Loaf 35 – ABin5, 8 Days Later

Posted on Mar 24, 2012 in loaves

The “Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day” (ABin5) recipe says the dough will last up to 14 days in the fridge. It’s been eight since I made Loaf 33, so I thought it would be a good idea to see how the remainder of the dough is surviving.

I’ve been smelling it every few days to judge the changes. After three or four days it was smelling very strong of alcohol (from the bacteria doing their thing), but after eight days that had changed. It still smelled of alcohol, but with some flavors added to it – in fact, it smelled like a nice (but strong) white wine. Go figure.

I used the remaining 750g to make two boules. I shaped them, let them sit for 40 minutes, preheated the oven to 450°, and finally baked them with some steam (making sure to score deep enough this time!). They took a bit longer than before at 35 minutes, plus I let them sit in the oven for another 10 minutes with it off and the door cracked. As a point of reference, my 5 minutes today was spread across 1 hour and 40 minutes.

The resulting loaves are nice but a bit indistinct. They have a pleasant somewhat sweet flavor, but nowhere near as interesting as the lean bread I’ve been making from Reinhart’s book. I think it would be a nice sandwich bread.

As I chewed up more of the loaf trying to identify a flavor characteristic (which I’m not terribly good at yet), I realized that this would be a great bread to use with appetizers and white wine. The flavor would complement brie well (I can’t really speak to other cheeses, and they just aren’t my thing).