I love whole wheat bread and whole grain bread and the bread I bake and the grain I mill myself. And it turned out not to be healthy for me even with the acid soaks and sprouting and all that.

I've been on a quest to learn new white breads, and especially the high hydration ones. They handle very differently from the breads I grew up making as well as the whole wheat/rye/grain ones I'd been making more recently. I posted before about the jungle bread which I kind of made up on the fly to use up a glut of very sour sourdough discard. It wasn't 100% successful as a loaf of bread, but had a good crumb and was totally delicious. I tried to replicate it on purpose but only got meh bread.

The end of last week, I decided to try a Reinhardt recipe for ciabatta. Big problem. It called for instant yeast, but I don't use it often. It didn't call for proving and I was trying to follow the recipe. In the fridge overnight it hydrated and spread and looked like it rose a little, but not much. So I set it out. After a good long warm up, I gave it a stretch and another rest on the counter. No rise. It finally occurred to me that the yeast was dead. I know the ADY in the jar in the fridge is fine so I shook a nice amount into my hand and folded it into the dough without warming it up (bad move not to raise it to room temp first). It did start to bubble and rise by the next morning, but not confidently. I gave it another quick knead, all the while hearing Linda's (written) voice saying it can always be saved, just punch it down and knead it some more. This time it doubled.

It was still really wet, or wetter, really and I wasn't feeling great, so I poured it into a loaf pan instead of trying to shape it as it ran away. It didn't rise so well in the pan, but I finally decided it was ready to bake. What I'd forgotten was that it was supposed to be ciabatta, and it actually did rise ciabatta high. I have a small pizza steel which was a lat easier to wrassle into the oven than my big pizza stone, but I forgot that it would be metal on metal, in a very hot oven. So it got a little charred. Not inedible char. More like pizza char. Not actually burnt. In the end, the crumb was ciabatta, the crust had a lot of tooth, and just shy of crunch, and the slight char was a pleasant additional flavor. I bet if I made it right with live yeast, it would come out right. As it is, it was really good and every bit got eaten. I'll try again, but I'm not sure if I'll get new instant yeast or use his instructions for ADY.

I bought KA unbleached bread flour for this. I've been avoiding KA because of inconsistencies in the flour. No diff here. It proclaims a not too high for bread flour protein content, but from the first bit of water hitting it, it's stiff and heavy, both in the wet ciabatta and the next drier loaf. I'm going to look for a different unbleached bread flour. I'd love to find organic. I have fantasies of sifting out the bran and using my wheat berries, but I don't know if I can find the right mesh.

Since I was eyeing the frond of sage that dried in the drainer as extra picked, to put in the ciabatta, but decided I needed to do the recipe as stated once (hah!), I decided to try the recipe on the flour wrapper. I mean, people like KA recipes, and it was simple enough. It was for "Tuscan" bread, which it wasn't because real Tuscan bread has no salt, but this had herbs and salt and sounded tasty. I had read through quickly before and thought it was wet, but decided to start it before breakfast today. I'm follow a recipe operational first thing in the morning but not so much think ready.

I didn't really catch the disconnect between the amount of water called for and the description that it should be kneaded until it was a very soft dough (which what had led me to think it was wet). It started tight and shaggy, and got tighter and stiffer. Resorting to the dough hook crossed my mind, but it was too hard for it, and would have sent the mixer walking away and vibrating the pin that locks the head on out. Instead, I kneaded until I had the "well stretched glutinous lump" which one aims for in general, though I kept having to wet my hands because it was sucking all the moisture out of them. I should have listened to my instincts to add water, especially since this recipe is by volume, but the old do what it says the first time was in my head. Still, it doubled properly in the projected amount of time, as did the shaped loaf. Not much oven spring, but it bakes at 375° F, with less hydration, and no hot mass, so I'm not surprised. The slashes opened some but didn't erupt.

It took bake time past the recipe just to get it golden. It didn't call for a steam tray or protein wash or anything, and getting it just to be lightly golden took extra time in a very accurate oven. I didn't dare try for brown. It is well baked with a nice hollow thump. The texture is very close and even, however, and it really could have used more water. Or less flour. It called for 2 tsp pizza seasoning or Italian herbs. I didn't want it to taste full on pizza, so I took the "or" as permission to do my own thing, and did 1 tsp dried pizza herbs, one of powdered alliums and pepper, and a good few shakes of crushed red pepper flakes. It's delicious. The herbs mostly disappeared but left behind a flavor that's actually in the crumb, rather than just mixed in. This one bears repeating, with a few adjustments.

It's fun baking bread that's easier than cake. :)