Over the weekend I made an overnight white loaf, methodology was something along the lines of the following:
- Activate yeast in water, mix with the bread until well incorporated. Leave for 30 minutes.
- Add the salt, mix in with the dough. Leave for 30 minutes.
- "Knead" the dough in the bowl, mixture was very wet and recipe said not to add more flour so this possibly wasn't sufficient kneading. Leave for 30 minutes.
- "Knead" again, cover and leave overnight. As it was a Sunday and I'm lazy, was left for roughly 12 hours.
- Place on floured work surface, knock back and shape. Place in oiled bowl. Leave for 2 hours to rest.
- Oven to 200 Centigrade, container of boiled water at the bottom to make the oven steamy to get a nice crust.
- Bake for 45 minutes, leave to cool.
The crust was lovely and I'm happy with it, but the interior was rather stodgy, and reminiscent of how it feels to eat a crumpet.
Which steps that I took from the above are likely causes of the crumb being sub par, and what is the correct approach to avoid "crumpet crumb" in the future?
Quantities were:
- 500g Strong white bread flour
- 390ml warm water
- 10g yeast
- 1 tsp salt