Honey Oat Porridge Loaves

I’ve been away for the last couple of weeks due to an impromptu trip to Oklahoma City for a horse show and then another trip to Las Vegas where my daughter ran her second half marathon. She did amazing finishing well in the top half even though she hadn’t trained for 5 weeks due to an arthritic flare.

It feels good to get back to baking. A friend requested a loaf with whole grains. So some oat porridge, some Fed Fife, some Einkorn with a touch of honey and butter!

Recipe 

Makes 3 loaves 

Porridge 

100 g rolled oats

200 g water

45 g honey

40 g butter

Dough

700 g unbleached flour

200 g freshly milled whole grain Red Fife flour (200 g Red Fife berries)

100 g freshly milled whole grain Einkorn flour (100 g Einkorn berries)

50 g flax, freshly ground

700 g water

23 g salt

30 g yogurt

250 g levain (procedure in recipe)

Extra wholegrain flour of your choice for feeding the levain

Two mornings before:

1. Take 2 g of refrigerated starter and feed it 4 g of filtered water and 4 g of wholegrain flour. Let sit at cool room temperature for the day. 

The two nights before:

1. Feed the levain 20 g of water and 20 g of wholegrain flour. Let that rise at cool room temperature for the night. 

The morning before:

1. Feed the levain 100 g of filtered water and 75 g of wholegrain flour as well as 25 g of strong baker’s flour. Let rise until doubled (about 6 hours). 
2. Place into fridge until the next morning. 

The night before:

1. Mill the Red Fife and  Einkorn berries. You can sub out any type of berries that you can get your hands on like Spelt, Durum or Kamut or hard spring wheat. Place the required amounts in a tub. Add the unbleached flour to the tub. 
2. Grind the flax seeds in a bullet and add to the flours in the tub. Cover and set aside.

Dough Making day:

1. Early in the morning, take out the levain to warm up. I usually give it a good stir at this time.
2. Put 700 g filtered water in a stand mixer’s bowl and add the flours from the tub.  Mix on the lowest speed until all the flour has been hydrated. This takes a couple of minutes. Autolyse for at least a couple of hours at room temperature. 
3. Make the porridge: Add the water to the rolled oats and cook on low until water is absorbed and porridge is creamy. Add the butter and the honey. Stir until well distributed. 
4. Once the autolyse is done, add the salt, the yogurt, and the levain to the bowl. Mix on the lowest speed for a minute to integrate everything, then mix on the next speed for 7 minutes. At the end of the 7 minutes, add the porridge and mix another 2 minutes or until incorporated.
5. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and place in a lightly oiled covered tub. Let rest 30 minutes in a warm spot (oven with light on). 
6. Do 2 sets of stretches and folds at 30 minute intervals and then 2 sets of sleepy ferret folds (coil folds) at 45 minute intervals, and then let the dough rise to about 30%. This took about another half hour. It should have irregular bubbles visible through the sides of the container and  bubbles on top as well. 
7. Tip the dough out on a bare counter, sprinkle the top with flour and divide into portions of ~800 g. Round out the portions into rounds with a dough scraper and let rest 30 minutes on the counter. 
8. Do a final shape by flipping the rounds over on a lightly floured counter. Gently stretch the dough out into a circle. Pull and fold the third of the dough closest to you over the middle. Pull the right side and fold over the middle and do the same to the left. Fold the top end to the center patting out any cavities. Finally stretch the two top corners and cross over each other in the middle. Roll the bottom of the dough away from you until the seam is underneath the dough. Cup your hands around the dough and pull towards you, doing this on all sides of the dough to round it off. Finally spin the dough to make a nice tight boule.
9. Sprinkle a  mix of rice flour and all purpose flour in the bannetons. I also sprinkled some rolled oats as well. Place the dough seam side down in the bannetons. Let rest for a few minutes on the counter and then put to bed in a cold (38F) fridge overnight. 

Baking Day

1. The next morning, heat the oven to 475F with the Dutch ovens inside for 45 minutes to an hour. Turn out the dough seam side up onto a cornmeal sprinkled counter. Place rounds of parchment paper in the bottom of the pots, and carefully but quickly place the dough seam side up inside. 
2. Cover the pots and bake the loaves at 450 F for 25 minutes, remove the lids, and bake for another 22 minutes at 425 F. Internal temperature should be 205 F or more.

Yum!