January 24, 2013 - 12:07pm
Boule with Poolish PreFerment from Flour Water Salt Yeast
I have started making bread from the book Flour Water Salt Yeast and am loving how they turn out. Really delicious breads. Highly recommend the book. Bought an extra Dutch oven so I could make two loaves at once. I've never had loaves turn out so nice.
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bread is supposed to look like !! Nice job. I am always amazed at the crust a DO can put on bread.
Happy baking.
I too have become a big fan of the trend started by Jim Lahey, improved by Chad Robertson and now taken to a new level by Ken Forkish for high hydration doughs, long fermentations or stretches and folds and the use of dutch ovens. It is now getting harder to find a 4qt DO on EBay. Like netvet007 I am a 2 DO person too. These are great breads and because of the books we are all becoming much better bakers.
Paul
I made my first 2 breads from this book this week and they turned out beautifully! I made the 80% biga white because I needed a bread that would come together overnight.
I find it so interesting that Ken does not advocate scoring. That seemed odd, so I went ahead and made some cuts anyway. Aside from that, I followed the formula to the letter and was very pleased with the results. Nice thin, crisp crust, great height and a nice open crumb. I prolonged the bake by 10 minutes for a total of 65 minutes (pushing the envelope, as he suggests) and didn't quite get the crust color I was looking for, but not bad for a first effort. (I have oven issues.)
Like you, Paul, I haven't been able to find a 4 quart DO for a reasonable price, but I did have an Emile Henri clay casserole and a 3.5 quart Le Creuset, whose knob I had replaced with stainless steel. Both worked fine.
Barbara
The next time I make this bread, I will try putting the dough ball in my proofing basket seam side up. Then when I invert it on my floured surface, I can score the top without the seams adding to it. I got a new lame and will try it out. I reviewed the scoring tutorial on the home page so hopefully I can learn that skill too. But I have to say, these breads have impressed my friends on Facebook!
Fabulous looking loaves, Netvet007!
I too have made a white bread with poolish from Flour, Water Salt, Yeast but without a Dutch oven. Ken's recipes have certainly taken some getting used to for a newbie baker with the high hydration and folding required but make awesome breads.
What did the crumb come out like Netvet007?
This one has a couple of slight modifications to suiot my taste: fresh yeast (double the quantity in the book) instead of instant dry and 20g of wheat germ added. It really does taste good but I would love to try one made in a Dutch oven.
Cheers,
Ian
My crumb was very close to yours. not quite as much variation in holes, but plenty nice to look at. Those loaves without the Dutch oven are gorgeous too! Ian, Did you do steam technique or just put in a hot oven?
Lisa
Thanks Lisa. I have an electric fan forced oven that I put a pan of boiling water on the top shelf, bread on a pre-heated pizza stone on the floor and then squirts of water every 30-seconds to the walls for the first 3-minutes. The oven is a bit of a furnace, so I have to move the loaves around and turn it down after the first 10 minutes or so but it keeps me on my toes. The other thing that helps is blocking the vent with a towel for the first part of the bake.
Your wholemeal loaves look great too, Lisa.
Ian
Harvest bread without the bran for Christmas
Overnight White Bread
This was an overnight proof of whole wheat recipe. My first ever whole wheat experience and it turned out good. Ken Forkish advocates a deep brown crust but I don't prefer it over a more moderately browned crust. My oven was set a bit high though and that may have contributed to it. These also were baked in a Dutch oven. No Poolish with this one.