I’m still using the toaster oven with a cast iron Lodge pan, but I’ve made a couple tweaks from my previous bread post that has made the process even easier and provided more consistent results.
Poolish
40g starter from the previous dough
60g water
60g flour
Dough
200g water
120g bread flour
120g whole wheat flour
4g salt
As you can see, I’ve added a step to make a poolish, which adds about four hours to the process. You can mix a full loaf with the starter, but I’ve been getting more consistent results by cranking up the starter with fresh ingredients before mixing the main dough.
I also lowered the hydration a little, and I’m back to regularly using whole wheat flour. I’ve always preferred including a little whole wheat flour in my bread (20%), but I’m comfortable pushing it up to to 40% with the help of the King Arthur Bread Flour, which I absolutely adore. These percentages would work with my wet-grind method, so I might start doing that after we use up our whole wheat flour.
The final tweak is that I now pull the starter for the next loaf while it is still in the proofing bowl. It seems minor, but I found that the loaf will deflate quite a bit if you pull the starter after its been poured into the pan. It’s nothing time can’t fix, as long as your dough isn’t already on the verge of overproofing.
As for the poolish starter, you can keep it on the counter for a few hours to ripen up before mixing the the poolish, or you can throw it in the fridge until you’re ready for the next loaf (just be prepared for a 36 hour process, which could be accelerated with warm water, or as we head into summer).
Of course, none of this is foolproof. I forgot to add salt to a recent loaf and the darn thing came out quite flat. I was quite disappointed that night, but half of it was gone after breakfast. The best part of this hobby is that you can eat your mistakes, even if I prefer the next day’s success!
