A baking night – 10-21-09

Before I left for work yesterday, I took out a 1 lb hunk of Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day boule dough that had been sitting in the freezer for about a week, sprinkled a little flour on the top and left it, covered with plastic wrap, on the counter all day.

When I got home, it had thawed and risen slightly. I floured up a Brotform basket (http://fantes.com/images/12701brotforms.jpg) and put the loaf in it and let it rise while I fixed and ate dinner.

While that was going on, I formed six 4 oz pieces of the same dough into rolls. These were left to rise on a quarter sheet pan.

After dinner, the loaf was turned out onto parchment paper on a pizza peel. The brotform basket had worked its magic and the top of the loaf looked very nice.

Both the loaf and the rolls were slashed with a serrated knife.



Both then went into the oven at 500 degrees, the rolls still on the baking sheet and the loaf on the parchment paper directly onto the quarry tiles. I also added two cups of water to a broiler pan on a lower shelf, as per AB5.

The rolls came out after 15 minutes, at which time I lowered the oven to 400 degrees and continued to bake the loaf.

After about 30 minutes more, the loaf came out as well…its internal temperature was 209 degrees when I pulled it.

Finally, I mixed up another batch of the boule dough, this time with 10 ozs of whole wheat flour instead of all bread flour and put it away to "age".

The rolls were very tasty after 20 minutes out of the oven. I had another one this morning, and while the crust was no longer crispy, it was still very good. Next time, I think one or two minutes more for them in the oven. We will try the bread tonight with dinner.