She Was Wet, Sloppy, and Stunning · Crust & Crumb Academy

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She Was Wet, Sloppy, and Stunning

So this little yeast water loaf almost didn’t make it.

Scaled down to about 230g of flour because that’s what I had. Aimed for 75% hydration. Felt like 85% the second I started mixing. After the salt went in, she came apart on me and stayed sloppy way longer than I’m used to.

Here’s what I did:

🥖 Bulked on the counter

🥖 Three hours in the fridge

🥖 20 minutes in the freezer to firm her up for scoring

🥖 Seven minute score rest

🥖 18 minutes lid on, 6 minutes lid off

🥖 Pulled at 210°F internal

She popped. Clean ear, the wheat stencil came through gorgeous, and the crumb made every wet, sloppy minute worth it.

The lesson here is simple. Sometimes your hydration math says one thing and your dough says another. Listen to the dough. The freezer trick saved this bake. If a wet dough won’t take a score, give her 15 to 20 minutes in the freezer before you reach for the lame.

Yeast water is its own animal. The fermentation profile is different from sourdough, and when you scale down small you’ve got less margin for error. Doesn’t mean you can’t pull it off. Just means you’ve got to pay attention.

Watch the short here: https://youtube.com/shorts/-CYJLw9tLyE?si=OpWilM05I47TN6Ui

The full bake walkthrough drops on YouTube soon.

This is the kind of raw, in-the-kitchen-with-me content I’m doing more of for you all who want to see how I actually bake, not the polished version.

Perfection is not required. Progress is.

~ Henry ⭐🔥

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