Catching up on co-op bread

So, I forgot to post last week when I made bread (on Valentine's day...I was in the co-op for something like 10 hours straight and made a ton of Valentines as well as a ton of bread). But it was good, I think. I tried to reduce the amount of water by a couple of cups because the time before was so loose, but I could really only reduce it by a cup or so. I added black olives and black pepper to the dough, which made it more exciting and delicious, but it was a little too peppery. It also exploded, by rising way faster than I thought it would - both in dough and loaf form. So I ended up with a lot of really flat, really large boules.

This time, I decided not to add anything to the dough, but to continue to reduce the amount of water, and also take down the amount of yeast and place it in a cooler spot in the kitchen. Again, I wasn't able to reduce the amount of water by that much, but the dough did come out a lot stiffer. I took the amount of yeast down a lot, from 5 3/4 T to 4 T.

I left the dough to rise for nearly three hours, which was a nice amount of time for it. The dough was pretty dry, so shaping proved a little difficult, since I wasn't really able to seal the seams on the bottom very well. I only let the loaves proof for about 40 minutes, in a warmer place, and they seemed like they were perfectly ready to go when I scored them and put them in the oven. Now only time will tell...

Adventures in Cooperation!

After a somewhat busy and rocky start to my last school semester, I have finally found the time this Saturday morning to make some bread in my co-op. Hooray! I am sticking to the book this time, but using half whole wheat, as per the co-op's preference.

Soaker:
29 1/8 c. WW flour (local and organic, so lots of hull and crunchy bits)
14 3/4 c. water (I didn't really measure the temperature, but I was trying for 77)

I let this rest for about a half hour while I measured the rest of the ingredients and traipsed all over campus trying to find salt.

Dough:
soaker
7 c. water
28 c. white flour (probably 3/4 King Arthur Sir Galahad and 1/4 organic)
7 3/4 T. salt
5 7/8 T. yeast

I kneaded it 5-10-5-10-5 and put it in an oiled tall container to rise. I'm a little worried about the temperature in the kitchen. I tried to measure it, but I think all of our thermometers are vaguely broken, so I covered the container in a plastic bag, put it in a corner near the oven, and am hoping for the best.