EXPERIMENTS WITH LAMINATING LEAN DOUGH

Steps:

• Mix all of the ingredients together and let rest for about 30-45 minutes. (Time periods between gluten development manipulations are on the longer side due to low inoculation.)
• Scoop-mix the dough off the edges of the bowl and do a few coil folds. See this video for clarification if needed. Cover and let the dough rest 30-45 minutes.
• Clean and wet a large surface, such as a table or countertop. Scrape your dough out onto it, and gently pull the sides outward, grasping from underneath and going around and around the dough until you have a large thin sheet. Then fold it inward from as many sides as necessary until you have a neat blob. Return the dough to your bowl, cover it and let it rest another 30-45 minutes.
• Do two more rounds of coil folding again about 30-45 minutes apart, and then let the dough finish bulk fermenting until it is puffy, usually about 6-8 hours from mixing until the end of the bulk fermentation, depending on room temperature. See photos in the gallery for a sense of dough growth.
• Flour your counter and gently scrape your dough out onto it. Preshape the dough into a ball and let it rest 20-30 minutes.
• Flour your proofing basket. Shape your dough and place it in the floured basket.
• Proof your dough in the refrigerator 10-16 hours, or at room temperature 1-2 hours, or combine cold and warm proofing in countless ways. Preheat your oven to 500F 30 minutes before the end of the proof.
• Flip your dough into the hot baking vessel (or onto parchment paper first), score, cover the vessel, and put it in the oven.
• Bake at:
• 500F for 15 minutes covered
• 450F for 10 minutes covered (if using a cast iron baking vessel, I put a baking sheet on the same oven shelf directly under the dutch oven at this point)
• 450F for 10 minutes uncovered
• The internal temperature should be around 205F. Let the bread cool before slicing.