75% hydration Pain au Levain, mixed leavening, Kamut/Wheat

Howdy!

 

75% hydration, mixed leavening, sponge, bulk and proof retard, 15% whole grain (whole wheat / kamut), based largely on Peter Reinhart's Pain au Levain from Artisan Breads Every Day. I'm trying to become a lazier baker.  I've been baking a lot of 25% whole wheat/kamut bigas, but now I'm on break and it's back to sourdough. Behold, the loaf.  I mixed and matched some techniques from my favorite four bakers - Reinhart, Lahey, Forkish and Robertson. Refreshed the starter from the fridge at 1:4:4 (6g starter : 25ml room temp : 25g ww/bf) Made a Robertson style sponge with 15g starter : 200ml at 55F : 100g bf : 50g ww : 50g whole grain kamut - I think it's Kamut, but I never labeled the canister 2 years ago).  I dropped the water temp to about 55F cause it was going to sit for around 12 hrs in a warm (75F+) kitchen. The next morning I mixed the whole sponge with 480 bf, 17g salt, 7g instant yeast, and 300ml water at 95F.  Stirred to combine using Forkish's pinch and fold.  Waited 5 min, then more pinch and fold.  10 min rest, then S&Fs every 10min for 30 min.  I really hate Stretch and Folds every 10 minutes.  You can get like 2 good ones in, and then the 3rd is really tight and if you try to force a 4th the gluten often rips.  So I contented myself with 3 each time.  Reinhart likes every 10 min, but I think it's barely adequate and 15m is the minimum.  I like Forkish's guideline of when the dough looks slack again you can go ahead and do one. After 3 or 4 sets of S&Fs I put it into an oil-misted dough bucket into the fridge for 12 hours. After 12ish hours I shaped it on a lightly oiled board, sprinkled sesame seeds (my wife said my massive bin of sesame seeds in the fridge needs to be used up because it's using valuable real estate.  So sesame seeds on everything for the next month, even when they don't pair with the flavors at all), and refrigerated it, seam-side down, in a banneton overnight. Preheated a Lodge cast-iron DO at 475F convection for 30 min, sprinkled coarse cornmeal inside to avoid a burned bottom, and transferred the dough in a parchment sling (avoiding injuries but also ensuring the cornmeal won't touch my dough.) Covered and baked at 475F convection for 20m, 425F convection for 10m, then 425 with convection off for 20m.  It could've used another 5m I guess, but my waffles were beeping and my son wouldn't stop talking about which survival gear was better for withstanding a bear attack. I use convection cause my wife got this ridiculous Bertazzoni oven and it get HOT at the bottom.  The manual (clearly from Google Translate) calls it "base scorching aspect."   Tighter crumb than I prefer, which probably has a lot to do with the 10 min stretch and folds, and also the large amount of instant yeast. The obvious benefit of Reinhart's approach is the convenience of retarding for bulk fermentation (he even extends it to up to 4 days!). Maybe playing with water temp and yeast qty will allow for more time between stretch and folds and thus a more open crumb. Flavor is fine, although undercut by the yeastiness and crumb tightness.  My wife said "It's no ScarJo but I wouldn't kick it out of bed."  A solid B+. Bon appetit!Eli