Warning: an über-geeky bread post follows!
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The other day, I caught Pete spraying one of my hot ciabatta loaves with water. When I asked him what he was doing, he replied “the crust hurts the roof of my mouth, so I’m spraying it to soften it before I eat it”.
Clearly, it was time to change my approach. As with all things in life, my bread making is constantly evolving to meet the needs and tastes of our family. For the past few years, we’ve mostly eaten heavily crusted, chewy loaves, but these can be hard on the teeth and palate – it was time to add alternatives to our repertoire.
The first thing I tried to do was to increase the water content in my sourdoughs. This is known as the hydration of the dough, and it refers (as a percentage) to the amount of water used compared to the quantity of flour. For example, if there is a kilo of flour and 700g of water in a recipe, then the hydration of the dough is 70%.
My standard formulas are between 65% (rolls and baguettes) and 77% (ciabatta). As I usually use a mix of bakers/bread flour and remilled semolina flour (semola rimacinata), these numbers tend to be a little higher than doughs made with just bakers flour, as the semolina flour absorbs more water.
My first attempt at an 82% loaf produced a great result, but still with a thick, hard crust…
I felt that the dough could take even more water, so I upped the hydration to 90%. I also tried baking the bread in a covered pot – which involved preheating one of my Emile Henrys to blazing hot, then dropping the risen dough into it. This worked brilliantly – the steam released from the high hydration dough was captured in the pot, and kept the crust from hardening up before it had risen to its full potential. The finished crust was crispy yet thin, and the crumb was tender and elastic.
However, it was all a bit intimidating – manoeuvring the flaming hot, heavy pot out of the oven, then trying to get the dough in without burning myself on the high sides of the base. In addition, I was a bit concerned about heating my empty clay pots to such high temperatures on a regular basis.
After bouncing ideas off my friends Joanna and Carl on Twitter, I invested in a couple of enamel roasters from Falcon. These oval pots are lightweight, oven safe to 270C, and fairly reasonably priced – the 30cm one below was just $32 at Peters of Kensington. They also have low sides and a high domed lid, and fit the doughs shaped in my oval bannetons perfectly.
The first 90% loaf I baked in it was a glorious success…
The pot was preheated to the maximum oven temperature, then the dough was plonked in, slashed, covered and put back in the oven. I reduced the temperature to 220C with fan and baked it for 20 minutes covered, 20 minutes uncovered, then a further 10 minutes at 175C with fan…
See how thin the crust is? The crumb was surprisingly closed for such a wet dough, which of course made me think that I could add even more water…
I also attempted some 90% hydration ciabatta loaves – the wet dough handling and shaping took a bit of getting used to, but ample dusting with fine semolina made it all much easier…
The extra water gave the ciabattas a thinner crust and a very moist, slightly rubbery crumb (which is a good thing, despite how it sounds)…
I’d bought both the small and large roasters, and found the larger one perfect for baking two small round loaves in – those below were dipped in sesame seeds prior to baking.
A note on the pots – I can just fit a large and a small one side by side in my 90cm freestanding oven, but most ovens could only take one at a time. The 36cm is huge, and if you’re only baking one loaf at a time, the 30cm one is a great size.
So…could I make a 100% hydration loaf? My friend Kevin the miller insisted it was possible, and now that I knew the pot baking worked, I figured it was worth a try. I was a bit worried though when the dough I mixed at 6am looked like a thick soup…
Over the course of the day, I gave the dough a couple of folds whenever I walked through the kitchen, and was astonished to watch it develop tension and body. At 3pm, I turned it onto the bench, folded it onto itself a few times, and let it rest.
After half an hour’s bench rest, I dusted and gently shaped it into a large flat rectangle – that was all the shaping the dough would allow. It proved in this form for a further 40 minutes…
I slashed optimistically and then scooped the dough into my large preheated roaster…
And this was how it came out of the oven! I was so pleased…
The crust was crispy and thin, with a tender yet elastic crumb…
The extra water content increased the keeping time of the loaf – it was still fresh and tender two days later…
Here’s the basic formula:
- 300g active sourdough starter (fed at a ratio of 1 cup water to 1 cup flour)
- 500g bakers/bread flour
- 500g remilled semolina flour (semola rimacinata di grano duro)
- 20g fine sea salt
- water: 820g (90% hydration loaf) or 930g (100% hydration loaf)
Place the covered pot in the oven as it preheats to 240C with fan, then carefully take it out of the oven and remove the lid. Gently (don’t burn yourself!) put the shaped and slashed dough into the base and replace the lid, then return the pot to the oven, dropping the temperature to 220C with fan immediately. Bake for 20 minutes with the lid on, 20 minutes with the lid off, and then an additional 10 minutes at 175C with fan (if needed).
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Are you still with me? I did warn you that this was a very geeky bread post!
I’ll still be baking loaves the “old” way as well, but it’s nice to add something different to our bread line-up. I’ve wanted to do more pot baking in the past, but have always found taking heavy, blazing pots from the oven a bit intimidating. The enamel roasters really do overcome that issue.
Do you bake your bread in a pot? My friend Emilie does, and she puts hers into the oven cold! Have a look at her amazing loaves here.
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More geeky bread experiments here!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 