Ringing in the New year with an epic bake. Tonight I accomplished two things.
1. I created an epic approximately 5 Lbs of raw dough classic pain de campagne, ( country bread)
2. I royally pissed off my wife by starting the end game of a bake at 1:30 AM.
I am guardedly optimistic that the results will be epic. I am hoping that the dough did not hold its perfect round shape due to my lazy shaping; not due to under fermentation.
Long story short, I have been under the weather this past week. I felt up to starting a pre-ferment yesterday. By the time I reached the end of bulk fermentation I was feeling lazy and decided to make one huge hearth Bread. Boy, I sure do talk a lot!
And it appears to have turned out well in spite of your wife’s unhappiness.
Paul
It only took a couple of five minutes to get the the big boy slashed and loaded.
That's a beast!
It looks good inside given how large it was. Whenever I've done anything over a kg I've always gotten compression towards the bottom, but the crumb here looks pretty even from top to bottom.
There was some very slight compression. That being said, I am happy as a lark! Why is it larks are known for happiness? I must ask google.
Apparently, we don't have larks in N.A. I remember the line from "In Flanders Fields", "...and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly".
How long is your bread knife?
Barely long enough.