New day, new experiment. 95% hydration dough was a b to work with. By the time I transfered the "shaped" blob to the pan, I had pretty much given up on doing it right. Happy AND surprised with the results, tho. Crust a bit thicker than I would have liked on a sandwich bread. Better steam technique could have helped? Also not much extra rise possibly because I suck at scoring properly.
One question. My crumb has always turned out glistening. Using roughly 50% ww and 50% ap. Could I get a more matte crumb with diff flours? Not even sure it matters. Or makes sense. :) Thanks for reading.
I use King Arthur Bread Flour with my 50% whole sheet bread to give a stronger gluten and rise.
Ford
such a high hydration. I think I would be at about 87% for a bread like this. No wonder you put it in a pan:-) Well done and happy baking.
I make a 50% whole wheat Genzano bread, and the crumb ends up a lot lighter and 'matte' (as you say). It's pretty high hydration (not 95% though!), but made with a combination of a biga naturale (stiff sourdough starter) and active dry yeast, and I beat the daylights out of it with the stand mixer at the beginning. Shaping is basically a simple letter fold, like focaccia. I could put it in a pan but usually bake it on parchment instead.
As for steaming, I've recently had some success baking pan loaves covered with a stainless steel steam table pan (see my Rye bread blog post here for pictures). Maybe worth a try.