This was a really good article.

I have been battling hydration issues for 3 years. I did figure it was a hydration issue at least. I tried adjusting recipe, then the process.

In 90s I had a session at a boulangerie outside Paris that was very interesting. I got there at 9 AM for the 9:30 baking session. The first step was to drink a pastis. It went on from there.

What I remember is the texture of the dough, and a bit about the process. They weighed flour and water in the mixer and stirred it with the paddle, I think for 20 minutes. Then they through the sponge from the prior batch. They bake 4 times a day!

From their on it was pretty straight forward.

So after several years of tinkering with the process from the recipe, which made great bread but not consistently, I decided it was time for drastic action. I thought I would start with the process from Paris. Wasn't sure about amounts and times. Then I stumbled upon autolyse, and found your article. Very helpful.

My recipe starts out making a 1 pound levain, sponge, starter, preferement or many other names. Looked suspiciously like the sponge in France. I mixed it up and let it ferment for 3-4 hours. The recipe then calls for adding water and yeast (hybrid like James Beard called for in 70s), then flour and salt. I took your advice to leave those for later.

I mixed the water and flour, stirred for 20 minutes using paddle. Looked and felt great. I let that set for an hour.

No I put it all together. Well almost all. I add the starter and the yeast with a little water, with the result you noticed. I tossed in spoon of flour and use the dough hook to mix, and within 30 seconds. Great I thought! Then mixed until the levain was incorporated completely. It seemed a little odd, maybe a little wet but not sticky like it can get. Shaped boules and put in bannetons . Rose nicely. Preheated oven with pan at bottom to use to add steam.

Then I tried to take the boules out of the bannetons. While I floured it like normal, it did not work. The first one was a bit messy, but the second was okay.

They rose and baked okay. When the were cool a couple hours later I cut a few slices and tried it. The texture/crumb was nice, the aroma okay, the taste was okay, but something was missing. I realized I had not put in the salt which you so carefully warned about!

So next week when I make my next batch, I will make sure to remember the salt!

I may need to do a few tweaks, but first go I will just make sure to add the salt. I think the crumb was too fine, was looking for bigger holes. But I will see if the salt fixes that. Otherwise the following batch I will add an extra 30g water.

But I feel that the hydration was generally good and with a few tweaks I should have a really consistent bread.

Thank you!

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