- 440g Matthews Cotswold Strong White Flour
- 110g Waitrose Duchy Organic Stoneground Wholemeal Flour
- 418g water – 76%
- 12g salt
- 3g yeast
After my previous experiment with Ken Forkish’s bread making technique, I wanted to try his cold-proofed recipe. Since there is a long bulk fermentation time – three hours or so – this is not a bread I can prepare first thing in the morning and have ready to eat for lunch.
One of my mistakes in the previous recipe was increasing the amounts a great deal. Limiting this loaf to only 500 grams of flour would probably be too small for my pan, so I increased everything by 10%, or a total of 550g of flour. Presumably because of the overnight proofing, the hydration is only 76% for this loaf, compared to 78% for the previous.
With this process, I started mixing the dough at 6:30 p.m. and around 9:30 I shaped the loaf and put it into a pan. I then covered the pan and put it in a refrigerator.
The next morning when I got up, I turned the oven and, when it was hot enough, I put the loaf in. I baked it for 25 minutes with the lid on my bread cloche, and another 22 minutes without the lid.
The resulting bread is delicious, very similar to the previous version. I don’t really notice much difference in flavor with the overnight fermentation, and the process is a bit of a faff compared to the same-day bake. The only advantage is having a fresh loaf for lunch, which isn’t possible with the same-day version of this technique.
As with the previous loaf, the top is a bit blistered, especially that big bubble off on the left side in the photo above. I’m not sure why that happens. I need to figure out if this is because of the hydration or if I’m doing something wrong.
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