Batch No.672

Back in 2019, and for years before that, the bread making custom was a four hour first rise followed by a second rise of between two and four hours. Too little second rise and the bread was apt to be a bit heavy, especially in the lower regions; too much there there were apt to be volcanoes, bubbles and collapses. Collapse in the oven being the worst possible outcome, with the bread rarely recovering. Eatable but very chewy. And very hard as it dried out over the days it took to eat it.

During the plague, rising habits drifted down to a two hour first rise followed by a second rise of between one and two hours. Which meant that the loaves went into the oven smaller - but rose much more when they were there. No more volcanoes or collapses and far fewer bubbles - one of which can be seen top left in the snap above.

Now the last time I was in Waitrose for the wholemeal flour which makes up two sevenths of the total of three and a half pounds of flour, the Canadian wholemeal which I had been using had vanished from the shelves and I was reduced to essential brown, a dirty white coloured flour which looks as if some bran had been added to give it some brown speckle. Then yesterday, with the Canadian nearly finished, I got around to using it for the first time. The resultant dough seemed softer, smoother and whiter than usual. The only difference, apart from the brown flour, was the yeast being a little light, being a touch short of five level teaspoons rather than a touch more.

But taking it out of the airing cupboard - warm because we have had the heating on during the day during the cold snap - after two hours, it had not risen much at all. I could probably have gone to second knead, but opted instead to put it back for another couple of hours. Making a total of near four and a half hours. 

Second knead easy, with the dough far less sticky than usual. But again, after a couple of hours in the proving bin in the front room - also warm - not much rising action. Left for another couple of hours. Making again a total of near four and a half hours. By which time the dough had risen to near the level of the rims of the tins, perhaps a little more than usual. Rather a bumpy surface which was a bit ominous. Bubbles?

In the event the batch turned out OK, as snapped above at half past nine, near twelve hours after I started. Maybe twice as long as usual.

Too late to sample last night, but it was fine this morning. Crust particularly good - helped along, I might say, by the use of butter to grease the tins. And I don't think that I would have known that the flour was different from the appearance and taste of the crumb had I not known. As it were.

So why did it all take so long? The bread was proved at a higher temperature than usual, despite the cold outside. The yeast might have been fractionally low but hard to see why that should have made such a big difference. Which just leaves the change of flour. By why should a modest change in two sevenths of the flour make any difference to the rise? Did the essential flour omit bread improvers added to the premium stuff?

It is true that the dough felt cold at the end of the first knead, but that might have been my hands and would, one would have thought, soon be sorted out by the warmth of the airing cupboard.

We will have to wait to see what happens next week, with Batch No.673.