037 - Sourdough #12

White Bread

June 3, 2011

[400W - 100WM - 140ST - 400WA] autolyse 15 minutes (2315-2330)

[50WA - 10SA] bulk fermentation 4 hrs, fold dough every half hour (2330-0330)

Shape into a round, bench rest for 25 minutes - shape and retard in a loaf tin (0400-1200)

Too tired to remember much about this bread. I realized that while folding the dough that it needed a longer fermentation - the dough didn't hold shape for very long after folding and remained quite loose, so I kept the bulk fermentation going until I started to get some visible air bubbles, and the dough was a bit more tense. During the bench rest there wasn't much droop, a good sign. 

After retarding for 8 hours, the dough had expanded quite visibly but was still very wet and sticky. I gave up on trying to fold it into a shape and sort of dumped it on the pan - didn't want to stretch it or flatten it out and lose the air bubbles. Strangely enough, the blob had enough tension to hold itself up, and the dough had decent oven spring. I forgot to spray the loaf with water first, but I did steam as usual. 

Baked for 1:20 total. It's certainly not the prettiest loaf in the world. I really need some help on how to shape high-hydration doughs. After cutting it open I realized that the loaf was probably under-cooked or under-cooled. The crumb was still gummy and dense towards the center of the loaf. The crust was light and crispy, with a pretty pronounced flavor. Probably more notes should follow, I've only had just a taste.

Submitted to YeastSpotting