Sourdough bread

Today is Thursday and you know how on Sunday the levain at first was like this and then was like that, and then put in the refrigerator to ferment a medium size shaggy dough ball that went half way up the bowl like this.


And I put the dough ball straight into cold storage to slam on the brakes so that it would be like starting off once it was brought out and warmed up following cool fermentation. I did not get my wish. The dough developed steadily even though it was thoroughly cold. This means the dough is racing ahead of where I would prefer it to be. 

That was Sunday afternoon ↑ This is Thursday morning ↓.





It's resting right now. It's cold. Very cold. The dough is positioned nearby the oven which is turned on and vented toward the proofing table. It will slowly warm up. It takes a long time because the dough is so much like insulation. 

It was stretched and folded then divided and and shaped and proofed as a loaf and then baked.

And that last phase failed. The dough spread out. It could not be stiffened with loose flour and would not rise properly when baked. Its crust is too thick and hard and difficult. It is strongly flavored and it is delicious.



This looks like it would have worked better if fermented as formed loaves rather than as sponge. Some bakeries do that. It might also work better as levain flavor added to biga. The crust is too thick.  

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