I dislike these trendy breads. They have excessively hard crusts and large holes, both of which I consider defects. My favorite bread is made with low hydration dough (50% water by baker's percentage, i.e. percent of flour weight) for a dense crumb, and cooked by steaming for an extra-soft crust. The trendy recipes also have too much salt, which masks the flavor of the fermentation products. IMO 1% salt by baker's percentage is sufficient. Sourdough is helpful for adding flavor to wholegrain or non-wheat breads, but for standard white bread I find it never develops much sourness, and long proofing with standard dried yeast is just as good.
Try experimenting with recipes yourself instead of just copying what's popular. I think a lot of bread recipes are designed to make good looking bread, rather than bread that's enjoyable to eat.
Yeah, I agree. It seems to happen a lot when one culture attempts to copy another. The artifact will be analysed and reduced to a few properties which are then optimised. The article talks about how British Chorleywood bread was optimised for price and how that's not right. Well, guess what, optimising food for anything except eating pleasure won't be good either.
It happened to beer. Americans discovered the centuries-old brewing traditions of Britain and Belgium and then turned the characteristics up to 11. What you get is beer brewed with so much hop it's just not pleasant any more. And so much malt that it now has to be sipped like wine. And in the end you've just got yourself another hyper-optimised product.
Some of these hipster loaves have crusts so tough that I'm seriously concerned about my teeth. But, hey, the baker has been learning how to make that gluten network even stronger so it must be good. The holes are so large it reminds me of atomic structure of matter: more empty space than bread. I can't spread butter on air. Nor can I hold cheese with a something tougher than shoe leather.
At the end of the day there is one thing that matters: is it nice to eat? If you go to France and find a boulangerie on any street corner in the country you will find a baguette. I could tell you about what makes it a baguette---the soft French, unbleached flour; the Viennese steam oven, the cultured yeast, and so on---but none of that really matters. What matters is it tastes wonderful, it feels great, and it works well with other foods. In short, it's a joy.
70% hydration is not super high. Tartine is around 75%, IIRC. But if your bread is "fairly dense" you might have other problems. You might find this bread troubleshooter useful. It shows pictures of various crumbs and what the probable cause of the problem is.
Most likely cause of a dense crumb is underproofing, though a too-cold oven won't help either.
The most likely cause of a tight (but not dense) crumb is knocking too much air out during shaping. You can try varying the ratio of bulk ferment time to proofing time and see if that helps as well.
> The most likely cause of a tight (but not dense) crumb is knocking too much air out during shaping.
I'm certain this is it. I worked as a baker for a few years, but I was making bagels. So my feel for dough is all based on that dough. Very different stuff.
In my experience, the large holes will not form if you add low-gluten flour (rye, buckwheat, oat) to the mix, even with higher hydration. I make a 100%-rye bread with flax seeds that is very dense, although highly hydrated (100-110%!). Furthermore, it needs no proofing, only a single rise in a bread pan. The crust is not that hard and can be softened further by wrapping the hot bread in a kitchen towel. Another plus is that this type of bread will not dry out or spoil for over a week (I keep it wrapped in a towel).
As for the salt, I agree - 1% should be plenty.
Try experimenting with recipes yourself instead of just copying what's popular. I think a lot of bread recipes are designed to make good looking bread, rather than bread that's enjoyable to eat.