Thank you for the positive feedback, Vince! Should you be willing to follow me on Instagram (kramerthebaker), that would be most appreciated.

Hi Terje. Thank you for your question. There are many factors that affect crust, e.g. salt, fermentation, acidification, ingredients, etc. Steam also greatly impacts crust, especially its texture. It is possible your loaves are exposed too long to steam at the beginning of your bake. Steam’s function is to keep the surface of the dough supple so the loaf can rise. Without steam, the crust will form too quickly and block the loaf from rising. As a general rule (particularly with wheat-based loaves), steam only until the crust starts to brown. Once this happens, the crust has begun to form and the steam is no longer serving its purpose. The longer the crust remains exposed to steam beyond this point, the thicker and chewier it can become. In a commercial deck oven environment, it is more effective to open the flue (for the remainder of the bake) and to slightly open the door (for the first two minutes of opening the flue) to remove steam fully from the chamber. Also, slightly keeping the door ajar during the last 2-3 minutes of the bake helps crisper the crust. In direct response to your question, I recommend experimenting removing the lid of your Dutch oven sooner in a controlled manner until you hit the sweet spot and get the thinner, crispier crust you desire. Please let me know how it works!

@@ambergrainbaking Thanks ! I will follow yur suggestions, and come back with some "results". Takes a little time since my kitchen is in a "rehab", but hopefully up and going sometime next week. 8 weeks without is not a good thing :-0

@@ambergrainbaking I've been asking myself the crust question. I believe I found a gem of an answer to that question. Great video, too!

Hi Adam. Thanks for watching the videos. As the percentage of rye increases and wheat decreases, the nature and processing of the dough changes immensely. In general - mixing becomes slower and longer; bulk fermentation is shorter and warmer; baking temps start higher and end lower. The rye section of Hamelman's Bread offers a solid overview of the basics. Beyond that there is lots of German language literature on rye bread (i.e. 50-100% rye) covering sourdough feeding methods (Detmolder, Mohnheimer, Berliner), acidification tables, quell/brueh/kochstueck, etc. I find rye both the most challenging and the most rewarding. Personally rye is my favorite bread to bake and eat!

I didn't really answer your specific questions, so... #1) as % of rye increases, autolse becomes less effective. This is because the gas trapping substance in rye is not gluten, but a mucous-like by-product of pentosans (a highly water-absorbant polysaccharide) #2) please watch my Detmoder 2 video. Hamelman's book offers realistic guidelines on temp/bulk/proof based on % of rye

@@ambergrainbakingThanks! Did a little six mini-baguette test bake yesterday. The long autolyse worked beautifully!

Will re-read Hamelman on the rye side. I've been making some fairly light ryes that I like for a long time. My higher rye content breads are a lot less consistent, would like to bring them into much better control.

@@AdamSmith-de4xd Hi Adam. Thanks for the feedback. I’m happy the extended autolyse had a positive effect on the crumb structure of your baguettes. I’ve been thinking a lot about our (the baking community, including myself) obsession with open crumb and just wanted to share some thoughts. Open crumb can be a positive attribute in some scenarios (e.g. baguette) and a negative attribute in others (e.g. sandwich loaf and rye). I hope that we are not losing our focus on the remaining quality characteristics of good bread - taste (do we want a second bite?), crust (does the crust shatter when I cut or bite into it?), crumb (is it moist and chewy?), texture (is there contrast between the crust and crumb), scent (is it pleasing and complex?), nutritious (are the ingredients simple and wholesome?), aesthetic (is the loaf beautiful to the eye?). Autolyse is just a tool in the toolbox. But there are so many other factors that can effect the crumb structure. #1) it is unrealistic to expect whole grain breads - endosperm, bran, and germ - to have as open a crumb structure as breads made with all-purpose flour - endosperm only. #2) the degree of gluten development especially at the mixing and early bulk fermentation stages. #3) the dough development process especially during bulk fermentation. This is determined in great part by timing and method of stretch and folds as well as the degree to which we allow the dough to accumulate CO2. #4) handling of the dough during shaping Finally, the employment of autolyse is tactile and experiential. By this I mean, we bakers can be making constant assessments of the dough’s extensibility and elasticity when using autolyse. Does the dough feel 50% extensible and 50% elastic, or 60%/40% or 70%/30%? At what ratio did it achieve the desired results? And over time, bake after bake, practicing these assessments. If you made it to this point, thank you for reading and “listening”. I’d love to hear your (and others’) thoughts. Stephen

Scratch that question, Stephen. I got it, you use both! Thanks!

Hi Barry. Thank you. For baguettes I personally use a liquid starter.

Interesting questions. In general I prefer to slightly undermix and further develop dough strength with a couple stretch and folds during bulk fermentation. Less mechanical mixing, more flavor. S&F's also re-distribute heat evenly in the dough mass helping along fermentation. Quality vs quantity of gluten. AP flours (eg KA Gallahad) milled from hard red winter wheats have lower protein content but better quality for hearth style breads. HG flours (KA Lancelot) milled from spring wheats yield higher protein content but lesser quality for hearth loaves, and maybe better for smaller items such as bagels or as a supplement to a predominantly rye flour dough.

I'd like to add it would be a very interesting experiment to make two pain au levain doughs, one with AP, the other with HG. I suspect the HG loaf will be stronger and more difficult to shape, but an extended autolyze might help soften the dough?

I've noticed some related findings about your comment #1 and my loafs. When I knead the dough by using a stand mixer machine till the gluten network is completely developed and an incredible window pane is achieved (till the dough releases the bowl of the mixer), the dough seems less elastic and the final crumb tends to have smaller holes and more chewy texture, whereas using the hand kneading approach, the dough is more elastic and the crumb is more open and less chewy. I'd like to know if someone has similar characteristics here...

So I'm wondering if the stand mixer is really worth using...

@@rodolfoantoniassi4643 Good points! I also feel mixing small batch doughs by hand (especially in a home baking environment) is a great way to learn the tactile aspects of dough development.

Hi Gordan, Thank you for your question. I'd like to clear up any possible misunderstandings of the process outlined in the video. 1) Autolyze of flour and water for two hours 2) Add/mix in salt and preferment, e.g. poolish, biga, sourdough sponge 3) bulk fermentation 4) divide and shape 5) proof either room temp or retard 5) bake I recommend using a preferment, which adds both flavor and shelf-life to in comparison to breads made with straight dough. There are many paths to the same goal. For example, some add the preferment in the autolyze stage. This works well, particularly if the preferment is a small percentage. The important thing to remember is to leave salt out of autolyzed dough. Salt is hydroscopic (meaning it absorbs water) and will hinder protease enzymatic activity, which is the primary influencer for obtaining a more extensible than elastic dough. Please let me know how your experiment works out! Regards, Stephen www.ambergrainbaking.com

@@ambergrainbaking Just found your channel. Great info. After the autolyse, when adding the salt, how will the salt melt/get absorb without any additional water?? Are we just relying on the dough hydration and kneading process? Thanks.

@@vjgarozzo One can withhold some of the water to add with the salt. I either sprinkle it on top either just after mixing the autolysed dough or just before mixing the final dough. In either case, non-iodized fine grain salt is preferred.

70%

What is the baker's percentages for your baguette?

@@rodneylong728 flour@100%, water@70%, salt@1.8%

Thank you for your question. Bran absorbs a lot of water, which is why we generally hydrate whole grain loaves more than non-whole grain loaves, i.e. all purpose flour milled only from the endosperm part of the berry). Bran also has a cutting effect on gluten when mixing. In response to your question, I recommend two things - autolyse and higher hydration using bassinage. A 30-60 minute autolyse will give the bran a chance to hydrate and soften before the more aggressive second speed mix. Also try increasing your recipe’s hydration by 5-10%, but add that additional 5-10% slowly toward the end of your second speed mix. This technique called “bassinage” promotes gluten development during the first half, and increased hydration during the second half of second speed mix.

@@ambergrainbaking This is a bit complicated, but I will study this over and give it a go. Thanks much for the reply. Much appreciate this! A way I have found to get the bran back in after sifting it out is to sprinkle the bran on top of the white flour dough part, after rolling it out flat, and then roll it up. Been getting some very cool loaves that rise high, and they are marbled with the bran. Weird but it's working. Still going to try your suggestion. Tkx again!

Hard pressed to find what "speed mix" is, but I'll assume you mean the time to make my bread from beginning to end, as I am inclined to produce a loaf the next day rather than wait for the dough to cure in the fridge too long. I searched for bread making and what "speed mix" means, but all the recipes come up and kind of mask the info I'm looking for. Ya there are a few things that even google isn't great at. On reading over your suggestion again, it seems like I could pull this off quite easily. Thank you again very much!👍

@@thatisartnotpffft6368 commercial spiral mixers usually have two speeds - first speed (slow) and second speed (fast). RPMs of second speed are about 2x that of first speed. "First speed mix" means mixing the dough on the slower first speed setting. "Second speed mix" means mixing the dough on the faster second speed setting.

This depends on the type of flour, % of prefermented flour and preferment type. You are correct, it will be more difficult to hydrate the flour with less water, will also be difficult to add the levain and salt to the stiffer dough, and autolyse will be less effective as protease enzymes are more active in a wet environment. With lower hydration loaves, one has the option to include the levain (but not the salt) as part of the autolyse.

Sorry, didn't exactly address your question. 50% hydration of autolyzed dough is too low (will require too much mixing resulting in mechanical gluten development, and too little protease activity which favors wet environment). Some general guidelines: I would consider autolyzing doughs >65% hydration. Less than that you're moving into roll/bun territory. Doughs 65-75% hydration, autolyse with levain. Doughs >75% hydration, autolyse without levain. I hope this is helpful.

@@ambergrainbaking Very helpful! I hope to be back in PA to visit in March and will head up to Boyertown to buy some of your beautiful bread, etc. Thanks!

Yes, of course. The "secret" has nothing to do about sourdough culture. It has to do about the relationship between elasticity and extensibility using autolyze.

@@ambergrainbaking Thank you so much Chef!!🙏🏽