90% Biga Bread

Today's bake followed Abel's method posted here.

The biga prep went well.  I put the flour in a large bowl and dissolved the yeast in the biga water.  Water was added to the flour 2 tbsp at a time and gently stirred with a knife.  I concentrated on pouring the water on dry flour to get as much distribution as possible.  The biga was nice and crumbly with no gluten development.

Biga fermentation took place in a mini fridge with an Inkbird temperature controller set at 59 deg F.  The whole grain flour for the final mix was hydrated in a similar manner.  The whole grain dough chunks were mixed in with the biga before any free water was added.

This is where things went a little south.  I don't have a mixer so needed to mix by hand.  My plan was to add the water slowly like I did making the biga.  However, it didn't go in evenly, and I ended up with a lumpy dough (as others have mentioned).  Finally, after 4-5 small water additions, I just dumped in the remaining water and started squeezing it in and smashing lumps with my fingers.  It started as soup and slowly but surely the water worked in and lumps disappeared.  I was able to get most of them, but not all.  Gluten development was done with 200 French Folds and a final set of bowl kneading.  

Dough was shaped as a batard, rolled in sesame seeds, and placed on parchment paper between wine bottles (seam down).  The dough was covered with a moist towel. Final proof was 75 minutes.

Oven was pre-heated to 450 deg.  Dough was placed on baking steel after scoring and 3/4 cup of boiling water was poured into the steam pan on the bottom rack.  Baked at 450 deg F (5 min), 425 deg F (8 min), 400 deg F (7 min); vent oven; 400 deg F (12 min).  Final internal temp was 204 deg F.

Oven spring was decent and the loaf has a nice profile.  Crumb was a little tighter than I was hoping for, and I'm guessing it was from the prolonged mix and all the squeezing/de-lumping (took at least 30 minutes just to mix, so bulk was well underway before gluten development even started).   I haven't tried it, but the loaf has a nice aroma.  I can't quite describe it yet.  Need to have a slice.  I was asked to make some bread for this weekend's spaghetti dinner, and this was the test run on what I plan to make.  I think for the next bake, I will add 2/3 of the final water to the bowl first, mix in the whole grain flour, and then mix in chunks of biga one at a time breaking them up fully before adding another chunk (per Alan's suggestion in Abel's post).  Hopefully this will give a smoother dough and require less manipulation.