Cooking Cheap

Another bread day. I started the sponge late last night, 1C water, 1C flour, 1/2C starter and I left it for a long overnighter in the warm place. This afternoon, I added 1+tsp of Kosher salt, 1C flour plus a little more. Kneading with bench flour until it didn’t stick to much to the counter or me. I let it rise for 2 hours and change and then formed two mini loaves. One was sort of a baguette shape and the other more french bread shape (only not as long since it’s half size). I let them rise on the baking sheet for 1.5 hours and then into a 500F oven and reduce the heat to 450F for about 23 or 25 minutes I put the backing sheet directly on the baking stone. Plus a pan of boiling water for steam.

They look nice but not so outstanding as worthy of a picture. Good oven spring although slightly less than baked directly on the stone at a higher temperature seems to provide. The test is learn whether I kneaded the dough enough to produce a better (chewyer, less moist) crumb, and did I manage the oven temperature correctly. It’s also a taste test of sponge vs retard methods but I don’t expect to see a major change in the taste. It was about as wet a dough as the last bake (really wet) but of course I shaped and baked them differently so maybe I won’t learn anything except homemade bread tastes good and can have a lot of variables/recipes, all of which work.

There is a difference in taste but not one would describe as better or worse, just slightly different. I think doing the retartd method is probably better, but just marginally. There were holes, not a lot and not too big. I probably should have let it rise more (another reason I like the retard method). The crust is very good but the chew I want is isn’t there. Acutally there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s just a bit short of perfection.

I made a real ciabatta loaf. Not my standard mini-loaves but a full size 3 cups of flour loaf. A full size hunk of bread. I was kind of following the Cook’s Illustrated directions in my cook book collection, but not exactly since I don’t measure by weight or volume anymore. Friday night I mixed a half cup of starter with a cup of water and stirred it up. I added 2 cups of flour (not really measured, just scooped up) and then add a table spoon or two as I mixed it the stage of not really cleaning the bowl.

I let that set for a 20 minutes or a half hour before kneading. Using as little bench flour as I could I made a lot of throws of the dough on the counter. It’s far too wet to knead by hand but firms up a bit with some heavy throws on the counter. I added something like 1.5 tsp of Kosher salt after the slamming and then kneaded it by hand for a while, got bored and put it in a covered oiled bowl for a 3 hour rise and then I put it in the fridge overnight.

I didn’t bother to shape it before the fridge because I didn’t know what I was attempting to make and ffom previous efforts I know that cool dough, even if it’s a very wet dough, is easier to shape. I still didn’t know the next morning how I wanted to shape the dough or what I was making. I went with the Cooks Illustrated ciabatta.

I inverted a backing sheet pan on the counter and covered most of it with a piece of parchment paper. Barely floured the cabinet top and scooped the dough out on the cabinet top and then lifted it and stretched it (could have stretched more) and tri-folded it on the parchment (which is on the cookie sheet)

Where it sat under an oiled plastic sheet for 3+ hours, probably four hours. Slide the parchment off the cookie sheet onto the baking tiles at 500F. The cook book says 500F for 20 minutes, then remove the parchment and roll the firmed up loaf over so the bottom browns for 10 to 15 minutes.

Not in my 500F oven, after 18 minutes it was well browned. Too well, I rolled the loaf over and baked another 8 or so minutes. It’s a touch thing. My times are as useful for you as Cooks Illustrated’s was for me. High temp will give you a crunchy crust and help oven spring. I got those two attributes and the roll it over to brown the bottom idea works too. The roll over to brown the bottom, that I’ll try again.

I’m not complaining. I’m just perfecting. The crust and hole structure were classic ciabatta and the holes were well distributed and just the right size for the style of bread. Sadly the center was too soft. Tasty but too soft, not enough chew on the inside. A fragile crumb.

I think I should have kneaded more to build the the gluten strands (the chew). I know I should have baked at 450 - Preheated to 500F and after adding the bread and water/steam, turn it down to 450. It’s was pretty good bread, I’m just fine tuning.