It’s been a long time since I’ve baked bread. Almost a year and a half but I am back!! My favorite book Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast by Ken Forkish is probably the best bread book I have, and I have a bunch. This time I made the Overnight 40% Wheat Bread and you guessed it, there is 40% wheat flour in the bread. I’ve grown to like wheat bread but I have to say that the lighter amount of wheat is more pleasing to me.
The steps are pretty much the same as the other 3 loaves I’ve made from the book but the timing is a bit different for this one. Of course, it all starts with the autolyse. Just the flours and water, at the correct temperature of 90℉, are mixed and then allowed to rest for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, the salt and yeast are added then mixed in with some good old elbow grease. It has become my favorite part of the process. Folding, pinching, folding, pinching, you get the idea. For this bread there were 4 folds which I did in about 2 hours. This dough seems kind of tight and stiff but I think the wheat flour has a lot to do with that.
After the fourth fold, I covered the giant 12 quart bucket to let it proof for about 3 more hours. It took a while longer to triple in size probably because it was cold outside and I keep the temp. in the house at about 68℉. I could have used my proof box but I was too lazy to dig it out and set it up. It took a total of 6 hours to triple in size.
Now it was time to divide the dough and get it in the brotforms and in the refrigerator overnight.
Like I said, the timing was a bit different for these loaves. I started mixing at about 2:00 pm figuring that the loaves would be in the fridge by about 8 or so but since it took longer to triple in size, the timing was off. I got the loaves divided a little after 9:00 pm and into the fridge. They stay there for 12-14 hours and can be baked in the morning. You do need to put the brotforms in a non-perforated bag once they go in the fridge.
Sunday morning I checked on my loaves and they rose to almost the top of the form. Proofing bread over a longer period of time gives the bread more flavor, in my opinion.
They came out of the forms perfectly!! I had the oven preheating to 475℉ for about 45 minutes with my Dutch ovens inside. The trickiest part is still trying to put the loaves in a screaming hot cast iron pot. 
It’s hotter than hell and I have burnt myself once before. Things went smoothly this time, thank goodness. The loaves get baked for 30 minutes with the lid on then another 20 minutes or so without the lid. My loaves seemed done after a little over 10 minutes so I took them out of the oven. Oh my God it smelled good!!!!!!!
My most favorite part of baking bread is listening to it when it first comes out of the oven. It just crackles away and I can never get enough of that.
I’m pretty pleased with may efforts on this bake. The loaves turned out perfect and tasted so good. I made chicken noodle soup for dinner and had the bread with it. I think I would have been happy just eating the bread. Another recipe that I will definitely make again. But if it’s cold outside, I’ll use my proof box to speed up the process. Bien Cuit!!
