Rosemary Bread Progress

After making a batch of spaghetti sauce, I knew I wanted to revisit a formula I worked on during the summer.I also wanted to try building the dough without the use of my mixer or hand kneading, just using in bowl stretch and folds and a final stretch and fold on my counter top. Rather than falling back on my familiar bread flour for its higher gluten content, I was hoping that turning the dough in the bowl, when done correctly, would be adequate for gluten development in the AP flour I used.


I think these turned out well for my second effort. There is room for improvement in that the slashes show evidence that I could have proofed for a little while longer. While I still have much to learn about using a couche, I'm liking the way batards turn out. I dug out my Italian loaf pan for this batch and it didn't do any harm at all.

Preferment
40g Wheat Montana Prairie Gold WWW
19 g Wheat Montana AP
41 g water at 90F
1/8 tsp active dry yeast

Dough

300 g WM AP
200 g water at 90F
All of preferment
1 1/2 Tbs minced rosemary
1 Tbs olive oil
8 g kosher salt
1/2 tsp active dry yeast

While there was a frost earlier this week that killed many more of the tender plants, it wasn't quite strong enough to take out the remaining allergens from the air or the last of the flying insects. Since Tuesday is election day in some states, it must be time to plant garlic. The common wisdom for planting garlic is to put it in no more than six weeks before the ground freezes. There's still some cleanup work to be done in the garden and in the flower beds on the east and south sides of our property. That will be a close run deal if I get it done.

Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.