“Man drools, bread rules” is a phrase Jeffrey Hamelman would bring out in his bread baking classes at King Arthur Flour when a dough was taking longer to rise than expected. This loaf is an case in point. After carefully following a process in several recent bakes and getting so-so results, this time I ignored most of my timetables and the result was just about perfect. The bread was in charge, not me.
I had some leftover starter from my most recent Cardamon Date Bread bake and was out of sandwich bread. It seemed like a logical plan to make a basic Batard using 100% King Arthur All Purpose Flour.
Right off the bat, my recently lively starter got an attack of the shies. After feeding then proofing overnight, some areas were shiny and bubbly but others looked like they had just been mixed. I spoon-combined these elements and gave it a couple more hours then proceeded with fingers crossed.
I mixed a very standard 65% dough and planned a nice long autolyze, then remembered I had to leave for an early evening meeting. Quickly kneaded the bread and back in the proofer. Came home 3 hours later to find i had risen… somewhat. Transferred to a Ziploc bag and refrigerated overnight.
Next morning I shaped the loaf on the counter and forgot about it so it sat for 2 hours, not the 20 minutes or so which would be desirable. Transferred to a couche and again in the proofer, hoping for the best. 3 hours later the loaf had risen somewhat. The top inside the couche was jiggly, like a jello that moves when you shake the container, and a finger pressed into the dough made an impression which came back slowly which is what you want.
Went into a dutch oven preheated to 440 degrees with the usual +-15 minutes covered, 30 more minutes open and checked for doneness. 211 degrees on my probe, nice thump on the bottom, done as you see here. In spite of many efforts to sabotage, the loaf was just about perfect. Man/woman/he/she drools, bread/it rules.