I'm having a bread-tasting open house on Sunday. This year the theme is "Fruits and Flours"; fitting as it is 'spring' here in beautiful Victoria. The "flours" part of that consists of a variety of breads using combinations of bread flour with whole wheat, whole rye and whole spelt, and/or wheat germ or wheat bran. Methods vary from same day mix and bake (with a starter or pre-ferment made the night before) to bulk retard, shape, rest, bake to bulk ferment with an overnight proof in bannetons. Some are made with dry yeast, some with levain and some with a combination of both.
I'm doing several of the recipes from FWSY plus a couple other ones, so folks can try them side by side and taste the difference the change of ratio (flours) makes as well as differences between various techniques. I'll post photos of the crumbs on Sunday (all the loaves are going in the freezer for now so I can get ready without being up all night Saturday).
The loaf at the top of the post is a multi-grain levain with bread flour, whole wheat flour, whole spelt flour and whole rye flour. A nice bold bake, this one!
This next one is Forkish's Field Blend #2, with mostly bread flour with a smaller amount of whole wheat and whole rye. This is mostly levain with a tiny bit of dry yeast. It's proofed in baskets overnight and baked cold, in the cast iron pots. I was surprised it didn't burst at all, even though I put it seam side up. Very wet dough.
This morning I baked the 75% Whole Wheat, another hybrid with 75% whole wheat and 25% bread flour. Again, this was proofed overnight and baked cold. I tried to score one of the loaves but the dough was very slack. Again, no burst in the iron pots which quite surprised me as the Country Blonde and Country Brown I baked previously burst beautifully.
I also baked the Harvest bread from FWSY - this is an 80/20 blend of bread flour and whole wheat flour, with added wheat germ and wheat bran. It's made with an overnight poolish, then the dough is mixed, rested, shaped, proofed and baked the next day. I didn't take a picture of this one (too busy!), but it will be in the taste test.
Many slightly different breads - it will be interesting to see the subtle differences (or not!).
And here are crumb shots of some of the breads on bread tasting day -
One of the highest rated was Forkish's Harvest bread; the one I didn't get a picture of. But I'm baking that for customers tomorrow and will post a couple of shots then.
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and your bread baking prowess! Should be a great event with lots of fun. I'm guessing that the boules that didn't spring and bloom as well as they should is the same reason mine don't when proofed in the fridge while I am sleeping - they were over proofed. I have learned to just gently reshape and reproof them when this happens and the results are better when it comes to spring and bloom.
It isn't any worse for the crumb holes than bulk fermenting for a long time in the fridge and then shaping and proofing the next morning.
They all look tasty - especially the boldly baled one. Well done and happy baking
Thanks, dabrownman. Question - when you reshape and reproof the over-proofed ones, how long do you let them sit before baking? The whole reason I like the overnight proof is that I can bake them cold first thing in the morning without waiting. When I'm baking 30 loaves or so for a noon shop opening, I need to be able to start early without having to get up at 5 AM. 6 AM is bad enough! I too like bulk fermenting in the fridge, then shaping and proofing at room temperature. Just trying different methods.
reshape and proof gently the next morning when it over proofs in the fridge I only let it proof to 50%. Any more than that and it won't be as good for spring and bloom. It will cost you time in the morning and it may not be worth it, Maybe it is better to not let them being the fridge so long in the first place I would think.
Ya, I'm thinking about the same thing. Perhaps I'll shape the dough later at night and give it 8 hours instead of the recommended 12-14 hours, and see how that goes.
Great idea! Wish I lived closer so I could come over and crash your bread tasting party! Sounds like DA is on the right track with his advise.
In any regards all of your breads look great and I'm curious to hear about your feedback.
Thanks for sharing.
Ian