I’m finally able to write about day three and on! I visited family on the evenings of class day #3 and #4, and was out too late to blog! Then, after day #5, I flew out (red eye!) and the airport didn’t have free wi-fi, or my laptop couldn’t find it.

The focus of day three’s material was to study the autolyse method, and then to compare the use of high gluten flour to regular bread flour. I was looking forward to this day because I wanted to know more about high gluten flour, and what made it so “special”.

For some reason, I had acquired the notion that high gluten flour was better than bread flour for regular, every day bread use. I mean, if gluten is good, then more is better, right? Well, the class showed me that it does have its purpose - it might be a good choice when using alternate flours that do not create much (if any) gluten on their own, like spelt, rye. To combine these with a high gluten flour may contribute to more of a rise. However, regular bread flour would work just fine, as we saw on day #4 when we used a rye/bread flour combo.

For the autolyse, we mixed the flour and water until just hydrated, then let the the dough sit for about 3 hours while we were in our lecture.

Then we came back to the kitchen and added the salt and yeast, and mixed for just a few minutes until we had some moderate gluten development. Then we turned it out into a bin and let it proof for about an hour and a half. After proofing, we divided and pre-shaped, then bench-proofed for about 40 minutes. The final rise took about an hour and a half. Here’s a picture of the cell structure of the autolyse dough (notice how it has bubbles all over, and not just in the cut area):

The high gluten flour was a bit harder to work with. It was much more elastic, and this is because there were more gluten bonds present, and this made the dough a bit tougher to shape. I say a “bit” because it wasn’t horrible - its not like two of us were each holding an end and walking to opposite sides of the room! It just wasn’t as quick to lend itself to a new shape, even after the benchproof.  High gluten dough:

The regular bread flour version was now a familiar friend. It felt just as it had the last two days as our control for learning about mixing methods and general shaping/handling. I would say, though, that it didn’t feel as luxurious as the autolysed dough.  Bread flour dough:

When all the baguettes had been made for the day, it was really intriguing to see the difference in the cell structure. There was definitely a noticeable difference in how all three doughs felt when shaping and handling. The autolysed dough was a dream. It was like a puffy pillow that you wanted to lay your head on and take a nice long nap. It handled so nicely. It was a really nice balance between extensible and elastic - it rolled into a baguette with ease, as did the bread flour baguettes. There was just a lighter, less tight feel to the autolysed dough.

Here are the autolysed baguettes, right before going into the oven:

Here was today’s schedule:

And now for the bread right out of the oven!

And here is a side-by-side comparison of the crumb structure between the three types:

I honestly wasn’t expecting such a dramatic difference between the three breads. I mean, two of the three used the same (bread) flour, and the only difference in the other one was the use of the high gluten flour. (in the left picture…)The bread on the left is the autolyse. Can you see how markedly more open the crumb is compared to the other two, especially the high gluten baguette on the far right. The middle bread is the regular bread flour, and it did its usual impressive job of good flavor and open crumb. But… compared to the autolyse… it was just okay. The autolyse shined in every way. Flavor was superb. Crumb was open and very irregular. And its hard to tell from this picture, but the color is a little more yellow than the other two, which is because it was much less oxidized because there was hardly any true mixing time compared to the others. The longer you mix the dough, the longer and more frequently it comes in contact with air (oxygen), which oxidizes the dough and essentially bleaches it. We saw on day #2 that with the intensive mix, you had a lot more change of color because of the extended mixing time.

Having worked with autolysed dough before, what really surprised me about today’s work was the result of the high gluten flour. Because it creates more gluten bonds, it makes the dough a bit harder to work with, more elastic, and as a result, it provides you with a less open (and more regular) crumb. This would be great if we were looking for a sandwich bread - but not a great baguette or rustic bread. As I said above, I had come in with the preconceived notion that high gluten flour was somehow better. Its not… its.. different. I wouldn’t replace the bread flour I use every day with this. And like I also said above, I think this is more for specialty flours that don’t create enough gluten on their own, or if you’re looking for a tighter crumb, with more “chew” to the bite.

Today we also started working on a bread for tomorrow - we toasted the sesame, flax, and sunflower seeds that are to go into our multigrain bread!

Oh - and here’s the yumminess that they served up for lunch - Roast Beef and Swiss sandwiches on a walnut bread, and grilled cheese with avocado and chipotle mayo (my fav of the day) on pan bread. They were both fantastic!!

I ended the day at the Ferry Market Plaza (foodie’s dreamland) and stopped by Acme Bread Co to check out the offerings. I was told that their pan di’epi was to die for. Too bad they were out. (although I was (gasp!) starting to grow weary of bread - I wanted some of the other food groups!)