Jason's bread 3.0 without poolish

Last time I blogged about Jason's bread recipe was version 2.1. What makes this one 3.0? Using only 2 oz for kneading instead of 4.4oz; using all-purpose flour instead of bread flour; and, baking in a dutch oven instead of on a stone with steam.

But this bread is absolutely identical to Jason's bread with poolish 1.0 that I just blogged about the other day with the exception that all the ingredients are mixed together right away instead of being separated into a poolish pre-ferment and remainder.

I kneaded the dough and put it in the fridge overnight. Kneading was a little easier since I could keep the flour on the outside longer than I could with the poolish version. I got the dough out the next morning and let it rise for 6 hours because the kitchen was in the 60's. It's unusually cold in Boston for May at the moment. Then I deflated, kneaded a bit and let it rise again for 1.5 hours. Shaped, proofed, etc, just like the other bread.

So, does poolish do anything for you? Not that we could easily tell. Unfortunately, we didn't have the breads side by side and it was not a blind tasting (we knew which was which). Jason thought non-poolish version was a tad chewier with a tad better flavor. I thought the poolish version was a tad chewier with a tad better flavor. But it was a very small "tad."

By the way, I picked up a good hand kneading technique by watching Gourmet magazine's video of Richard Bertinet making bread dough. I got this tip from the fabulous Bread Cetera blog.

Here is another picture of the crumb being held up to light. You see how it's uneven? Some parts are dense, some are super holey. My guess is I am not shaping right. Any tips on how to improve this would be greatly appreciated.