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The last bake was so nice and this one is very similar except for a few differences that….. made a difference.  The sprouts, seeds, nuts, prunes and dough flours were nearly identical except we ran out of barley berries.

Yeast water replaced the SD starter.  The YW levain used white whole wheat flour as half of the mix instead of the home milled whole grains of the previous bake.  The amount of whole grains and the hydration was increased 5% to 59% and 74% respectively.

The first 15 minutes of the bake was at 500 F instead of 450 F (because we forgot to turn it down after the pre-heat) and the resulting total bake time was reduced 15 minutes to 35 minutes.  We think the higher initial temperatures reduced the spring and the higher hydration caused the chacon to spread more as well.   The openness of the crumb was affected in that the usually large holes of the yeast water were muted .

Another change was that instead of putting the dough into the basket right after the  S& F was complete and then allowing the dough to ferment in the basket, on the counter for 1 and ½ hours before being retarded, this dough was allowed to ferment in the bowl for 1 ½ hours before being placed in the basket and then it was then immediately retarded.

Both bakes had a 40 hour retard and a 4 hour warm up on the heating pad before baking.  Instead of using decorative knots in the chacon we used balls instead since the dough was too slack to make into ropes without adding some flour. 

We were going to add some aromatic seeds like coriander and anise but forgot to put them in.   I thought that if we just put them on the top they would burn after seeing the color of the crust after yesterday’s bake. 

One thing we noticed was since the dough was much wetter it absorbed the rice flour in the basket so the white surface outlines of the last bake were mainly gone and we had a better picture of the deep, dark, mahogany color that must have been under the white on the last bake.

The crumb is more moist than the SD as was expected since YW makes a more moist crumb in bread than SD for some reason.  Glad we baked this to 206 F instead of 203 F like the SD version since it was still moist and soft.

The crumb is as open as the SD but the largest holes are in the YW version.  The most uniform holes holes are in the SD.  I never thought I would say this but, the YW multi-grain bread is more tasty, at least to my pallet which is quite unlike the Brownman I know and my apprentice loves sometimes :-)  Both breads are terrific ans some of the best that have come out of this kitchen.

Formula

Submitted by Juergen Krauss on January 17, 2013 - 12:31am.A longer reply will follow in due time

I think the major difficulty is to separate the "time percieved by the observer" from the "physical time elapsed in the system under consideration". Common language has no real way of dealing with this. (In order to understand what "observing" means it is useful to look at some of the works of Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg etc. ) My view in brief: If I set a kitchen timer I switch my perception of time over to the ticks on the face of that timer, and give away all my powers. If I watch the dough I switch my perception to a "clock" associated with the fermentation process. This "clock" has as ticks on its face things like acidity, smell, taste, viscosity,... (you name it). I can then intervene when I deem it fit to suit my tastes and expectations.

Submitted by ars pistorica on January 17, 2013 - 11:31am.

I did this years ago.  It is also, in part, one of the reasons why I believe the mass effect occurs.

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“Co-fermentations enable micro-organisms to use substrates that are otherwise non-fermentable, and increases the microbial adaptability to difficult ecosystems.  Under the influence of several ecological factors the homo- and heterofermentative LAB have a great aptitude for producing metabolites other than lactic acid and for co-fermentations which lead to an increase in energy yield.”

Gobbetti, M. and Corsetti, A.  “Lactobacillus sanfrancisco a key sourdough lactic acid bacterium:  a review,” Food Microbiology, 1997.

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“It was shown that peptides were able to improve growth of  L. sanfranciscensis on medium limited in amino nitrogen. Based on additional information it was concluded that lactobacilli prefer the uptake of peptides which are subsequently hydrolyzed in the cytosol.”

“Further investigations were performed on the influences of lactobacilli and endogenous wheat enzymes on wheat proteins. The results indicate that sourdough fermentation has a major impact on gluten quality. Depolymerization and hydrolyzation were observed and could be attributed mainly to low pH cereal proteases. During fermentation the pH is lowered from about 6.2 to 3.6 by microbial metabolism and this leads to an improved proteolytic breakdown. Additionally we suppose that peptides generated by cereal enzymes are subsequently taken up by lactic acid bacteria to meet their amino nitrogen demand.”

Thiele, Claudia.  “Hydrolysis of gluten and the formation of flavor precursors during sourdough fermentation,” 2003.

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Mass effect explained.

It's just a bunch of bio-feedback loops, each starting and ending at different times, all depending upon and affecting the other, and all with a tendency toward an increased energy state.   The more of them there are, the more contact points that can be made, the more accelerative the whole process becomes.

This is what happens when evolution gives a species so much metabolic choice.

A commuter-friend travelling with me to London on the train used to live in Ravensburg, in a region in Germany called Oberschwaben.

One day he told me he really misses a speciality from there called Seelen.

They are rolls with an open crumb and a slightly chewy crust, sprinkled with caraway and coarse salt.

Searching the internet I found a number of recipes, and some descriptions of the "original": a roll made with spelt, using high hydration, long fermentation, and a wet, hot bake.

The recipes I found were all nothing like the original description, so I decided to improvise, and I am very happy with the result:

Here the formula and instructions (1000g for 6 rolls):

Google spreadsheet

** UPDATE **

Here some pictures of the production process from a bakery in Schwaben:

http://www.seelen-wie-frueher.de/Bilder/bilder.html

Sending this to Yeastspotting.

Click here for my blog index.

Phew, it has been a busy holiday, and just turned into an even busier Janurary. Still baking a ton though, here are some stuff I have baked during the holiday but didn't get to post about before.

The formula for these rolls were based on Kaisor rolls from BBA, however, I made it into sourdough, used some rye, added pumpkin (must use pumpkin during holidays), and adjusted water accordingly. By the end, it probably is nothing like the BBA formula but still delicious.

Norm once posted a video here on TFL on how to shape Kaisor rolls, he made it look so eas, well, but I just can't get that method to work. Then I bought the Kaisor stamps to try, they worked, sorta, but not really. In the end, the following shaping method was what worked consistently for me to get that five petal look.

Pumplin Rye Rolls
Note: makes 9 medium rolls

- levain

rye starter (100%), 18g
water, 29g
rye flour, 54g

1. Mix and let fermentation at room temp (73F) for 12 hours.

- final Dough
bread flour, 357g
oil, 21g
egg, 50g
salt, 8g
pumpkin puree, 150g
water, 85g
levain, all

1. Mix everything until stage 3 of windowpane (-30sec), see this post for details.
2. Rise at room temp for 4 hours until double
3, Divide into 9 portions, round, rest, shape as following: roll out to long stripe, tie the first knot

Take the long end and do the 2nd knot

Take the long end and stick back into the middle


4. Rise at room temp for about 4 hours.
5. Brush with egg, spread chopped green onions or leeks
6. Bake at 375F for 20min. Take out of the oven and brush with melted butter.

This formula doesn't have sugar, fat ration is pertty low, however pumpkin still kept crumb moist and light. I'd say the mouthfeel is very close to Kaisor rolls -- soft yet still got some bite.

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Also made some gift box cookies(recipe here), incredibly time consuming but my friends' kids totally were in love with these.

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A pumpkin chocolate marble pound cake. Did I mention I heart pumpkin?

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Still practicing my pie crust. Got the best crimped edge on this chocolate pecan pie (recipe here) so far.

Just like baguette and croissants, pie crust is my current obsession project. I am practicing to make it more tender, more even, prettier, yummier....

Oh, the pie itself is pretty delicious too. How can you go wrong with lots of dark chocolate, lots of toasted pecans, and quite a bit rum?!

This is an continuation of the last multi-grain SD bake except that the hydration is slightly lower at 68%, the multi-grain flours were 54 %, the add in goodies are increased substantially since this bread has multi-grain sprouts to go with the multi-grain soaker and we also have pumpkin and sunflower seeds, as well as, pistachio and filbert nuts with a hint of prunes too.

We like the last bake very much but we decided to bake this bread differently in that rather than baking on a stone with a combination of Sylvia’s and David’s steam, we baked this bread on a stone with a Goodwill bought DO bottom overturned on the chacon.

We followed the same method as last time with 10 min of French lap and folds but instead of using S&Fs to incorporate the scald, sprouts, seeds and nuts we used French folds every 15 minutes 3 times to incorporate the add ins and then used one S&F at the end of an hour to round out gluten development..

The dough was rested for 10 minutes before shaping the center ball of the chacon, its 4 surrounding knotted rolls and the really big bialy, made by stretching it like a pizza from the edge hanging down to cover the rest of the shapes in the basket.  Each was put into rice flour, basket side only, before being placed in a rice floured basket.

We then let the dough develop on the heating pad for 1 1/2 hours before refrigerating for 40 hours at 38 F in a plastic trash can liner.  It rose about 50% in the fridge which is what we were expecting.  We then took it out of the fridge and put it back on the heating pad for 3 hours before starting up Big Old Betsy to preheat at 500 F.

By the time Betsy got up to temperature and we added 20 minutes to the preheat, to get the stone up to 500 F too,  The dough had been on the pad for 4 hours and was still about 50% in volume greater than when it went into the basket.  We un-molded the chacon using a parchment covered peel and slid the chacon onto the stone while covering it with the DO bottom as a cloche.

After 2 minutes we turned the oven down to 450 F and continued to bake it a total of 20 minutes covered and then removed the DO bottom and turned the oven down to 425 F, convection this time.

Every 5 minutes we rotated the bread on the stone 90 degrees and in another 30 minutes the bread hit 203 F and we turned off the oven cracked the door and allowed the bread to crisp on the stone for 8 more minutes before removing it to a cooling rack.  It reached 207 F while resting on the stone.

The bread really looks great on the outside, beautifully cracked and brown as one would want even though it didn’t spring much in the oven.  We didn’t expect it to spring though after it didn’t do much on the heating pad for 4 hours either. It smells terrific enough.   We sure hope this fine looker is not a brick on the inside but we will have to wait until we slice it later today, well after it cools.

Formula

Baked at midnight! 12 hour pre-ferment, 2.5 hour bulk ferment, 3 folds in the first hour, 1 hour proof.  425 oven * (see below):  30 minutes covered, 15 uncovered .

The aroma after 30 minutes in the oven was incredible! - like browned butter.  I almost slept in kitchen.

I exercised great restraint and waited until morning to try it. The crust is more on the chewy side, as is the crumb.

The taste is mildly more complex than the Saturday white bread - it's a noticable, but not a huge difference

I think the crumb is just OK on this one, the loaf could have benefitted from more folds and maybe a longer proof.

It's also been raining here and I didn't adjust the hydration to account for the increased humidity - details.

This was baked in a Staub coquette. The Staub has a black enamal interior which can make things brown (or burn) faster than you'd expect.

I've learned to keep the heat down a bit. 425 instead on 475. I may need to start the normal temp and lower it after 5-10 minutes and increase the baking time accordingly.

This time the the rack was too low in the oven so the bottom got a bit scorched - not a deal breaker but I need to remember to take these things into account.

Hello everyone,

I saw a beautiful post on stirthepots.com last February – 
Jeremy’s lovely take on a Swedish seed bread (Svenska frö bröd).
The ‘mosaic of a crumb’ Jeremy described; all those beautiful seeds! That bread looked so, so good.
It took me awhile to look up his friend Martin’s blog, and bake this bread – I’m so glad I did! - here's a slice... :^)

                                    

There’s so much I like about this bread!

Tons of seeds (pearled barley too)  ;
rye sour and a decent proportion of whole grain flour; easy mixing and process;
the delicious flavor and keeping qualities.

There were some interesting things in Martin’s formula and process.
Martin recommended a cold soak for the seeds, to soften them but not so much that they disappear into the crumb after baking.
Bread syrup was one of the ingredients. I wasn’t sure what bread syrup was but Jan Hedh had a definition in his book Swedish Breads and Pastries (syrup is 25% sugar). I thought I’d try molasses, and for another try, barley malt syrup from the brewer’s, as a substitute.
The mixing was really quick; no dough development, just long enough to combine the ingredients, then the dough panned and retarded.
Reading through Martin's post, the timing for this bread seemed so convenient, the process easy; and they were! :^)

For this bread, I wanted to emphasize barley, since barley is one of ‘seeds’ in this bread.
Barley malt syrup (a dark, thick syrup found at a brewshop) was used in place of bread syrup, and barley flour in place of whole rye called for in the original formula, for the final dough.

                                     The baked loaf

The formula for the bread picture above:

I liked this bread so much I experimented a little bit with the flour and syrup, making a couple of other versions -

whole barley flour, regular molasses at 24% of flour                         
(a bit of sweet carried through in the flavor - factoring in seeds, too, dough may have had about 10% sugar overall)
(scaled approximately 1400g dough for 9"x4"x4" pullman pan)

whole rye flour in final dough, blackstrap molasses at 12% of flour
(a bit of extra water added to compensate for the decreased amount of syrup)
(scaled 768g dough for 8.5"x4.5" bread pan)

In terms of flavor and texture, these breads were moist, chewy, hearty, rich and full of flavor.
Thank you so much to Martin in Sweden for this beautiful bread, and to Jeremy for his gorgeous version of it!

Happy baking everyone!
:^) breadsong

Submitted to YeastSpotting :^)

Sometimes I love to do something different when shaping a loaf of bread.  All 3 of my children took Irish Step dancing lessons for quite some time so I am partial to most things Celtic.  When I saw instructions for shaping dough into a Celtic knot I knew I had to give it a go.

Here are the results.  The dough I used was a formula posted by txfarmer.   It is a 100% ww sd dough with bulgar wheat added.  It is a recipe that she got out of Laurel Robertson's Bread Book which she then converted to a loaf using a wy starter rather than using IY.  It is a great loaf!  Thanks txfarmer.

                                                                                            All knotted up and ready for delivery.

I can't find a supplier to make multigrain bread. I need a multigrain mix to add to dough. How can I do it myself?

When I first began baking sourdough I followed the experts formulae to the letter. Most prescribed 2% salt. Frankly, I was disappointed with most of the mostly (or entirely) White Flour formulae, especially those that included up to 10% Whole Wheat flour in the mix. They were too bland for our palettes. Along the way I discovered overnight hydration, at cool temperatures, developed both flavor and the desired crumb.

Ultimately, as I continued exploring, my "go to" sourdough is a 10% Whole Rye flour (preferably Hodgson's Mill), 90% White (a 50/50 mix of KA Bread and AP flours), 2% salt, 68% hydration, DT 54°F and 15 hours retarded at 54°F. A typical loaf's flavor is neither Rye nor Wheat but an amalgam, perhaps enhanced by the levain acidity.

Along the same journey, we've come to enjoy the distinct wheatiness, and nutty flavors of overnight retarded baguettes leavened by commercial IDY.

Today I baked two loaves wherein everything was identical to our routine sourdough bakes, except the flour mix was 5% Whole Wheat, and 95% the usual White flour mix. I also upped the salt content to 2.25%. My intent was to achieve a wheaty flavored SD.

The flavor is, as hoped, wheaty; not the in-your-face wheatiness of baguettes but certainly the high note, modulated, softened, by the levain's acidity. All the flavors seem crisper which I attribute to the increased salt.

Coincidentally, I also finished simmering a 5-day-brined corned beef.  I think today's dinner has come together.

David G