I cut 2 slices off, and they were terrible, as the title says. Gummy, flavor not fully developed. Exactly what I want. This is what I want from a sandwich bread. I will slice and toast this for the next few days. Toasting will firm it up, develop Maillard reactions, and allow any liquid to be sponged up. Marinated Pork Belly, pickled Red Cabbage, or both will soak in to the bread without making it soggy.

The point of this is that bread does not have to be beautiful when it comes out of the oven, it just needs to be good when you eat it.

  • The Giant KoreanMEnglish
    3•11 months ago

    Cold proofing is a great way to develop flavor, but the down side is that it’s hard to tell if something is ready to bake. It’s also easy to overproof for the same reason. It just requires baking the same recipe multiple times using the same fridge until you get a handle on the proper amount of proofing time. Another way you could develop the flavor is by using a preferment like a bigga.

    Undercooking can be avoided by taking the temp of the bread using a thermometer. It should be 200F inside, minimum.

    But yes, you can def save a bread that hasn’t come out quite right! Toasting is a great way to do that.

    • @[email protected]OPEnglish
      2•11 months ago

      I’m saying that I do all those things on purpose when I am baking a sandwich loaf. I always will toast the bread first unless I’m making grilled cheese.

      Any other type of bread is baked the way it should be, proper rise times, etc. The exception to that is when I am playing around with very long cold ferments (5+ days), or alternative leaveners like rice, chillies, beans, whatever. They’re much more unpredictable in behavior.