my Freeform Loaf with Preferment - Part III
my Freeform Loaf with Preferment - Part III
Hello fellow bakers!
I've been experimenting with my basic recipe for
my Freeform Loaf with Preferment Part II and working on my shaping technique. Here are some observations...
Manipulating the Biga for Flavor
I keep 8 OZ frozen packets of biga in my freezer. Inspired by some other posters to this thread, after the biga had defrosted overnight in the 'frig, I let it sit on the counter at room temp for about 2 hours. As it rose it developed a more pronounced yeasty aroma which I hoped would give more depth of flavor to the final bread - it did! If you're making a big batch for freezing keep the biga at this stage fairly "neutral" (that is, don't let it over-rise or get too yeasty). However, feel free to experiment with an additional rise for the biga in your final baking.
Developing Technique
I've been working on my shaping technique. While you still must
be gentle with your dough there is a technique for shaping that creates more
surface tension (that's what the books call it folks - I didn't invent the term). More surface tension means the dough has better oven spring when baked. Sorry, no pix for this one but I'll try to take some during my next baking and post them. You can feel and see the difference in the dough's surface if you do it right.
Expanding my Equipment Arsenal
I got two small oval baskets from a 99-cent store - each is about right for 1 to 1-1/2 lbs of dough. They're just plastic but they work great as a rising container. Line the basket with an old cotton cloth tea towel or napkin.
Dust the cloth well with flour so the dough won't stick to it during the rise.
As noted in
my Freeform Loaf with Preferment Part II I use parchment paper to keep the risen dough from deflating when slid onto the baking surface. If you're using a basket as the rising container, first put a piece of parchment paper, lightly dusted with flour, on an upside-down baking sheet. Gently tip the risen dough onto parchment paper. Slash the dough and slide it, parchment paper and all, onto the baking surface. This leads directly to my last observation...
Put the Cornmeal Under the Parchment Paper
Picky family members said they didn't like the bread's bottom being "crunchy" from the cornmeal so this time I sprinkled the cornmeal directly on the baking surface just prior to baking and had the risen dough on parchment paper lightly sprinkled with flour. Slid the parchment paper with dough onto the cornmeal-sprinkled surface. Good oven spring and no cornmeal on the bottom of the finished bread.
Here's a pix of the final bread. It was an oval loaf raised in my new basket and baked on an upside-down large castiron frying pan that had been preheated in the oven. (BTW, I don't bake directly on a pan because my experiments showed that a preheated surface gave better oven spring. I still don't own a baking stone so I use castiron.) Perhaps due to that surface tension I'm learning to do, the oven spring was 1-1/2 inches as opposed to the 1 inch oven spring I've previously gotten. The interior structure had nice irregular holes throughout.
Baking temps were the same as those given in
my Freeform Loaf with Preferment Part II but the baking time was about 30 minutes (instead of the 25 minutes for a baguette shape).
SF [5501]