The Fresh Loaf

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It started with an Einkorn Poolish

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

It started with an Einkorn Poolish

It started with an Einkorn Poolish.  What was I thinking?   Should drink my morning coffee first before doing this.  Desperate to try out my new crown cane banneton, threw the last of my Einkorn flour onto the scale, 138 grams.  Matched that with equal weights of water. Whoops! A tad too much, no biggie, Einkorn loves to soak up water if given the time and gee whiz, only 10 extra grams.  Then found a 7 g package of instant yeast, tore open and tapped in a gram or two saving the rest for later.  Stir, cover and forget for the rest of the morning while I enjoy my coffee and get into my day.   

As I poked and prodded my Einkorn Poolish over the course of the morning, it reminded me just how sticky Einkorn dough can be.  I hope it works out.  I slipped a small hot freshly peeled boiled potato into the bowl, along the side, warm things up a bit around 10 am.   Rising nicely and doubling which it doesn't have to do but looks like an afternoon bake.  Around noon, grated the potatoes and stirred it into the poolish.  What a mess to clean the spoon!

Around 2 pm I did my maths.  Let's see....  at least 750g dough.  A two-three water to flour recipe would be 300g H2O to 450g flour.... subtract the poolish and get my water and flour weights for 66.6% hydration.  Add the potatoe and it should be in the 500g range for figuring 2% salt.  (Used 8g table salt.)   I decided on AP flour, no bread flour in cupboard.  Hey, did discover I had two kinds of spelt flour from the same manufacturer, one sifted "white" and the other whole flour.  The carb. and fiber contents are very different.  

Two o'clock mixed up the dough with rest yeast and after half an hour rest, used wet hands to knead shaggy dough into smooth dough. Still sticking and wondering if the dividing and shaping will be just as sticky.  After another half hour of sitting, turned out onto a lightly AP floured bench and no problem dividing with a bench scraper as long as the cut edges got a little flour on them in the process.  Six balls at  approx 120g each and one seventh ball with 145g.  That's how it came out from original instructions of 100g each with one at 150g.  20 min rest under a damp towel.  Rolling out large ball into a disk, draping well floured banneton, reshaping other balls and spacing around middle.  Cutting hump into a 6 point star and pressing points onto each ball to secure.  Dusted a little bit around the edges with raw sesame seeds.  Let proof under damp towel on rack.  Oven 220° C with steam pan baked on heavy pre-heated pizza pan.  Fine soft crumb with a crusty yummy loaf.  

Reflecting back on flattening and draping the heavier dough ball,  it could have been a smaller disk with less dough spread out at the bottom of the banneton.  Seeds would have to be rolled into outside surface before draping.   You can see I almost covered the bottom.  There is so little room at the bottom of this banneton.  Not sure if I like the looks of the cane lines as compared to a smooth cloth lined form at the Wild Yeast Blog

http://www.wildyeastblog.com/shape-crown-couronne/?style=print

 

 

Comments

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

 

Picture didn't show up in the posting above.  Let's try again!  And again.... and again... ok...how did I do that!

not.a.crumb.left's picture
not.a.crumb.left

and love to see a crumb shot....How on earth did you manage shaping - amazing!  Kat

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

given the shape of the banneton I would not have expected the loaf to come out like that! amazing. Love it!  

Leslie

 

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Mil's first impression was that it looked like a cake and thought it sweet.  That must be the kugelhupf shape, the hole in the middle and the tear.  (Or the sugary look of white flour.) I'm wondering how a sweet raisin dough snake coiled around the banneton will come out.  Might have some wild spiral cracks with more upward oven spring.  Einkorn and rye doughs do a good job at cracking open without scoring.  They have a typical tear and crust texture.  I also got the impression I could put more dough into this proofing form.  First time use, lots of flour and no sticking.  The proofed dough fell out cleanly.  The bake went fast.  

I love an easy shaping technique to use.  The first time is always a little crazy and step by step pictures are a great help but once done and the effect is good, remembering makes the shaping easier and faster.  For a more open crumb, just skip the degassing before the final shaping being gentle and slower with flattening the disk and just transfer the dough balls into position...oh...and use less einkorn flour in the dough.  :)

Lots of ways to play with the shape. I do notice that the inside crust in the middle hole doesn't brown much.  It looks like it tore near the bottom and lifted the middle crust, rising high and reducing the size of the opening.  You can see the white crust on the right side of the crumb photo.  The crumb direction did not head into that space (hole) but followed the center upward while the outside crust expanded outward.  A little underproofed? Maybe.  Maybe not.  

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

or even two different coloured doughs or.....  the possibilities are there.  I have just remembered I have a microwave cake form like this that could be used...  oh dear another idea to add to bakes I want to do.

Does einkorn give a denser crumb?

Leslie

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Yes, it does but I just love about 20g with 480g white wheat flour!  If I have to make an all white loaf fast.   

DesigningWoman's picture
DesigningWoman

photos, but when you do, they're killers! That's really pretty -- and yes, a sweet dough sounds like just the thing for that shape. Makes me think of the Christmas couronnes we have here, with candied fruit and a brioche-y sort of crumb. Yeast-water dough?

Keep 'em coming!

Carole

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

I just might do something brioche for the weekend since it's a long one here with Monday being a holiday.  

Mini

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

 Not one of my favorites but I would like it more if it didn't cost 8 times more than red wheat:-)  We like oddities especially scientific ones, and this one is an odd shape for sure.  It reminds me of a Chacon.  Nice to see your post Mini and 

Happy baking

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

I paid €2 per kilo package here in Austria.  Local fields.    How does that compare?  I paid €.45  (45 cent) for a kilo of AP wheat so that's about 4x.

I'm maintaining an Einkorn starter so I bought some more yesterday.  

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

and over $4 a pound for Einkorn at Whole Foods  the only place I can get it and certainly not local at all since it is Jovial Brand fro  europe somewhere.  

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Great to see you posting again.  I have not made this shape in a while but yours came out great.

Where are you residing now?

Regards,

Ian

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

replacing water pipes and ripping out the old bathroom.  Been wanting to do it for years.  I still wake up and think I'm somewhere else.  Meanwhile we make use of a corner bathtub.  Great for soaking a dirty herd of kids but they've all grown up.  The neat thing about the big tub is that it's easier to get out of than a conventional one.  Easier to roll over onto knees and stand up instead of feeling like a stranded turtle.  

Getting back into my garden and bringing some order to it.  The moss took over and so did the weeds and thyme.  Got to get estragon growing again and some salad greens to compete with Dab.  :)

Isand66's picture
Isand66

I hope you are back for a while and enjoy the summer....I'm hoping we have one in New York :).  I think I finally see the sun after a week of non-stop rain.

Regards,
Ian

bread1965's picture
bread1965

I love the look of that loaf.. well done!