I guess this is me saying "Uncle!" Following the golden road
(to unlimited desem devotion), I have been unable to get the bread I think I was
supposed to get. So I cheated. I used white bread flour and the desem starter.
I used the formula from Laurel's kitchen, substituting white bread flour for the whole wheat.
Rather than trying to creat the high heat proofing environment called for in the "real" desem method...
Now the difference begins to emerge. The oven spring was much more evident.
The crust browned nicely and evenly.
More evidence of the presence of white flour, the crumb opened up nicely. While still not where I want it to be, it's a lot closer.
With the white flour the crumb opened, the crust browned and set and the bread tasted really good!
After 4 + hours of 65º fermentation the dough did not look remarkably different than the 100 % whole wheat version. It barely doubled. I was afraid that extending the fermentation would make the bread too sour, a problem experienced with the whole wheat desem.
...I proofed the boules at the same 65º at which the dough fermented. The easiest way to see the expansion is to look at the gap between the boules. Even at this stage the loaves did not look all that diferent form their whole wheat cousins.
The bread was baked for 15 minutes at 500º w/steam, 15 minutes at 425º and 15 minutes at 375º.
There is a nice, not excessive, sour flavor and the crust is firm, crisp and not a threat to my dental work. The crust on the 100 % whole wheat version had a tendency to put my pearly whites at peril.
.
I used the formula from Laurel's kitchen, substituting white bread flour for the whole wheat.
After 4 + hours of 65º fermentation the dough did not look remarkably different than the 100 % whole wheat version. It barely doubled. I was afraid that extending the fermentation would make the bread too sour, a problem experienced with the whole wheat desem.
