The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Farmer's Market 26 (Five Grain Levain)

golgi70's picture
golgi70

Farmer's Market 26 (Five Grain Levain)

Well after seeing dmsnyder's post on J.H.'s 5 grain levain from "Bread" i had to give it a go.  I also thought it would be fun to finally follow  a recipe from a book (or not).  Since i couldn't get Cracked Rye I couldn't resist but make a small modification.  

To keep the same percentage of Rye in the recipe (9.2%) I just used some Rye Sour as a portion of the Levain.  In place of this I used some Bulgar in the soaker.  

I ran into trouble quickly as the dough was much drier than I anticipated and i was hand mixing a 10KG batch of dough for trading. I added nearly 4% more h20 to get a dough i could manage. I used the pincer method followed by 2 s/f to make up for the lack of mechanical mixing.  The dough actually felt okay by shape time but I think it could have been better devloped.  Not nearly as nice looking as David's but 

The flavor and crust of this loaf are so good.   After baking the first set straight from the fridge I remembered Davids caution and paid the price and had a few loaves broken at the score that never really filled in.  The following I pulled 1 hour befoer baking and went much better. I will certainly make this again but increase the H20 by another 2-4%.  

Spring/Summer Market starts back up next week so I'll be getting back out to some regular trading.  

Happy Baking 

Josh

Comments

ml's picture
ml

I'm just getting ready to bake this, also for the first time. What do you think your final hydration was, & why do you think it was dry to begin with? Isn't is 90 something %? What is the advantage to the additional wait time? Is it the final look?

golgi70's picture
golgi70

It's 98% with soaker water included. My soaker gobbled up the liquid over night. Hydration may be due to the added whole rye and my thirsty whole wheat. I got up to 102% roughly and the dough behaved much better.  keep in mind too that I added the rye sour upping whole grain flour by 10%. I foolishly didn't make any change for this Until I was forced to. 

Good luck. It's tasty tasty bread

josh

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

I'm curious regarding the "dry dough" observation too. Usually, this is a somewhat loose dough. I couldn't say how bulgur and rye cracked rye compare in water absorption.

Maybe it's just a matter of double checking the math, since you added some water with the rye sour, and consider that, if a whole rye sour and an AP-fed levain have the same hydration, the rye sour is drier (because whole rye flour absorbs more water). Just a thought.

I do like your scoring a lot!

David

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

I posted my preceding reply just after your answer, FYI. 

You just developed a new formula, and it needs tweaking after the first bake. So what's surprising?

David

golgi70's picture
golgi70

 I think the next time around I'll have much better results.  This bread is friggen tasty though.  Since I don't know what the original offers I can't make much for a comparison but I'm guessing the added rye has really pushed the crunch on the crust.   I did account for all of my changes to keep it as it was written but should have known the whole Rye would demand more H20 than white flour hence the 4% bump.  I will certainly try this one again and again.  If I can find some Cracked Rye I may even give the original formula a shot.  

Thanks for pushing me into this one which I had my eye on for a while.  I have to try more formulas from "Bread" as the ones I have tried (even with tweaks) have been fantastic.  The miche is one of my all time faves.  

Cheers

Josh

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

The Miche Pointe-à-Callière is delicious. However, my miche allegiance switched after the Artisan II Workshop at SFBI. We made a miche in that workshop which was the best white bread I've ever tasted, although since then I have generally made it with either all high-extraction flour (Central Milling T85) or a mix of high-extraction and AP. As it happens, I just finished mixing the dough for that miche, this time with about 80% AP and 20% WW. You can see examples though here: This miche is a hit! and also here: Miche from SFBI Artisan II - 2 kg 

If you like the Miche Pointe-à-Callière, not experiencing the SFBI Miche would be .... errrr ... a big miche-take. <ducking for cover>

David

golgi70's picture
golgi70

I looked through both of those blogs and they look fabulous.  I've made the Miche from "Bread" about 5 times now and have used all CM T85 and I can't get enough. I really like the low profile and the flavor is outstanding and just evolves over the next few days.  Its one of those breads that is great with nothing on it.   I like the ABP variation you posted and would be more inclined to try that as I lean away from mostly white loaves these days.  I don't doubt it for a second though that its fantastic, but in reading your posts it sounds like you prefer it with the high extraction flour.  But that's me reading into your descriptions. 

The big difference I'm noticing is the liqiud levain (and the decreased amount of PF to accomodate the overnight retard) opposed to a stiff levain like in the Pointe-à-Callière which doesn't get retarded  That and decreased hydration which makes sense since one calls for mostly white flour.  That's also probably what gets you the higher profile. It's nearly inverted in some ways.  The PaC gets the acetic going in the stiff levain and balances with a wet dough gaining the LABS during buik.  While the two you mention build the LABS in the liquid levain and gain acetic tones in the bulk and overnight retarding.  Sorry just nerding out loud here.  

Maybe a hybrid levain Miche is due. "Miche a la LoaFresh" And lets add just a touch of whole rye while we are at it.  So I'll split the levain 15% PF liquid T85 and 5%PF  Stiff Rye Sour.  I'll make 2 and bake one at room temp and one will get an overnight retard.  I can set it up so they bake at the same time and then i can compare and contrast side by side.  On my to do list.  

Josh

Syd's picture
Syd

That looks delicious Josh.  And I love your scoring.  I have this one on my 'to do list', too. Just don't know where I am going to get cracked rye from, though.  Can't even get hold of rye berries where I am.  

Best,

Syd

David Esq.'s picture
David Esq.

seems like a lot of bread for a test loaf though. :)

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

luck baking a whole grain bread right out if the fridge this week either,  I think they need some tame to warm up before hitting the heat?   This is one of those breads that look and taste great and with you rextra fancy do scoring...it is  even more special.  The market folks are in for a real treat.

Well done and happy baking Josh

Song Of The Baker's picture
Song Of The Baker

Hey Josh.  Beautiful as usual!  I plan to bake the 5 grain levain next weekend and can only hope my results are as yours.  I usually improvise with my seeds as well, whatever I have most on hand.  Any of the below to make up the total soaker in formula:

Pumpkin seeds

Flax seeds

Sunflower seeds

Poppy seeds

Cracked wheat

Cracked oat berries

Cracked rye berries

Cracked spelt berries

Millet

Bulgar

Barley

Hemp seeds

Coarse cracked polenta

For the cracked berries, I boil, drain, then allow to dry out in fridge for a few days.

I also noticed that if you toast the soaker ingredients prior to soaking, it really doesn't make a significant difference in flavour to the bread.  BUT if you toast them JUST to the edge of over toasted, nice and dark, then you can taste the difference in the final bread.  The different seeds have different toasting times...I usually add them gradually to the toasting pan...barley and cracked wheat first, then sunflower and oats, then flax, then pumpkin.

Some of the best toast I have had comes from this levain bread with tons of seeds glued to the crust.  Dang.

John

golgi70's picture
golgi70

Toasting the grains but wanted to stay as close to the formula as I could. i think seeds would demand a toasting more so than the grains I used. The flavor of my loaf is the best part along with the crust. The only downside was it being heavier on the inside than I'd hoped for. next time with more h20 I expect great results. 

Look forward to your results 

cheers

josh