October 3, 2018 - 9:42am
Whole Grain. Red Fife. Rye.
100% whole grain, organic.18% Rye. 82% Red Fife. 83% Hydration. 1.9% Salt.
Fresh-milled. 18% flour in levain. 300 SLF. Only about 2 hours in bulk and 1 hour in proof!
Bulk at 21c. Proof at 30c.
Baked at 500 for 20m 450 10m Uncovered for 10m. 40m total cook time.
This was one of my best tasting, highest rising, explosive blooming loaves for being whole grain, unsifted, fresh-milled.
I still can't judge volume increase in bulk or proof. I'd estimate it expanded about 30% in bulk and about 75% in proof--but realistically, I could be way off.
I'm wondering if I could have proofed slightly longer given how much it ruptured. This thing was tearing at the seams. I did shape quite tightly with tension pulls.
Thanks for the feedback.
-Tom
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Very nicely done. What mill did you use? Only two hours of bulk testifies to the power of your levain. Maybe one day instead of an invitation for feedback there'll be an invitation to 'feed on' - I sure wouldn't hesitate.
so long to get back to you. I have a Grainmaker. I really like it. I don't think it's that expensive over the length of time I hope to use it. This loaf tasted great. Still curious if I could have proofed a bit longer.
Even thought I'm not retarding this loaf, it probably makes sense for me to drop the levain size given how quickly it fermented the dough, perhaps due to all the fresh-milled whole grains including rye. Then again, this was a great tasting loaf and if it only took 2 hours in bulk and one in proof to deliver, so why try to stretch the time out...
Any thoughts?
Thanks.
BigBlue - Can you describe what it is you liked about the flavor of the bread? High or low sour, full bodied, etc.?
Thanks,
Dan
Looks great, rather open crumb for all whole grain.
So was your levain all of the rye flour? What was the hydration of the levain? Did you press most of the gas out of the dough during shaping, or try to preserve the gas that was already there from bulk ferment? Thanks.
Dan
All rye levain, 18% fermented flour at 100% hydration. Tried to keep most of the gas in it but did shape tightly with tension spins and pulls across the wooden counter.
I'm going to try this one; how much starter did you use to inoculate the levain, and how long did it take to mature, and at what temperature? Your bulk and proof times are very fast for sourdough in my limited experience. Thanks,
Dan
I used 10g starter at 100% hydr. Temp between 18c and 22c. Two to three days/nights on the counter, 3 builds. It's a bit slow out of the fridge. Last feed was 80% hydr.
slow the whole process down quite a bit though to take the favor up another notch and maybe improve the crumb a bit too, Slow is always better when it comes to flavor for yeasted, YW or SD breads but it is nice to know if you are in a pinch that you can crank out a nice loaf on the fly. I would cut the levain in half to 9% pre-fermented flour, sift out the bran and put it all in the levain and use some of the HE left over for the rest of the levin flour. Then you could extend the bulk ferment by an hour to 3.hrs and retard bulk or shaped for 8 hours or more. This process might fit your schedule better anyway and the bread will be tastier too.
Happy baking the slow way
What is HE?
Thanks,
Dan
or in other words, your sifted flour.
Why is a longer ferment time causally producing better flavours? Isn't time just a proxy for enzyme activity, releasing sugars from the starch of the flour, and metabolic activity of the microbes fermenting the dough? If that activity happens twice as fast at an optimum temperature wouldn't it stand to reason it will be as flavourful as a loaf that spent twice the relative time fermenting at a lower temperature that achieved the same microbial activity?
(to dabrownman) Is that to futher soften/degrade the bran so that it interferes less with gluten development later? I will have to try that. I don’t really like the other methods for separating bran and incorporating later (hot soak on its own, or rolling the shaped loaf in it).
Thanks Tom for posting this. I’m eager to try this myself, as a fellow home miller and whole-grain bread enthusiast.
What does SLF stand for? That’s a new acronym to me. I very much appreciate your technical detail.
- Eric
I think that would be slap and fold, a kneading technique.