Loaf 5

Loaf 5 is out of the oven. It didn't go quite the way I wanted it to. I ran out of parchment paper and just had enough to line the bottom of a proofing bowl. I couldn't use the sling method.

The dough wound up sticking to the parchment paper so it was sort of a mess by the time I dropped it into the dutch oven. Even so, it looks pretty good, but maybe not as high as if I hadn't deflated it.

Instead of preheating the oven at 500 and then dropping it to 450, I left the oven at 500. I watched the video again and Jim Lahey recommends keeping the oven at 500 or even higher. The result turned out a little browner than before, almost burned looking in spots. I also have some severly toasted bubbles. When I messed up the dough trying to get it off the paper, yeast bubbles started to form. This happened to my first loaf too, and didn't affect the taste or the crust at all.

I baked it 30 minutes with the lid on, as always. I removed the lid and then checked the temp after 15 more minutes. The bread was barely 200 degrees, so I left it in another 7 minutes and checked again. It was between 205 and 210, perfect internal temp, but the loaf went from deep brown to looking a little burned during the extra 7 minutes.

The loaf came out of the oven singing louder than any bread I've baked. The crackling was audible even over the sound of my dishwasher. It's nearly 11pm now, so this bread won't be cut open until tomorrow. Maybe it's a good thing, making the bread later at night. I'm less tempted to cut it open before it cools.

Anyway I am satiated with bread for the moment. I ate the last loaf twice today (toasted and delicious) and a little bit of a challah that I baked with my daughter.

Can't wait to cut into it and see how it tastes.

Update:

Tasted good. Probably the best of the loaves so far. Unfortunately the structure was not as good. There were big holes, but they were uneven, mostly on top with the bottom part of the bread more dense. The crust was harder than loaf 2 and did not shatter. My guess is the issues arose due to the deflation and the additional heat.

Next loaf:

1. Make sure I have enough parchment paper to use the sling method and avoid ruining the 2nd rise

2. Cut the heat back to 450 from 500

3. Keep the first rise at 20 hours. That seemed to have improved the flavor.