One step back

This Saturday we had a bunch of people to feed, so I baked two breads I'd made before and loved: Hensperger's semolina bread and Josey Baker's sesame bread. Both were good this time but not as great as before, and I'm trying to figure out why.

Side note: We finished up the Bohemian black bread, a great sandwich bread that lasted a long time. I'd made it Saturday or Sunday, and it was still good (even untoasted) through at least Friday. That recipe's a keeper, and I've moved it from the will probably make again list to the hall of fame list.

Back to the two breads, what didn't I like so much this time? The semolina bread didn't taste quite as amazing as before, probably because we weren't eating it warm. The sesame bread had a flying roof (love that term) and might've been a bit overbaked/undermoist; its texture wasn't as great as before.

Fixing the semolina bread should be simple: eat it warm, add a little more salt, and/or use an older biga. (I started the biga late Tuesday and baked the bread Saturday afternoon, so the biga was about 4 days old; the last time, the biga was 10 days old.)

Semolina bread

Whether you eat the semolina bread fresh out of the oven or after it cools, you want to eat it within a few hours of baking, since the crust isn't crackly-crunchy the next day.

Equipment note: I used a lame (bread scorer) for the first time. It worked great on the semolina, but not quite as well on the sesame, perhaps because the semolina dough has great surface tension by the time you cut it. The sesame bread, on the other hand, takes some shaping shortcuts, so it's a more relaxed piece of dough.

Fixing the sesame bread might be a little more complicated, since there are more variables. From start to finish, this bread took just under 3 days. (Previously it had taken 4 days and 1.5 days.) Here are some notes on the timing for this loaf, all of which seems to be within the range of what I did before:

1. Make seed soaker & pre-ferment: Wednesday night
2. Mix dough, rise 3 hours, refrigerate: Thursday morning (I had the morning off since I was going to a very important technical conference that afternoon: Stitches West!)
3. Shape, refrigerate: Friday late night
4. Bake: Saturday afternoon (I left it out of the fridge for maybe 45 minutes before baking it; maybe that's what caused the flying roof?)

Note for next time: I found a review of Josey Baker Bread that said it'd be easier to mix the dough if you mix the water and the pre-ferment first to make a kind of batter. Then add the flour, a little at a time. Makes sense.

Sesame bread and Diet Coke, a still life by Johnny Chow

A couple of miscellaneous notes about the sesame bread:

• I accidentally removed the pot about 10 minutes early. (You start it out with an overturned pot on top, to keep moisture around the bread during early baking.) This probably had an effect on the texture and crust.
• The first scoring didn't seem to work, but the second did. Surface tension or just inexperience?