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sam

Hello,

Here is today's bake, a 100% whole einkorn flour (unsifted, milled at home), and honey.   This was my third attempt at a 100% einkorn bread.   My first attempt, I used no honey, used liquid levain, and cold-fermented the final dough for 24hrs.  Way, way too sour.   Then I got a request for a strong honey bread from a family member.   So, I tried again with a decent amount of honey (10% by weight of flour) and no long cold ferment.   I wasn't sure how to account for the hydration of the honey.  I did search here but I didn't find much (my search skills may be lacking).  Then I read the wikipedia article on Honey, and it specified that your typical honey is about 17% water.   So I factored that value into the hydration of the recipe.   *laugh*.   That attempt was far too underestimated for hydration content of honey.  It might be true, that honey is 17% water but not for the purposes of hydrating flour.   That 2nd attempt was the gloopiest, stickiest, most unmanageable dough ever.   It felt and handled more like a 78% or higher hydration.  I baked it anyway and it was a nice frisbee.   Unfortunately, it was also too sour, and I did everything at ambient room temps.

So, for this third attempt, I used 75% as my honey-hydration estimate, and lowered the hydration of my levain to 80% instead of 100% or 125% to see if it would reduce sour at all.   20% of the flour was mashed also.   So a lot of honey and a lot of mash.  The dough felt and handled about right in terms of overall hydration, and not too sour this time.   Just a little finishing tang.   Yay!  It tastes very good.    Will go best as a breakfast bread or a PB+J sandwich.

My scoring was a little off-center, but oh well.  :)  I wasn't expecting an open crumb, and so I was not disappointed when I found it wasn't.

Recipe and pics.   All weights in grams, all flour is whole einkorn flour.

 

Total Dough Weight: 1000
Targeted Total Dough Hydration: 70%
Total Dough Flour Weight: 588
Targeted Total Dough Water Weight: 412

Percentages:      
Levain Percentage: 20%
Levain Hydration: 80%
Starter Percentage: 10% of levain
Starter Hydration: 125%

Soaker Percentage: 58%  
Soaker Hydration: 80%  
Soaker Salt Percentage: 1%  
Mash Percentage: 35% of soaker 
Mash Hydration: 200%  
Final Dough Salt Percentage: 1.5%
Honey Percentage: 10%

Levain:
Flour Weight: 112
Water Weight: 87
Starter Weight: 12
      
Mash:
Flour Weight: 119  
Water Weight: 238  
Diatastic Malt Powder: 2

Soaker:
All Mash
Flour Weight: 222
Water Weight: 35
Salt Weight: 3
      
Final Dough:
All Levain
All Soaker/Mash
Flour Weight: 130
Salt Weight: 6
Honey Weight: 59  (estimated @ 75% hydration)

  

 

Happy baking!

 

sam's picture
sam

Hello,

I wanted to try out a schedule that worked for my normal work-week and maximizing
flavor, because I am usually not around during the daytime hours.  Also I
wanted to see the effect of a purely white flour mash.
Due to the way my schedule works, I did bulk ferment of 24 hrs, with the understanding
that my final dough might be sour (hopefully not inedible sour),
So for this recipe I was going for 100% white flour.  For my palette, a white
bread with a solid tang is good.  Maybe not so much tang for breads with a high
percentage of whole grains.

Turns out, this was perfect (for me).  I would make this again.  Tastes great!

All flour is KA Bread Flour, except for the starter flour which is KA AP.
All weight in grams.


Total Dough Weight: 1000  
Total Dough Hydration: 68%  
Total Dough Flour Weight: 595  
Total Dough Water Weight: 405  

Percentages:
   
Levain Percentage: 20%  
Levain Hydration: 125%  
Starter Percentage: 10% of leaven 
Starter Hydration: 125%

Soaker Percentage: 54%  
Soaker Hydration: 80%  
Mash Percentage: 20% of soaker 
Mash Hydration: 200%  
Soaker Salt Percentage: 1%
Overall Dough Salt Percentage: 1.5%

Levain:
Flour Weight: 114  
Water Weight: 143
Starter Weight: 12

Mash:    
Flour Weight: 64  
Water Weight: 128
Diatastic Malt Powder: 1

Soaker:
All Mash:
Flour Weight: 257  
Water Weight: 129  
Salt Weight: 3  
      
Final Dough:
All Levain
All Soaker/Mash
Flour Weight: 155

Salt: 6

Procedure I did:

1)  Evening #1, made mash.  I did 55C for 90 mins, 60C for 30 mins,
65C for 30 mins, 70C for 30 mins.

2)  Morning #2, mixed levain and soaker/mash.

3)  Evening #2, mixed everything to final dough.  Put dough into
chiller at 44F / 6.6C.

4)  Morning #3, stretch + fold.

5)  Evening #3, took dough out of chiller, another stretch + fold.

6)  Final of evening #3:

Allowed 1 hr for warm-up.

Shaped.  Cut out a small chunk of dough to watch bubble activity.

It took 2.5 hours for dough to be ready for bake -- Both from bubble activity
and feel of the dough.  I am getting better at gauging the feel of the dough,
and not needing the crutch of watching bubble activity, but it is good to have
the small chunk of dough as a confirmation.

Turns out, I am still staying up too late on Evening #3, because it takes a while
for the dough to do the final ferment after being the chiller for so long.  
But, I can make bread during the week!  :)

Pictures:

Oven after first 10 minutes of steam:

 

Baked with steam (above) for 10 mins at 460F, then lowered to 420F.   Here it is after 20 mins at 420F.

 

 

A little bit darker than I'd like, but all good.   Internal temp measured 207F and was hollow to the thump.

 

 

 

Crumb:

 

 

 

Happy baking!

 

sam's picture
sam

Hello,

I have not made very many high-concentration Rye's, but I do like that you can make 'em in a day.   But then you have to wait a long time before cutting into them.   So I guess it's all the same.   In any case, here is the bake for today.    It is an 80% rye, 25% of it being what I refer to as my own "chunky rye stuff" -- milling rye berries beyond the Grob level of my Komo miller.   It results in a mixture of chunks of berries and meal.

Last week I attempted a similar bread but heavily favored towards a mash in the dough and not a lot of acidified levain flour, and the loaf literally collapsed in the oven, half way through the bake.   :)   For this bread, I did not do a mash, because I was not up to a mash experimentation mood after the last rye failure, and also a friend expressed desire for a high concentration rye bread and I didn't want to mess it up too much, so this bread is for him.  I did a room-temp soaker though, with the chunky rye + rye flour, and increased the percentage of levain.    This one did not collapse on me.  :)

Here was the recipe I made, and pictures.   (Sorry, no crumb shot yet, and apologies for so many pictures).   Yes I did use baker's yeast, but in retrospect, I don't think that was needed.    All weights in grams.

Total Dough Weight: 2000  
Total Dough Hydration: 80%  
Total Dough Flour Weight: 1111  
Total Dough Water Weight: 889

Percentages:
      
Levain Percentage: 35%  
Levain Hydration: 125%  
Starter Percentage: 10% of levain
Starter Hydration: 125%

Soaker Percentage: 36%
Soaker Hydration: 100%  
Soaker Salt Percentage: 1%  
Final Dough Salt Percentage: 1.5%
Baker's Yeast Percentage: 1.5%

Levain:
Whole Rye Flour Weight: 372  
Water Weight: 465
Starter Weight: 39

Soaker:    
Chunky Rye Stuff Weight: 278
Whole Rye Flour Weight: 122
Water Weight: 400
Salt Weight: 4
      
Final Dough:

All Levain
All Soaker
Whole Rye Flour: 100
Strong White Flour: 222
Salt Weight: 13
Baker's Yeast Weight: 17

 

Here is the soaker on the left, the levain on the right:

 

Closeup of levain:

 

Another closeup of levain.   It was a little bit past ripened as you can tell from the receeding, but still OK:

 

 

Here is the Chunky Rye Stuff + Whole Rye Flour soaker:

 

 

Here is the final dough after mixing.   I wasn't expecting any kind of dough ball to form.  I had to alternate between the Paddle and the Hook, several times, to get everything mixed thoroughly.   Probably should have simply used my fingers, in retrospect.  The dough Hook is pretty much useless in the beginning.

 

 

I got most of it in the Pullman pan.    I'd say about 90% of the dough.    I was worried it was too much for this size of pan.   The rest of the dough I tossed.    I smushed it in the pan with wet hands and smoothed out the top.

 

 

Baking, after the 1st 15 mins of steam:

 

 

Here's the final result minus the crumb picture:

 

I baked it at 475F for the first 15 mins, then lowered to 380F for 75 minutes.  Internal temp registered 207F.

In the latter stages of baking, the kitchen became full of such a strong, powerful Rye aroma, it should have been illegal.   :)  

If I can get a crumb shot I'll update tomorrow.

Happy baking!

 

sam's picture
sam

Hello,

After receiving a batch of einkorn grains, here is my first attempt at making a bread with it.  It is a 50% einkorn flour, 50% white bread flour, at 73% hydration.

Here was the recipe, and the pictures are below.  All weights in grams.

Total Dough Weight: 1000
Total Dough Hydration: 73%
Total Dough Flour Weight: 578
Total Dough Water Weight: 422

Percentages:

Levain Percentage: 20%
Levain Hydration: 125%
Starter Percentage: 10% of levain
Starter Hydration: 125%

Soaker Percentage: 60%
Soaker Hydration: 80%
Mash Percentage: 20% of soaker
Mash Hydration: 200%
Soaker Salt Percentage: 1%
Final Dough Salt Percentage: 1.5%

Levain:
White Bread Flour Weight: 110
Water Weight: 138
Starter Weight: 12
    
Mash:
Einkorn Flour Weight: 69
Water Weight: 138
Diatastic Malt Powder: 1

Soaker:
All Mash
Einkorn Flour Weight: 220
White Bread Flour Weight: 58
Water Weight: 140
Salt Weight: 3
    
Final Dough:
All Levain
All Soaker/Mash
White Bread Flour Weight: 116
Salt Weight: 6

Procedure:

1)  Mix+cook mash at your desired temperature.  I did 90 mins @ 55C, 30 mins @ 60C, 30 mins @ 65C, 30 mins @ 70C.  Cool when done.

2)  Mix mash contents to flour soaker, and mix levain.  Allow levain to fully ripen at room temp, appx 10-12 hrs.

3)  Mix everything into final dough, and bulk ferment in chiller at 10C for 12 hours.

4)  Remove dough from chiller, allow 2-3 hours to warm up at room temp.  Stretch and fold a couple of times.

5)  Cut small chunk of dough into clear plastic container.  Shape the main dough for final ferment in banneton/brotform.  When the small dough sample is teeming with little bubbles and the dough is lively, bake.  (for me it was appx 45 minutes).  I baked with steam for 10 mins at 232C, then lowered to 210C for 40 mins, turning once half way through.  Internal temperature measured 97C.

 

 

I love the taste of the einkorn!

Happy baking!

sam's picture
sam

Hello,

This is today's bread.  It is a 10% rye, the rest a 50/50 mix of KA bread + AP, at an overall 72% hydration.   2-lbs.

20% was the levain sour (125%) for 18 hrs @ 44F, and then heated up.  60% was the flour soaker at 55F (78%), same 18 hrs,... and then also heated up.   :-)

Then mixed it together, with the remaining flour, did not have to add any additonal water to achieve 72% hydration.   Bulk fermented for an hour, then shaped, final rise for about 3 hours appx...  I had cut off a little piece and was watching that and the loaf, not the clock...

All naturally leavened.

After taking out of the oven, I took the pics a little early.....  I couldn't wait...

A little better scoring than previously, I got a new blade today.  :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tastes good!

Happy...

 

sam's picture
sam

Hello,

I tried out an experiment with a SD barley + corn bread.  25% barley, 25% corn, 50% KAF bread flour.   I milled the barley+corn into flour.

Ingredients:

        grams    
Total Dough Weight     1812.00    
Total Dough Hydration   75%    
Total Dough Flour Weight   1035.00    
Total Dough Water Weight   777.00    
             
Preferment Flour Percentage   20%    
Preferment Hydration   125%    
Starter Percentage     20%    
Flour Weight     207.00    
Water Weight     258.00 starter flour starter water
Starter Weight (125% starter)   41.00 18.00 23.00
             
Soaker Flour Percentage   50%    
Soaker Hydration     95%    
Salt Percentage     1.8% corn barley
Flour Weight     518.00 259.00 259.00
Water Weight     492.00    
Salt Weight     9.00    
             
Final Mix (Addition)          
Salt Percentage     1.0%    
Yeast Percentage     1.0%    
Preferment Weight      506.00    
Soaker Weight     1019.00    
Add Final Flour     292.00    
Add Final Water     4.00    
Add Salt       1.00    
Add Yeast     10    
             
Notes:            
Added extra 50g water to Soaker      

Further notes:

I used all of the barley + corn for the soaker, and KAF Bread Flour for the rest.   The Soaker was very dense, clay-like, so I added an extra 50g water, but it was still clay.

After the levain (bread-flour) was ready, I mixed everything for a a good 8 mins in my stand-mixer to get any sort of decent gluten development.  I got a semi-windowpane.  Stretched + folded once at 60 mins during bulk ferment, 90 mins total.  After the bulk, the dough could stretch, but could still break apart fairly easily.  Shaped into logs, put into "Hearth Pans" that I got recently from USA Pan, final proof for about an hour.  Next time I will add a little more water.

The good:  TASTE is amazing.   It is the best tasting bread I've ever made.  I am really happy with it.

Here are the pics.   NOTE:   It was not the springiest bread in the world, and these pics were straight out of oven, I didn't wait for it to fully cool.  Sorry.  :)

 

 

 

Not the greatest...  but I am happy.

 

sam's picture
sam

Hello!

As a newbie, I've begun paying a lot more attention to my starter + preferment ripeness levels, timings, keeping a log, etc.  Today I baked a big (for me) single loaf of 3lbs (68% overall hydration, 1/3 of the flour pre-fermented, all white KAF Bread Flour).   Yesterday, I caught both my starter and subsequent levain at just their peak of ripeness, mixed the final dough, and bulk fermented at 50F for about 14 hours.  I intentionally under-mixed the dough in my stand mixer (I did appx 770 revolutions of the dough hook, normally would do mid-900 revolutions), because I wanted to see if the extended time spent in the chiller would complete the development by itself.  After the 14 hours in the chiller, the dough was plenty extensible, but not so much elastic.  I did a couple S&Fs, which brought some elasticity (strength?) to the dough, but I think it was still a little under-developed.  I went ahead with it anyway to see what would happen.  I took the entire 3lb dough and shaped it into a large log / roll, let it rest for 15 mins, scored one long slice, then baked it on my oven baking stone, with 8 seconds of steam, vented after 20 mins.  I initially had the oven at 500F but backed off to 460F and further to 425F, about 45 mins total baking time.  Bread temp was 206F after coming out of the oven, maybe a little low.  I've never baked a single loaf this large before.

The entire downstairs of the house filled with a wonderful aroma of baking sourdough bread.  I think I got a pretty good oven spring, but the crumb isn't the most open in the world.  I only cut it once vertically for the picture -- not going to cut it horizontally to check the crumb because I'm keeping this for eating.  It has a nice sourdough flavor, and good chewing texture.  Will make a perfect dinner bread.  :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next time I will mix a little bit longer, my normal ~950 revolutions.

 

sam's picture
sam

Hello!

So a couple weeks ago, I began and have been maintaining my first sourdough culture, which has fortunately made some good bread so far.  I saved a couple days' worth of discards, chilled at 50F.  I found a few recipes both on this site and others for starter-based pancakes, but the ones I saw, all call for a preferment.  Well, tonight I had a craving for pancakes and didn't want to wait, so I loosely followed the sourdough starter pancake recipe on the KAF web site.  For the bulk of the flour, instead of all-purpose, I used fresh milled buckwheat.  No buttermilk was handy, so I used plain whole milk.  Used the whisk tool in my stand mixer to mix it together.  Initially it was too liquid, so I spooned in some AP flour to thicken it up a bit.   That's it, instant pancakes!   :)

I didn't get much of a sourdough flavor, probably due to the lack of prefermenting, but they still tasted very good.

 

 

 

I like my pancakes with peanut butter and syrup!  Yum!

 

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