1/3 higher rise, creamy shredable crumb

I admit it. I came upon this by accident. I was experimenting with improving the texture of my 1/3 whole wheat bread by adding 35g of cornmeal to 1000g flour recipie. The texture was what I wanted, creamy, schredable, open, but there was an aftertaste I didn't like. I had softened the cornmeal in 700g boiling water. So I tried the recipie without the cornmeal but measured out the hot water to keep all variables constant. After 30 minutes cooling, I decided why not mix in the 300g whole wheat from the freezer both to warm it up and hydrate the flour. The water had cooled to 120 degrees before adding the WW. after 1 hour, I added 100g starter (100% hydration white), 650g KA bread flour, and 20g salt. Mixed it until there was no dry flour and rested 30 minutes. Then did 3 stretch and folds 15 minutes apart with wetted hands. The dough had a wonderful springy strong feel to it. Despite 75% hydration it was not sticky at all. It was covered and placed in the oven with the light on overnight, 10hrs. Temp in the oven is about 76deg F. The dough rose to within half an inch of the bowel rim. I thought for sure this was going to be overrisen. With wet hands I loosened the dough from the bowl and it did not collapse, surprise. The dough was cut in half and pre shaped, rested 30min, shaped and proofed for 1.5 hrs at 90 then removed from the oven while the la cloche pots preheated, 30 minutes more. The rise was huge, and I again thought these went too long, and would deflate. When I scored them, I expected the dough to collapse but No. So in the oven they went 20 min at 450F, remove cover and finish baking at 410F for 25 min. Just what I wanted. The aroma was sweet and wheaty, crust color was deep auburn, crumb was tangy and shredable with a custard like feel on the tongue.

So what happened? The hot water may have had less chlorine because I usually use tap water. But maybe the warm water reacted with the wheat flour similar to the rou method or the mash that Reinhart talks about, except the water temps are much lower and the flour was not cooked. No matter, I will be repeating this for holiday breads.