Tuesday, February 5, 2019

A new bread just came to my life

Yesterday, I started a new batch of dough at 9:30 in the morning. I wanted it to be ready to bake by 4:30, so I preheated the oven to 170 degrees and turned off the oven. I mixed the dough as follows:

3/8 teaspoon yeast, more than the usual 1/8 to 1/4 tsp.
1.5 teaspoon salt
300 grams of Trader Joe's all purpose flour
150 grams of Trader Joe's white whole wheat flour
405 grams of water (90% water weight:flour weight ratio)

I preheated the oven to 170 degrees and placed the mixed dough into a covered three quart saucepan big enough for it to expand to triple its size. I turned the oven off and put the dough inside.
At about 3 p.m. I took the dough out of the still warm oven, wet my hands and stretched it out and folded it. I covered it for 30 minutes.
The dough after the first stretch and fold

I stretched and folded the dough again, covering it again for 30 minutes.
The dough after the second stretch and fold

I stretched and folded it one last time and put the dough on a large sheet of parchment paper. I put the dough back in the saucepan. I didn't want to bake it just yet. Since we were going out to dinner, I put the covered saucepan in the cold garage { 50 degrees F)

At about 8:15 p.m. (now almost 9 hours after mixing the dough) I uncovered the dough to see it almost pushing up past the rim. I lifted the dough and lowered it into a preheated Dutch oven, covered it and set it into the 450 degree oven. After 30 minutes I removed the cover and baked it for 15 more minutes. I set it out to cool. We cut it in the morning to enjoy the fluffiest bread I've ever made with whole wheat flour.

This also works with 360 gm of water (an 80% water weight:flour weight ratio). Read on:

 I baked a loaf of half Trader Joe's white whole wheat and half all purpose flours. Same amount of yeast and salt. 360 gm of water. Same fermenting conditions. Mixed at 7:30 a.m. covered and put into a 170 degree oven, turned off.
5.5 hours later, at 1255 I laid the dough into a wetted baking pan

 Where I pushed it out to the edges with wetted hands
 and stretched and folded each short edge 2/3 of the way to the opposite edge. I then stretched and folded the top edge down. Back out went into a covered saucepan
 At 1400, another stretch and fold. Back into the saucepan. At 1510 another stretch and fold, then back into the saucepan. At 1540, a final stretch and fold after which it went onto a piece of parchment paper and into a shallow bowl, the purpose of which was to keep the dough from sticking to the paper in a deeper container.

At 1745, I put my 5-quart cast iron Dutch oven into the oven, set the temperature at 450 degrees and let it preheat. At 1815 I picked up the dough using the parchment paper and laid it into the hot Dutch oven, covered it and let it bake for 35 minutes. I removed the cover reduced the heat to 400 degrees and let it bake for 10 + 2 plus one minutes looking into the oven in between to prevent the bread from getting too dark.
Here is the bread above.

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