Friday Night Baking Session

I had a massive baking session this weekend! My last few sourdoughs have not been quite right, they have failed to raise aas much as I would have liked.The flavour has been amazing, but the behaviour of the dough hasn't quite been what I would like from good bread. After baking this loaf a couple of times, I realised that I was starting my liquid levain build slightly differently to how the recipe intended. Although the end result should have been quite similar, I thought I would change this to see if it made a difference.
It made a massive difference, I got way more rise and body out of the baked loaf, and the dough felt way more light and springy. I also cut back on the moisture a bit, as I felt the last few batches had been too wet. So I think all of these tweaks have got me in a much better plac, however I baked one huge loaf, instead of two half loaves which I normally do, and the result here was what I felt was a slightly undercooked crumb, it was just a bit too moist and doughy at the base of the loaf. Anyway, many things were learnt from this bake. All positive, one being, don't change too many things at once :-) Anyway next bake will be indetical but I will make tow smaller loaves again.
The other project as my first attempt at Baguettes. This recipe used a straight dough, with no starter of any sort set up. This was fun becauser I was just able to bang out the bread after work, which was gratifying as you get the final result quite quickly. This brad was amazing! The dough was so light and strong, with a great spring and a decent moisture content. It was very acticve as well, with lots pof bubbles blowing up all over the place. Shaping the baguettes was incredibly difficuly, especially with how fragile the dough felt and me not wanting to over work the dough. So the result was baguettes that looked more like cibatta, with a baguett crust and crumb. But that aside, the flavour was delicious and the eating quality was very good with a nioce contrast of soft and crunchy.. I can't wait to make thses again and try to get the shaping right.