More no score

Tuesday was a hot day and a day for batch No.726. Hot enough that the dough rises faster than usual. From which I associate to the remarks in reference 2 about how people once thought that reliable biological clocks were impossible because everything biological speeds up rapidly with temperature. Now we know better, even if not all the details have been nailed down. I might also say that despite starting off accessible enough, I am still working my way through this book more than six months after purchase.

The first rise went off well enough and the second rise went off over lunch time. Before lunch, all looked well, dough rising but still well down in its tins. At the end of our first course, I thought it was time to turn the oven on. A little early, but better too early than too late. By the end of lunch, it was too late. The oven had come to heat (225°C), but the dough had risen well above the rims of its containing tins and was bubbling up. Which meant that it collapsed shortly after going into the oven, the first time this has happened for a while, the newish Royalty flour being much better in this regard than the Alto flour which came before.

However, it recovered, at least partially, with the result snapped above. The loaves were not as big as one might have hoped, but they were not flatbreads. Traces of collapse to be seen in the sharp edges around the tops, particularly visible to the left of the left hand loaf.

After all this, and a short break, I thought that a stroll down town to replenish stocks of wholemeal flour was in order. It was still quite hot, so I settled for out by way of Meadway and back by way of Court Rec[reation ground]. Where neglect of the hedge between the parallel paths running across the eastern end of the rec meant that the section by the vets was infested with blackberries, with a handful or so to be picked from each side. Both hard and sweet, very good in fact. I had forgotten, taking nearly all our blackberries in the form of cooked blackberry and apple, that fresh raw blackberries can be very good.

Back along to the bridge over the stream where I had taken the first berries of the season, as noticed at reference 3. Where I was able to pick and eat another handful. Also very good. Perhaps the heat of the afternoon made them even more welcome.

Home to find that the bread, while not great, was perfectly eatable and, as it turned out, it improved overnight. This seems to happen quite often. Very fresh is not always very best. This being reliably true in the case of cakes like Dundee cakes, which improve over weeks. Which is not the case with bread...

Moral: try harder to avoid a second rise over lunch. Which I already knew, but there is no accounting for dough.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/07/no-score.html.

Reference 2: Rhythms of Life: the Biological Clocks that Control the Daily Lives of Every Living Thing - Foster RG & Kreitzman L - 2004.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/07/out-and-about.html.