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My wife recently bought me a Traeger pellet smoker for my birthday and I decided to smoke a brisket for its maiden voyage. I needed a nice deli rye to make a killer smoked brisket sandwich and this bake didn’t disappoint!

I wanted to try a interesting technique that I have not used in over 20 years to add more onion flavor to the dough. The idea is to chop up a small onion and wrap it in cheesecloth and submerge it in the levain. When the levain is ready to use in the main dough you remove the onion and discard it.

I also added some dehydrated onions to main dough which were soaked briefly in olive oil and added at the end of the final mix. I was going to add some toasted onions to the top of the bread but decided it may have been overkill, but maybe next time it’s worth a shot.

I used King Arthur High Gluten flour, some Caputo 00 and some fresh milled Ryman Rye from Barton Springs Mill which was sifted once with a #30 sieve and re-milled. I only sifted out 3% of the bran for this bake. Normally I would use First Clear style four instead of 00 flour but KAF stopped selling it and I have not had a chance to take a drive to nearby Queens NY to buy it from a new source I found. I think this turned out great even without the First Clear but it certainly wouldn’t have hurt it.

I was pleased with how this turned out. The crumb is ideal for sandwiches and the onion flavor is subtle and not too strong but definitely adds a wonderful complexity and flavor to this bake.

Formula

Levain Directions 

Mix all the levain ingredients together for about 1 minute and submerge a small onion wrapped in cheesecloth and cover with plastic wrap.

Let it sit at room temperature for around 6-7 hours or until the starter has almost doubled. I used my proofer set at 76 degrees so it took around 5 hours for me. Either use in the main dough immediately or refrigerate for up to 1 day before using.

 Main Dough Procedure

Note: I use an Ankarsrum Mixer so my order of mixing is slightly different than if using a Kitchenaid or other mixer. Add all your liquid to your mixing bowl except 50-80 grams. Next, add all your flour to the bowl and mix on low for a minute until it forms a shaggy mass. Cover the mixing bowl and let it rest for an hour.   Next add the starter and salt and remaining water as needed and mix on medium low (about speed 3) for 12- 24 minutes.  When the dough is almost fully developed, add the olive oil and dehydrated onions and mix for another minute or 2 to fully incorporate the onions. If you are using a more traditional mixer you would only mix around 7-10 minutes.

Remove the dough from your bowl and place it in a lightly oiled bowl or work surface and do several stretch and folds.  Let it rest covered for 10-15 minutes and then do another stretch and fold.  Let it rest another 10-15 minutes and do one additional stretch and fold.  After a total of 1.45 hours place your covered bowl in the refrigerator and let it rest for 12 to 24 hours. I use my proofer set at 79-80 degrees. If you are leaving it at room temperature 72 degrees I would let it sit out for 2 -2.5 hours before refrigerating. Depending on how developed the dough is after the initial mix you may not need to do as many S&F’s.

When you are ready to bake remove the bowl from the refrigerator and let it set out at room temperature still covered for 1.5 to 2 hours or if using a proofer set at 80 degrees for 1 hour.  Remove the dough and do a pre-shape into a round(s). Let it sit covered for around 15-20 minutes. Next shape as desired and add to your proofing baskets/bannetons and cover with a moist tea towel or plastic wrap Sprayed with cooking spray and let rise at room temperature for 1 1/2 – 2 hours.  (I use my proofer set at 80 F and it takes about 1 hour.

Around 45 minutes before ready to bake, pre-heat your oven to 540 degrees F. and prepare it for steam.  I have a heavy-duty baking pan on the bottom rack of my oven with 1 baking stone on above the pan and one on the top shelf.  I pour 1 cup of boiling water in the pan right after I place the dough in the oven.

After 1 minute lower the temperature to 455 degrees.  Bake for around 35 minutes or until the breads are nice and brown and have an internal temperature around 200-210 F. 

Take the bread(s) out of the oven when done and let them cool on a bakers rack for as long as you can resist. 

Finally managed to make two vaguely comparable loaves, one using a 'shaggy' SD biga and the other, in effect, a SD poolish (not dissimilar to the liquid levain I was using in pre-biga bakes, minus the small regular feeds).

Both loaves were 30% wholegrain rye flour and 70% strong white wheat flour (total flour 400g). The biga loaf had 7.5% flaxseeds while the poolish loaf had 7.5% chia seeds (run out of flaxseeds). Salt was 1% in both and both had a 70% final hydration. 100% hydration SD starter at 10% of the total preferment flour was added to both the biga and the poolish, but the biga was 50% of the total flour while the poolish was 25% of the total flour. The biga was 50/50 strong white and wholegrain rye while the poolish was entirely wholegrain rye. The biga was left for 24h to ferment while the poolish took about 18h to fully rise and reach peak activity. Temperature around 19C for both.

My observations were as follows:

Bulk fermentation much faster with the biga than the poolish. Biga BF around 4h, poolish still not fully fermented after 6h, so had to leave it overnight in the fridge and make the next day.

Final dough more liquid and less strong/more sticky with the poolish than the biga. The biga dough was much easier to handle and shape. Both had 4xS&F and 2xlaminates. 

Prooving was also faster with the biga (about 40min vs. 1h40min) and the biga loaf had risen significantly more than the poolish in the banneton. 

Both were baked at 230C in a dutch oven, 25min lid on 10min lid off.

Oven spring was more with the biga than the poolish. (biga left, poolish right in the photos)

Crust thinner and more more crunchy with the biga. Color similar. 

Crumb was pretty open with both, but slightly more uneven with the poolish. (biga left, poolish right in the photos)

Texture was more more light and airy with the biga than the poolish, which was slightly heavier, more moist and more chewy.

Flavor was more more nutty with the biga and slightly more sour with the poolish.

Both were similar in terms of staying fresh after the bake, being reasonably moist and nice to eat even the 3rd day after the bake. 

Overall, my conclusion is that, for me, the biga has the edge in terms of convenience, ease of dough handling, speed of BF, dough structure, oven spring, crust, crumb, and texture. I also like the flavor, although the poolish is maybe more traditionally sourdoughy. 

Some final thoughts about these methods with regard to spelt

 As I was originally motivated to experiment with the 'shaggy' biga method as a way of baking free-form loaves with a high spelt flour content with good results, I also tried to make a 50% white spelt flour loaf using my previous liquid levain method , just to remember how it was and have a more recent comparator for my biga spelt bakes.

In the end, the loaf had to be converted to a focaccia type flatbread because it was not able to retain enough shape in the prooving stage to be made as a free-form loaf. While the final dough would tighten up nicely with the S&Fs and laminations and final forming, it would quickly loosen up again and spread out. 

As far as I am concerned, to make a free-standing loaf with a high proportion of the white spelt flour I have, it is only possible to do it using this 'shaggy' biga technique. The ability to hold its form and the oven spring generated make this method ideal for baking with flour with the characteristics of white spelt. 

A few years ago, Dan Ayo posted here about his experience with using chocolate malted barley from the brew shop in a bread. It made a big difference to the colour of the bread and the flavour of it too.

Thinking the same, I made small taste testers using three different kinds of barley malt that I picked up from a craft brew supply store.

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Good result with this recipe, which includes a tangzhong. I used lemon essence instead of the larger volume of limoncello, and this worked well. 

Shaping:  I placed dough as one piece in the molds, rather than the traditional wings and body approach. I did this by laminating dough into a diamond shape and rolling it from left and right into the center. This created a batard-like shape, heavier in the center. When place in the mold, I gently reach underneath to spread the dough somewhat toward the wing edges. 

Taste, crumb, texture all very good. 11 hours first impasto fermentation, 4.78 pH at the end.  Five hours final rise at 28C. 

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OMG! These dog treats smell like Amazeballs!

Hello, dog lovers! And sourdough bread people. Today I have some sourdough discard dog treats working.  The formula I referenced is from Food 52 " Sourdough Discard dog treats"

Enjoy the pictorial formula. I went off the reservation after bring the dough together. My process is listed with the photos. Stop back later, we will have Gronky taste test.

Two eggs are missing from the wet ingredients photo.

The original formula called for no bulk fermentation I. I added one hour of bulk. Also the shaping method was different.

Last Christmas my wife bought me some wheat berries from Barton Springs Mill. Unfortunately, she started a major allergen elimination diet not long after that because we thought our newborn was sensitive to something she was eating. That turned out not to be the case, and we're all back to eating everything we want, so I was finally able to compare the two hard red wheats that she got me (Yecora Rojo and Rouge de Bordeaux) to the regular hard red wheat I get from the LDS Home Storage Center. My main curiosity was to find out if any differences in bread quality would be worth the drastic difference in price ($18 plus shipping for 5lb from BSM vs $17.61 local pickup for 25lb of my regular wheat).

I compared one BSM wheat against my control per bake. Every loaf had 392g freshly milled whole wheat flour, 8g vital wheat gluten, 9g salt, 1/4tsp instant yeast, and 340g water.

RDB was the first one I tried. Chad Robertson writes in one of his books that RDB is more extensible, and that matched my experience in this little test. The RDB dough was more slack than the control at the same hydration. The dough spread out more during baking and didn't spring as tall. The main difference in flavor was that it tasted more like wheat bran than the control. Since the berries are smaller, I'm sure that it did actually have more bran in it, rather than just having a higher polyphenol concentration in the bran or whatever.

The YR had the opposite effect on dough consistency, which also matched my expectations based on Robertson's writings. The dough was very strong and springy, and I wonder if it would produce a strong dough even without added VWG. The flavor of YR is very pleasant, but hard for me to describe. It definitely has a stronger flavor than my control, but not in the same way as RDB. It reminds me of when I had cracked wheat cereal as a kid. It tasted more like wheat without tasting more like bran. However, this flavor was only noticeable when I ate it by itself, not when I used it for sandwiches. I've been thinking about what I could make to best appreciate the flavor, but so far I haven't thought of anything that I would want to eat exclusively unaccompanied. I'd also be interested to see if the flavor difference remains as strong if I use sourdough instead of commercial yeast.

For my second round, I made the adjustments based on round 1, and used a different recipe to see the contrast. I developed the LM for about three days, but it was still very active from the series last week. 

I added some cocoa powder to the glaze, and baked on a stone in the regular static oven using convection for only the first few minutes. 

This time, recipe from Fabrizio Galla, faithfully followed so that I would have a baseline. It is a nice recipe, makes a dough that is easy to work with, and rises well. 

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I love the flavor of this crumb. There's a small amount of lemon and orange emulsion in addition to vanilla, which is subtle but good with the chocolate.

The texture is more like a traditional panettone, very light and rich.

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This dough tripled in 10 hours, as specified in the recipe. Also, final rise was 5 hours.

Here is the recipe, if anyone would like to try it. I factored it down to make enough for three 500 gram Colombas plus a little overage:

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I had a good handful of toasted sweetened shredded coconut leftover from a pie that I made a couple of weeks ago, so I decided to try adding it to a sandwich bread.  I didn’t want the bread to taste too much like dessert so other than the sugar I used for the stiff sweet levain, there were no other sweeteners added to the dough.  I did decide to add some olive oil to this dough to soften it up a bit and keep it fresh longer without having to make a tangzhong.  Yes I’m still feeling a bit lazy down here in very hot humid Florida where I’m still developing the dough fully by hand.

I like how this loaf turned out, but it could have even more coconut added to it.  I would have added more but was weary that the coconut was sweetened.

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For 1 loaf in a 9x4x4” Pullman pan.

Build stiff sweet levain, ferment at 76-78°F for 10-12 hours overnight.

In the morning, add salt to the water and dissolve.  Then add the levain and break down the levain as well as you can.  Add both the flours and mix well until no dry bits are left. After 10 mins of rest start gluten development with slap and folds.  Add the coconut and walnuts through a series of folds, incorporate well.  Bench letterfold, remove aliquot, then at 30 mins intervals do coil folds until good structure is achieved.

Once the dough has risen 30-40% then shape the dough into a batard and place in prepared pan.

Final proof the dough until it has reached 1 cm of the rim of the pan.  pre-heat oven at 425°F .

Once oven reaches 425ºF score top of dough and then brush with water or egg wash.  Transfer to oven and bake (without steam) for 25 mins.  Rotate the pan and drop temperature to 350ºF.  Bake for another 25-30 mins rotating as needed until browned.  Remove from the pan and place directly on the rack baking for another 5-10 mins to firm up the crust if needed.

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My index of bakes.

The second time around. Much better than the last time. 

Hands-on laboratory practice exercise 03/14 - 03/16

Area of improvement

No unsightly burnt crust

Oven spring

Area needs improvement

Scoring 80% hydration dough is a challenge even straight out of the refrigerator

Country Bread EIB Style (Forkish) AKA

Pain de Champagne 

KA Bread flour

Hayden Einkorn Whole grain Wheat 

Hayden Gazal Whole grain Rye

Hayden Purple Barley

Hydration 80%

Prefermented flour 20%

Salt 2.2%

Yield:

Total dough 1800g

Three at 600g

The 100% biga bake was not very successful. 

Got an OK loaf at the end, but was a little too heavy and chewy.

Used 30% wholegrain rye and 70% strong white wheat. 

Used all 400g for the biga, with 40g of liquid SD starter and 180g of water. Added the remainder of the water to the biga after 24h.

Biga smelt nice and looked developed correctly.

Surprisingly, just mixing the extra water to the biga was much harder than when I did it with the extra flour for the 50% biga bakes. Already from the mixing I could tell that the dough was not the same consistency as with the 50% biga bakes. Just never quite came together well.

Then, the fermentation was way too aggressive and fast, rising so fast it started to tare the dough and looked way too bubbly. I think there was not enough time for the gluten to form properly before the fermentation kicked in.

Then, after the initial very aggressive fermentation, the gas seemed to go out of the dough a little and it grew much less impressively, even though the fermentation activity was still strong.  

It felt as if the dough was already over fermented after a couple of hours. 

Got descent oven spring, however, but the loaf was quite heavy and hard once it had cooled down.

Funnily, it actually improved substantially as it aged, becoming moist and soft in day 2 and 3 after the bake. Maximum hardness was in day 1. 

The taste was OK. Slightly tangy but nice. Nice with cream cheese and ham or smoked salmon.

I am trying a similar bake but with only 50% biga this weekend to see how they compare, but I am sure that 100% biga is not the biga sweet spot. 

I know it is 30% wholemeal rye, but I've baked much better and softer 30% loaves, even with my liquid levain.