Today I baked my 3rd attempt at the 70% hydration loaf. Like the first time I did this as a no knead. I’m not going to go into all the details of what I did just highlight the changes.
The first change I made (and I made 2 changes) was to replace 15g of the flour with vital wheat gluten. Gluten is the protein that makes yeast breads possible. It creates the network of fibers that both stretch when as the yeast releases gas and trap the gas inside. Since I haven’t been able to get bread flour I’ve been using all-purpose which has much less protein. By subbing 3g of flour with vital wheat gluten I’ve brought the protein levels up to what a high protein bread flour would have.
I added the gluten in the first, levain, phase of making the dough. I didn’t notice anything different until it was time to shape the dough. Shaping the dough was much easier this time and I was very happy with the outcome.
The second change I made was in the baking itself. This was actually 2 changes. The first was I baked it on a pizza stone. The second part was the temperature – I started by preheating the oven to 500°F/260°C for 1 hour with the pizza stone in it. I put the dough and water for steam in and closed the door for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes I took out the water pan, lowered the temperature to 450°F/230°C and left it in for another 15 minutes before taking it out to cool.
Two hours later I cut into it. The first thing I noticed was that it rose much better. The crumb was more consistent with lots of nice sized holes well distributed through the loaf. The taste was what I expected from the previous attempts, a very mild sourdough flavor. Most importantly is the texture, it was still a drop chewy but not too chewy.
I’m going to try making a kneaded version of this and, when I can get it, I’ll try making it with bread flour. In any case, I think I have a success here.
My Baking Adventures 