Just in time for Cinco de Mayo: "Especiales" polenta, Colby and pickled jalapeno sourdourgh loaf.

Mmmmm, cheese bread. Yummy yummy cheese bread. What could be better?

Polenta, cheese and pickled jalapeno sourdough bread, that's what!

I developed this formula for Cinco de Mayo and it is inspired by Ignacio Anaya's original recipe for "Nacho's Especiales". Of course neither he nor his iconic recipe have anything at all to do with Cinco de Mayo, but I didn't let that stop me...

The polenta doesn't give a lot of corn flavor but it does make the crumb tender, soft and amazingly moist. I just might incorporate it into my standard, weekly loaves (and I doubt I would ever have tried it at all if not for the project that developing this formula turned into). 

I love jalapenos and would have used more if I had thought I could get away with it!

The cheese is not too much, it gives a mild cheesy flavor and aroma. Good for all kinds of savory sandwiches, or just with butter or oil. You really don't need butter or oil with this bread though, it is good as it is. 

And the apartment was full of a wonderfully cheesy aroma during the bake. This cheesiness persisted into the evening. 

This is my second "Especiales" loaf. The first was slightly lower hydration (66.7% if considering only flour, water and starter). This one was increased to 70%, I will make one more Friday night and I will bump that one up to 72%.

With this one, I probably should have had a longer autolyze, and my initial dough temperature was definitely too low. I was aiming for 74-76 F and I tried to compensate by putting it in the oven with the oven light on in between sets.

Oh and I don't know what was up with our oven. It is far from the best but is usually better than it was when baking this loaf. Hopefully a fluke.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with this.

(BTW "Darcy" is my name for my 80% whole wheat starter, "Darcy Jr." is the 66.7% AP starter which was spawned from the first one).

Pictures at the bottom. 

264 g KA AP flour

066 g Whole Foods whole wheat flour

233 g Poland Spring spring water

110 g AP starter (66.7%)

008 g Morton's non-iodized table salt

080 g cooked unsalted Alpina Savoie medium polenta (seven parts water to one part dry polenta)

080 g grated Organic Valley Colby cheese

040 g La Morena pickled jalapeno "nacho" slices (rinsed and drained)

SUNDAY

1100  Reduce Darcy Jr. to 30 g, then 10/9/6 feeding to 75 g.

2315  Reduce Darcy Jr. by half then 3/3/2 to about 100 g.

          Measure out 233 g spring water into lidded jar and seal.

          Measure out 66 g WW flour and 264 g AP flour into medium mixing bowl. Cover.

          Measure out 30 g dry polenta into small bowl. Measure out 210 g water into saucepan, cover and place on burner.   

          Make sure all of your MISES are EN PLACE. 

MONDAY

0545  Make polenta. Measure out 80 g into large pyrex mixing bowl, add water, wisk and cover. Place in cool room. Season leftover polenta. Fry an egg to have on leftover polenta with lots of black pepper and butter. Good Eats!

          Measure out salt into same small bowl on cutting board. Place soup bowl with bowl scraper on clean counter.  

0800  Reduce Darcy Jr. by about 7/16 then 54/72/48 (about 2/3/2) to 174 g. 

          Divide 110 g freshly fed starter into separate small mixing bowl. Cover.

          PLACE COVERED MEDIUM MIXING BOWL WITH FLOUR INTO OVEN (about 85 F). ENSURE OVEN LIGHT IS OFF.

1730  Put spring water into soup bowl. Grate 80 g Organic Valley Colby cheese (from refrigerator). Turn on oven light.

1735  Mix flours and grated cheese with fingers in medium mixing bowl.

1740  Take the 110 g of starter and wisk it into polenta and spring water mixture.

1745-1755  Mix by hand. Initial dough temperature 71.7 F.

1755-1825  Autolyze in oven with oven light on. Oven temperature 93 F.

1825  Stretch and fold in the bowl #1 (double set). Incorporation of salt and a few of the jalapenos. The rest sit on top, defiantly.

      *In between stretch and folds in the bowl, dough is kept in 93 F oven (oven light on).

1850  Stretch and fold in the bowl #2. A few more jalapenos are incorporated. And several others are punted out of the dough.   

       *In between stretch and folds in the bowl, dough is kept in 93 F oven (oven light on).

1915  Stretch and fold in the bowl #3. The resistance continues.

      *In between stretch and folds in the bowl, dough is kept in 93 F oven (oven light on).

1940  Envelope fold set #1. Placed into large mixing bowl lightly oiled with olive oil. The end is in sight. We tell ourselves.

      *In between envelope folds, dough is kept in 93 F oven (oven light on).

2005  Envelope fold set #2. Isolated pockets of resistance. Victory is near!

      *In between envelope folds, dough is kept in 93 F oven (oven light on).

2035  Envelope fold set #3. Armistice. We sing "La Marseillaise". Placed in banneton, into plastic bag, and into refrigerator. 

TUESDAY

0520  Begin preheating of oven, stone, and inverted stainless steel mixing bowl to 500 F. Loaf removed from refrigerator.

0635  Loaf slashed and placed on hot stone, under mixing bowl. Oven temperature only 400 F. Temperature never returns to 500 F.

0654  Mixing bowl removed. (Target) temperature reduced to 470 F.

0704  Rotated 180 degrees. Oven temperature again down to 400 F. The oven has been doing a terrible job of temperature control. 

0716  It looks nice and dark so I take it out and switch the oven off. Instead of 34 minutes the bake took 41 minutes.

          Loaf placed into bamboo steamer tray to cool. Internal temperature 208 F.