The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Spelt, Farro, Rye and Wheat Sourdough – 50% Whole Grain

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Spelt, Farro, Rye and Wheat Sourdough – 50% Whole Grain

This week the stiff rye sour has been in the fridge for 4 weeks, 672 hours at 36 F, and it is ready to make some sour bread.  The sour come not so much  Its not so much that it is cold but that it is cold for a very, very long time with plenty of food to eat allowing LAB to reproduce at 3 times the rate of yeast..

 

We have been making some whole grain breads getting ready for Plotzaide 2 Ancient Grain bake.   But instead of using an 8,9 or 10 grain mix this time we went with one of our favorites, not that they all aren’t spelt, farro, rye and wheat.   We also reduced the whole grain amount too.

 

We used the sifted out hard bit  19.66% portion of these home milled whole grains to feed the starter and make the levain that came from an original mix of 40 g each of farro, rye and spelt berries and 180 g of whole wheat berries.  The starter loves to feed on these hard bits and we like to get them as wet for as long as possible to reduce cutting of gluten strands.

 

We did our usual increasingly larger 3 stage levain build.  The kitchen was at 86 to 88 F.   The first stage was 2 hours long and the 2nd stage doubled in 3 hours.  We refrigerated the levain for 48 hours after it had risen 25% after the 3rd feeding.  It finished doubling in the fridge and all we had to do was let it warm up on the counter.

 

The levain ended up being 17’5% of the total weight of the flour and water.  We wanted less levain but we got more extraction the than 85% we were shooting for which caused a larger levain than we planned and we refuse to waste any food around here - no worries we just made a larger levain which just make things happen a little faster than planned.

 

We did a 1 hour autolyse of the dough flour and water, no salt and no levain, but we did sprinkle the salt on top pf the autolyse dough ball so we wouldn’t forget it.  After mixing in the slat and then the levain, we did  3 sets of slap and folds of 8, 1 1 minute spaced 20 minutes apart.  The wet dough quit sticking to the counter at the 8 minute mark.

 

Once the slapping was over we did 3 sets of stretch and folds, from the compass points only and these too were spaced 20 minutes apart.  We decided to do a 9 hour bulk retarded ferment in the fridge rather than our usual shaping, basketing and bulk proofing in the fridge.

 

It rose nicely in the fridge while chilling and we let it warm up on the counter for 1 1/2 hours before shaping into a squat oval to fit the rice floured basket and leaving it to final proof on the counter at 88 F for 1 ½ hours.

 

We preheated the mini oven to 500 F and got 2 of Sylvia’s Pyrex steaming cups half full of water, with a dish rag inside, boiling in the microwave.  After un-molding the dough onto parchment on the mini’s top, vented, broiler pan lid we quickly slashed it once and into the MO it went.  No more heating Big Old Betsy up until October.

My daughter made a fine portobella mushroom dinner.  They were stuffed with caramelized onion, Gorgonzola and Italian sausage.  Lucy says never ever forget a good salad for lunch and dinner.

 After 2 minutes we turned the MO down to 475 F to finish out the total 12 minutes of steam.  Once Sylvia’s Steam came out, we turned the MO down to 425 F, convection this time to dry out and brown the crust.   In 15 minutes the bread was done - 27 minutes total.

 

Nothing wrong with Andouille and hot links with grilled sweet potato as long as you can back them up with some blue chese and green onion sliders!

Monsoons are only a month away now.

It sprang back some and bloomed a little after the slash but it did spread a lot too since this was a wet dough - another reason to do a long, cold, final proof in the basket.  The crust developed small blisters and it browned well enough.   It came out of the oven very crunchy.

 

Late Spring means rectangular blueberry pie with a puff past lid and a gorgeous apricot galette with a strawberry center.

Then there is Brownman's stuffed chicken breast.  It has blue, smoked Gouda and pepper jack cheese, bacon, caramelized onions, red pepper and mushrooms topped off with fresh sage, basil, rosemary and Swiss chard inside.  Sometimes lunch is nice caramelized onion and mushroom soup piked with Andouille sausage, smoked chicken, Irish ancient cheddar and fresh basil flowers....and that fine whole grain baguette!

The crumb came out more open than I thought it would.  It was soft, moist and glossy.  But by far the best part is that this is the best tasting bread we have made in a long time…… and that is saying something.  It made a great bologna, pepper jack cheese and tomato sandwich for lunch.  If you want a nice multi-grain 50% while grain sourdough, give this one a try.

Lunch can be pizza too!

Formula

 

Build 1

Build 2

 Build 3

Total

%

SD starter

8

0

0

8

2.04%

19% Extraction 3 Grains

8

17

34

59

15.01%

Water

8

17

34

59

15.01%

Total

24

34

68

126

32.06%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

%

 

 

 

Flour

63

16.03%

 

 

 

Water

63

19.81%

 

 

 

Hydration

100.00%

 

 

 

 

Levain % of Total

17.52%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dough Flour

 

%

 

 

 

LaFama AP

330

83.97%

 

 

 

Dough Flour

330

83.97%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salt

8

2.04%

 

 

 

Water

255

64.89%

 

 

 

Dough Hydration

77.27%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total Flour

393

 

 

 

 

Water

318

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whole Grain Equivalent %

50.00%

 

 

 

 

Total Weight

719

 

 

 

 

Hydration w/ Adds

80.92%

 

 

 

 

 Lucy says see ya next Friday

 

Comments

v's sis's picture
v's sis

I want to eat at your house!  Do you always have such gorgeous sunsets?  Bread looks fabulous, crust and crumb alike!  How does Lucy ever maintain her lovely figure?

Leah

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

only show up for half the year but they are spectacular when they put on their show - just part of the desert beauty.  Seeing the sun set at the Grand Canyon is something everyone should experience. Glad you like the bread and spread.  Lucy only gets 2/3 of a cu of food a day plus all the scraps she can mooch off me:-)  She is my food taster to make sure everything we eat is...... poisonous......in a good sort of way. My daughter always asks me how what ever it is tastes and the standard answer is ....It tastes poisonous ...you don't want any of that :-)

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Love this crust and beautiful crumb.  I think Lucy is looking towards the sky waiting for your bread to float away!

What is that piece of green in the first photo peaking out of the crumb?

Your food as always looks amazing and that stuffed chicken breast has left me speechless!

Happy Baking!

P.S...finally posted my rolls from last week and have to work on my bake from yesterday that I know you are going to like.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

hot lime green plastic cutting board underneath the bread - so we get 'green holes' in our bread when it is photographed :-)

The stuffed chicken breast has evolved over these many years.  Sometimes it has hot Mexican peppers, sometimes pesto, sometimes feta and queso fresco, sometimes Italian, Mexican or African sausages.  The filling is like one of my usual all in the mix breads - or one of yours - anything goes :-)  All of them taste delicious.

Glad you like the bread, this one is special because of its complex sour taste.    Will check out your posts.

Happy baking and Lucy says H to her extended East Coast Pack. 

Our Crumb's picture
Our Crumb

Your Holiness,

Just when I think we eat pretty well (we do!), I see your dazzling culinary porn.  Then cuisine chez nous begins to look so bland. <sigh>

Nice baking, and cooking, Mr B.

Tom

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

invented Toadies has to eat pretty well I'm guessing:-)  Nothing like a good satisfying meal to brighten your outlook - 3 times a day - not including snacks and such.

Glad you liked the bread and food Toady. 

Happy Baking

Blacksilk Helen's picture
Blacksilk Helen

Amazing bread!  I must try it.   All of your food looks wonderful, you must cook all the time!

 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

It tastes great!  I'm glad you like the spread.  I don't cook all the time but Lucy seems to thinking about cooking something most of the time.  I'm just a closet chef who tries to make each meal something special no matter how lowly that is fairly healthy and worth eating.  There is so much great food from around the world, cooking and baking baking it is a limitless hobby for the retired who are easily fooled, easily satisfied or both - like me :-)

Happy baking

hanseata's picture
hanseata

as usual. How do you manage not to waddle around with all that good food?

Your comments about the limitless hobby are so true - when I was still having my office in Germany I envisioned myself as working (fixing people - not dinners) until I drop dead.

Now, retired physician and semi-professional baker, I enjoy myself enormously - every day is a great day for baking!

Karin

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

The pizza plate was for 2, the stuffed chicken breast was for 3.  Salads are for 3......sausages were for 3 and the hamburgers were for 3 twice.  Desserts were for me and Lucy over several days this past week but the girls wolfed the blueberry rectangular thing.  Lucy says it is better to eat well rather than eating more.  This is one time where less is more if you consider less food leads to more health:-).

When I was working, i loved what I did but in retirement, you can do what you love - quite a difference.  So much more fun now for sure. Every day is just a great day to do what ever you want - nothing like real freedom to do anything and everything that comes to mind. 

Glad you liked the post and bread.  Looking forward to your next challenge.

hungryscholar's picture
hungryscholar

It looks like exactly what I want for my sandwiches, holes and all. I haven't had the patience for multi-step builds in a while, but it sure looks like it was worth all the work.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

sandwich breads.  Decent whole grains, great flavor and the holes aren't too big.  Makes great toast too.  There is a lot more waiting doing nothing with the levain and starter build - but not much more work which Lucy loves being the lazy, sleeping  dog she is most often!  The extra waiting doens't seem to phase her ....when she's sleeping.  Glad you like the bread HS and

Happy Baking.