07/04/07

I learnt something last week about moderation in the art of baking bread. This week, I wanted to see if the same thing will work with the regular flour that I am using. I was using Harvest King flour from General Mills and this week, I am using my regular flour from Prima Mills. The key is moderation.

I have been overdoing many things in my bread baking process lately. I was overdoing the mixing, folding, steaming and baking. The result, a hard, tough crust which was not really bad in itself. The killer characteristic was the tough crumb. That is unacceptable.

My attempt at moderation worked wonderfully. The result was a thinner golden crust and a nice flavorful tender open crumb. In the humid climate here, the crust tend to absorb moisture but refreshing the loaf for about 5 minutes at 150 C will revive the bread with a crunchy crust.

I also had about a pound of whole-wheat flour which I wanted to use up as it was taking up space in the freezer. Unfortunately, my sourdough starter ended up as 60% and as a result, it over-proofed too quickly. Yet another bungle and yet another lesson to be learnt. It is also another testimony of the leavening power of my homegrown sourdough starter.

The sorry sight of my overproofed whole-wheat bread