starting over is hard. made an almost identical loaf as the previous one (062) which suffered from a few of the same issues, but was slightly better overall. Didn't help that I was in a rush. Used a my bare starter instead of a leaven and total time clocked in just over 14 hours.
MIX // 350W 150RY 350WA 85ST // AUTOLYSE // (2345)
After 30 minutes rest, the dough hadn't managed to soak up some water, or let some back out? A tiny bit of water pooled around the sides of the bowl at the top of the dough.
MIX // 7SA 55WA // (0015)
Dough kept breaking up as I tried to mix it well together and form a rough round (boule shape) in the bowl. Had trouble incorporating the water, although I used warm water for this last bit.
BULK FERMENTATION // STRETCH & FOLD // (0045, 0115, 0145, 0215, 0245)
The dough felt very dense and cohesive, though it never developed the sort of light and airy texture I was looking for. In hindsight, I should have let the bulk fermentation go on longer, but I really wanted to sleep. Saw only a slight (20%?) increase in volume over the 2:30 bulk fermentation - did a rough shaping and placed it in a loaf sized pyrex lined with cling film to retard in the fridge. Dough was pretty sticky and hard to manage.. more than anything else, I did a poor job of shaping this loaf, and will hopefully start to remember how to do it a bit better.
PROOFING // (0245 - 1300)
Heated up the oven for about an hour at 550°F and placed an empty pan on the bottom shelf for the last 15 minutes of heating. The dough hadn't expanded much in the fridge (if at all) and the seam at the bottom of the loaf had come apart a bit. Optimistically, I plopped the loaf down onto a baking sheet and made a diagonal slash across the top of the loaf (at a slight angle bearing into the loaf - i.e. not vertical).
BAKING // (1300 - 1400)
Threw a cup of boiling water into the empty pan in the oven to generate some steam and jammed the loaf into the top rack. After 20 minutes at 550°F, I lowered the temp to 400°F and kept it going another 40 minutes - leaving the loaf in the oven for another 30 minutes after I turned it off.
Pretty decent oven spring in the first 20 minutes, though I immediately saw that the side of the crust broke open just like the last one (probably a shaping issue). The crust developed a really deep dark brown color that I like.
TASTE, TEXTURE NOTES
The crust was very airy and well formed - making it hard to cut, crunchy to chew, and left tiny shards of bread crust all over the counter. A much better result than last time. The crumb was chewy in a good way, though I wish I could have gotten a bit better air structure. Photos show that there are some medium to large-ish holes in the crumb distributed pretty unevenly, and the rest of the crumb had consistently small to medium air pockets. The rye smelled lovely without too much flavor - it added some nice sweetness to the bread.
Looking closely, the grain of the crumb shows how poorly I shaped the loaf - it's all over the place.
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