Coastal loaf in new oven setup

I started a batch of Coastal Loaf bread yesterday to try out in my new oven setup today.

However, I did some things different with the Coastal Loaf recipe. I used regular starter because I had a lot to use up or toss, and I decided to leave out the oil. I compensated for the extra liquid in the starter by adding extra flour. I did run into a problem though. It has cooled down here on the coast, as a matter of fact we got maybe two days of warm weather. So the dough took the full six hours to proof instead of only four (see you have to adjust your recipe as you go along! ).

I must not have added enough flour because the dough was sticky when proofed. It was not overproofed, I am sure about that. So I poured out the dough and just (I actually did!) kneaded it until it was smooth and resilient. I then let the dough sit in it’s covered container for one hour (because of how slow it had proofed) and put it to bed in the refrigerator. In the morning at six am I took out the dough and it was smooth on top but you could see bubbly bumps and sponginess, had spread and looked almost doubled. So it was proofing pretty good.

I let it warm up for three hours. Then I shaped and started the second proof at about 9:20 am. All of the proofing for this dough has been a bit longer than my most recent breads I have been baking. After two and one half hours, I popped the first loaf into the oven where it is baking right now. It had a wonderful oven spring in the first five minutes and I actually took a picture of it through the oven window:

Now I know this loaf was slightly underproofed, but had to do that or the next one would have been too overproofed. The third one I put in a cooler pantry so it should hold a little better.

Here is the first loaf out of the oven. I was so busy writing up this blog, that I didn’t spray the second one as much as I needed to! I fear it will not have as good of slashes as it should have….if I were paying attention! To be continued…

I can tell by the torn slashes of the second and third loaves, that the dough was too tight, not wet enough. This last loaf was put into the oven at almost four hours after proofing started. So I don’t think it was underproofed. I will go back to my mixing method and leave the kneading to Aussie Bill ! If the dough had been a little wetter, I think these loaves would have been perfect. The color is great the smell is heavenly but you can tell by looking that they are tight. I am guessing the crumb will be tighter than I had wished for too. The great grin and look is from the oven lined with the firebrick, I have no doubt of that.

Here are the pictures of the second and third loaves:

Here are all three loaves together:

I also sliced the first one and just as I thought, it was a somewhat tighter crumb than I am used to:

It’s really not too bad, I am being overly critical, but you know how it is…you just want that perfect loaf!! Overall, I am very happy with the new oven setup. I don’t believe I would have even gotten the grigne I did if it hadn’t been for the intense heat coming from all sides and a more steady heat too. I really noticed an earlier oven spring this time. I preheated my oven for almost two hours. My daughter wants to try out the Coastal loaf now that she has seen the results. So maybe I will post her bread pictures when she bakes them up.

You can have the kneading Bill !