Bread Log 15-16: Ciabatta with poo, and wheat bread too

It's classy titles like that, that keep you coming back . . . admit it. So after having fallen off the blog wagon for the past few months I've decided to dust myself off and see if I can play a bit of catch up.

Ok so that may be a bit of an understatement, I have actually fallen off of at least 3 wagons and a wheel-barrow.  However in spite of not writing about it I have continued to bake, and as of writing this I have around 13 bakes to write about.  In the interest of getting through them, they will be pretty light on the Dan babbling at you front, but there will be at least a few pictures for each and some details for those curious among you.

First up I had a double bake of some Ciabatta with olive oil and wheat germ, made with a poolish pre-ferement, rather than the stiff biga I'm used to.  I was joined my friend Rudy for the bake, and he got to experience first hand the overly complex way I bake. 

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Here is a classic large rustic loaf.

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This was an attempt at a rustic batard, but I overshaped it so it lost that wonderful natural flour pattern you see on rustics.  On a last minute whim we used a cheesy post-it note in the shape of a W as a flour stencil. . . because why not?

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In any event it allowed my wife, Whitney, to claim the bread as her own.  It does have a W on it afterall.  This shot also gives you a sense for the size of the loaves . . . that is, BIG.

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I think this odd pattern of open structure is a result of both misjudging proof level and my original overshaping.

To give rudy some contrast to the Ciabatta we also made one of the formulas which has always been a regular for me Hamelman's Whole Wheat Levain.  The dough was a bit under hydrated, but it came out pretty well.

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You can see in the group picture above the hazards of trying to bake loaves too close together.  The poor slash job on the center loaf combined with the steam created by  the loaf near it's left side caused it to expand in direction.  Such is the nature of baking under time constraints in a tiny oven. Here are some more pics:

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One down, many to go!  Hopefully you'll be hearing from me sooner rather than later :).

Here are the details from the Ciabatta

Room Temp:  65.1

Water Temp: 77.3

Flour Temp:  63.3

Preferment Temp: 67..6

Final Temp: 78 (target 76)

Autolyse: None

Mix: Standard incorporation + 3 minutes at speed 2, cut on bench, 3 minutes at speed 2, cut on bench, 3 minutes at speed 3.

  - after this point my note-taking stopped . . . fail -

Here are the details from the Whole Wheat

Room Temp:  65.1

Water Temp: 75

Flour Temp:  63.3/63.7

Preferment Temp: 68.4

Final Temp: 78.4 (target 76)

Autolyse: None

Mix: Standard incorporation + 3 minutes at speed 2, cut on bench, cut on bench, 2 minutes at speed 3.

  - not only did I fail on notes here, but I also was quite off on my hydration.  It was actually so stiff that mixing it overheated my mixer and it shut down . . . oops! Such is the nature of multiplying a formula, always a chance for a mix up.