Drew458

April 1, 2018 at 11:29pm

In reply to by Gina (not verified)

I tried this today with mixed results. I used Hecker's AP and scaled the ingredients exactly. Ok, I dissolved the sea salt in the hot water and let it cool to 80F and then mixed it in, instead of your salt in the crater method. 1 minutes worth of S&F is 12 or 13 folds for me, so call it 50 total for the 4 kneads. I let it sit 7 hours in the proofing box, 77F, at which point it had surface bubbles the size of peaches. I found the dough to be very wet and sticky, even after adding a tbl or 2 of flour at the 4th S&F. The stretch and pinch method of dividing the dough didn't work well for me; I wound up with dog bone shaped loaves because I stretched them too much and there was no snap back at all. I think cutting the dough into 2 or 4 parts after 3 or 4 hours, gently shaping them into logs, and finishing them off in a couche would make much more even loaves. All that being said, the bread had a fantastic open crumb, even if it was nearly scorched from the 470F baking stone. Very little oven spring, especially in the thin middle parts. Crust is really crisp; I'm leaving them out on the counter to see how they fare overnight. The flavor was nice, although mild. I'm a big sourdough baker, so 1 tbl of starter seemed like nothing. For that much flour, I usually use 1/3 cup. I'll try it again soon, a little less water, 3 loaves finished in a couche, and try a 460F oven. 470 is too hot, although I have a large thick stone that holds massive amounts of heat. It's always an experiment, which is what makes it fun.
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