Toasted Oats and Milk
Having found that cider doesn't seem to add much flavor to bread, and worrying its alcohol may have hindered fermentation, I thought I'd try milk. I was curious if the milk would curdle from the acidity of the dough, and if that would matter. When mixed into dough, is curdling even something that milk does?
The fat may be the more significant part of milk in bread. The crumb turned out tighter and more tender, less chewy. There's a definite milky aftertaste, that mucusy feeling like after eating a bowl of cereal. This loaf is basically granola as bread.
Because they weren't whole oat grouts, but "quick steel cut", I felt like my blender wasn't going to have a hard time breaking them down. I treated the toasted oats, soaked in milk overnight and then blended, as part of the flour in the recipe. It seems like oats absorb quite a bit more liquid than wheat, because I ended up adding another 120 g of milk--about the same weight as the oats. Without the extra milk, the dough felt like 60% hydration or possibly lower (the intent was 75%).
8:00pm toast 110 g oats, soak in 340 g milk, refrigerate
8:30pm mix levain 51 g starter, 59 g bread flour, 59 g water
8:00am blend soaker -- measured 425 g, 25 g missing
8:00am mix autolyze 371 g bread flour, blended soaker -- added 13 g more milk, 17 g more bread flour
9:00am knead together autolyze, levain, and 10 g salt -- added another 80 g milk, dough was stiff
9:40am -- kneaded in another 40 g milk, dough was stiff
10:00am S&F
10:30am S&F
11:10am S&F
12:00am S&F
1:00 S&F
3:30pm shape, coat outside with oats
8:00pm bake covered
8:20pm uncover
9:05pm done
Comments
needed more salt?
I find oats need closer to 2% salt.
Loaf looks good!
Now that you mention it, yes it did taste a little undersalted. Oats apparently just soak up everything (is this why they're used in skincare products?).