I only wanted to change one variable, but it turns out I forgot to consider temp (maybe).
My starter has been very active this wk (I keep it in the fridge btw sessions and pull it out and feed it a few days b/f I anticipate baking). Like, BIZARRELY active. I only bake a few times a year, and usually only during the holiday session. Although I’m pretty sure I must’ve baked at least 1-2x during the summer over the last few yrs, right?
Does starter get more active as it ages?
At any rate, I combined 2 recipes a few wks ago w/ good results (the ingredients from the Forkish overnight + fermentation schedule from some random person’s website [altough she does have some professional training]). I think I did an 18-hr proof the first time (wanted to bring the bread to a party and didn’t have time to do 24 hr cold proof).
This time, I decided to reduce hydration to 74% (down from 77%) and leave all the other variables the same.
As I dumped my levain in the dough, I was like, “I wonder if I should’ve used less b/c it’s quite warm…”
Well, the first prob is that my dough rose SO QUICKLY. In about 8 hours, it more than doubled. I don’t recall is rising that quickly last time.
Since I already messed up a 2nd variable, I guess I was feeling experimental. I tried a smaller proofing container and through it in the fridge. Normally, my dough doesn’t rise much in the fridge. This time, it continued to rise… like, a lot. So much so that it was basically hitting the towel above.
At 14 hrs, I wasn’t sure if it would continue to grow overnight and/or, if it was more active, to be an overproofed mess the next day. So I baked it late last night. As I was feeling the dough b/f taking it out of the proofing container, it still felt pretty tense in certain places. Uh, oh. Does the poke test apply when a dough is very cold? And if my loaves tend to be overproofed, maybe this is the way it’s supposed to feel???
The finished loaf looked pretty good (by my standards). The scoring did open up (which usually doesn’t happen for me), although not that loaves everyone else here does. Waited until the next morning to cut into it (there’s my test slice missing in the photos… 
).
Not great. A more dense crumb and still pretty wet. Wondering what would’ve happened had I waited the full 24+ hrs. You can also see in the cross section where the crumb looks as if the dough is looking to escape up the top. Def underproofed, I think.
Despite all the yeast activity, not much of a sour flavor. Crumb is a bit more dense and chewy than I prefer. Still “fine” and more than edible, but not craveable. Think I will make croutons from this.
Oven spring not improved.
This lower hydration dough was a bit easier to work w/ and shape. I might give it one more try w/ the longer cold proof and using my usual proofing container.
