Screw slice of life. It’s time for slice of bread and other baked goods!
I went through my sourdough phase the year before it was cool, so I’ve made some pretty wet doughs, but King Arthur’s Pan de Cristal was my first 100% hydration. This was a spur-of-the-moment decision and of course I didn’t have bread flour in the house, so per my MO, starting off on the best possible foot. But I had nothing but time and a willingness to fail (failure in this case being pouring yeast batter into a buttered dish and ending up with oven-fried semi-flatbread, woe is me), so I went for it anyway.
Since AP flour has lower protein content than bread flour, I knew I’d have to put a lot more work into gluten development to create anything other than flour soup, and I was not wrong. I stirred it in the mixing bowl until there was some visible stretch, and then I did an extremely prolonged course of that first pan fold. After that rest, the coil still wasn’t happening, so another extensive pan folding ensued. Then I was able to lift the dough once, but it broke, so the dough and I had a pan/coil combo session. I probably added 90 minutes to their 6-hour estimate trying to get the elasticity going, but I prevailed!
I’ve been writing this book for 47 million years. Your silly little bread isn’t going to defeat me.