I have started to question the validity and authenticity of Trabics recipes;

See Travic’s Post titled: “The best way to get me to make you another loaf is to send me a picture of what you did with this one”; and, “Wanna guess which one stuck to the banneton?”

The book that Trabic says his dough is copied from; Ken Forkish’s “Evolutions in Bread”; is a sourdough book. There are no yeasted breads in that book. I have just downloaded it to check.

I am 69 years old. I have baked bread my entire life, worked in many artisan bakeries and have never seen a bread recipe that refers to salt as NaCl.

I have read a mulitude of baking books and followed pretty much every recipe: and not one book refers to salt as NaCl.

The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread Peter Reinhart 2016

The Perfect Loaf_ the Craft and Science of sourdough - Maurizio Leo 2022

Richard Bertinet - Crust_ From sourdough, spelt and rye bread to ciabatta, bagels and brioche (2019)

Carol Field - The Italian Baker-Ten Speed Press (2011)

Tartine bread (2010, Chronicle Books)

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I have made both of Trabic’s recipes that have been uploaded here.

They both call for an extremely long “bulk fermentation” time of 4.5 hours which does not work.

30 minutes autolyse, 3 hours bulk with 2 stretch and folds, then another 1 hour for the final proof,

The Bulk fermentation, that everyone uses for sourdough, is not used with yeasted doughs.

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I initially thought it was a genuine mistake, so I let it go and adjusted the recipes accordingly, but the second post has exactly the same 4.5 hours bulk fermentation times.

After 4.5 hours of bulk fermentation the yeast has become completely exhausted, the dough collapses and there is no oven spring at all, which happened when I initially tried the recipe, even though I reduced the bulk time to 2.5 hours, which is still far too long.

see my posts: Trabics, Date, apricot and walnut bread, and, Wholemeal Date and Apricot sticky Bun Loaf.

The recipe works great at 68% hydration, with a first rise of 1 hour then a final proof of 30-45 minutes. This is pretty much the basic timings of all yeasted breads, buns, and pizza doughs.

In fact, this is the timing of every yeasted bread that I have ever made, at home, and in various bakeries in which I have worked. Never have I had to bulk ferment a yeasted bread for 4.5 hours.

Sourdough yes, but not yeasted breads.

Bulk fermentation is only used for sourdough, when a long rise in necessary because of the slow development of natural yeast.