| Fred |
In my experience, most of the time I work with a high hydration dough, the
dough has a tendency to proof outward more than upward. The result for me
is usually a fairly wide and flat bread. This week I tried a new formula
for a basic bread from a French baking book. The dough was 68% hydrated,
had a normal amount of fresh yeast, no sugar and more salt than I prefer.
I think I started with 4 lb. of dough. Nothing unusual except that I would
consider it a high hydration dough. I mixed it for about 10 minutes and
then let it rest for about 1/2 an hour. Then I kneaded it by hand until it
stopped sticking to the board. I then gave it a two hour fermentation. I
made it up into batards and let them proof for around 1/2 an hour at 90
degrees. At that point the loaves had spread out quite a bit sideways and
were relatively flat. I frowned and decided at that point to go ahead and
bake them up not expecting to get very good bread. The color, feel and
sound of the loaves was about right after 25 minutes or so at 400 degrees.
But to my surprise the loaves had climbed straight upward in the oven and
the finished loaves weren't flat at all but well rounded and almost as tall
as they were wide. Certainly they were underproofed since they grew that
much and they did display a slight amount of the stretch marks that indicate
underproofing but very little of it. The crumb showed a fairly normal tight
texture in the bottom half of the loaf and a wide open artisanal large hole
type texture in the top half (underproofed.) Help me understand what
motivated these loaves to grow straigh up instead of growing in all
directions. I've never seen it before in a wet, underproofed dough. Ideas?
Fred
Foodie Forums
http://www.foodieforums.com
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| graham |
"Fred" <blades2@starband.xxx> wrote in message
news:y_M2d.97$zy2.44@fe25.usenetserver.com...
> In my experience, most of the time I work with a high hydration dough, the
> dough has a tendency to proof outward more than upward. The result for me
> is usually a fairly wide and flat bread. This week I tried a new formula
> for a basic bread from a French baking book. The dough was 68% hydrated,
> had a normal amount of fresh yeast, no sugar and more salt than I prefer.
> I think I started with 4 lb. of dough. Nothing unusual except that I
would
> consider it a high hydration dough. I mixed it for about 10 minutes and
> then let it rest for about 1/2 an hour. Then I kneaded it by hand until
it
> stopped sticking to the board. I then gave it a two hour fermentation. I
> made it up into batards and let them proof for around 1/2 an hour at 90
> degrees. At that point the loaves had spread out quite a bit sideways and
> were relatively flat. I frowned and decided at that point to go ahead and
> bake them up not expecting to get very good bread. The color, feel and
> sound of the loaves was about right after 25 minutes or so at 400 degrees.
>
> But to my surprise the loaves had climbed straight upward in the oven and
> the finished loaves weren't flat at all but well rounded and almost as
tall
> as they were wide. Certainly they were underproofed since they grew that
> much and they did display a slight amount of the stretch marks that
indicate
> underproofing but very little of it. The crumb showed a fairly normal
tight
> texture in the bottom half of the loaf and a wide open artisanal large
hole
> type texture in the top half (underproofed.) Help me understand what
> motivated these loaves to grow straigh up instead of growing in all
> directions. I've never seen it before in a wet, underproofed dough.
Ideas?
>
> Fred
> Foodie Forums
> http://www.foodieforums.com
>
>
An undoubted master of high hydration doughs is John, on alt.bread.recipes.
He makes "doughs" up to 110% hydration. I suggest you pose your question
there.
HTH
Graham
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| michael |
On Fri, 17 Sep 2004 21:21:55 -0500, Fred wrote:
> But to my surprise the loaves had climbed straight upward in the oven and
> the finished loaves weren't flat at all but well rounded and almost as tall
> as they were wide. Certainly they were underproofed since they grew that
> much and they did display a slight amount of the stretch marks that indicate
> underproofing but very little of it. The crumb showed a fairly normal tight
> texture in the bottom half of the loaf and a wide open artisanal large hole
> type texture in the top half (underproofed.)
I think your assessment of being 'underproofed' might be off. My
experience is that underproofing usually causes massive, chaotic
breaks and that the entire crumb is tight. Were the holes so large as
to be crust seperation? If not, it seems spot on to me. I make 100%
hydrated dough up quite often (2x per week) and this type of transformation is
normal.
> Help me understand what
> motivated these loaves to grow straigh up instead of growing in all
> directions. I've never seen it before...
I'd say maybe that it's because steam rises. Your dough structure was
near perfect in development and so you ended up with a good bake-off.
If you've never seen this before, welcome to the world of success!
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| Roy Basan |
"Fred" <blades2@starband.xxx> wrote in message news:<y_M2d.97$zy2.44@fe25.usenetserver.com>...
> In my experience, most of the time I work with a high hydration dough, the
> dough has a tendency to proof outward more than upward. The result for me
> is usually a fairly wide and flat bread. This week I tried a new formula
> for a basic bread from a French baking book. The dough was 68% hydrated,
> had a normal amount of fresh yeast, no sugar and more salt than I prefer.
> I think I started with 4 lb. of dough. Nothing unusual except that I would
> consider it a high hydration dough. I mixed it for about 10 minutes and
> then let it rest for about 1/2 an hour. Then I kneaded it by hand until it
> stopped sticking to the board. I then gave it a two hour fermentation. I
> made it up into batards and let them proof for around 1/2 an hour at 90
> degrees. At that point the loaves had spread out quite a bit sideways and
> were relatively flat. I frowned and decided at that point to go ahead and
> bake them up not expecting to get very good bread. The color, feel and
> sound of the loaves was about right after 25 minutes or so at 400 degrees.
>
> But to my surprise the loaves had climbed straight upward in the oven and
> the finished loaves weren't flat at all but well rounded and almost as tall
> as they were wide. Certainly they were underproofed since they grew that
> much and they did display a slight amount of the stretch marks that indicate
> underproofing but very little of it. The crumb showed a fairly normal tight
> texture in the bottom half of the loaf and a wide open artisanal large hole
> type texture in the top half (underproofed.) Help me understand what
> motivated these loaves to grow straigh up instead of growing in all
> directions. I've never seen it before in a wet, underproofed dough. Ideas?
>
> Fred
> Foodie Forums
> http://www.foodieforums.com
WEll you may had used a really strong flour resulting that the
expansion was balanced in all direction with excellent baking volume.
In addition your fermentation timing was appropriate, but they are not
considerably underproofed,but rather in the level of three quarters
proofed when you baked it.
BTW, that french baking book you used, is that the Special and
Decorative Bread by Bilheux et al?
Roy
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