Prunish Multigrain Sourdough with Scald and Seeds

We decided to make more of a white bread this week and to put some prunes in it since we haven’t put any fruits in bread since we baked babka this morning – but before that it has been a while.

This week was the same whole grain mix, home milled with the 25% sifted out portion fed to the levain.  We went with 82% each for whole grain and hydration.  We retarded the levain 2 hours after the 2nd build for 24 hours.  The levain was allowed to double again once out of the cold after allowing it to double after the first build.   No toadies or malts this time since we are out and haven’t made any more.

Our process was the same.  Once the levain came out of the fridge we autolysed the rest of the ingredients less the scald and the prunes for 3 hours as the levain was finishing its doubling on the counter.  The salt was sprinkled on top of the autolyse so we wouldn’t forget to put in the mix.  A large portion of the liquid was the scald /soaker water from the previous bake.  We saved the soaker water adn prune re-hydration water for net week's bake.

When the autolyse and the levain came together, we did 3 sets of slap and folds for 6, 4 and 2 minutes with a 10 minute rest in between the two.  The dough stopped sticking to the counter during the 2nd set.  We then did 3 sets of stretch and folds with 15 minute rests in between each one.

We incorporated the seeds on the first set of S7F’s and the prunes during the second set.  By the end of the 3rd set the add ins were well distributed.  After a 30 minute rest, we pre-shaped the dough into a boule and then did the final shaping 10 minutes later.

The shaped boule was immediately placed into a very lightly rice floured basket and allowed to proof for half an hour in a trash can liner before being placed into the fridge for an 18 hour retard.

The dough rose well in the fridge - in fact, too well at 95% proof. We let it warm up on the counter for 30 minutes as the oven was heated to 550 F after the 325 F babka bake earlier.  We used a 9x13 Pyrex pan half full of water with lava rocks for the steam this time.

Once the oven beeped it as at 550 F we set the timer for 15 minutes to let the lagging top and bottom stones catch up.  The boule was un-molded onto parchment on a peel, slashed and slid onto the bottom stone of the oven.

After 2 minutes we turned the oven down to 500 F and 5 minutes later we turned the oven down to 475 F.  At the 12 minutes mark we removed the steam and turned the oven down to 425 F, convection this time.  13 minutes later the bread was 203 F on the inside and we turned the oven off.  2 minutes later it hit 205 F and we removed the bread to a cooling rack.

There was no need to let the bread crisp on the stone in an off oven with the door ajar. This bread browned up a deep mahogany that was well blistered.  One of the best crusts the BOGE, Betsy has ever managed to date.

There wasn’t much spring due to the full proof but, it didn’t collapse at all either.  Lucy called this a huge success after we waited on her babka bake for a couple of hours too long.

The crumb was very open, moist and soft.  The prunes lent a fine subtle sweetness to the loaf and with the honey helped to color the crust.  This is exceptional sourdough bread by all accounts and we like it very much.  It made a very fine grilled chicken sandwich for lunch - delicious!

Formula