Loaf 7

This one went pretty well. I let the first rise last longer than I wanted, about 24 hours. The dough was wetter than normal but not unmanageable.

After the 15 minute rest, I placed it on greased, floured parchment, in a bowl, covered with a towel. After 2 hours I tipped the parchment upside down and let the sticky dough just peel off gently into the hot dutch oven. It definitely didn't deflate.

I covered it, put it back in the 500 degree oven and left it for 30 minutes. Then I uncovered and lowered the heat to 450 for about 20 minutes.

The result, well the rise was a little disappointing. It isn't much higher than when I put in in the dutch oven. But the color is good, it smells good, feels nice and hollow, and it crackled happily when I took it out of the oven. It's too late to cut into it tonight. We'll see how it tastes tomorrow.

Update: Not very crusty - the crust was chewy and not at all crispy. The crumb had decent holes, but was damp. The taste - more sour than any other bread I've made. Not that good. Oh, well.

I don't know what I am doing wrong. This was supposed to be drop dead simple. Maybe I let it rise too long. Maybe it fermented too much and was too damp. I don't know. I measured out the ingredients using a scale, and according to the original video, the exact measurements aren't that important. I doubt that my yeast is dead, the dough looked as bubbly as ever and rose fine at each rise.

It will probably taste fine toasted, but I am getting a little tired at having disappointing results. Especially on something that was supposed to be simple and fool proof. This latest loaf was as bad as the first one. At least with the first one I blamed the slight change in the recipe. What do I blame here? As far as I know I did everything right, except maybe let it rise too long initially.

Well, I own the pot, and the rest of the ingredients don't cost much, so there is no harm in trying again.

2nd Update: The loaf was better after 12 more hours or so. Maybe cutting into it allowed it to dry out properly. The crust is still not the shattering kind it's supposed to be. It was chewy, but when toasted it was crispier. The crumb was good - I think the lack of height on the loaf was because it spread out in the pot. Not sure why it's did so this time vs. the other times I made it.

In all, it turned out fine. Just not great.