I saw Shiao-Ping's blog on TheFreshLoaf about 12 hour Autolyse. I remember doing 8 hour autolyse with Whole Wheat but never with All Purpose Flour. I was intrigued how it would turn out. Here is the experiment that I did this time. I wanted 15% of my flour to be Whole Grain the rest to be AP Flour and the overall hydration of the loaf to be about 67%. I decided to make my preferment to be 100% Whole Wheat at 50% hydration and that would be my source for 15% Whole Grain in the loaf. When I was doing my final build of the preferment I mixed the AP Flour and water together and let it sit for 10 hours. Then I added it with the salt to the AP Flour and water. The preferment didn't mix into the dough very well, I could still see lumps of it in the dough. When I sliced the bread I see the brown spots where the Whole Wheat preferment was lumped together. It is still winter here and I let the dough go for a long fermentation. I looked at it and decided I had time to get a haircut and go wine tasting, in the end I think it over proofed a little bit. The bread really tastes great and has great big irregular holes in the crumb. This loaf tastes so good I don't think it would be a problem to eat the whole thing by myself today. Thanks Shiao-Ping what a wonderful idea.
I think the flash wipes out the holes in the crumb but it is just wonderful.
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I could see many large irregular holes. Your crumb looks like it is full of flavour. If I get a crumb like that, I will be very, very happy. With your climate right now, long autolyse would be a very good fit.
Did you truly eat the whole bread yourself?
Shiao-Ping
Ok the bread really is incredible. Not only does is taste good but it is filling and goes a long ways. I took it to work and we cut and ate on it like any other bread and there was still a lot of bread left. I gave the half that was left over to my neighbor. He saw the bread when I first made it and I found out later he wanted to steal it.
She was the one that I wrote up my very, very first post on The Fresh Loaf about. We are due to have our tea again once she gets back from her cycling marathon in New Zealand.
I don't mind if my neighbor steals my bread either. Our families have been friends of each other for over 120 years.
... get my attention - 120 years!! That is something!
Thanks for the reply.
Shiao-Ping
I just learned that my neighbor is trying to get a sourdough starter going. It will be great to have two sourdough bakers in Oak Flat.
Have you sampled any of your neighbour's bread yet?
No not yet. I'll ask today how he is doing with his starter. I think we did talk about sourdough pancakes but I can't remember if we did.