Nelson Mandela Challenge Bread
Many folks don’t know it but Nelson not only was a great man who brought freedom and liberty to his country but he was quite a bread guy too. One of his most famous quotes was ‘Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.’ But it didn’t stop there. He lived on bread and water in prison for years and his favorite folk tale was ‘How Hlakanyana Outwitted the Monster which featured a stolen loaf of bread.
It is amazing how things can change from black to brilliant in one’s lifetime like it did for Nelson. He was born a chief’s son who would end up in prison and then became the father of his country. You can also do some research on Nelson’s personal chef, who would have thought he would end up with one of those? His cookbook might have a loaf of Nelson’s favorite bread in it. Could it be the famous South African Cape Seed Bread?
But, Lucy being Lucy, she decided to go a slightly different path to gain some additional inspiration for her take on Nelson’s bread. Her first thought after his being black, being noble, being in a dark prison cell for so long and a bread lover, was to try to put some other colors to the man besides black. She has always loved African fabrics because of their vibrant colors but was unfamiliar with South African ones.
A quick peek on the Internet found many textiles she liked but eventual decided on this one for her inspiration. http://www.crossroadstrade.com/textiles/other-textiles/southern-africa/fabric/south-africa/south-african-wall-hanging.html. The main colors in many SA textiles are red, blue, green, gold / yellow, black, white and gray. So these were the colors she would use to formulate this bread.
The blue and red were fairly easy as we had fresh cherries and blueberries in the dehydrator and some red rye malt in the pantry. The golden/ yellow grains were easy enough. The green was pepitas and pistachios and those rye berries have a green tint too. The black was Boulder Beer’s Chocolate Porter for the dough liquid, some prunes and a double dark rye altus that has chocolate and espresso in it. The gray was the rye paste and the white was the white malt and Lucy’s teeth which my wife had just brushed.
Nelson’s captivity was symbolized with the Pullman pan enclosing the pumpernickel for so long at steamy temperatures. This is a 100% whole grain healthy bread which accounts for Nelson’s long life. 67% of the grains are sprouted and 67% are rye. The remaining whole grains are white and red hard wheat, spelt, Kamut, oat and buckwheat.
It helps to have a good breakfast on Bake Day
The aromatic seeds were black and brown caraway, anise and coriander that were lightly ground. The non - aromatic toady seeds were black and brown poppy seeds, balk and brown sesame and golden flax that were also lightly ground.
The 100% hydration, NMNF, bran levain was a 2 stage one with the first stage being the bran that was stirred at the 4 hour mark and the 2nd stage was the 100% hydration, 140 F, 2 hour, baked scald of the red rye malt and 10% of the high extraction sprouted and non-sprouted flour.
The amylase really sweetened up the scald and when added to the first stage of the levain as the 2nd stage, it really perked it up making fo a double in 2 hours. The levain ended up at 24% pre-fermented flour, a large one, quite sour to boot and just what you want for a near 67% rye bread.
The high extraction dough sprouted and non-sprouted flour was autolysed with the chocolate porter for an hour to get the amylase working ahead of time to break down the starch into sugar - to really help get the dough acidic once the levain hit the mix. The residual sugar would also produce a dark crumb once the pumpernickel low and slow baking process was finished. Overall hydration was only 85% and the salt was 2% pink Himalayan sea salt. This was the baking schedule followed for the low and slow http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/38548/ploetziade-2 It came out of the oven at 206 F so it could have been over baked the last hour at 200 F.
Nelson Mandela was a complicated and complex man who had suffered much and seen a lot in his amazing life. This bread reflects much of what Lucy and I have learned since joining TFL community over 4 years ago – also a complex and complicated journey that was just full of interesting methods and techniques
NMNF rye starter, bran levain build, fermented 6 grains, 3 dehydrated fruits, 5 non aromatic seeds and 4 aromatic seeds for the Toadies, red and white malt, a dark rye soaked altus and a porter autolyse were all part of this bread. It was all finally capped off with the pumpernickel process. Nelson was one of a kind and so is this bread crafted in his honor.
Now we have to see what it looks like on the inside tomorrow. It smelled incredible as is baked and came out nicely hard and brown on the outside. We wrapped it in plastic after it cooled hoping the crust would soften a bit as it aged for 36 hours. This bread sliced thin with no gummy parts and not much crumbs produced. It is one fantastic tasting - just delicious. Fruity, nutty, seedy and aromatic with that whole grain heartiness. Made for one fine breakfast of sausage, bacon, fruits , berries and a schmear..
Formula
2 Stage bran levain – 100% hydration with 24% pre-fermented flour with the bran at 20% extraction average with 24% water
33.3% sprouted rye flour
33.4% whole grain rye flour
33.3% Sprouted whole grain red and white wheat, oat, spelt and Kamut
61 % Boulder Beer Chocolate Porter – dough liquid
Baked Scald
1% each white and red malt
9% high extraction sprouted and non-sprouted 6 grain flour - included in above
9% water topped up after baking - not included in above
Add Ins
16.6% Pistachios
16.6% pepitas and sunflower seeds
16.6% dried cherries and blueberries
11% prunes
9% aromatic seeds – black and brown caraway, anise and coriander in the toadies
16.6% non-aromatic seeds – Black and brown poppy, black and brown sesame and golden flax in the toadies
10% dark rye altus with 10% water - water not included in above.
Comments
I hope it tastes as good as it sounds! Looking forward to the crumb shot tomorrow!
would have found something to like in this bread:-) It is one of a kind and for Pumpernickel lovers' like Lucy, one the best.in so many many ways, We have plenty of different rye breads in the freezer now.
Glad you liked it and happy baking
Man! Just wow! Great write-up! Just terrific! I literally got goose-bumps reading it. You wrote it with some of the recent topics in TFL in mind.
You've got a scald, my favorite NMNF, all sorts of raking the forest floor, Kamut flour, a Pullman pan, and you tied it all together so beautifully with Nelson Mandela's riches to rags to triumph. If ever there was poetry in bread, this is it! So beautiful, dabrownman! Well done and thank you for sharing. Just lovely.
Up under the picture of the panned loaf, you have "double dark re altus." I read about an Altus but forget what it was. I'll look it up. What is "re," though?
I LOVE seeing the picture of your dehydrator and the other one of the six bowls of forest scrapings. :)
While I'm learning to bake dmsnyder's SD from SFBI Artisan II class, I've been reading about milling and read where you started with a $15 dollar Krups coffee grinder. I don't want to hijack your thread but wonder if you can expand here or somewhere about sifting, extraction, and sprouting. I'm unfamiliar with the terms but I think I have to know about them after pouring something I don't know about into a now $20 dollar Krups. :)
Thank you, dabrownman, for your very valuable time. That's very generous and charitable of you to share it with us.
Murph
rye bread that has sen better days. Rather than trow out bread, bakers just make large bread crumbs out of it, soak it a like amount of water by weight and then add it to the rye bread they were making that day.- waste nit want not was the theme.
I burned up one Krups grinding grain:-) If you put too much in or let it grind for too long without letting it cool down it will burn up. I have one double sieve that extracts out about 12-14% of the hard bits when using wholre grains ground in my Nutrimill if I don't temper the grains first. Since sprouting grains is like tempering them the bran of sprouted grains mills off in much bigger pieces so I get about a 20% extraction from them The low percent of the bran sifted out leaves the higher % of the flour remaining - 80 to 88 % high extraction and the bran is the low extraction percent 12-20%
Sprouting is easy. Just soak the grains in water fr 4 hours in a mason jar then drain them and rinse them off with water/ I use a small colander that I cover with plastic wrap and then a towel to keep the light out and let them sprout fir 12-24 hours rinsing ever 8 hours till they seeds chit. - where the first white rootlets just break the surface of the seed at one end. Then dry them at 105 F in the dehydrator for 3.5 hours until they weigh what thy did when they were dry and un -sprouted.. Once dry just mill and sift them.
Glad to help and thanks for liking the bread.- happy baking
Sounds about right... :)
Thank you, dabrownman, for taking the time to go into that for me. Time is not something to be frittered away. I appreciate that you spent some on me. Your generosity is without peer.
I've been doing some good reading on the terms you've introduced. I was excited to read one of your posts where you said fresh ground makes a world of difference. I would like to taste that difference.
If you can grind in a Krups, I bet I could grind with a mortar and pestle. :) Looks like I need some sifters and/or sieves. I'm reading on these now. They're sized by # and I'm wrapping my head around it.
I didn't want to let too much time go by without thanking you for pointing me in the right direction. This is very interesting stuff! Once I've learned a bit more, I'm sure I'll have some informed questions to ask. I hope you wouldn't mind answering them as I very much like your style of interaction and level of carefree expertise like when you wrote, "a gram here and a gram there and before you know it, you've got great bread." :)
You da man!
Murph
Like a clear sunny day is to to a gloomy stormy night. Fresh milled sprouted flour is like the best day ever in Tahiti compared to that clear sunny day.
You are too kind as usual. You will learn everything there is to know about bread worth knowing right here from this great community..,. just like I did. Pay attention, keep asking questions and keep after it. That is all it takes. Have no fear of failing often, learn from them and then bake another bread. Before you know it, the bread will suit your tastes and that is all that counts.
Happy baking
I can't even imagine!
I've been reading about different mills. The Kitchen Aid (which I have) attachment, the mighty Diamante, a Wonder Mill... hand crankers...
I'm like you... a loaf a week kind of guy but if we're going to make a loaf, it darned well better be better than a clear sunny day if we're going to spend that kind of time with it. (BTW, thank you for the scald tut! I'm going to try that after I do a few more runs of dmsnyder's SD from SFBI Artisan II class to get my technique down.)
I'm convinced that the Nutrimill that you use is all I'm ever going to need. I'm figuring about $300- $350 bucks these days. What are you packing?
Thanks, dabrownman, as always, for your most valuable time with me.
Murph
Fresh Lofian. Both it and the Nutrimill do everything I need it to do. I got my Nutrimill from Amazon last Christmas when they go on sale. I agreed to get an Amazon credit card and they took off another $50 with free prime shipping it came to $179 total all in. That is the cheapest way to buy it that I know - otherwise it is $229 or so.
I don't need a more expensive mill since this one does more than I will ever need it to do already. Others have different needs, wants and means than I do though. I got my sieve at Goodwill for a buck. It works perfect with the fine setting on the mill to sift out the bran. Most all of my baking stuff; from stones to cloaches, pans to pots and all of my baskets came from Goodwill.
For me, there is no sense spending a bunch of money on bread stuff when you can get the same thing for little to nothing on dollar Thursdays:-) Bread should be cheap and healthy not expensive. Some folks first loaf of bread cost them $1,000. Good for them and I could care less how they spend they money.......but I'm glad I still got my $1,000! After baking 250 loaves of bread since I got the Nutrimill. it has cost 72 cents a loaf just for the mill. I've got bake another 750 loaves to get my moneys worth out of that thing!
One of my favorite breads is an 80% high extraction, sprouted multi-grain bread. Yeah, it isn't as healthy as a whole grain one with the all the good stuff missing in th bran but, for a white bread, it just can't be beat at 75% hydration. All it takes is a Krups coffee grinder and a $1 sieve.
The best things in life can't be bought..... no matter how much money you have and the things you can buy...... aren't worth owning....... most always.
Happy Baking Murph
If you have a Kitchenaid mixer you can check out the MockMill also. I was given one to test out and I have to say it works great and I actually prefer the control I have in the fineness of the milling compared to the Nutramill.
you will want a different mill than the KA grain mill. It's a great tool for cracking grains and producing fine to coarse meals. However, even at its finest setting, it doesn't do nearly as well producing fine-textured flours. That seems to be inherent in the design. Then again, you've probably already run into that.
Paul
Lucy let out all the stops on this ride. Better get to the station early. Can hardly wait to see (and read) about how it tastes.
Thanks for the Challenge - you know we love them!
Cathy
and the apprentice thinking. They are fun ti make and it is interesting to see what everyone comes up with. Glad you liked the bread and that you gave it a shot too.
Well done and happy baking
As I re-read this, I'm amazed that the darned thing even rose! Did you bake just one loaf with all that stuff in it or did you spread it out over 20 loaves? Did you use helium? Did you grind the add-ins to a fine powder? That looks like almost 100% add-ins. That's incredible! Is that possible? I mean, it must be possible because there it is but, bread can do that?!?
Hah! That levain and dough strength can raise a cinder-block! Can that be weaponized for military use?
Murph
but doing so with 100% whole grains at such a low hydration is unusual and possibly nit as good as could have need with more water. Breads like these should be at least 100% hydration and this one was a bit dry at 85%. The aromatic and non- aromatic seeds were worked in a coffee mill to a large grind rather than a medium or fine one once they were toasted, I like these kinds of seeds to be a bit chunky so you know when you bite into them. Plus flax seed will pass right through the body totally undigested if not ground this way - even if they are soaked.
All said this is a more dense bread than usual for this type because of the lower hydration and al; the add ins - but still fine for a pumpernickel style bread. it is amazing what Sd can do to make a bread lift - I usually ut Yeast Water in there with it for these breads to open the crumb more - for some reason Lucy didn't specify it,
Happy Baking Murph
Still amazed... still thinking about this bread...
Given that you can only have one slice of bread a day, what a GREAT way to stretch it to two slices by cutting the glycemic index. What flavor that must have! Will that work? Will the bread spoil before next weekend? How will you store it - it's gotta be sliced and frozen, right?
By the way, how'd you do that scald? I was reading TFL where a gentleman was published in BBGA (he has a book coming out, too, which is way cool) where he mixed at 150°F for 10-15 minutes? Did you do something easier?
Good job, dabrownman!
Murph
to 140 F with the door cracked open - below the inactivation temperature of the two different Amylase enzymes that break down starch into sugars, 150 F will inactivate one of the amylase enzymes. I bake the scald for 2 hours stirring ever 30 minutes topping up the 100%hydration at 1 and 2 hours. I have perfect control of the temperature that way. I find when I do it on the stove top it gets too hot before I can catch it and 15- 20 minutes isn't enough time to do what I want it to do.- brown at a low temperature without killing off the enzymes . Brown color in all baking and cooking means moire flavor
After this kind of rye bread rests the appropriate time to redistribute the moisture, I slice it thinly (1/4") , wrap it in plastic and freeze it. For other kinds of breads I quarter then and freeze then in quarters.
Happy baking
and what a great formula for the occasion! You and Lucy make a good team! Looking forward to the crumb shot...
Happy Baking, DBM
Yippee
other stuff in general. Lucy is exhausted and might be brain dead - not that she wasn't already:-) That Oriental Pullman pan is getting quite the workout for sure.! We just love it. The crumb is a bit dense but not bad for all the stuff in there. It tastes terrific. Glad you like it and
Happy baking Yippee
This is truly inspiring. I'm a little lost for words... what a unique loaf, its very fitting for the theme and so well thought out. Making me a bit teary actually, bread isn't always just bread.
You nailed the colors with the add ins!
Your bread looks incredible and i bet it tastes amazing too. Can't wait to see the inside.
Thanks again for this challenge :)
and thought one of Lucy's kitchen sink breads would be perfect for him as a tribute.:-) So that is what she did she got mire inspired the more she found out about the man. It turned out well and the taste is one of a kind.- but delicious.
Glad you like it Ru007 - it was all fun and happy baking in the end.
You and Lucy's dynamic duo is a real genius. A great challenge for a great man from a great baker. I can't wait to see the crumb, must be phenomenal! I'm just sad I have to miss this. My idea is definitely much simpler but I can't find the necessary ingredients because it calls for whole grains and other weird stuff I can't find in our small town.
This is definitely complex but the more I read it, the more my heart understands the very essence of this bread. Way to go uncle!
Happy Baking!
you needed. Being in a small town where these things are impossible too find has to be trying at times. I'm thinking my next bread might be baked over an open fire like you do.. 'I think I've got it figured out from my old boys Boy and Explorer Scouting days - and I mean old. :-)
I'm glad you liked the bread for Mandela Job. I think you would like it and something completely new for you to taste.
Happy baking.
I don't even know where to start....it is simply quintessential DAB !! I sure hope to get to your part of the country this year. Keep an eye out for a message in late Sept. c
definitely be home in September since school will be in session and my wife still teaching, It il still be hot most likely too - probably still in the 100's but cooler at night than the 92 F we have now until then.- same for the pool temperature except i is now 96 F- yikes.!.
i'm glad you liked the bread trailrunner. It cold have used a dose if yeast water for sure:-)
Happy baking
You and Lucy have sure outdone yourselves! I don't think you have room to stuff anything else into this masterpiece, nor should you :).
It's always such a pleasure to see what you two mad scientists will come up with next to spur me one and you certainly did not disappoint. Like Nelson life, the journey is what it's about and your bread journey, while still going has certainly been extraordinary as is this bread!
Max and Lexi looked at this beauty and are wondering why their assistant has not baked anything in a week. Now to make a levain so I can mix something up. Just went to Vermont for a crazy long day trip the other day and stocked up on some KAF stuff and a whole bunch of cheese and maple syrup. Now time to bake :).
Happy Baking from the East Coast gang.
Vermont can be:-) Looks like you are stocked up for some bread baking wonderment in the future!
Lucy is a mad scientist and I am just mad...... in a strange, if amusing, kind of weird way. It thundered and lightening last might with a bit a rain at about 1 AM for the first monsoon light and sound show of the year. Poor Lucy was beside herself, scared to death, acting crazy as all get out. You would have thought the world was ending. Normally she is afraid of her own shadow so thunder and lightening really gets her all worked up. She drove us crazy for an hour jumping from my head, to my wife's in bed last night.
Lucy really pulled out the stops for this one. Once a floozy, always a floozy I say. It sure tastes good . You forget how powerful pumpernickel is when you haven't made one in a while. Can't wait to see your next creation and Lucy warns the East Cost Pack that loud noises and bright lights are on the way - so watch out
Happy baking Ian
Hi, dabrownman!
I went down to the local Whole Foods and bought a couple of handfuls of hard red winter wheat grains. So that's what wheat looks like, huh? :)
Wifey said she had a spice grinder that she would sacrifice to my madness and when poking around looking for it, she came across a Mr. Coffee grinder! Who knew? I hadn't seen that in centuries. The darned thing made flour just like your Krups did back in the day!
So there's that.
I just got finished reading the whole Milling and Grains forum. I read just what seemed interesting and things that had a high comment count. Proth5 and bwraith were wallowing in the deep end as pmcool said. I thought they definitely went off the deep end with refractometers and moisture meters but it was an interesting read. I'm glad they spent some time here.
I'm going to give your scald a try and grind up some of this wheat and just stick it in somewhere and see what happens. What could POSSIBLY go wrong? :)
What's nice about this whole thing is that it's not expensive to bake a failure and try again. If I ever worry about a nickel here and a dime there in flour, I have ever bigger things to worry about!
Thanks again, as ALWAYS to you and everyone else else here!
Murph
the toaster oven for 150 F with the door ajar. Say 120 g total with the water. Stir it every half hour and top it off with water every hour. 2 hours minimum. Next thing you know you will have one sweet mass of flour that is also a Tang Zhong. You will be amazed at how much difference that 120 grams will make in your next loaf of bread.
I usually ground up no more than 100 g of berries at a time with that little thing and let it cool off between batches so it didn't burn up.
Happy baking
So thin and clean edged, the moisture redistributed beautifully - very nice! And we get to see (and you get to enjoy) all those add-ins; reminds me of fruitcake, only no sugar!
You and Lucy were quite inspired!
let you know she is just plain full of it and not just inspiration either! This bread was a good slicer like most well rested pumpernickel are.... if you don't over bake them like we did the one before this one. We baked a cocktail loaf for 12 hours and it is being saved for our next construction project...... if it is a tiny house since it is a tiny brick.
This bread is like a fruitcake without the sugar. We like it but we love fruit cakes. Sad we only make them once a year though.
Glad you liked the bread and Lucy sends her best to you and yours!