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Thanksgiving again! My signature event. This year was back down to one turkey from last year's two, but it was just as fun. Things seemed pretty easy-going as opposed to hectic, getting ready for dinner. This year, I tried something new with the turkey prep: I rubbed herbed butter under the skin on the breasts and thighs. This really helped with turning the skin golden each time I basted the bird. I'm going to do this again for a client next week who ordered a turkey.
I also made my own bread, continuing to practice a recipe from "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" by Peter Reinhart. I have been making the pain a l'ancienne that he loves so much. I'm thinking that the flavor is good, just a little too dense for me. It's possible that I'm not giving it enough time to warm up, or that I'm degassing it too much when I handle it. I've tried several different things now, but I think the next time I'm going to go back to his original method without any turn-and-folds. I'm going to let it really warm up before I bake it.
The thing that's different about this method is that he lets the dough rest overnight in the refrigerator after mixing it. He also doesn't really do any shaping or proofing other than cutting it into strips. I've tried doing it his way, I've also tried doing a number of turn-and-folds along with shaping it like a baguette. The best results so far were today when I did three turn-and-folds and shaped the dough like a baguette. Decent flavor, but it was still dense in the middle, not what I would expect from dough with such a high water content (75%). My ignorant suspicion is that the gluten isn't developed enough to hold the gas from the yeast which is why I've been doing the turn-and-folds lately. I'm going back to the beginning, however to see how that turns out since the first time I made this receipt I think my yeast was a little weak to make an adequate test.
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