Hello all, I've been a kitchen enthusiast for many years but have only recently discovered the joys of bread baking. It appeals to the mad scientist in me. After a few flops I've had some success with a basic ciabatta formula of
Poolish = 35% final dough
Final hydration = 75%
Salt = 2%
Yeast = 0.7%
Of course now that I've produced a few nice tasting loaves I want to mess around with it :)
I'm introducing some whole wheat flour to today's batch. I'm going with 20% ww in the poolish and final dough. Thoughts? How many flops do you think it will take before I get this one right?
Looking forward to some pics of your work :)
ok, here are some pics at my first crack at adding some ww...
The shaped dough ready for the oven,
I messed up trying to slash the dough. Blunt knife fail...
In case anyone cares, here's its base. No idea what its suppose to look like but I think it looks good.
and here's the money shot. It was a little dense at the base. I think it could have done with a couple of mins longer in the oven.
Pretty happy with this for a first go. Open to any and all suggestions to improve the loaf.
That is a lovely loaf for a first! There are 2 tricks to getting a lovely soft crumb with whole grain. The first trick with adding whole grain is to give it a good soak. If you don't, all those branny bits will continue to soak up moisture from the crumb after it is baked and you will have a dry, crumbly slice that crumbles to nothing when biting into it- usually on the 1st or 2nd day after the bake. Of course, if any ingredient that can absorb water is milled coarser, the longer it needs to soak. A very soft 100% whole wheat can be made if attention is paid to this concept.
The second trick is to knead or mix to develop the starchy gel. Once the liquid is added, the gluten will form on its own but in order to get the nice soft bubble walls that trap the CO2, there has to be a nice starchy gel. It is popularly known as "kneading to windowpane". That is essential, even for high percentage whole grain and seeded breads. I always add my seeds to the well-kneaded dough. It is very difficult to try and develop windowpane with huge chunks of grin or seeds in the dough already.
Have delicious fun and keep it coming!
Thanks for the tip, Clazar123. I'll give the whole grain a good bath next time.
Great looking Loaf !
See if you can get more heat under the loaf while baking for darker bottom crust. Looks a little bit pale on the bottom. That might mean using a darker baking surface or lowering the shelf.
Thanks Mini Oven! I read you post half way through today's bake. When turning the loaf I lowed the rack and voila...
Much better than yesterday.
Beautiful bottom you got there! :)