Lately I have been leaning towards loaves that are an even split between white flour and whole wheat. I find them to be very predictable and I generally have a good idea of what the crumb is going to look like before even cutting into it. I have never really been one for wildly "open crumb" in my bread ... the giant holes just aren't that practical. Don't get me wrong, I think it is incredible and I still aim for that once in awhile. I just really love toast and peanut butter, and melting peanut butter does not work very well with bread that is full of giant holes. So that brings me back to 50/50 loaves. They have a nice balance of flavour, texture and a somewhat consistent crumb. I end up giving quite a few loaves away to friends, neighbours and my wife's co-workers and this is one of my go-to loaves for that. I know it is going to taste great and I do not have to worry about whether or not they appreciate artisan bread full of giant holes that really isn't that practical. For this recipe I have used Red Fife and Whole Wheat, but feel free to swap that out for Kamut, Emmer, Spelt or anything similar if you want. Trust me it's going to taste great.
Ingredients (Two Loaves)
400g (50%) Anita's White Flour
200g (25%) Nunweilers Whole Grain Red Fife
200g (25%) Wholefoods Whole Wheat
640g (80%) Water
18g (2.25%) Salt
160g (20%) Levain
Process
7:00am- Levain Build with 25g Starter, 75g warm water, 75g Flour blend (75% White, 25% Dark Rye
10:00am- Autolyse with 600g of the water
12:00pm- Mix in 160g of Levain
12:30pm- Mix in Salt with the remaining 40g of water
1:00pm- Coil Fold
1:30pm- Coil Fold
2:00pm- Coil Fold
2:40pm- Coil Fold
3:20pm- Coil Fold
4:20pm- Coil Fold
5:30pm- Divide & Preshape
5:45pm- Shape and put into Banneton
6:00pm- Cover Dough with a plastic bag and place in the fridge overnight
6:00am- Preheat Oven with Staub Cocotte and Lodge Dutch Oven to 550°f
7:00am- Score the dough and bake at 450°F for 22 minutes with the lid on & 20 minutes with the lid off.
Notes: Play around with the hydration on this one. This loaf will still come together nicely with a lower hydration ( 70-75%). Although, sometimes I will push it quite a bit higher, I find 80% to be a pretty safe bet.
Your fermentation times may vary depending on a lot of different factors. Use these times for the folding and the duration of the Bulk Fermentation only as a guideline. What worked for me may need to be tweaked a little bit for your bake.
Davidfarquhar, you could try lowering the hydration down to 75% (600g) and see if that helps. What type of flour are you using in your banneton? I've always found a 50/50 mix of Rice flour to All Purpose helps my dough release nicely.
The either way it's great that it's delicious and the crumb still looks pretty good!
Here's how it looked
Had a go at this yesterday. The dough didn't stay in shape when I was doing the rest after pre-shape, and was very damp when going into the banneton. It stuck to the (well floured) liner when I tried to get it out, so top wasn't great looking. Didn't spring up when cooking as much as usual. Not sure what happened there.
However the end result was still totally delicious with a good crumb, so I'm definitely going to try again. Not sure how to avoid the collapsing dough situation though