10 Grain Cereal Porridge Bread Take II

I made this bread back in June and really liked it then. It was one of the breads I wanted to repeat. Because of time, I changed the method and ingredients a bit and used a bit less cereal and water. For some reason, this dough seemed extremely wet when it came to shaping but it is hard to compare it to the other dough because I bulk fermented that one in the fridge, shaped it cold and proofed it on the counter. This one was bulk fermented in a warm place and proofed in the fridge. I think I got a bit more oven spring with the first method but both recipes turned out quite nice.

This makes 2 loaves but I did two batches to end up with four loaves.

Levain: Did three builds of my rye/flour starter to end up with 200 g of half rye, half unbleached flour levain at 100% hydration. Stored it in the fridge for a day due to other commitments and added 50 g flour and 50 g water an hour or two before mixing it with the dough. It was quite bubbly when I used it.

Porridge: Toasted 150 g of Bob's Red Mill 10 Grain cereal and then cooked until soft with 300 + 25 g of water. I added the 25 g because I thought the 300 g weren't enough during cooking but next time, I will skip it. I cooled this for 2 days in the fridge.

Autolyse: In a bucket, I put 700 g warm water, the 10 grain cereal and mixed it up. I then added 100 g dark rye, 100 g spelt, 100 g kamut (although the second batch, this part was mostly spelt because I ran out of Kamut), 100 g partially sifted local milled flour, 200 Robin Hood Multigrain Best for Bread flour, 400 Rogers Unbleached Flour. This autolysed for one hour on the counter.

Mixing: I added 23 g of table salt (ran out of sea salt) with 20 g water (next time skip this additional water) and 200 g of the above levain. I used the pincer and folding method to integrate it all together.

Bulk fermenting: I put the doughs in my oven with the light on and the door ajar. I did 6 sets of folds all a half hour apart. Then I let it rise for another 1 and a half. Total bulk fermentation time was 4 and 3/4 hours.

Divide, Pre-shape, Rest and Shape: This is where thing got sloppy. The dough was extremely wet and although it did hold its shape somewhat, it was super sticky and I had to use tons of flour on the counter surface and the top of the dough as well as my bench knife to be able to divide it in two and letter fold it. I let it rest about 15 minutes and did the final shaping. The dough was marginally better but still not fun. I decided to put it in the baskets seam side down in the hopes that it would hold its shape. 

Proofing: I put the baskets in plastic bags and it went into the fridge for 14.5 hours for the first batch and 16 hours for the second. I baked as usual in Dutch ovens pre-heated to 500 F for 20 minutes, dropped temp to 425 F for 10 minutes, uncovered the Dutch ovens and baked for another 20 minutes.

The loaves feel tender but heavy which is what I expect from a porridge bread. Three of them are going to the soup kitchen (I ran them there today but they were closed which is really unusual so it will have to wait till tomorrow) and the other is going to one of my daughter's friends. I am going to cut up the loaf for her to get it ready for freezing so I should be able to get a crumb shot and a little taste before giving it to her. ;-)