Guilty of oversharing on pictures again. I had been having trouble with my ho-made bread (too often too
rustico), so tried a different approach (same-day, lots of yeast). Worked out very well.
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Paul, any chance on sharing the full recipe for your bread. It looks magnificent and takes me back to days in Italy. I can make a meal on bread, cheese and wine. Thanks.
Sure. The yeast treatment I describe below is not my usual one, as described later. Also, I prefer to measure my ingredients by weight, but my scale broke; Amazon has been telling me the replacement will ship "any day now" for about 4 weeks. So I am using volumes below. All mixing is done by hand, i.e., I do not use an electric mixer.
Timing: I started this about 10 in the morning.
I used 1.5 cups bread flour, and 1.5 cups whole wheat. Added 1.5 tsp salt. I proofed 2 tsp of quick-rise yeast in 1/4 cup of ~110F water with 0.5 tsp sugar for 10 minutes or so, until nicely foaming. Mixed that in to the flour, then added another ~1.25 cups warm water. (I do the water addition by feel and appearance. It is easy to add too much, but I got it right this time.)
After mixing, I cover the dough with a plastic bag, to prevent the surface from drying out. After a half hour or so, I "fold" the dough: pull the dough from the side up over the top of the ball, then turn the bowl 1/4 turn and repeat, all the way around. This leaves you with a nice ball. I do that every so often, like maybe once an hour.
Yesterday, I did that last at about 1 pm, then went out for a walk for 2.5 hours (not all walking!) . When I got back, the dough was WAY overinflated, and I feared it would be "wholly holey." I removed the plastic bag, and the dough deflated before my eyes. I punched down, and folded again.
Shortly thereafter, I shaped the dough. Here, you throw the doughball onto a floured surface, and fold one more time, so most of the outside is now floured lightly. Then turn it upside down on a non-floured surface. You grasp the ball, with your pinky fingers against the surface, and pull the dough ball toward you, stretching and tautening the surface. Give a quarter turn and repeat 6 or 8 times. The surface that is now "up" will be the bottom of the loaf. Then put more flour in a bowl (as a release agent), put your doughball upside down in the bowl, and let it rest for another hour (if you have the time -- I think I cut it to 1/2 hour yesterday).
Preheat your oven to 450F, and put your enameled cast-iron dutch oven there to preheat. When hot, place your dough on a piece of parchment paper, plop it in the dutch oven, cover, and bake for 1/2 hour. Then remove the lid and bake for another 15 minutes.
This basic procedure is from
Flour Water Salt Yeast, which
@Boatboy24 turned me on to. (He is a much more experienced baker than I am, so listen to him, not me.) However, where this batch differed was that I had been making the bread the night before, and using far less yeast, just a pinch of regular (not quick-rise) yeast (as directed). But the size of my holes were hit-or-miss, often with huge cavities. So I decided to make same-day bread, and then used a more traditional amount of yeast (according to the instructions on the yeast jar).
. Basic rub that I had leftover from the last time I did a pork butt. Then some homemade sauce about 10 minutes before I took them off.
