Having just bought Open Crumb Mastery by Trevor Wilson (not a plug, just a genuine wealth of information), I proceeded to not read it and do an experiment on a whim, with not much thought behind it.
I've always wondered about the function of the bulk fermentation(BF) vs the final proof in a banneton. I just couldn't find, through my own reasoning, why the biological processes that happen during the BF couldn't happen after shaping, simply with a longer final proof.
What I was trying to avoid was handling the dough after it had started to accumulate gas.
SO, I used the tartine country loaf, as usual, but cut the BF to like 45 minutes or maybe an hour, then shaped into loaves. The super flat loaf proofed for like five hours at room temp, then was baked. The slightly better one proofed in the fridge for 18ish hours.
My thinking is that, since this is such a slow recipe to begin with, neither of these alterations gave the organisms time to "activate" and begin properly fermenting/leavening the dough.
Still smells fucking stellar, though.
Lemme know what you think, I'd also welcome a good discussion about really open crumb
No crumb pictures, but, like, are they really necessary?
