Pandemic Baking: Sourdough #11 and #12

This weekend was bulk baking weekend.
The plan was to bake four loaves in two days.
We started to feed the starter Thursday night for the first two loaves, for baking Friday evening.
We fed the starter Friday morning for the next two loaves, for baking Saturday morning.

The following are our notes for the first two loaves.
We were using Pillsbury bleached all-purpose flour, with 70% hydration level.
Of note, the time from fold #2 to fold #3 was 40 minutes, not 30 minutes.

We moved the dough from the mixing bowl into a larger square container with lid for bulk fermentation.

We had a lot of trouble with pre-shaping and shaping, as we were too conservative in using flour on our working surface and our hands, and the dough kept sticking.
We definitely didn't have a nice tension pull during final shaping.

Since our second banneton basket has not yet arrived, we put one in the banneton basket and the second one in a colander with a tea towel to rest.

This was our baking timeline for sourdough #11:
1. Preheat oven with Dutch oven to 500 deg F setting for about an hour
2. Score a simple cross from the colander dough
3. Put dough in Dutch oven with lid on, and reduce setting to 475 deg F
4. After 18 minutes, rotate the Dutch oven 180 degrees
5. After 11 minutes, remove the lid
6. After 5 minutes,  move the loaf onto bare rack and switch to convection baking at 450 deg F
7. After 4 minutes, open the oven to check
8. Bake for one additional minute

Baking timeline for the follow-on sourdough #12:
9. Switch back to baking at 500 deg F and put Dutch oven back in and wait
10. Once oven thermometer reading showed 450 deg F, score the dough from the banneton
11. Add two ice cubes in the Dutch oven with the dough
12. Leave the oven setting at 500 deg F
13. After 18 minutes, rotate the Dutch oven 180 degrees
14. After 11 minutes, remove the lid
15. After 5 minutes, move the loaf onto bare rack and switch to convection baking at 450 deg F
16. After 6 minutes, rotate the loaf 180 degrees
17. Bake for 2 additional minutes

Sourdough #11 on left, #12 on right (both 70% hydration)

Sourdough #12 (ice cube method) had much lower rise

Sourdough #11

Sourdough #12 still has nice crust and open crumb

We were not able to achieve the beautiful caramelized color of sourdough #10, and we were also surprised at how much lower rise sourdough #12 had.

We gave away the better looking of the two, sourdough #11, to Bad Dog and Boss Dog.
We cut up sourdough #12 without waiting for the appropriate cooling period, and noted that the crumb was still a bit wet and was sticking to the knife.

However not as nice looking as what we have been used to, sourdough #12 still tasted excellent, with crispy crust, and a bit more sourdough tangy taste than all our previous loaves.

There were two of us shaping the dough, and we were thinking that the shaping experience was critical in the bread rise in this case, but we were not sure if the ice cubes, instead of helping, also hindered the rise process of sourdough #12.

Therefore, next experiment: ice cube vs no ice cube for our third and fourth loaves of the weekend!