40% whole wheat SD with polenta, pumpkin and sunflower seeds.
I love whole grains, and I wanted to go back to some of the loaves I’ve made and try and make them more whole grain. My polenta pepita SD has been one of my favourite loaves so I decided to start there. The first time I made it, I used 100% white flour (ignoring the rye flour in the 6g of rye starter I used).
Here’s the formula I used this time:
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| Weight (g) | % |
Flour |
| 405 | 100% |
Unbleached white bread flour | 285 |
| 70% |
Whole grain wheat flour | 120 |
| 30% |
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|
|
|
Water |
| 225 | 56% |
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|
|
|
Levain (80% hydration) |
| 150 | 37% |
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|
|
|
Polenta (40g dry weight) |
| 150 | 37% |
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|
|
|
Sunflower seeds |
| 35 | 9% |
Pumpkin seeds |
| 35 | 9% |
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|
|
|
Salt |
| 10 | 2% |
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Total dough weight |
| 1010 |
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1. The levain was built in 3 stages, starting with 11g of my NMNF rye starter. All the builds were done using whole grain flour, this brings up the whole grain percentage in the loaf to 40%. The levain was retarded for about 8 hours the night before mixing day.
2. The polenta was just 40g dry polenta soaked in boiling water overnight. The moisture from the polenta, added a lot to the hydration of the final dough, but I wouldn’t say that the dough was particularly wet.
3. The flours, water and polenta were mixed and left overnight.
4. I added the salt and levain to the final dough and gave it 50FFs just to get it all mixed, and then a 15min rest.
5. Over the next two hours the dough had 5 sets of S&F (each set being 4 folds) every 30mins, then left to bulk ferment undisturbed for 3 hours until it looked nice a puffy (probably about double in size).
6. The dough was pre shaped and left to rest for 25mins before the final shaping. It went into a rice floured basket and into the fridge for 20hours.
7. The dough was baked straight from the fridge at 240 dC for 45mins (with steam during the first 30mins).
The crust is nice and crispy and the crumb is moist and chewy tender.
I think the crumb is okay for this type of loaf, it looks a bit tight at the top which makes me think I should have given the dough a bit more time? I'm still figuring out what to expect with whole grains.
This loaf is a bit sweeter than the one with 100% white flour, which i like. I definitely prefer the flavour of this loaf to the 100% white version (although that was also very nice). Overall, this is a very tasty bread, great for a sandwich. I'll absolutely try this again sometime.
Happy baking to all :)
Comments
That is one very nice loaf! I think that the crumb looks awesome for that amount of grain. Next time, maybe let the loaf rise an hour or so at room temp before finishing the proof in the fridge. It might open your crumb just a bit more although I think what you got now looks awesome. Whoops, already said that it looked awesome!
I haven't tried polenta in my breads yet. It is on my list of things to do.
Good job!!
helps moisten the crumb and it also adds a bit of sweetness.
I will try and let the loaf rise a bit more at room temp next time before baking, see what happens. Thanks for the tip.
Thanks for the compliment :)
Happy baking Danni !
I know this tastes better and healthier, The last photo is very tempting! No complaints about the crumb.
Cheers!
I'm glad you liked the post :)
How is Zhou Clementine doing?
She is still in her cold sleep and fasting for a fortnight and half now but I'm getting her ready for a loaf.
Can't wait to see how the loaf turns out :)
Looks great.
I appreciate the compliment :)
I am amazed at how far you've come and the rapidity with which you did it. I can remember just a short while ago you were asking for advice. Now you're in a position to provide advice. I started baking a short time before you and I have yet to reach your level of success.
That is very kind of you :)
The learning is still far from over, every loaf is such a fun learning experience.
I hope to see some of your bakes here sometime, I'm sure you're doing well too.
Happy baking Tom.
I'm not sure you could get a better crumb. Lucy loves the 40% whole grain mark for everyday sandwich breads and toast. Plenty of flavor but not enough to kill the crumb. In this case since polenta is a grain and it might be whole grain or not you may have more or less whole grains than you think. But, either way that crumb with so much non gluten grain is a real feat to be emulated. Plus the polenta really kicks up the flavor too. This has to be one fone tasting bread.
Well done all the way around and Happy Baking RU007
whether the polenta is whole grain or not. The package just says "Polenta", but it doesn't say the corn is degermed so it might be whole grain? Well, anyway, whatever it is, i like it!
Polenta really does kick up the flavour nicely, slightly sweet. Haven't tried it toasted yet, that's tomorrow's treat.
Thanks for the compliment Dab, really glad you liked it.
Have a great week, happy baking :)
removed too since this is the first part to go rancid. Then they put back some of the bran, no one knows how much, and call it whole wheat sine it isn't whole grain. I'm guessing this is what your polenta is, whole corn but not whole grain corn.
Really nice loaf and that crumb is outstanding. I tried polenta a few years back in a loaf and ended up with a mess...a tasty mess but none the less it was way too wet. I have some lovely locally grown and ground stone milled polenta so I think I will give this one a go. Oh and I always bake direct from the fridge also but as suggested above I give the shaped loaves a rise of usually 1hr before the retard. Might give that a try but your loaf looks exceptional. c
I usually put the shaped loaf straight into the fridge. Giving the loaf extra time to rise at room temp might be better for me. I like baking straight out of the fridge because a cold shaped loaf is harder to mangle than one that's at room temperature :)
And thank you for your kind words, very much appreciated :)
Glad you liked the post, I hope you try polenta in one of your loaves again soon :)
Ru
That's a great looking loaf!
I appreciate the compliment :)
Best
Ru
this looks like a perfect crumb for this formula. I've made several polenta breads myself and yours looks great.
You can try cooking the polenta next time and then letting cool and it will form a solid state. I usually add some butter or and cheese too just because I can:).
Happy Bakng!
Ian
That's very kind of you :)
I really like the idea of cheese in a loaf of bread, i just haven't been brave enough to try it yet. Cheese and maybe some onion...
Last time i made this loaf with just white flour, i cooked the polenta, so i decided to just soak it in hot water this time and see if it would make any difference. I'm not sure if it did, but then again i also changed the flour composition a lot so any difference might have gotten lost. Next time i make this loaf, i'll try cook the polenta (with some cheese) and see what happens.
Have a great week :)
Could I sub out medium grind cornmeal for the polenta? And is 56% hydration correct?
Thanks!
I don't think it would have any adverse affects though. The 56% hydration is correct but it doesn't include the water from the levain (which was 80% hydration) or the water from the polenta.
The polenta was 40g dry weight soaked in about 110g of boiling water. You might want to gently cook the cornmeal, to avoid grittiness in your loaf.
You may have to use more or less water depending on how much water your cornmeal absorbs. When i had mixed the flours and the water and the polenta for the autolyse, i kind of poked at the dough to see how it felt, it shouldn't be too wet, but its not a stiff dough either. It should be easy to stretch, but not running away from you.
Hope that helps, let us know how it turns out if you try it :)
my math skills went downwards from there. That's what happens when you aren't totally focused on what you are doing. I soaked 80 g of cornmeal in 220 g of boiling water for a few hours and refreshed my starter at the same time. As to the dough, it ended up being 300 g whole grain wheat flour, 700 g unbleached no additives all purpose flour, 580 g of water, 75 g each of toasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds, 22 g sea salt and 200 g of 100% hydration rye/whole grain wheat levain. I had to add the extra 20 g of water cause the dough felt too stiff. So far, so good. It has completed its bulk fermentation and is now proofing for an hour or so before I put it to bed in the fridge till I have time to bake tomorrow. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it turns out half as well as yours!
I think bread dough can be very forgiving.
Can't wait to see what it turns out like, i'm sure it'll be fabulous and delicious :)
Thanks for trying this loaf, i really hope it goes well.
They just came out of the oven. I can't wait for them to cool down and have a slice!
Those look absolutely beautiful!! The color is lovely.
Well done Danni, i hope they taste as good as they look?
Wow, what a great loaf. If that's a tight crumb, I'm in big trouble.
Thank you so much :) I haven't baked much with whole grains so i'm still figuring out what to expect. Its nice to know i did okay here!
Thanks again :)
How much of the water was used for the polenta soaker?
in about 110g of boiling water. So the 150g polenta is 40g of dry polenta.
The 225g water in the table doesn't include the water from the polenta or the water from the levain, so the final dough isn't a stiff dough as the 56% would suggest, but it isn't a very wet dough either.
My plan was to only add 160g of extra water, but after mixing the flours polenta and the 160g of water, the dough felt too stiff so i added an extra 65g of water.
I think the crumb looks absolutely perfect - soft, moist and the right amount of holes. I hate it when all the toppings (cheese, butter, etc) end up in blobs in the holes, or running out of the holes, when bread is too 'holey'. I like bread better than air! :)
starting to prefer less "holey" bread. It makes far better (and less messy) sandwiches!
Thanks for the compliment LL, much appreciated :)
All I can say is wow! What a lovely loaf! I decided to browse this site to get some inspiration for my next loaf, and I will probably try to imitate yours. I usually make whole grain loaves and I like the idea of putting polenta in the bread. Thanks so much for your inspiration, ruoo7.
thank you!
I've learned so much on TFL and its nice to know i can give back a little :)
Let me know how this turns out for you if you try it.
Happy baking!