Silly Flop Bread

Silly Flop Bread

It has been a while since I've had a bread disaster, so I figured it was time.

In keeping with my tradition, I'm showing here a failed bread that I made today.  It was a real flop.  All because I was being silly.  I didn't have a recipe, I was just winging it.  I guess this loaf shows I'm not quite ready for solo flying yet.

Well, a picture's worth a thousand words, so I'll let the pictures do (most of) the talking.


Context

I made another loaf with some of my sourdough discard.  This was 383g of Rye Sourdough at 70% hydratation, and 419g of Wheat Sourdough at 70% hydration -- total 802g, with is 561g flour, 241g water.  But that was the last thing I measured.

Ingredients

I added a quantity of whole wheat flour -- whatever was left in the bottom of the bag.

dump out some flour on the counter 

now add some sourdough discard to it

now knead it together as much as possible, even though it is pretty dry

Then I added a bit of oil, a bit of salt, a bit of yeast, but no more water, despite the fact that it was pretty dense and difficult to knead, even difficult to incorporate the amount of flour I was adding.

Add some yeast while kneading

Add some salt and some oil while kneading

knead until you have a smooth ball and everything is incorporated

Method

I let it bulk ferment in a bowl for about 2 hours.

After 2 hours, the dough has expanded, despite the fact that it is not well hydrated.

and then I dumped it directly on a hot stone in the oven, without any further shaping or proofing.

OOPS!  Silly goof: most of the dough stuck to the bowl when I dumped it onto the hot stone.
(Oh, was I supposed to oil this bowl?)

luckily, I could make a small bun with what I scraped off the inside of the bowl

That is one strange looking bread, with most of the top half missing.

I don't even remember how long or how hot the oven was.  Best guess: it was 400 degrees F. and the bread baked for 40 minutes.


Results

Aye carumba.  Well, I brushed on some butter while the bread was hot out of the oven, to see if that rough crust would improve or soften or something.  It is terribly rough because the whole bread got scalped by the bowl.

I doubt very much that I could do this again if I tried really really hard.  But that's okay: who wants to follow a recipe for disaster?

I sliced into the bun right away while it was warm.  I guess it was edible enough, slathered in butter and blue cheese.

I'm curious about what the main loaf's crumb will look like, since believe it or not, I was very gentle with it.

Notes to Myself

• You should have knocked it down and shaped it, and let it rise another time -- in a cloth-lined basket.
• There is a reason they're called discards.  Get rid of it!  You cheapskate.