Sprouted Buckwheat Porridge Levain with Chanterelles

My obsession with mushroom bread began a little over a year ago when I was gifted Nancy Silverton’s “Breads From the La Brea Bakery”. While her books were personal and groundbreaking for their time, I do have one bone to pick: the measurements! Nancy’s recipes are expressed in tablespoons and cups, pounds and ounces, perfect for the American home cook (particularly at the time they were published), but maddening for the professional baker (and today, novice bakers too!) who is used to measuring everything in grams and kilos.

While I gathered a lot of inspiration from Nancy’s Mushroom Bread, I decided to create my own recipe, using buckwheat flour to add a nutty contrast to the savory umami flavor of roasted mushrooms. I baked this loaf with chanterelles, but also experimented with roasted maitakes and rehydrated shitakes. The chanterelles worked best, but I believe black trumpet mushrooms, or even more easily accessible crimini mushrooms would work beautifully.

Fresh herbs brighten the loaf and harmonize beautifully with the sweet and sour notes of the levain.

I have used high gluten flour to offset the lack of gluten in the buckwheat flour. If this is unavailable to you, you can substitute bread flour. Rye flour is added for flavor and color, but can also be substituted out for bread flour or a medium strength wheat flour. I do not recommend increasing the percentage of Buckwheat flour in this recipe. While 5% seems like very little, increasing it will drastically change the structure of the bread, and while it may not seem like it the buckwheat flavor really does go a long way.

 

 SPROUTED BUCKWHEAT PORRIDGE LEVAIN WITH CHANTERELLES Yields: 1 loaf INGREDIENTS

• 265 g Bread Flour (53%)
• 105 g Type 85 Wheat Flour (21%)
• 80 g High Gluten Flour (16%)
• 25 g Buckwheat Flour (5%)
• 25 g Dark Rye Flour (5%)
• 430 g water (86%)
• 12 g salt (2.5%)
• 85 g young levain (86%)
• 100 g cooked buckwheat porridge (preferably sprouted before cooked) (20%)
• 53 g roasted mushrooms and herbs (10.5%)

 INSTRUCTIONS

1. Combine flours, water, and levain until just mixed. Allow mixture to autolyse for 30 mins- 1 hour.
2. Add salt and mix by hand using slap and fold method, or with a mixer for 3-5 minutes until gluten structure is formed.
3. Bulk ferment for 1.5 3 hours, folding every 30 mins. Incorporate mushrooms and Buckwheat porridge (both should be at room temperature) during second fold. Bulk ferment should take anywhere from 1.5 hours - 3 hours.
4. Divide and pre-shape once dough has increased in size by roughly ⅓ and it dough mass is slightly convex on top. Dough should be less sticky than before and will pull away from the sides of its container with more ease.
5. Shape as desired. I use a tartine stitching method before putting the loaves to bed in bannetons.
6. Leave baskets out until dough passes the poke test. Retard in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours.

See my original blog entry at http://www.colossusbakery.com