Modest Improvement & What to Do Next Time
After a period of not baking, I made another attempt at Hamelman's Pain au Levain With Whole Wheat (20% WW + 5% rye + my rye starter). It actually was a little better than the last few attempts, sigh.
Pain au Levain w/WW + Bread Code DIscard Rye
My first thought was that the sourdough was OK, barring some poor shaping and scoring. But a closer look at the crumb and some articles suggested that maybe I pre-shaped and shaped too vigorously, degassing too much. And maybe the dough was a little bit overfermented. And it was pretty chewy, suggesting enough gluten and to spare.
So I guess I'll try it again with much more gentle handling in order to retain more of the gas.
The brick is from a Bread Code sourdough discard video Sourdough Discard Bread. It's not bad if you like rye and use it as a base for lox or spreads.
I don't know what you were aiming for, but the breads looks great to me. Scoring could be a bit better (looks like you didn't cut through one end there?), but both the crumb and the crust are beautiful!
Thanks. I think the crumb could be a bit more open with a bigger oven spring, which, with a more uniform score, would also yield a nicer grigne (ear).
I’ll have to agree with Ilya. I think it looks great. The most important thing…. How did it taste?
Thanks for your gracious remark. It tastes fine, nothing really special, but it is a bit chewy. I like a nice chew, this is a bit more than ideal I think, but for me it's fine.
I really like the flavor of the mixed rye and whole wheat miches in "Bread" and the "The Rye Baker". But the first attempts were frisbees (tasty ones) and now I'm trying to improve my technique until working back to them.