The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Baking with My First Mill

Elsie_iu's picture
Elsie_iu

Baking with My First Mill

I seriously can’t believe it. There’s now a grain mill in my kitchen! Needless to say, I planned a bake with freshly ground flour the day I took it home.

 

Brie, Hazelnut and Goji Berries Sourdough with White Whole Wheat Flour

 

Dough flour:

294g      98%       Freshly milled white wheat flour

6g            2%       Buckwheat flour

 

For leaven:

20g       6.7%       Starter

20g       6.7%       Bran shifted out from dough flour

20g       6.7%       Water

 

For dough:

280g     93.3%       Dough flour excluding bran for leaven

224g     74.7%       Water

56g       18.7%       Whey

60g         20%        Leaven

13g         4.3%       Powdered Alt Altus

9g              3%       Vital Wheat Gluten

5g           1.7%       Salt

 

Add-ins:

50g      16.7%       Brie

15g           5%       Toasted hazelnuts

15g           5%       Goji berries

___________

310g      100%      Whole grain

310g      100%      Total hydration

 

Sift out the coarse bran from the dough flour, reserve 20g for leaven. Soak the rest (I got 16g) in equal amount of whey taken from dough ingredients for a minimum of 4 hours.

Combine all leaven ingredients and let sit until doubled, about 3.5 hours.

Roughly combine all dough ingredients except the soaked bran, salt and leaven. Autolyse for an hour. Knead in the rest of ingredients then let the dough ferment for 8 hours.

Re-hydrate the goji berries in enough warm water. Cube the brie (I left the rind on). Keep refrigerated until needed.

Fold in the add-ins. Stretch and fold the dough for a few times then let the dough rest for 20 minutes. Shape the dough and put in into a banneton. Leave it on the counter for 30 minutes (mine was under-proofed at 20 minutes) before retarding for 10 hours.

Preheat the oven at 250°C/480°F. Remove the dough from the fridge to warm up at room temperature for 20 minutes.

Score the dough and bake at 250°C/480°F with steam for 15 minutes then without steam for 25 minutes more or until the internal temperature reaches a minimum of 205°F. Let cool for at least 2 hours before slicing.

 

Same formula except for that all red wheat flour was subbed for white and the add-ins were 10% toasted walnuts and 20% vanilla infused figs instead.

There’re two major changes I made for these two bakes. Not only did I use such a large percentage of freshly milled flour for the first time, but I also experimented on a different steaming method. Instead of generating steam using two wet towels while leaving the loafs uncovered, the loafs were covered using a round disposable aluminum pan. No external sources of steam were provided yet the resulting bread has the crispiest and shiniest crust I’ve ever achieved!

Both bakes were somewhat flawed as I under-proofed the dough for both times (How could I??). As a result, the crumb was not as open as it could have been, especially at the bottom part. Fortunately, the bread is still very moist and chewy.

The flavours of grains were intensified when they’re not given much time to oxidize. I noticed heightened sweetness and bitterness in red wheat flour. They added more character to the bread and allowed it to pair with stronger flavours without them being overwhelming.

The difference in taste between freshly milled flour and bagged flour is more subtle than that between freshly milled sprouted flour and un-sprouted flour though. So next time for sure I’ll be incorporating some sprouted flour as well! How much complexity is it going to add!

 

Comments

Ru007's picture
Ru007

Your loaves are always so interesting! This one looks wonderful, I love brie so this sounds really good. It looks great too! 

Congratulations on the new grain mill, this is exciting. I can't wait to see all the wonderful things you're going to bake with your freshly milled flour. 

Happy baking Elsie

Ru

Elsie_iu's picture
Elsie_iu

I can't wait to bake the next loaf already :) Thanks for the congrats.

Brie is pretty mild so I chose to pair it with white wheat and hazelnuts. More intense flavours like walnuts and figs might mask the creamy and buttery taste of brie. With pockets of melty brie in this bread, it is pretty irresistible for cheese maniac like me. No reason for not putting brie in bread when baked brie bread bowl is all the rage!

 

PalwithnoovenP's picture
PalwithnoovenP

Have you been sprouting your own grains already? I know your still on cloud nine from that new mill. Looking forward to more of your loaves. Keep pushing the boundaries of flavor combinations, they're amazing!

Elsie_iu's picture
Elsie_iu

for a few times already. Sprouting them is easy and you're rewarded with so much flavour. It's hard to resist adding some sprouted grains into every loaf of bread after you've tried it for the first time. And with a mill, the grinding part happens in a flash (I use a coffee grinder in the past so it's time-consuming). If you have not tried sprouting your own grains, I highly recommend you to give it a try as soon as possible. The taste is truly exceptional! There's no way that anyone won't be able to tell the difference.

Thanks for the encouragement! I love experimenting with complimentary flavours, like how the bitterness of red wheat and walnuts would go with the sweetness of figs and vanilla. I'm sure the crumb could be more open when proofed properly so there's still plenty of room for improvement.

Happy Baking!

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

I haven’t used brie in a bread yet, so one more thing to try.

I too have the Mockmill 100 and just love it.  it has changed the way I bake that is for sure.

Happy milling Elsie

Leslie

Elsie_iu's picture
Elsie_iu

Brie is lovely in sourdough. Just make sure you only take it out of the fridge right before it's time to fold it into the dough, or it'd melt and turn messy.

I'm not certain how the mill changed the way you bake but I know how it's affecting mine. The frequency I bake is increasing tremendously :)

Happy milling (and sprouting?) and baking 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

that put these over the top:-)  Seriously!  Well, maybe not....but maybe?  Very nice combination of ingredients that came out 'Looking Good'.

Yep sprouted grain is the cats meow but milling your own also ups the quality couple of notches too.  Why do they call it a Mock Mill?  It looks like a nice one to me!  Happy Baking!

adjective 
  1. 1.not authentic or real, but without the intention to deceive."a mock-Georgian red brick house"
    synonyms:

    imitation, artificial, man-made, simulated, synthetic, ersatz, fake, reproduction, dummy, sham, false, faux, spurious, bogus, counterfeit, inauthentic, pseudo;

     

albacore's picture
albacore

Designed and made by Wofgang Mock, the Mill Man! Komo, Fidibus and now Mock.

Lance

Elsie_iu's picture
Elsie_iu

Thanks for the background information

Elsie_iu's picture
Elsie_iu

is not really tasted :) but who knows? Maybe leaving it out would cause the "something's missing" situation. I intended to add it to the red wheat loaf only at the beginning to compliment the walnuts. There was a bit of buckwheat starter left so it went into the white wheat one too to avoid wastage.

One would be awarded by more intensified grain flavour by milling his own flour, and yet sprouting creates entirely new aroma that's plainly irresistible! I'm glad you like the bake. Can't wait for your next bake!