Low Hydration Monster Loaf
This is a continuing experiment in low-hydration sourdough. Turns out that by being careful and methodical in your mixing and hydration, you can get beautiful open crumb even from a 65% or lower loaf. The proof is in the pictures:
That’s an earlier loaf, but it’s got amazing structure for so little hydration. Plenty of big tunnels and a nice toothy crumb.
For this recipe, I wanted to see how big a loaf the dutch oven could hold, so I divided the final dough into one comically large one (about 750g flour) and one normal sized one (about 500g flour).
Baker’s Percentages
Total Flour: 1250 g
Hydration: 65%
| Ingredient | % | mass (g) |
|---|---|---|
| White Flour | 87% | 1087.5 |
| WW Flour | 5% | 62.5 |
| Hi-Maize | 8% | 100 |
| Starter (100% Hydration) | 20% | 250 |
| Salt | 2% | 25 |
| Water | 61.5% | 768.8 |
| Pre-inoculation Hydration: 61% | ||
| Overall Hydration: 65% |
Steps
I did this loaf over two days. Here’s the timeline:
- 9:00 pm: Premix and refrigerate. All ingredients except starter go into a bowl and get mixed together for 10 minutes or so before a long autolyse overnight.
- 11:00 pm: Remove from fridge so dough can spend time at room temp and relax.
- 7:00 am (next day): Inoculate with starter. Spread starter over the dough, dimple it in, and mix by hand, rolling the dough around the bowl for about 15 minutes to ensure ample dispersion.
- 8:30 am: Stretch & fold number 1.
- 9:15 am: Stretch & fold number 2.
- 11:00 am: Stretch and fold number 3.
- 11:30 am: Stretch and fold, then divide and pre-shape into balls.
- 12:00 pm: Shape into final boule shapes and let rest in bowls prepared with well-floured dish towels.
- 2:00 pm: Preheat to 500 with dutch oven inside.
- 2:40 pm: Bake! Drop prepared loaf into dutch oven and score.
- 3:00 pm: Remove top of dutch oven. Decrease heat to 450 and bake for 15 more minutes, or until the top looks nice and dark.