The accidental 20-hour proof: soft, pulling bread
Just baked a soft bread — and it came from a total accident. I forgot about the dough in the oven during a warm proof and left it for about 20 hours. It definitely exploded and overproofed. I wasn’t expecting much.
But the crumb was surprisingly soft and pulling, like pulled pork — a texture I’d been chasing for ages without luck. So maybe the lesson isn’t “don’t overproof” so much as “maybe I need to proof longer?” I’m going to try pushing the proof time on purpose next time and see if I can get that same tenderness without the full explosion.