The Fresh Loaf

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A Partial Success: 30% Sprouted Quinoa SD (No VWG)

Elsie_iu's picture
Elsie_iu

A Partial Success: 30% Sprouted Quinoa SD (No VWG)

 

True: it looks embarrassingly ugly. 

 

Also true: it tastes phenomenally good.

 

 

30% Sprouted Quinoa Almonds Sourdough

 

Dough flour (all freshly milled):

150g      50%       Whole spelt flour

90g       30%       Sprouted quinoa flour (I used a mix of white and black)

60g       20%       Whole Red Fife flour

 

For leaven:

5g        1.67%       Starter

20g      6.67%       Bran sifted out from dough flour

20g      6.67%       Water

 

For dough:

280g     93.3%       Dough flour excluding bran for leaven

245g     81.7%       Water

45g          15%       Leaven

5g          1.67%      Salt

 

Add-ins:

30g           10%       Toasted almonds, halved crosswise

 

__________

302.5g      100%       Whole grain

267.5g     88.4%       Total hydration

 

Sift out the coarse bran from the dough flour, reserve 20g for leaven. Soak the rest (I got 7 g) in equal amount of water taken from dough ingredients.

Combine all leaven ingredients and let sit until doubled, around 3 hours.

Roughly combine all dough ingredients. Construct a set of stretch and fold at the 15 and 30 minutes marks. Knead in the almonds at the 45 minutes mark then ferment for 3 hours 30 minutes longer.

Preshape the dough then let it rest for 15 minutes. Shape the dough and put in into a banneton. Retard for 10 hours.

Preheat the oven at 250°C/482°F.

Score and spritz the dough then bake at 250°C/482°F with steam for 15 minutes then without steam for 25 minutes more or until the internal temperature reaches a minimum of 208°F. Let cool for at least 2 hours before slicing.

 

There were at least 4 factors I have thought of that might be responsible for the collapsed structure: 

1.      The omission of vital wheat gluten

2.      Weak and slack dough due to high hydration

3.      High enzymatic activities from sprouted and freshly milled flour

4.      Simply over-fermentation/over-proofing 

 

Or more likely, a combination of them…

 

 

Whatever, the bread still has amazing taste from sprouted quinoa. It is detectably nuttier than most bread I have baked in the past. There is only mild sourness but the sweetness is much more pronounced.  

What I like about sprouted quinoa other than its nice flavour is how forgiving it is, despite being gluten-free. The dough was easy to work with as it was just as elastic and extensible as composed of all whole wheat/spelt flour. Moreover, quinoa didn’t affect the texture of this bread adversely. Unlike buckwheat, Masa Harina, durum and rye, which often produce sticky/dry/sandy/cakey crumb, including quinoa in the formula still yielded moist and springy bread.

 

______

Spiced rice with pan grilled veggies, baked grouper and roasted yellow peppers relish

Crab cakes (recipe recommended by dabrownman, I swapped 80% mayo with homemade yogurt and they turned out great) with quick pickled cucumbers, corn, orange peppers & cilantro salsa, baked spiced chicken drumsticks, penne in parmesan tomatoes sauce, pan grilled cauliflower, caramelized cauliflower leaves (…again…so you know how much we love them)

Paprika that has been sitting on the supermarket shelf for months shouldn’t be called “paprika” (you know, those sold in pretty little bottles) It has nothing to offer other than some red colour, contrary to the fresh kind, which is super pungent and smoky!

 

By the way, I'm calling this flatbread :)

 

Comments

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

and far from flatbread.  The crumb looks wonderful and very appetizing and moist.  Good crust browning all around, top bottom and sides.  You might think about not scoring the loaf if more height is desired but it's lovely just the way it is.

Mini

Elsie_iu's picture
Elsie_iu

If one aren't looking at the photos, he or she might think that you're describing some kind of cover-page-worthy SD bread :) It's true that the crumb is pretty moist though. Quinoa has an edge over other alternate flour in this area so you can foresee me experimenting with it often in the future. On top of that, its aroma and taste are just too nice to give up on.

The tricky thing about sprouted grain bread is that the dough might feel and look totally fine (not collapsed or over-proofed) when you're shaping it and even when you pop it out of the banneton after the retard. You only start to notice something is not right util the scoring knife has broken the skin of the dough. However, that's already to late...The only thing I can do is placing it into the oven as soon as possible. Often, the resulting bread has little or no oven spring and has spread quite a bit in the oven. Maybe I should try retarding the dough seam side down so that I don't have to score it.

Thanks for the encouraging words: they mean a lot to me!

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

and the crumb with the almods looks amazing! I would eat that with pleasure!  Kat

Elsie_iu's picture
Elsie_iu

Well, I did eat it with pleasure, I just couldn't look at it with pleasure :) Now it's much better since I can't see the crust after the bread has been sliced. 

I'm quite pleased with the crumb too but the taste is what makes it a showstopper. This is not ordinarily good: it beats most, if not all, other sprouted flour bread I've baked in the past!

Thanks again for the encouraging words!

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

too/ - Flatbread Sanctuary!  The crumb a-was open and moist but no height on the bread with a bit of collapsing.  I t came down to two things.  A bit too much water but the main cause was over proofing shaped loaves in the fridge as I was sleeping.  Whole grain breads need to go into the oven at mo more than 85% proof. I could never get the timing right every time with whole grain breads when doing a shaped loaf retard - so I stopped doing them and started doing what Peter Reinhart, the 'King' of whole grain breads; does - a bulk retard and then shaping and proofing the next morning and baking in the late morning.  It doesn't work all that well for working people or those going to school if they want to bake during the week though.  If you still want to do a shaped retard then you have to cut  either the amount of levain, the length bulk ferment  and or the length of the retard, or some combination and hope for the best.  The problem with that is that the bread doesn't taste as good with a short bulk ferment on the counter.  Bread baking is always a trade off...and hoping the bread gods are on your side for a change:-)  That chicken is making my mouth water!

Well done and happy baking Elsie

Never thought of using yogurt in crab cakes but I will from now on for sure!The tang with a bit of heat should be perfect.  Love the fish.  Grouper is my favorite white fish by far.  I hardly do any baking when it comes to meats.  Even crab cakes are grilled around here.  Hot or cold smoked fish is pretty killer too but just grilling it with or without a smoker pouch is right up there.  Pizza on the grill is even better!

Elsie_iu's picture
Elsie_iu

to master sprouted grain bread but I feel like I'm slowly getting there... Now I'm mostly able to control the degree of fermentation of 100% freshly milled whole grain bread. The tricky part is unquestionably the sprouted flour. I think I'll go for shorting the bulk-fermentation: I usually retard the dough on Friday/Saturday night and bake at 8 am in the morning, I'm not quite ready to wake up at 5 am :) 

Since you mentioned the heat... I didn't put in hot sauce but subbed in wasabi instead! Crabs and wasabi taste really nice together since the latter brings out the freshness of the former. I also like grouper as it's firm and moist but not fatty unlike some other white fish that can be mushy or dry. Unfortunately I don't have a grill, or else you'd see me posting all kinds of grilled pizza and kebabs!

Thanks for the suggestions and glad you like the post!