The dough was considerably too loose, causing problems all throughout the process. First off, it didn't come cleanly out of the plastic tub. This may be in part because I used less olive oil to lube up the tub, but I suspect it would have been enough oil for a properly hydrated dough.

Second, it stuck to everything while I was shaping it, so I had to handle it a bit less gently than I'd like. By the time I had it shaped and in bannetons, I'm pretty sure it had lost all its gas.

Interestingly, the dough rose to double its size entirely in the fridge. I'm guessing this was in part due to the fact that I had a fairly large mass of it in a single container, so it took a long time for the center to cool. The fridge only about 41°F, which is warmer than I'd like, too.

When turned out of the bannetons, the loaves instantly oozed to a very flat shape.

This time, I put the cast iron griddle on the floor of the oven (where it got scorching hot and started to smoke), the stone on the first rack near the bottom, and nothing on the top rack. When I put the loaves in, two went on the stone, and two on a cool baking sheet on the top rack. Half way through, when I rotated the loaves, I removed the baking sheet from under the top two, putting them directly on the oven rack (well, on parchment directly on the rack).

As the loaves came out, the ones on the stone had a well done bottom crust but a shitty top crust, and the ones on top had a well done top crust but a shitty bottom crust. Perhaps next time I'll try just two loaves, on the stone, with it in the top rack spot.

Boy do I want a brick oven. I've got most of a plan worked out in my head, but I need to formalize it on paper.

posted: Tue, 21 Nov 2006 17:17 | permanent link to this entry