Bread Number 83: Am I Making Almost the Same Breads Over and Over? Yes

I have never sought out a career that demands travel. A few widely-spaced trips a year, fine. But for several months it felt like I was constantly out of town. I was not quite, but too much in terms of getting into a rhythm for bread baking. A whole week at home for Christmas week will revive me. Then, perhaps another trip in January.

Bread #83 was a rye with a little whole wheat flour mixed in because I had very few wheat berries left. Now it's time to reorder, but I haven't caught up with all manner of things at home after the last trips, those to beautiful Colorado, friendly Texas, and dynamic Alabama.

The nice part about baking for so long is that even off my game I have standard go-to formulas. This means I can whip up a dough and I feel confident without paying too much attention. Not how I generally like to proceed - fan of mindfulness and all that -  but there is other stuff in my life besides bread. 

Ingredients
200g starter (made with white flour)
290g water
38g whole wheat flour
141g rye flour
271g bread flour
8g caraway seeds
11g salt

I used a lot of starter because my jar was pretty full. Plus, I initially planned for an overnight rise at a kitchen temperature of 70 degrees. Turned out to be 65 and I left the dough out half a day more. It helped to have a person at home who could put the dough in the fridge, not a luxury one has with a regular commuter lifestyle.

Instructions
Mix all ingredients well and cover. I did two stretch and folds, each 30 minutes apart. Then I let the dough rise on the counter for 14 hours. Next, in the fridge for six hours.

Despite not much fridge time - I  usually wait for 24 hours of fridge time - I decided to bake. 

Preheat oven for one hour with dutch oven inside at 470 degrees. 

Just  before baking, take dough out of fridge. Shape, do the slash on top, and sprinkle with water. Don't forget to sprinkle some rice flour into the dutch oven before plopping dough in there.

I forgot, but I got lucky. No sticking of dough to dutch oven bottom.

Baking time: 53 minutes, the last five uncovered. Beautiful oven spring. Nice solid go-to bread taste. Nice to have a great bread be normal.

Second try

I left out the whole wheat flour because I have not gotten to the wheat berry purchase yet. I am buying food storage containers to store them and the order for wheat and rye berries should be made today. I accounted for the lack of whole wheat flour by increasing the bread flour amount to 339 grams.

This time the dough took 18 hours for the first rise, followed by 11 hours in the fridge. Lovely, lovely oven spring and a great taste. A nice rye is always a winner in this household.