Loaf 30 – A Batch of Lean Bread, Just for Eating
The lean bread recipe from Reinhart is now my favorite bread. In this batch I used instant yeast rather than active dry, and it made a real flavor difference – the smell and flavor of the yeast was definitely there adding a nice layer to the experience. My shaping this time was better than before – I was more aggressive in squeezing out the bubbles after dividing the dough. (Unlike the SFBI sourdough, this recipe does not include a pre-shaping step.) I made make-shift bannetons from bowls and towels for the two boules.
From the ~1200g of dough the recipe makes, I made four 150g sandwich loaves and two 300g boules. They all seem to be near perfect sizes for our use – next time I might do 125g and 350g.
I’m not sure why I didn’t get as dark a crust as before, but it did remain crunchy.
The two boules I think were on the verge of overproofing because they had to wait for the four sandwich loafs to bake and for the oven to come back up to 500°. The internal crumb on all the loaves looks really nice, though.
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- Sunday night, ready for the fridge
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- Monday afternoon – 3X growth overnight in fridge
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- Crazy bubbles
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- Four sandwich loaves and two smaller boules
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- Loaves, done baking
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- A fine collection of bread
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- Beautiful interior crumb on a sandwich loaf
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- Interior of small boule – also really nice
