"Balloon" taste test

I had a hard time making myself wait to the next day for the look, feel, and taste test of the sourdough loaf I dubbed the balloon. Well, I just gave it a try and here are my observations:

• The crust is thick and hard but still acceptable for bread it also broke up in a couple of places. Believe the cracks in the crust are from imperfections while forming the loafs when seams and folds were not properly fused before putting the bread into the oven.
• The crumb is a little dense and dry but once again, finally within acceptable range. It is full of bubbles but the bubbles are smaller than in store bought bread.
• The salt is not quite evenly distributed. I added the salt late to the dough to help out the yeast and had to resort to kneading alone to mix it into the dough. Apparently, that wasn't quite enough.

In spite of that criticism the "balloon" constitutes legitimate bread and it is actually quite good for a straight wheat bread without any extra ingredients. Even better, I believe all three problems above are easily remedied, taking one simple measure: Add more water to the dough!

If the dough is wetter then the crust should not dry out as much during baking. A wetter dough should also fuse seams and folds more readily than dry dough does. Wetter dough should also produce a juicier crumb and may also allow for bigger bubbles to develop. Last not least it should be a lot easier to work the slat into wet dough than into a dry dough that's mostly already set.

The downside? Well, it is messier to knead wet dough than dry. Maybe I can put some oil on my hands for the kneading to avoid most of the stickiness. Also, a wetter dough will not hold its loaf shape as well as dry dough does. The photo of the "balloon" suggests I have plenty of margin, though. Trying more water in the dough seems therefore pretty much obvious.

How much more water? Well, that's the trick. So I am not yet expecting the next attempt to be a home run. A few attempts may be necessary to determine just the right amount of liquid. Until then, I do hope for incrementally better bread with each new iteration.

I can't wait to get started!