Sugarowl's blog

My husband wanted "Carraba's" bread, so I made some No-Knead Bread based on Jim Lahey's. This bread is about 90% hydration, I think it's easier to work with than the lower ones since I can feel when the dough needs to rest better (it's dramatically different).

  No Knead Bread

•  100g Bread Flour
• 73g All Purpose Flour
• 156g water
• 4g Salt
• 2g Yeast

  Mixed all and let sit in a container for 11 hours at about 74F. Mixture was bubbly and smelled fermented in the morning. Put in the refrigerator for about 1.5 hours. Lightly floured the top and did some stretch and folds in the bowl. Let sit for 30 minutes. Sprinkled a pinch of an Italian seasoning blend, then sprinkled on more flour and did more stretch and folds in the bowl.

Left out for about 30 minutes. Not quite doubled.

Preheated oven for 425F. Stretched the dough out a bit and did some finger poking all over it instead of scoring. Baked for 20 minutes. Took it out and rubbed a butter stick on the top. Put back in for 5 more minutes. Bread temperature read 205F.

Bread was puffed up like a balloon. It was about 1/2” tall before going into the oven. I probably should've scored it or let it do it's final rise longer. But no explosions at least!

This is for lunch so I'll report back on how it tastes later.

Update: It tasted pretty good, but too chewy for me. I think that's the bread flour though, so maybe less bread flour and more all purpose flour. The seasoning was very subtle, two pinches needed if not using an oil with seasoning dipping sauce. To make it really good, it needs some onion-garlic-salt-butter brushed on top after baking. I prefer garlic on top of bread instead of in it.

I'm not big on big holes, this sopped up pasta sauce pretty well. Next time I'll let it rise fully before putting in and see how big the holes are.

I am once again trying The Approachable Loaf from the 2020 Community Bake

Link here: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/62486/community-bake-approachable-loaf-bread-lab

This time I am replacing some of the Whole Wheat with Bread Flour and am adding the Honey back in. Total Amounts are still the same for a 1,000g loaf.

I saw someone did a 100% poolish on another post with whole wheat bread so I thought I would just do all my whole wheat as a poolish. I have a bad habit of experimenting before I even get the basics down so if this doesn't work out I'll just go make some muffins and do some cake planning (my son's birthday coming up).

I also read that Hamelman mixes his yeast with the water before adding in the flour (poolish), so I think I'll do that too. He also mixes a little water at a time in the center of the dough when using a dough hook for kneading. He pulls out the hook then puts a little water in that empty space in the middle and then continues mixing. Water, mix, water, mix. I may use my mixer, but it's a good mental note for the next time I do.

The poolish will be started as soon as my littlest one goes to bed.

(I also have no idea why my spreadsheet looks like that.)

Update:

I let the poolish go for 16 hours. I saw short gluten strands when I pulled it back. I'm guessing those strands are gluten, they look kind of gross, like melting skin from a horror movie or the wrinkles on your fingers after a long bath. Sorry for the visual. That's the best way I can think of to describe it. I'm not sure it was done yet, but it did smell wheaty with a hint of changing to alcohol.

I did score it before baking. I thought it was too deep and too much, but you can barely tell I did any scoring. I scored two long ones on the side (about 3/4"-1" deep) and several small /short ones down the middle. So I guess it's a good thing I did. I also thought it had bulk fermented too long, but it rose just fine in the oven.

I ran into a two problems but I did what I could.

Problem 1: I accidentally added an extra 100grams of water (in addition to the hold out water, for a grand total of 152g extra). I forgot that I had added all the water into the poolish and was only going to add the 52grams. It was a very slack dough, so I added 76grams of whole wheat plus a little extra for dusting. I did 3 stretch and folds with 30 minutes in between each one. After the last stretch and fold I shaped it and put it into a dark loaf pan.

Problem two: I baked it for 45 minutes, in a dark loaf pan, at.... 425F the whole time. I was meaning to turn it down after I put it in, but I was still mad at myself for the extra water so I forgot to do so. Top was a little singed in places.

Well, it turned out fine, except for the slightly burnt top (which I cut off later so it would fit in the container). The loaf rose higher this time and even though I was afraid there was not enough gluten development, it did not seem fragile this time. I like the addition of the bread flour, it mellowed out the wheat taste for my kids and probably added more gluten since I do not keep vital wheat gluten on hand. It was better with the honey this time around. For a different flavor, I wonder if a different type of wheat could be used.

I think I will stick with Floyd's Honey Whole Wheat under Favorite Recipes but I might revisit this again. I enjoy reading everyone's posts on the Community Bakes, even when the science bread geeks get technical.

Here's the loaf. First one is on the left, current one on the right.

This is my try on the "The Approachable Loaf using Commercial Yeast and Poolish" Community Bake from 2020.

Link here: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/62486/community-bake-approachable-loaf-bread-lab

 Notes:

1. Room temperature was 76F the whole time. It is not cool here.

2. I am using molasses and brown sugar instead of honey (another poster did this so I am using their numbers). Another poster said honey can inhibit yeast and I wanted to try molasses (going for that Steak & Ale bread).

Poolish:

259g Whole Wheat flour (King Arthur)

259g Water

1/16tsp Yeast (a pinch)

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Final Dough

259g Whole Wheat Flour

10g Salt

5g Instant Yeast

18g Molasses

13g brown sugar

100g water (instead of 93g, I had a 100ml line on my measuring cup)

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45g Hold-Out Water (reserved for just in case) original recipe called for 52g, but I put 7g of that above,

I ended up using all the water, so 404g water total.

What I did:

1. Mix 259g Whole Wheat Flour (KA), 259g water, and ¼ of a 1/4tsp (1/16?) of yeast. Let sit for 2 hours at 76F then put in refrigerator until 7am. Very thick, like tomato paste. I think I used too little yeast in my poolish since I thought I was making a 500g loaf instead of a 1000g loaf. I had my spreadsheet numbers wrong, again.

2. 7am: took out of fridge and let sit on the counter for 4 hours. No bubbles, still super thick.

3. 11am: I gently folded in 100g water with my rice cooker spoon, still pretty thick but better.

4. 12:30pm: starting to see a few bubbles. Starting to think I need to use all the water. 352g+53g = 405g which is 87% hydration instead of 68%. I've already used 359g at this point, so only 45g left to go. We will shall see.

5. 1:30: still only a few bubbles, I think it's needs more yeast, but the mixture is not sticking to the sides so I think I will go ahead and do the rest of the ingredients soon.

6. 2pm: Mixed in the rest of the water(45g), flour, sugars, and yeast. Let rest 20 minutes(2:15pm). Starting to look like bread dough! Dough was super sticky.

7. 2:35pm: sprinkled on 10g salt. After kneading it in, let it rest for another 20 minutes. Dough did not stick to my hands, no dry clumps either. I have it in a big bowl and I smooshed it so it reached the edges instead of being a big ball.

8. 3:00: Wasn't able to really do stretch and folds/slaps, I think the dough was too dry. But I was able to stretch it into a rectangle on my cutting board (14x9) then do a tri-fold, then stretch the folded rectangle to meet the length of the cutting board and do another tri-fold. I put that back in the bowl. Dough seemed to be too resistant for anything else. Rest for 30 minutes covered by a tea towel. I'm wondering if I should've spritzed some water on it somewhere, it's not wet, but not dry. I'm worried that the dough has not been slack at all like the white flour I've used before.

9. 3:40: Did a stretch and fold. Shaped into a loaf and put in a dark loaf pan to bulk ferment. Dough is very tight. I think it probably needs more water but I also have no idea if that's what's wrong (or if anything is wrong). Maybe next time I'll use hot water and autolyze the flour first like in the “Honey Whole Wheat” bread on the “Most Bookmarked” front page section.

10. 6pm: Loaf has a dry top. I slashed it 3 times with a  serrated kitchen knife and then wet the top with a wet hand. Oven was already on for 425F (was cooking potatoes). Put the pan in and turned the oven down to 325F (dark pan). Timer set for 40 minutes.

Here are the pictures of after I shaped it and before it went into the oven. I'll update with another picture when it's done.

 Update 1:

Thermometer read 186.3F and it looks okay. The sides looked a little cracked. I'll slice into it later when it's cooled off. Probably as a midnight snack after the kids go to bed.

Here's the crumb shot. It is good with honey and butter on top. Without it the bread has a weird aftertaste, almost like a hint of bitter. So maybe more sweetness is due.