My personal set of do and don't rules

Not to be complete and comprehensive and certainly not to be pedantic, but I decided to list a set of my own do and don’t “baking rules”.  I expect no one to take any/some/all of these to heart or put into practice - least of all because I say I do them.  None of these are absolute, but in general, they serve as my personal list of commandments – at least around dough and baking.
  
We have, will develop and hopefully forever evolve our own individual set of rhythms and axioms for what works best for each of us.  There is probably no “one size fits all”.
I’ve been doing these long enough now that it is pretty much second nature to me and I don’t need a checklist to abide by.  Let’s start with the don’ts...

I DON’T

• I don’t do a float test.  Once I have a mature and reliable levain, it works.  I trust it.
• I don’t temp the water.  After a while the old “baby bottle drip on the wrist” is all that one needs.  Get to know what temperature your water needs to be.  Need colder water?  Add ice.  Need colder still?  Put the flour in the freezer.
• I don’t do a windowpane test.  It is not necessary to wring my hands over a failed windowpane, and to keep on mixing, especially because I almost never use a mechanical mixer.  So far I can’t be convinced that I’m wrong on this.  This rule does have a singular caveat.  There are a very few doughs that may be absolutely dependent upon a successful windowpane.  But they are few and far between.  And that is when I’ll use a mixer.  
• I don’t temp the post-mix dough.  It will be 77-78dF.  I know that from experience.  I trust it.
• I don’t watch the dough, I watch the clock.  This is the get-myself-into-hot-water-around-here rule.  My kitchen temperature is almost always 78-80dF.  Once I am comfortable with how a dough reacts to the fermentation and the room temperature, it is a reliable and repeatable activity.  I trust it.  Science!
• I don’t really care how long my retarded dough sits in the refrigerator post-bulk ferment.  As long as it is more than at least 10-12 hours and under ~24 hours.  I’m fine with that.
• I don’t care how long the dough goes without a divide/pre-shape/shape.  As long as it has been retarding for at least more than an hour or two.  Ten hours is also just as okay in my book.
• I don’t temp bread when it comes out of the oven.  I trust that experience will lead me to judge that the bread is sufficiently baked.
• I don’t use any excessive raw flour on my breads.  I’m a minimalist here.  I understand that there is a rustic look that some appreciate, and I’m okay with that – on occasion for myself too.  But in general, the least amount of flour that I can use on the dough without it sticking to a couche or other surface, the better.  For me.
• I don’t allow the loaves to be loaded too close to each other.  Insufficient room between loaves will keep the sidewalls of the dough insulated and lead to under baked and under colored/gelatinized sides.
• I don’t change a blade until it has scored a number of loaves or has had a rough time of it due to nuts, seeds and/or fruit on prior scoring.  My double edged razor blades stay sharp for a long time.  And of course I get four tips out of each blade.
  

I DO

• I do pay attention to pre-shape.  Every inconsistency that is made during a divide and pre-shape will almost always be magnified in a subsequent step.  I still make occasional mistakes here.
• I do return the couched dough to retard after shaping.
• I do bake directly out of retard – with occasional exceptions.
• I do pay attention to the depth and angle of the blade when I score.  And at times I’m still not giving the individual scores enough room for oven spring and find that the bloom will just plain burst through the scoring.
• I do place a pan with Sylvia’s Steaming Towel into the oven 15 minutes before baking.  Yes, I know that all of the steam it creates will be gone the second I open the oven door to load the dough, but the water surrounding the towel is boiling away and already prepped to go right back to work the second the oven door closes again.
• I do use parchment paper as a base for delivery of the dough to the oven deck.  I’d rather not have the dough get stuck on the peel and as stated above, I don’t like to introduce excess raw flour or corn meal, etc. to the underside of the dough to facilitate the movement between peel and baking deck.
• I do use a secondary source for steam – a 9”x13” pan filled with lava rocks for a brutal burst of pure steam. Near boiling water poured onto the lava rocks just after the dough is loaded.
• I do remove the parchment paper when the steam is released.  The paper, as thin as it is, still acts as an insulator between the deck and the dough.
• I do reuse parchment paper at least a second time.  I do it just because it is “fun” to do, but it is a money-saver, however minimal.  I can see no degradation in the finished product with a re-use.
• I do rotate the loaves from left to right and front to back halfway through baking.  I want equal opportunity for the dough to be exposed to front and back temperatures, oven side walls and hot and “cool” zones in the oven.  The baking deck immediately above the lava rock pan is consistently cooler than the remainder of the baking deck.
• I do try to vent the finished bread for 1-2 minutes before removing from the oven, thereby giving the bread its first opportunity to dry out a bit.  This can’t be done to the first loaves when there are mixed sizes baking at once – i.e. baguettes and batards.
  

These baguettes are Forkish Field Blend #2.  At 78% hydration they are a bit too sticky to work with as baguettes, so I lower the hydration down to 75% and they are delightful to handle.
4x350g.

alan