Today was a fairly. not boring, but less exciting day, certainly compared to the previous weeks.

We started the first of a series of experiments, which will look more closely at the roles of salt, water & yeast content in the baking process.  Today; salt =)

Working in pairs, we made a control loaf, with a fairly standard 2% salt content, a salt free loaf, a loaf with 0.5% salt content, one with 1.3% salt content (which complies with the Food Standards Agencies current guidelines) and a loaf with 4% salt content.

Sara & I were very methodical in our baking; we timed our control loaves entire progress; the amount of time we spent mixing the ingredients, the time spent on each knead, how long for total bulk fermentation & the length of time in the prover. 

While this may seem a little overboard, we figured it made sense.  The point of the experiment was to examine the effect of different percentages of salt content, so the salt needed to be the only variable.  We ensured that each of our loaves followed the same process, in the same time frames =)

I didn't take any pictures of the mixing/fermentation process; all the doughs looked more or less the same, so I thought it might be a bit boring!

Once all the loaves were baked & cooled, we weighed them, measured the height, examined the colour, texture, aroma, everything!

All our loaves.  From left to right: Control, no salt, 0.5% salt, 1.3% salt & 4% salt =)

Appearance wise, there weren't too many differences.  Some were taller (the 0.5% salt), some were much shorter (the 4% salt). 

However, once we cut into them & started our taste test, the differences became quite apparent!  The no salt loaf was awful!  So bland & tasteless, it was a very watery, almost papery flavour, if you can call it that...

The 4% salt wasn't too bad really,  it had a very salty aftertaste, but not unpalatable.  Perhaps a touch too salty for me really.

I preferred the control loaf out of the bunch, with 2% salt.  It had plenty of flavour, a good crust & a soft texture inside =)

Tomorrow, we're looking at water content; one of the loaves will have a 100% water content, so that could be very interesting!