Boule On The 4th Of July

-A.J.

I’m getting more comfortable with the bannetons. I think they’re getting more “seasoned” too.

A boule “born” on the 4th of July:

The Recipe –  600 grams bread flour, 390 grams refrigerator water (baker’s percentage 65%), 13 grams salt (2.25%), 6 grams diastatic malt powder, 3/8 tsp instant yeast.

1.  Combine ingredients and mix on low speed 8 minutes.
2.  Cover and let rest 18 hours at room temperature. (65F – 70F)
3.  Lightly spray oil the work surface. Remove the dough from the workbowl and stretch and fold the dough four times, once from each from top, bottom, left, and right. Gather the dough into a ball and place in a well-floured banneton, seam side up.
4.  Cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap and let rest one hour. Place a baking stone in the middle of an oven, put a sheet tray on the bottom shelf. Preheat oven to 460F.
5.  When the dough is ready, toss 7-8 ice cubes into the sheet tray. Turn the dough out onto the baking stone and slash the dough as you see fit.
6.  Bake ~35 minutes or until the internal temperature is 200F.

This bread was a little bit of departure for me in a few ways:

1.  It’s 600 grams rather than 400 grams. 400 grams has been my comfort zone.
2.  This dough had a higher hydration (65%) than I’ve been able to “smoothly pull off” in the past when using a banneton. There has almost always been some sticking during release from the banneton. Not this time. I made a point to “aggressively and confidently” turn the dough out onto the baking stone. No sticking! That’s good thing!
3.  The larger dough mass combined with the diastatic malt (and not using a dutch oven) created a relatively dark, thick, attractive crust.

The slashing was less than perfect:  I need to swap out the razor blades for something newer and sharper a little more often.