Overnight Country Brown (FWSY)

Profile picture for user Sjadad

It's been quite some time since I baked a pure levain from FWSY so yesterday I decided to make the Overnight Country Brown.  Right off the bat I had a couple of problems.  First, I use equal weights of white and whole wheat flours in my starter and keep it at 100% hydration while Forkish uses an 80% hydration starter.  This was not a huge obstacle since I'm pretty good at math so I could do a conversion.  My second problem was that I didn't have enough whole wheat flour to make the levain per Forkish's formula and still have enough to make the final dough, and I didn't feel motivated enough to go to the store.

Since the final dough requires only 216g of levain, I scaled down the formula while simultaneously adjusting so the final levain hydration was 80%:

Active Levain @ 100% hydration     22g

White Flour                                       82g

Whole Wheat Flour                           27g

Water                                                85g

Otherwise I followed the directions without deviation.  As an experient I used two different sizes of dutch ovens.  One was a standard Lodge cast iron dutch oven and the other was a smaller 4-quart Emile Henry.  My experience was exactly what Forkish said it would be (p. 47), which is the loaf in the smaller D.O. baked up higher with a more pronounced split.  You can see the two loaves side-by-side in a photo below.

This is a delicious bread with a very moist, creamy crumb and a wonderful substantial crust.  I won't wait so long before making it again. 

 

The loaf baked in the 4-quart D.O. is on the right. 

want some right now!

Beautiful bake. My copy of FWSY is here on the desk... no more excuses, must try it.

Cathy

I love the shot with the book in the background. Couldn't be any closer to Forkish's ideal.

I just made the blonde version as baguettes. I messed up the hydration, but damn they were tasty. Looking forward to trying the brown version.

Cheers,

-Gabe