Particularly when the risen dough isn’t slashed.
Saturday’s bake started early Thursday evening with a fresh domed levain.
I used the customary “Sourdough for Beginners” recipe with 347g AP flour, 55g Stoneground whole wheat, and 25g Stoneground Rye flour plus 5g gluten powder.
Mixed about 100g levain with 290g 79ºF water then added the dry ingredients plus 9g salt, combined with my Danish dough whisk and let the whole thing autolyze for about an hour before trying a slightly different strategy… instead of no-kneading (folding multiple times over several hours) I decided to work the dough which I did for probably about 20 minutes. It was sticky and pliable with the gluten forming well, and still wet and sticky when it was pre-shaped and then shaped on a floured surface.
I placed the formed dough into the banneton, bagged it, and left on the counter until bedtime. Put into the fridge about 10 pm Thurs. and pulled it out this morning (Saturday) to let the dough rise again. When it had risen a bit more, I put the combo cooker in the oven and set it to 465ºF, heating at temp for an hour before putting the dough in the cooker, covering and baking covered for 30 minutes, then uncovering and baking for another 5 minutes (at which internal temp was 210ºf.)
Here’s the result:
I chose not to slash the dough as it was pretty slack and still sticky (which typically makes the dough slump even more) …That’s one big bubble in what is otherwise a really uniform loaf. Will be interesting to see what the interior looks like. This one’s getting cut before it cools completely, but want to leave it as long as possible to allow it to at least gel up a little. The oven spring might have been better if slashed, but perhaps not enough to compensate for the resulting slump. It did what it wanted to do and did not crack at all, likely the result of working the dough as I did.
Cutting the loaf revealed a pretty typical structure… a little more open crumb than the folding method (more even distribution of larger voids but nothing huge except the one bubble next to the edge) and the flavor is also typical, stoneground wheat and rye adding depth to the wholegrain flavor and a hint of sourdough tang,
Rust (truly) Never Sleeps 