2018-11-29

Based on

2018-11-27 recipe

Influences

https://www.seriouseats.com/2011/06/the-food-lab-the-science-of-no-knead-dough.html

Ingredients

Makes 2 loaves.

* Ischia Island (Italy) sourdough starter at 100% hydration

Total hydration: (540+(600/2))/(900+(600/2)) = 70.0%

Process

Feed starter and allow to ferment at room temperature for 11 hours.

Mix all ingredients and stir with a spoon until combined (but do not knead).

Transfer to a container with top, cover, and allow to rise at room temperature for 13 hours.

Transfer to refrigerator and bulk ferment for 3.25 days. Gently punch down the dough after 18 hours.

Remove dough from refrigerator and allow it to warm up at room temperature for one hour.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit with a cast iron skillet on top of a baking stone on the bottom rack.

Flour work surface. Add lots of flour if needed to form a workable dough. Divide dough in two. Shape loaves into rounds, flour both the dough and banneton generously, place dough in banneton and cover.

Transfer loaves from bowl to parchment paper. Flour the top of the loaves and score with a sharp knife at a 30 degree angle.

Place loaves and parchment paper in hot cast iron skillet, spray with filtered water, place top (an inverted stock pot works well) on skillet, and spray sides of oven with water. Close oven door immediately.

Lower temperature to 410 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake with top on the cast iron skillet for the first 20 minutes, then remove top and spray top of loaf and sides of oven again with filtered water. Close oven door immediately.

After internal temperature reaches 189 degrees Fahrenheit, bake for another 8 minutes.

Rest on a wire rack for at least two hours before cutting.

Notes

Oven spring was excellent.

The loaf was a little small–it could stand to be 10-20% larger.

The internal temperature of the bread rose steadily until it hit 190 degrees Fahrenheit, then it stopped climbing altogether. The crust was a nice color and the bottom sounded hollow, so I took it out even though previous loaves have hit 193-194 internal temperature in the same oven with the same settings. Maybe this has to do with a difference in weather (specifically pressure)?

Crust crackled vigorously for several minutes after removing it from the oven.

Salt content was a little low.

Crumb was slightly wetter than I’d like. Not gummy, but not quite fluffy either. It was also a good bit tighter than I’d expect with a high hydration no-knead loaf. Might be due to punching the dough down during fermentation.

Flavor was good, but I’m not convinced that the extra cold fermentation makes much of a difference. It’s slightly more alcoholic (not really yeast-y) but not much better than a shorter cold fermentation time.

Flouring heavily (both bread and banneton) before placing in the banneton for proofing worked well. The circular flour marks were well-defined.

Scoring more deeply and closer to the center seemed to work out well. The loaf didn’t tear as much.

Images

After cold ferment

After cold ferment

While baking

Top of loaf

Side of loaf

Crust

Crumb

The crust crackling shortly after being removed from the oven (turn sound on)

Upcoming experiments

Add a little more salt.

Increase all ingredients by 20% to make a larger loaf. Try using 540 grams of flour per loaf (and scale all the other ingredients accordingly).

Consider using a proofing bag to keep more humidity in during proofing.

Try using some all purpose flour to soften the crumb a bit.

Try baking in a real cast iron dutch oven.

Consider making the dough a bit drier for the bulk fermentation stage. Some articles mention that a drier starter makes a more sour bread. Might extend to the bulk fermentation phase as well. This bread was 70.0+% hydration during bulk ferment; maybe try to get below 68% (or lower) and see how it goes.