 |
| Batch 567 |
 |
| Batch 500 |
Yesterday, a long, hot day as it turned out, batch 567 started in the usual way. It rose OK during the first rise, perhaps a little too long, as the dough had become a little stickier than usual. After the second knead, it started to rise OK during the second rise. Looked in after about two hours, when the loaves were just about at rim level. Looked in a little later, and they seemed to have started sinking. Maybe the yeast had got tired and needed to rest a bit before getting going again - something I am sure I have read about at some point. But after about four hours, nothing much seemed to be happening, and I resorted to putting the loaves out in the direct, afternoon sunlight, something I have not done for years. Still nothing doing, so after a total of five and a half hours second rise (not a record, but I drew back from leaving them overnight, which might have been the right answer), put them in the oven, with the result illustrated above. Not what I was looking for at all.
Too late to try them yesterday, so the first loaf was opened up for breakfast this morning. And OK, it was a touch heavier and firmer than I was looking for, but it was very eatable, taken without butter or cheese. Quite moreish in fact and I ended up eating a fair sized chunk.
However, I expect it will get rather hard as it goes forward and it is possible that the stump will end its days as bread pudding. I had better check that we have the other ingredients.
Looking at the bread workbook, I see that I have fussed about collapse quite a bit over the years that I have been baking my bread. But, notwithstanding, I didn't find many examples of collapse, at least searching for likely words like 'collapse' and 'burst' did not turn many of them up. And in all the cases that I did turn up, I had explained that while the bread had not risen properly, it tasted splendid.
Then there is the disaster recorded at reference 1, with end result rather like this one. With the difference however that the second rise had been normal, if rather slow and allowed to go on too long, and the subsequent collapse was due to human error. We know what happened - unlike in the present case.
What is going to happen next time?
The way it is supposed to look is recorded at the end of reference 2. At which time I was using the bread tins from Hong Kong, rather than the bread tins from Tavistock. But I don't think that this change is relevant here.
PS: the tops of batch 567 are much paler than usual, a golden brown rather than a deep brown. Not just a trick of the telephone. Being below the rims must have protected them somehow, fan oven notwithstanding.
Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/01/batch-500.html.
No comments:
Post a Comment