Less Hydration

Inspired by the lower hydration King Arthur flour recipe, I adjusted the recipe I have been following to the lower hydration, using 465g of flour instead of 418g. Anticipating the opportunity to give some away, I thought I would make two batches. After kneading the first batch and finding it very dry, I came to the horrific realization that I hadn't added the poolish. Doh! I added it in and folded the heck out of the dough, hopefully it will be decently incorporated. I was going to try a different hydration with the second batch, but with the uncertainty of the late poolish add, I figured I'd just go ahead and make the same hydration but properly this time. Will be interesting to see if there are any differences between the two final products.

UPDATE:

Ok, so, interesting. Despite being far less hydrated than the last batch, the lame did a poor job again. I tried two with the lame and it stuck to the dough badly. Maybe spray it with cooking spray before? Huh. I did the other 4 with a serrated sharp bread knife and that worked better, though not flawlessly. Curiously the first batch of dough weighed less than the second. Perhaps more stuck to the bowl, perhaps measurements not quite right (275g per loaf vs 315g). First batch on the right, second on the left.

Rising

None of them worked out idea, and it was pretty dense. But the crust was crusty and the inside was chewy, so not bad. One nice find, parchement paper + oven rack = nice no fuss shaping. Also a side note used semolina on a couple, will see how I like that.

Final result

Revisiting Baguette

Baguette attempts number 8 and 9 were both decent, but I had issues with the scoring.

Attempt #8 was definitely a step backward. I think the main fault lies with the scoring here, though the crumb was rather dense. The dough was very wet and resisted scoring, even with a razor blade. The blade kind of dragged the dough rather than cutting through it. I put it in the oven and let it bake for like 2 or 3 minutes, then realized I hadn't put in my ice cubes. Doh! So I opened the oven and was so disappointed with what I saw that I took it out and rescored. Still not great. Although the pain d'epi was pretty good.

Baguette attempt 8. Meh.

Attempt #9 the dough was similarly wet. I used a lot more flour when shaping, so I thought they might be ok. Not so much. The pain d'epi was almost unrecognizable. The scoring on the baguette loaves was terrible. Tasty though.

Baguette attempt 9. Also meh.

So, improvements. It's vaguely possible that I need to use a fresh razor blade. I doubt that's the problem, I can't imagine it got too dull from scoring like a dozen loaves of bread. It is far warmer now than it was when I last made baguettes (Nov/Dec). Maybe that plays a role. I mean, undoubtedly, but is that my main issue? Unsure. Finally, I took a look at a different recipe on the King Arthur site that has a vastly different hydration.

Recipe I've been using - http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/classic-baguettes-recipe :

• ( 113g water in poolish + 255g ) / ( 120g flour in poolish + 418g ) = 68.4% hydration

Easy Crusty Baguette recipe - http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/easy-crusty-baguettes-recipe :

• 227g water / 361g flour = 62.8% hydration

Vast difference! Higher hydration is supposed to give larger holes in the crumb, but I didn't find that to be that significant of a difference in my attempts. So I'll try the drier dough in my next go. 

Just a note, the bread actually tasted pretty awesome. We all sampled some of the pain d'epi this morning heated just a few secs in the microwave, slathered with soft butter. It was amazing. Now just need to get the sexy crust so it looks more impressive.

Next, ciabatta rolls

Ok, I'm pretty happy with the French bread, time to try something new. Current plan is this recipe - http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/chewy-italian-rolls-recipe . However this is only 68% hydration and I'm a big hydration fan, so I'll do this then try something crazy like this one at 95% hydration - http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/2984/jasons-quick-coccodrillo-ciabatta-bread .

Currently the biga is resting peacefully on the dining room table.

Tonight's Loaves

Ok, so the much more hydrated dough had both positives and negatives.

For starters, the positives. The skin of the loaf was definitely more blistered, which is nice. I strongly suspect the crumb will be much hole-ier. And I pulled them out after only 15 minutes at 450°, ten minutes shorter than the recipe recommends! Yet a thermometer inserted reported an interior temp exceeding 200°. The crust is a gorgeous color.

Negatives. As mentioned the dough was MUCH harder to work with. The slashes were much more difficult as the wet dough stuck to the razor blade, which led to an inferior beads-on-a-wire shape to the loaf.

In addition to the other changes I mentioned, I drenched the bread with the sprayer from the sink before putting it in the oven, definitely covered it well with water.

I think the lesson here is to go with somewhat less hydration so the dough is more easily workable and the slashes take better. Perhaps next run I will try with something roughly halfway between previous runs and this current one.

Possible thoughts for the future - a longer pan for the oven would be nice, these went right to the edge. A large steam tray might be nice for proofing so I don't waste so much plastic wrap.

Weigh It

Ok, this is a wake up call. The recipe called for 3.5 cups of flour, or 418g. I measured the 3.5 cups for the first three attempts. This resulted in a dry dough, even when combined with the maximum amount of water. And the crumb was rather dense. Denser than I wanted, anyway. The recipe calls for:

• Starter: 0.5c water + Dough: 1.25c = 1.75c = 396g
• Starter: 1c flour + Dough: 3.5c = 4.5c = 538g

This comes to a hydration of 396/538 = 0.73 = 73%. Theoretically, a nice wet dough that should produce a very hole-y crumb. But there was a problem converting from cups to grams. The water was fine, but the flour was a problem. For the first three attempts I used volume measures. For the fourth attempt I decided to use weight, and I measured out the 4.5 cups to see what it weighed. YIKES, it weighed 607g! So a hydration of 396/607 = 0.65 = 65%, waaaaay different. Much drier and admittedly easier to knead dough. Very curious to see how tonight's loaves turn out. At Duncan's request, I will make one loaf of pain d'epi, he enjoyed the look of it and called it a thorn loaf. Followup post when I have pictures of the resultant loaves.

Thought

I saw a post on reddit where someone had a nice hole-y crumb ( https://www.reddit.com/r/Breadit/comments/5c2rok/baguettes_simple_but_oh_so_good/ ). They said they used 280g of water, on the high end, but slightly less than I use. Perhaps I am using too much flour? I will carefully scale the flour next run.

I prepped a starter for tonight, but I won't be able to make bread tonight. Not sure whether to just leave it out or pop it in the fridge.

Baguette 2 (cont'd) - Crumb ok

Ok, so the crumb is alright, but some bigger holes would be nice. Perhaps higher hydration on the next try.