The start of a journey: oat & spelt sourdough...
On Tuesday afternoon a friend popped by, and we, as you do, sat there over tea and cake putting the world to rights while the rain was hammering down outside. Next thing we know it's supper time, with more tea, bread and deli. And then, at the end of the evening, there are only crumbs on the board and half a fruit loaf in the bread bin. So there I was, at eight o'clock at night trying to rectify the situation - just as well I'm something of a night owl... And I felt adventurous to boot. So instead of reaching for a set recipe, I thought I'd try putting something together on the fly. And here's what I came up with:
Soaker:
75g porridge oats
75g spelt flour
200g water just off the boil
Levain:
50g rye starter
90g water
90g white bread flour
Dough:
soaker + levain
12g salt
5g dried active yeast
280g white bread flour
145g tepid water
The soaker was fairly self-explanatory - I mixed the oats and spelt together, poured the water over it and left it for four hours. Likewise for the levain, though as I wanted to mix the dough before hitting the sack, I put the bowl of levain in a pan of hand-hot water to give it a hurry-up. When I came to use it, it actually smelled quite sour...
The dough I mixed as usual by hand - it was quite sticky and not the easiest to handle, but I gave it a good knead. It needed a wee bit longer than usual to get it to where it started feeling silky. I left it to rest for half an hour at room temperature, gave it a stretch and fold, left it for another half an hour and did a second stretch and fold. At that point I popped the dough back in its bowl, put the bowl in a plastic bag, threw the whole ensemble in the fridge and went to bed.
Next day lunchtime I took it out of the fridge (it had about 12 hours in there) and left the dough to warm up for about half an hour. After that I knocked it back, shaped it into a boule, and plopped it into a banneton and plastic bag to prove for about two and a half hours. The dough had firmed up considerably overnight, and most of the stickiness was gone.
The dough was turned out onto a hot pizza stone and scored. I splashed some water onto the stone and covered the dough with a large stock pot. This went into an oven preheated to 230C. I gave the bread 25 mins with the pot on, and a further 25 mins with the pot off.
The resulting bread was a bit frisbee-like, but had a thin, crisp crust and a fabulous aroma. The crust did soften quite quickly however, but when I sliced into the bread the next day, the crust was nice and chewy, while the crumb was glossy and bouncy. Flavourwise, the first taste was lovely and creamy (from the oats, I presume), but then came a very distinct sour tang that I've never managed to achieve before.
More importantly, the bread received the parental Seal of Approval with a request for a repeat bake... Now I know this needs work, but unlike my problematic Pain de Campagne, this one is certainly worth persevering with.
The next time I attempt this, I think I will build my levain and make the soaker in the morning and keep them in a warm place until I make my dough in the early evening - not after midnight LOL... That way I can get a nice long retard in the fridge and be able to bake the bread at tea time the following day.
I also need to figure out why I ended up with a frisbee...
This afternoon I also baked a brioche - I found a no-knead recipe on a Dutch website (www. weekendbakery.com) that wants retarding in the fridge for two days, which rather intrigued me. Made the dough on Wednesday, left it to its own devices until into the oven it went this afternoon. It's actually my first ever attempt at baking brioche; I had a surfeit of butter left over after the Great Bun Bake, and I'd swapped one of my wholegrain loaves for some lovely free range eggs, so it kind of made sense. Am well pleased with the result and am looking forward to breakfast tomorrow...
And as usual, Madam Lexi had the last word in this week's culinary proceeds by proudly coming in at lunchtime today... with a rabbit...
Lexi was most upset when we took it away from her. Flopsy was duly released into the garden, whereupon she shot into the undergrowth with great alacrity... Still, it was quite a catch for such a small cat...
Comments
Amazing how a dog with such short legs can jump so high to catch a bird.
It is hard to get the hydration right with a porridge bread and easy to get a a less than proud loaf. Best to hold back some of the water and see what it feels like when you are developing the gluten and only use it if needed. Love that brioche! It will make some fine French toast for breakfast. Well done and
Happy Baking
Are old hat here... At least we managed to grab hold of it before it was let go in the house. Both Poppy and Lexi are very impressed that Lucy does birds, as they say that birds are the hardest things to catch - unless, of course, they've been feasting on rotting windfall fruit and are wobbling around on the ground, drunk and distracted...
The brioche was very good, if a bit on the dense side, but I suspect that's me and not the recipe. Had some this morning with butter, home made apricot jam and a nice pot of tea :-)
I see what you mean about the hydration - there was a very fine line between the dough being too dry to be workable and too wet. At least next time I will know; maybe put less water in the soaker and keep it aside for the dough if I need it.
And I guess the frisbee aspect of it can always be solved simply by baking it in a tin :-)
Amazing what cats will do isn't it? I was on a walk with my doggies this morning and noticed 2 cats sitting on its owners stoop waiting to go inside and along comes a big brown chicken and struts right next to cats! Who would of thunk it?
Anyway, you certainly are on the right track with your oat bread but it needs a little help. Usually as DA said if the hydration is too high you could end up with a flat bread unless you bake it in a tin. My guess would be you may need to develop the gluten a little more in this formula or cut back on the water a little.
I have made many similar breads but I now like to follow Tartine's lead and actually make a porridge instead of a soaker. I find this makes the most moist and tasty breads and is worth trying.
I"m not sure why you are using yeast in your bread as your starter should be enough to do the job. One reason why you could have gotten a frisbee was the bread could have overproofed and then spread out. Try eliminating the yeast next time and see if that works.
Regards,
Ian
Who likes to hitch rides on her sheep...
Yeah, I could certainly ditch the yeast if I do this properly. When I made this, it was late at night, was doing things in a hurry / on the fly and was trying to minimise the possibility of ending up with a house brick. Have never baked a brick yet, and am hoping to keep it that way LOL.
Better timing will likely lead to improvements. It might have been over-proofed though it was quite firm when I put it in the oven, but I've also learnt the hard way that loaves with spelt have a tendency to spread out. I could always swap that out for wholewheat flour to see if it makes a difference too.
Will look up about making a porridge... Usually, porridge (with sultanas and nutmeg) ends up in me and not in my bread. ;-) (Poppy loves porridge and usually gets her share.)
Two days down the line, this bread is still moist, bouncy and if anything, the flavour has gotten better :-) Went well with cheese and chorizo at lunchtime...
Not a comment on the bread but, Ian, we keep a small flock of hens and, a few years ago, almost any one of the birds we had at the time would see off neighbours' cats if they came too close! It really was funny to see a cat running from a hen that was chasing it flapping its wings like mad. Then we got a cockerel and a goose and the cats really were very cautious around our garden :-) .
LOL!!! :-D
Mind, having been jabbed in the derriere by an irate hen myself, I can see exactly why the cats are deciding that discretion is the better part of valour. ;-)
Both my dogs having been smacked across the snout several times by my cats have learned their lesson and I'm sure my cats would be running for covers and under the bed if I had a hen or two!
Bizarrely, the dog (Rottweiler) we owned a few years ago had reactions that were too quick for the neighbours' cats. When they hadn't connected after the first couple of swipes they used to launch themselves into the nearest tree! It was amazing to see, the dog seemed to sense when they were going to strike and just moved leisurely out of their way.
As for being attacked by hens, Reynard, that's a mere irritation compared to the damage the goose did to my wife one day - it pecked her arm so badly she spent days explaining that I'm not a wife-beater!
people being attacked by geese on the Internet - YouTube. Viscous creatures:-)
one can take revenge... They are rather tasty stuffed with apples and prunes and accompanied by bread sauce ;-)
Sounds positively painful :-/
Here's one I made a while ago that is similar to yours. Just switch out the beer for water and use whatever flour mix you desire. Since different flours react differently to water absorption, I would hold back around 50 grams of water from the autolyse until the final mix and add as needed so you don't end up with a soup.
Ian
At this, taking on board some of the suggestions. It's worth persevering in order to make a good bread into a great bread.
Prepared my levain this morning, and instead of just adding hot water to the oats and flour for the soaker, I actually cooked it. Will be making my dough after supper so I've time to do a decent set of stretch & folds before throwing it in the fridge overnight. As my timing is better than last week's mad evening scramble, I will also omit the yeast and let the levain do its work unassisted.
I've prepared enough ingredients for two 700g loaves - one I will shape into a batard and bake in my chicken brick, the other I will do in a loaf tin, purely to compare the difference between the two methods. Curious to see what will work best.