Being at about the same stage as Tullymoor and reading the advice and recipe that SourDom gave him, I figured that the recipe was a good starting point for me.
Started mixing at 6AM this morning and baked at 2.15 PM this afternoon, I like to follow a recipe to the letter the first time around and then vary things to suit. Baked as a single 1Kg loaf for 40 min at 215C. So the result:-
Good: Reasonable amount of oven pop. Chewy crust with a nice sour taste, very tasty crumb with a hint of sour taste. Nice holes in crumb, some larger ones from trapped air.
Not so good: Crumb still a little too moist. Crust a little too light. Did not wrap dough tight enough so had a bit of flattening.
Conclusions: Am ordering a 1Kg Banetton. Give more proving time. Play with increasing oven temperature/time. Am happy with my 1 week old home started brew as I think it will get a lot better yet. And best of all it tastes fantastic, even the resident critic (wife) loves it.
So many thanks to SourDom and all the others who's advice I read.
Replies
Bill,
congratulations on your first loaf. It sounds great.
You might find an oven thermometer helpful (even if you only borrow one) to see what temperature your oven is actually reaching at a given point on the dial. I suspect that you aren't reaching 215 if the crust is still light and the crumb moist after 40 mins. By all means try turning the oven up and see how that improves things.
cheers
Dom
I agree Bill, thanks Dom, I couldn't/wouldn't have done it without your help!