August 22, 2006
Multiple Errors
On a whim, I decided to make some yeast bread out of the King Arthur Bread Flour (not same as the KA All Purpose). Same basic loaf of bread as my sourdough experiments. 1.5lb loaf, 65% hydration.
The loaf looks OK but not for lack of attempts doing the wrong thing. My jar of Active Dry yeast is 18 months past expiration. I mixed the yeast into the 9.5oz of luke warm. I used about 2 tsp of the yeast, all of it.. Waited 10 minutes and mixed in the flour. Waited 10 minutes. It’s way too sticky. Did I l measure 10.5 oz like I would for sourdough or the 14.5 oz I intended to? I measured out 4 oz of flour for kneading in. I will use as much bench flour as it takes to get it to feel right. That took a lot of sticky kneading. I kneaded in the salt and most of the reserver flour.
Having clued in to the fact that I wasn’t paying attention to the flour amount, I consulted a recipe. I used almost double the amount of yeast that I should have. Sure enough, the first rise took about half the time according to the touch test. I shaped into a round and put in the banneton. No problems shaping, so the dough was ready., As one might expect, the second rise didn’t take long either.
It rose a little larger (wider) than a decent sourdough, but had less oven spring.
This experiment has been fatally flawed, I’m not sure I’ll learn anything other to write down what I intend to do before I attempt to do it and check the list. It might be edible. It doesn’t have a fully developed smell and I suspect the taste will be likewise. Too many mistakes.
On the upside. I used up all the old yeast in the jar so I’ll have a bit more room in the fridge. I have no intention of buying more when I make all the sourdough starter I want.