Abe inspired mid week bake

Hello friends!!

A couple of weeks ago, Abe posted a mid week bake. I've never done a mid week bake. I just couldn't figure out how to fit it into my work schedule (08:00 - 17:00). So Abe's post really inspired me to try it, and it worked!! I didn't miss a beat with my regular routine.

Here's how it went:

Monday:

1. Levain build, just before work. I used my cold starter straight from the fridge (20g NMNF rye starter, 40g whole wheat flour, 32g water).

2. 17:00ish get home and autolyse flour and water for an hour.

18:00 Mix levain, dough and salt for a couple of minutes, rest for 10ish mins and repeat.

18:45 Lamination (basically stretch the dough out on the counter as far as it will go, and then fold it up).

I was trying to build strength quickly because I didn't want to be up until all hours of the night folding dough! (It was dark so the pictures aren't great).

Stretch and fold x 3 at 19:15, 20:00 and 21:00.

Bulk ferment at room temp overnight. The temperature was about 2 Celcius over night so, it was pretty much the equivalent of refrigerating it. I did keep the dough warm during the stretch and fold period though (in the oven).

3. First thing in the morning, preshape and rest for 30mins. Shape and proof for 1 hour at room temp (while doing all my morning things before work). leave dough in the fridge for the day.

4. 17:00 on Tuesday preheat oven, bake at 18:00, loaf done by 18:50!

I could have sliced last night, but I left it till today.

Here is the formula, its another mostly white SD.

		Weights	%

Levain		91	25%
Water		300	81%

Flour		370	100%
white	295		80%
w/w	38		10%
spelt	37		10%

Salt		9	2%

Total dough weight		770

Thanks for the inspiration Abe, in my mind working a full day meant I could only be a weekend baker, apparently not :)

Happy baking everyone

Ru007's Blog
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Love the double retard. The fridge is always your friend. That 20% of whole grains had to add to the flavor so it just wasn't white bread too. Lovely inside and out with the must have 3 B's on the outside, Blisters, bloom and bold and the OSM on the inside - Open, soft and moist. Lucy says it is grand!

Well done and happy baking from the wanna be Retired British Spy Guy! (RBSG)

The fridge is definitely going to be my new bestie :) Its a great dough babysitter while I'm at work!

I love the acronyms 3 Bs and OSM! I'm going to use that!! Thank you for the compliment :)

Happy baking

and very intrigued about that lamination process! I noticed that some people on IG use that technique with

amazing results. Did you find it made a difference and have you used it often? I love how loaves express the baker's personality and your bread looks always like Ru...:D Kat

This was the first time I tried it, I also saw this on IG and I just had to try it!! I found it fascinating. It did make a difference, the dough was noticeably stronger and I think the folding adds a bit of air into the. I'm definitely going to try it again. I think next time, I'm rest the dough for a little longer before I do it, to reduce the chance of getting holes. I think it could also be a useful way of adding bits and pieces to the dough easily e.g. seeds.

I'm not a fan of slap and folds, so for me this was really a fun way to get some strength quickly.

I'm glad you like the post, thank you for the kind words.

lol, it is just all in the planning, isn’t it! no road blocks in the way!!! well done Ru. Crumb and crust are awesome.

Happy midweek baking Ru

Leslie

I totally agree, it really is just a planning exercise. Mentally, I was prepared to have go out of my way to get it done, but it really worked out smoothly. No more anxiety when the bread runs out unexpectedly in the middle of the week!! LOL!

Thank you for the compliment!

Happy baking to you too!

because now you can bake mid week as well?

Your bakes are really consistent, which tells us how much experience you have. Nice bake!

Thank you Elsie!! Yes, I hope I will be baking more often, I think the only thing that'll slow me done is how fast we can eat the bread!!

Happy baking

Your scoring opens up and peels back into an ear. Blistering crust and lovely crumb.

A nice feeling to know you're not bound to only a weekend bake and you can make a lovely sourdough bread anytime you want. It took me years to find this out because I never tried. And in many ways my newly discovered midweek bake can actually be less time consuming and more relaxed with good time management.

Lovely as always, Ru.

That's very kind of you.

I know right, who new that SD baking could be done on any day of the week! :) You're right, baking in the middle of the week can be more relaxing. I think with weekend baking, having a whole day open to focus on the bread can make it hard to NOT focus on the bread the WHOLE day!

Glad you liked it Abe

Happy baking

Nice to fit this lovely bake into your busy schedule. Maybe I will always be a weekend baker because I can't bake late at night when I get home from work (If I will have a job) because it's not so safe to bake outside at night especially snakes like to slither around dry areas during floods; a shame because it's so therapeutic. Anyhow, fantastic bake!

I'm so glad you liked it. I agree with you, rather bake when its safe!! We don't want you getting hurt :)

Thanks for the kind words friend.

Happy Baking

and you got amazing crumb! Well done!

I am also playing around with a double retard. I was happy with the bread last week. This week, things are moving super slow. We’ll see tomorrow how it turns out.

Looks gorgeous all around, and I bet it tastes the same. It's amazing how flexible baking schedules can be, to fit into your life, once you understand what all the different stages are doing and how to manipulate them. I'm impressed that you could still do all the things required before and after work though. I'm retired and find it time consuming sometimes!

That's quite astonishing, how thin you could spread out that dough before laminating it! Awesome windowpane and strength.

Wendy