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Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza: Ken Forkish: 9781607742739: Amazon.com: Books
I recently checked out this book from the library, looks like it is about a year old, but I haven't seen any discussion of it on here.
I have followed Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day with mostly positive results, good oven spring if I correctly time the proofing stage. The main downside is I never got a crackly crust. His method of pouring water into a preheated pan was always kludge-y, never really generated enough steam, and frankly a little dangerous.
Forkish's method are very similar to Reinhart's; high hydration, low yeast seeding, long cool bulk fermentation, divide, proof, and bake at high temperature. The primary difference is the way he generates steam, which is similar to Jim Lahey's No Knead Bread. Put an empty Dutch Oven (I have a ceramic Emile Henry model) in for 45 mins at 475 to preheat. Put the cold dough in and bake with the lid on for 30 mins, then remove the lid and bake another 20 mins.
I'll tell you what; this has been the most consistently excellent bread I've ever made. Huge oven rise, even with 40% whole wheat flour, open crumb and the crackliest crust I've gotten outside the local bakery.
Also he bypasses the slash-and-score by baking upside down, so the seam you made when forming the boule naturally opens as it bakes. Why didn't I think of that?
I've only done this in my kitchen electric oven; I don't have confidence in being able to set and maintain exactly 475 for 50 minutes in the WFO. Frankly I'm not sure there would be much benefit, unless you could get a bit of smoke flavor from the oven walls.
For those of you struggling with steam generation for hearth breads, do yourself a favor and cook this book.
I recently checked out this book from the library, looks like it is about a year old, but I haven't seen any discussion of it on here.
I have followed Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day with mostly positive results, good oven spring if I correctly time the proofing stage. The main downside is I never got a crackly crust. His method of pouring water into a preheated pan was always kludge-y, never really generated enough steam, and frankly a little dangerous.
Forkish's method are very similar to Reinhart's; high hydration, low yeast seeding, long cool bulk fermentation, divide, proof, and bake at high temperature. The primary difference is the way he generates steam, which is similar to Jim Lahey's No Knead Bread. Put an empty Dutch Oven (I have a ceramic Emile Henry model) in for 45 mins at 475 to preheat. Put the cold dough in and bake with the lid on for 30 mins, then remove the lid and bake another 20 mins.
I'll tell you what; this has been the most consistently excellent bread I've ever made. Huge oven rise, even with 40% whole wheat flour, open crumb and the crackliest crust I've gotten outside the local bakery.
Also he bypasses the slash-and-score by baking upside down, so the seam you made when forming the boule naturally opens as it bakes. Why didn't I think of that?
I've only done this in my kitchen electric oven; I don't have confidence in being able to set and maintain exactly 475 for 50 minutes in the WFO. Frankly I'm not sure there would be much benefit, unless you could get a bit of smoke flavor from the oven walls.
For those of you struggling with steam generation for hearth breads, do yourself a favor and cook this book.
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