This is my most successful attempt at Ken Forkish’s Overnight Country Brown (30% WW, 70% KA AP). I followed his formula and directions, with only a few deviations.
- I shaped into a batard, and placed seam side up in the banneton, because I like to score my loaves
- After shaping, I immediately covered and placed in the refrigerator for 4 hours because I could tell from the bulk fermentation activity that room temperature would have resulted in an over proofing situation
The crust is thin and nicely crisp, and I’m quite pleased with the crumb, which is very creamy.
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That is superb, I love the crumb you were able to achieve, marvelous.
Benny
Many thanks Benny!
Great looking bread! I like how even and light the crumb turned out. How was the flavor? I've been trying to find a good recipe that utilizes more WW without compromising on crumb. Looks like you found it!
It has great flavor - I happen to like the nutty, earthy flavors that WW imparts. So good you don’t even need butter! Then again, “need” is a funny word . . .
This looks great! I just stared the Bulk Ferment stage for the Overnight Country Blonde myself. How long did you let the BF go? I just realized I started too early with the BF and on track to shape at 3a. Oops! Throwing the dough in the fridge for the next hour in hopes to slow down the BF a bit. Good tip on proofing in the fridge!
My bulk fermentation went about 14 hours at ~71F. It was all airy and jiggly. After turning it out on the lightly floured counter, I pressed it gently to deflate any large air bubbles. Against my better judgment, no preshaping. That ended up being OK. I did shape the batard fairly tightly.
Good luck, and please share you results.
Sjadad,
My results were nearly not as good as yours! This might have been the worst bread Ive produced thus far! I ended up doing a 17hr BF, about 1.5hr in the fridge to retard. My proof went about 4 hrs, did about 30m-1h in the fridge. The dough was just so stick all throughout the process- preshaped x2, could hardly get any tension during shaping, and then was sticking to me and the basket as I tried to place in the dutch oven. Not sure if I over fermented it, or under proofed it.. But my crumb is very sad and came out like a disc.
A 17 hour BF seems quite long. What was the room temperature? Based on the length of time, your description, and your photo, I suspect your loaf was over fermented. How does it taste?
Looks like you found the sweet spot. His recipes push the BF to the limits which is a good thing when you find it. My favorite recipe from FWSY
Thanks! It’s quickly become one of my favorites too. I just baked Field Blend #2. It’s still cooling. I didn’t get quite the oven spring I was expecting - I’ll have to wait to see the crumb.