No Touch Trailrunner Method 2 Ways – One Sourdough and 1 Fig Yeast Water

Lucy was more giddy than usual with this week’s baking experiment that actually ended up making bread instead of a scientific oddity – as seen on TV.  The premise was simple enough.  Do as little as possible and then do less than that but still squeeze in moderate glass of wine – in a plastic glass of course.

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They don’t let the Inmates here have real glass and rightfully so and no stainless steel or metal of any kind for that matter.  At least the menu is mainly bread and water and that is where this post gets interesting ….we had to make 2 loaves for all the special ones trying to steal my tooth paste and floss when not using them or even after wards in case of the floss.

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This post also has a bunch of important history in it that goes back, well….. nearly half a week by now which is especially a good thing as I get older, my memory gets weaker and forget what happened during say the Aroostook War of 1838 and 1839 in Maine, where 550 Americans and British died.  There was no combat but the ‘pork and beans’ were apparently very bad.

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A very nice bean pepper jack cheese, potato and beef chorizo breakfast baked smothered burrito with Pico on top.

The history we are trying not to forget was Trailrunner’s post this week on not doing much of anything and making a great loaf of YW/SD combo bread followed up by some No Touch Rolls.  Lucy and I have been banned from Combo YW and SD Bimbo bread after that nasty episode in 2013, that we can’t forget, but that is another story hardly related to this one if I remember right.

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A crown of thorns in full bloom. 

So, we made a separate Fig YW and NMNF sourdough bread that were identical except for the leavening agent.  Each had 10% levain, 10% whole 7 grains, all in the levain, at 100% hydration.  The 7 grains, were oat, spelt, Kamut, rye, red and white wheat and einkorn.  Both were mixed all together including the salt with a spoon to a shaggy mass except for the levain which was added 1 hour later.  The hydration overall was 72% for both.  We did a whopping 10 slap and folds one each and then let each one sit for 4 hours.

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This is the crumb if the darker loaf that looked like it bloomed naturally and not as much

Then we did 3 sets of stretch and folds of 4 stretches each from the compass points - all on 1 hour increments. 30 minutes after the last one we just dumped the dough into rice floured baskets, seam side down, with no shaping at all and let them proof for 2 hours before starting up the oven for 500 F pre-heat and the Mega Steam Lava Rocks on the bottom.

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This is the lighter loaf that looked like it was scored and split right down the middle.

Once hot the loaves were dumped out onto parchment on a peel and slid onto the bottom stone.  2 cups of water were poured on the lava rocks as the oven door was shut.  The temperature was turned down to 450 F for 15 minutes of Mega Steam.  When the steam came out the temperature was turned down to 425 F convection for 24 more minutes of dry baking.

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All the plants with the exception of the cactus are blooming right now in the front yard.   This was the last one to bloom  today

One came out of the oven at 210 F and one read 208.f even though was taken out last but it was the 2nd one loaded.  One looks like it was scored but it wasn’t and one baked up darker even though the temperature inside was lower.  They both sprang and bloomed about equally.  So which one was the SD and which the Fig YW?