cause? My guess is one, or both, of the following: - Different protein levels in the flour (both used strong white, but from different batches) resulting in a weak gluten structure. - A low dough temperature after the mix resulting in low/slow yeast propagation. The next time I’ll use the same flour but aim for a higher dough temperature. This year’s baking might prove to be a bit of a rollercoaster ride. :-)
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 21:12:32 +0000
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