Pandemic Baking: Sourdough #10

It was a massive sourdough baking weekend.
We are now baking our third loaf of the day.
The first two loaves have been delivered to their recipients, so this one is ours to enjoy.

We made a few more adjustments.

We started the process by feeding the dough on Friday evening for baking on Saturday evening.

We increased the hydration level to 70%.
We were still using Pillsbury bleached all-purpose flour.
The dough was definitely wetter, and stickier, but we managed all right.
It also rose super high, and expanded bigger than all the previous.

When it was time to score, we flipped the dough out of the banneton basket, and it expanded outward.
We scored very quickly, but still, it looked like it was about to deflate fairly quickly.
We rushed to put it in the Dutch oven, and it barely fit.

We had preheated the oven with the Dutch oven for about an hour at 500 deg F.
Once we put the dough in, we reduced the oven setting to 475 deg F.
We baked with the lid on for a total of 29 minutes, where we turned the Dutch oven 180 degrees after 18 minutes.
After 29 minutes, we took the lid off, and baked for another 5 minutes
Then we did something completely different: we removed the Dutch oven, and placed the loaf on the bare rack, and switched to convection.
When we checked 4 minutes later, the loaf was done, and the color was astounding!

Sourdough #10: astounding caramelized top, our first 70% hydration

After a proper cool off, we cut through the loaf, and we could immediately tell we had something special on our hands!
The crust was thin and crispy, both top and bottom.
The crumb was light and airy.
It was perfect in every way.

Sourdough #10: perfect in every way

Hm. But have we truly reached perfection?
So far, every time we tasted a new loaf, we thought it was better than the previous.
It looks like we need to continue on our journey, where the next step will take us to 75% hydration level!