Chacon

We were struggling with our normally robustmRye sour and Desem mixed SD starter.  It had been left for dead after its last feeding and storage about a month ago.  I had baked 4 loaves of bread from the 80 g stored and had 40 g left and it was looking the worse for wear.

We tried building a levain using 5 g and 1:10:10 but after 20 hours there was no visible change.  The kitchen temperature was 65 F and we though the low temperature might be the problem.  So, we added 5 more grams of starter, put it in a 78 F environment that the microwave provided with one of Sylvia's steaming cups.

Sure enough 6 hours later, the levain and finally nearly doubled.  You for get how nice the AZ summers are for over proofing just about anything and everything.  Now with winter temps of 65 F yeast just doesn’t like to be aroused and put to work.

We took the remaining 30 g of starter and fed it but kept it on the counter to double which it nearly did in 24 hours.  We decided it and feed it again to get it back up to speed and saved the other half for some panettone bake possibly for Christmas but more likely for New Years.

We decided to use our revived starter to make a variation of one of our favorite breads; fig, pistachio, sunflower and pumpkin seed bread.  But, we decided to try and bake it like you would pumpernickel - long, slow and low and see if the crust and crumb would turn a dark brown color like pumpernickel does baked this way.

The question was which way to do this; the Norm Berg way, the Andy way, the Mini Oven way or the Jeffrey Hamelman way - or some combination which could be a dangerous meeting of the ryes.  My apprentice wanted to use our Wagner Ware Magnalite Turkey roaster since nothing puts a dark brown crust on bread like it does – nothing even close.

The trivet on the bottom allows extra water to be placed in the roaster so that it doesn’t touch the bread itself.  We hoped that the steam in the roaster with an oval shaped chacon would substitute for the aluminum foil covered tins normally used for pumpernickel. 

It was worth a shot and, if it wasn’t turning out right, my apprentice could always save the day, as she has taught herself to do in out kitchen, by taking the lid off and bake the bread to 205 F on the inside at a higher temperature – none the worse for wear - if you are like my apprentice and will eat anything.

The levain was build with one build over and agonizing 26 hours.  Everything except the levain, barley malt syrup, figs, pistachios, seeds and salt were autolysed for 2 hours.  Once the levain, barley malt syrup and salt were added to the autolyse, we did 10 minutes of French slap and folds which were nice to do at 75% hydration.

The dough was rested 20 minutes in an oiled, plastic covered bowl when 3 sets of S& F’s were done on 20 minute intervals.  The figs, pistachios and seeds were added in during the 2nd set of S& F’s.  Half the seeds were held back for a ringed topping around the knotted roll.

Inside at the crack of dawn you can see the holes in the crumb better.  Haven't had lunch with it yet but the sunset was nice.

Once the S&F’s were complete, the dough was allowed to ferment and develop on the counter for 1 hour before being shaped into a single knot chacon and placed in a rice floured basket.  The basket was placed in a nearly new trash can liner and allowed to develop for another hour before being retarded in the fridge overnight for 8 hours.

The next morning the dough basket was retrieved from the fridge and allowed to come to room temperature and final proof for 4 hours when it had doubled.  Now came the time to decide which way to bake it – what turned out to be a difficult decision.

After much thought, careful deliberation with my apprentice and talking to rye experts worldwide we decided that Mini Oven’s way of baking it was the way to go.  Baking in the specialized turkey roaster at 320 F until it registered 205 F on the inside was the simplest most efficient way to go in order to have the oven empty by 2 PM when the girls needed it to bake Christmas cookies.

After a half and hour the bread has spread out rather than up probably due to the low temperature but it was a slightly darker color.  We put it back in the oven for another 50 minutes at 320 F.  When we checked the temp was at 203 F and the color was still pale.

So we cranked up the oven to 425 F, convection this time and took the bread out of the turkey roaster and baked it directly on the oven rack for 15 more minutes.  At that time it registered 205 F and it was a blistered weird brown color not usually associated with this kind of bread.  So off went the oven and we let the bread crisp on the oven rack with the door ajar for 10 minutes.

This has to be the strangest and longest way to make a Frisbee that my apprentice has ever managed.   Thank goodness she is a professional! Can’t wait to see what it looks like on the inside.  Hopefully it will be a darker brown color than it would otherwise be and taste way better too - or this bake will go down as total and complete apprentice failure, if well meaning.

The bread, while flat, had a nice open crumb for so much stuff in it.  The crumb was much darker than normal and it was moist and soft.  The taste was enhanced like a light caramelization on anything will do.  I was really shocked how deep the flavor was and how nice this bread tasted - toasted it was outstanding.  Can't wait to try some pate on it.   When we do this again, we will start the bread baking at 450 F for 20 minutes so it wouldn't spread out and spring instead.  Then turn the oven down to 230 F like Andy does for his pumpernickel and get in the low portion of the bake until 205 F registered on the inside. 

You learn from each bake, like we did this time, so this one was not a total loss - and the bread that came out of it was quite unlike any we managed to bake to date.

Formula

This chacon is a tribute to Eric Hanner.  His gifts to the world were many and his passion for balking was great.  His fine character attributes included his generosity that made him willing to help and teach others what he knew.  Eric’s legacies are many and this bake commemorates them.  He was a giant and this chacon is especially large to recognize his largess.

The white portion of the dough is a 6 strand zolablue SD Challah that we converted to a poolish from SD.  The 4 braided ends were not tucked in to give the chacon more of chance to crack making a pretty design on the top.

The dark portion is Eric’s Favorite SD Rye – his Jewish Deli Rye was used as a monster bialy to cover the braids of the challah in the bottom of the basket.  This is the largest bialy we have ever attempted and flipping it over was sight to be seen.

The 5 recipe changes I made to Eric's Favorite were minor ones.  First one was to use 95 g of the challah poolish in place of yeast in Eric’s dough.  We only had 2.5 g of caraway so I added a like amount of coriander.  We added 1 g each of red and white rye malts to improve enzymatic action, the rye flavor and color – while Eric wasn't looking.

My apprentice used caramelized onions and the water from it and the deglazed pan instead of re-hydrating minced onions as Eric recommended.  The flavor and color of caramelized onion should make this as exciting as Eric wrote about using onion and the water from it in this bread.  He wanted everyone to give this option a go!

I also didn’t have any first clear flour and have never seen any, so we tried to replicate it using David Snyder’s ideas on how to do so from another thread by using some WW mixed with AP and bread flour.  We don’t know what it should look like but David’s advice is usually spot on.  I don’t think Eric would have minded theses changes.

Method changes included using French slap and folds for both of the breads - for about 12 minutes.  Eric’s Favorite Rye was a two slaps and one fold process since the dough was so stiff and required the extra slap to stretch it out enough to fold over.  Eric was the one who got me doing French slap and folds and my breads have been greatly improved as a result.

2 sets of (4) S&Fs were also performed on 30 minute intervals for the first hour of development and then the dough was rested for an hour.  After shaping and putting the dough in the rice floured basket ,we let it proof for an hour before putting it into the fridge for a 15 hour retard.

This is not part of Eric’s method but we just ran out of time to bake it off and this was the best we could manage.  We fired up Old Betsy to preheat at 450 F with 2 of Sylvia’s steaming pans and a 12” iron skillet with lava rocks inside like David Snyder  sort of uses- while the dough warmed upon the counter for 40 minutes.  This is huge lump of dough, 3.8 pounds of it and it need lots of steam.

Once the dough went in and we threw a half a cup of water on the lava rocks as we shut the door and turned the temperature down to 370 F.  We decided to steam for 20 minutes instead of 10.  At the 10 minute mark the cracks had barely opened on the huge loaf and more steam was needed.

At the 20 minute mark, the steam was removed and the bread continued to bake at 370 F, convection this time, for an additional 26 minutes rotating it 70 degrees every 7 minutes until it registered 190 F in the center.  We left it on the stone for another 10 minutes with oven off and door ajar to crisp the skin before removing it to a cooling rack.

It browned up a dark mahogany color that was so nice I decided not to coat it with the corn starch and water mix.  Even the challah portion was the same color.  It blistered very well on the challah portion but not on the rye side for some reason?

It bloomed while cracking beautifully and at least looks the fitting tribute to Eric that we had hoped to achieve - at least on the outside.  Well, coundn't wait 24 hours to cut into it since showed promise and smelled tantalizing.  The crumb was soft nice and moist and medium open especially on the rye side. 

The taste would be straight Jekyll if there wasn't a Hyde Side.  One bite is a fine Jewish Rye with subtle caraway and coriander hints, the next a straight Shabot Challah and then comes a half and half combo bite.

Here are the formulas should you want to make a Chacon for Eric.  I sure enjoyed doing so and we learned much from this baking experience. It was great time to reflect, day dream a little and think about the past, present and future.

The sunset was very niuce the day we baked this bread.  I think someone really important knew a nice one for Eric was in order.

Eric’s Jewish Deli Rye – Eric’s Favorite Rye

After the difficult and tedious Not So Stollen bake earlier in the week, we decide to continue our Thanksgiving bake list with something much simpler, less stressful even if not as enjoyable.

After seeing Toady Tom’s fantastic large miche bake and the excellent crust he managed to put on it, we decided to do a large loaf too only using the chacon shape we love to make since it too can produce a beautiful crust if it naturally splits where we would like as it springs and blooms in the oven heat.

We also wanted to try out a toasted wheat germ, soft white wheat extract and oat bran component similar to Toad’s to see what it tasted and looked like in the chacon.  All but 10g went into the dark side.

Instead of using our recent 1  starter and 24 hour counter levain development we went back to our roughly 20% seed levain for the SD starter required for this bake.   One levain was Rye Desem combo SD for the heartier darker portion of the loaf that has 2all of the whole grains listed for the starter. 

The other levain was a YW one that was fed with cake meal, another new ingredient for bread making for us.  Many folks use this ground matzo altus for their lemon, poppy seed walnut cakes or possibly a chiffon cake of any number of possible flavors.  We decided to try it out in the whiter portion of this bread only to see what it tasted like and how it performed in two different kinds of bread.

The instant coffee and the cocoa were only used in the dark portion to, you guessed it, make it darker than the light colored portion.  We also used some yogurt whey water for some of the liquid in both portions with 2/3rds of it going into the dark side.  The sprouts were also split between the two sides in the same proportion as the whey water - 2/3rds to the dark. 

In order to finish the breakout, the white portion ended up being 500 g with 100 g of the AP and bread flour and 80 g of the whole grains in the bread flour and 10g of the toasted bits.  Total flour and toasted stuff was 290 g and the liquid was 210 g (42 g whey) for a little over 72.4% hydration not counting any of the 1/3 of the sprout total that went into it.

With the malts, oats, and potato flakes on in the dark side the hydration of it was 82%.

The fun part was putting together the largest chacon we have ever made.  The center knotted roll is made from the light side and the side going down into the basket is sprinkled with rice flour.  It was surrounded by a twisted rope from the dark side.   The 4 other knotted rolls, on the cardinal direction points, were made from equal portions of dark and light that were ropes twisted together to make one rope.  The 4 little balls between the 4 twisted knotted rolls were from the light side.  Remember to rice flour anything that will touch the basket so it doesn't stick - and don't rice flour anything else so it sticks together.

What was left over was two light ropes that were placed on the spread out remaining dark side.  The long sides of the dark were folded over the light ropes to encapsulate them making a long rectangle.  The shot sides of the rectangle were folded over to the middle making a near square where the corners were folded into the center making a circle that was quickly shaped as a boule.

This boule was pressed out gently into a large bialy with the center indentation equal in size to the circle of knotted rolls, ropes and balls already in the basket.  The large bialy was floured around the edge that would contact the basket with rice flour and flipped over so the indentation covered the knotted rolls and the assembly was basically flat on top when finished. 

We hope this assembly will make a very pleasing marbled look when the chacon is cut.  Otherwise it was a waste of time and effort…something every baker is well used to if they have been baking more than a couple of minutes with an apprentice that is nearly all paws, bark and ankle bite.

The levains were formed by mixing, letting them double over about 4 hours or so and then chucking them in the fridge for 24 hours to build the labs while suppressing the yeast.   The flours and toasted bits were autolysed with the liquids and the salt for 2 hours as the levains came back to room temperature a day later.

Once the autolye and the levain were combined for each, the gluten was developed with 15 minutes of French slap and folds.  Then 4 sets of S&F’s wee done fpor each where the sprouts were incorporated on the 3rd set.  The dough’s were allowed to develop for 1 ½ hours on the counter before being retarded in a36 F fridge for 15 hours.

They were allowed to warm up for 1 ½ hours before being formed into the chacon and the allowed to proof at room temperature for 2 hours before firing up old Betsy and her16”round stone,  to preheat at 500 F for 20 minutes before 2 of Sylvia’s steaming pans were added.

After 45 minute of total pre-heat the chacon was un-molded easily from the basket using parchment and peel.  It slid into the oven off the peel when a 1/2 C of water was thrown into the bottom of the oven for extra initial steam and the door closed.  The temperature was turned down to 450 F the steaming was done at the 20 minute mark when the pans were removed and the temperature turned down to 425 F, convection this time.

In another 20 minutes the bread was exactly 205 F in the middle and beautifully and evenly brown from rotating it 90 degrees on the stone every 5 minutes after the steam came out.  At the 40 minute total mark, we turned off the heat and left the oven door ajar as the chacon continued to crisp on the stone for another 10 minuets before removal to the cooling rack.

The chacon didn't spring all that much and might have been a little over proofed but it did bloom and crack as expected.  It is a very pretty large chacon and we can’t wait for it to cool down and rest for awhile before we cut it ....   and see if anything interesting happened inside.

Now that it is cut..... the light and dark did learn to play well together.  We are pleased that it is so pretty on the inside and fitting for such a gorgeous outside.   The crumb is fairly open for so many add ins and whole grains.  The dark is tangy sour while the white is a little sweet, maybe sue to the Cake meal, has no tang and is a little moister as YW tends to impart in crumbs everywhere.  A very nice combination of two tastes.  The toasted bits tend to come through more on the dark side and the millet crunch is prevalent throughout.  This bread will have to to to the top of the chacon list and into the top 15 of our all time top 5 favorites.  I'm glad we made a big one.

Formula

  10 g each of instant coffee and cocoa went into the dark side only.

We had two experiments going on at the same time and thought we would kill two birds with one stone by combining them sort of like a YW SD combo starter.

Our 1 gram SD 36 hour before retard levain build went well and we split it in two to make a white flour one and a whole grain one here:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/30755/sd-starter-experiment-how-long-can-it-ferment-counter-goo-overtakes-it

We also had our 15% whole grain SD project that we wanted to increase up to 40% whole grains too.  So we used the whole grain levain(after a 24 hour retard in the fridge making it a 60 hour build) to make a 40% whole grain SD bread using spelt, rye and WW.  To make things interesting and even more tasty we included a bulgar and flax seed scald to round out the flavor

With the white flour 60 hour levain we made another 15% whole grain SD but also perked it up some with pumpkin, sunflower, chia and hemp seeds inside and out.

We decided to bake both in Chacon shapes and also in Dutch Ovens.  The white seeded Chacon was made with one central knotted roll surrounded by a non twist rope and covered with a huge bialy shaped main dough.  Hydration was 75,5%.

The flours and water were autolysed with the salt for 3 hours for both breads.  Each started out with 10 minutes of French Slap an Folds followed by a 30 minute rest in a plastic covered, oiled bowl.  Then 3 sets of stretch and folds we done every 30 minutes with the add ins being incorporated on the 2nd set.

Once the S& F’s were completed each dough was allowed to ferment for 1 hour before being shaped into Chacons in the rice floured baskets.  They were immediately placed into sealed trash can liners and placed in the fridge for a 12 hour retard.

The 40% whole grain Chacon was nearly fully proofed during the retard but the white one was only half way there.  So well pulled the white one out of the fridge, leaving it in the bag to warm up and proof an hour and half at room temp before we took out the 40% whole grain Chacon.

Both were baked at 450 F for 15 minutes to steam with the lid on starting the 40% whole grain Chacon 15 minutes before the white one went in.  After the lids were removed they were allowed to continue to bake in the DO for 5 minutes before being removed from the DO and allowed to finish baking on the stone.

Both were deemed done at the 25 minute mark when they read 209 F in the middle.  They were removed to the cooling rack immediately and allowed to cool for 1 ½ hours before slicing into quarters and slicing 1 quarter into ½”slices.

The seeded white Chacon browned a little more on the outside and also had a slightly more open crumb – but not much.  Both crusts went soft as they cooled and were chewy. The crumbs were soft, airy and moist with a little gloss.

For once my wife agreed.  The 40% whole grain variant tasted noticeably better to each of us and was our favorite even thought the seeded white Chacon was a fine and dandy SD bread.  Both were noticeably more sour tangy than our standard SD breads made with a normal 6 hour build and a 24 hour retard of the levain.

When ever we have 60 hours to kill and only 1 g of SD starter we now know what to do with it to make some nice SD bread.

40% Whole Grain SD with Scald Formula   

15% Whole Grain Seeded SD Formula

Update:  The round boule was wrapped in parchment and a towel for 30 hours to see what difference it might make.  It cut much cleaner and tasted twice as sour.  A quartered  pix and another one with one of the quarters sliced.

This one is for Ian.  After coming back from China his first bread viciously turned on him and became a disaster.  We have wanted to bake off his wonderful looking Mocha Multi-Grain SD bread for some time.

He spoke highly of how it tasted and it sure looked tasty even though it didn’t have his newly brewed cherry YW in it.  David Snyder’s take on Horst Bandel’s Black Pumpernickel from a year and half ago popped up this past week.  txfarmer’s chocolate 36 hour baggies from a year ago came up too and they too looked delicious.  Breaducation’s wonderfully over-seeded and add in’s take of Chad Robertson’s Rugbrot appeared.  It was just beautiful.  Then Mebake’s Multi-grain Struan with soaker and seeds showed up.  Very nice indeed.   All were inspirational for this unique bread.

So, we thought we would combine something from all 5 and commemorate Ian’s recent bread disaster with a long retarded,  ‘Mocha Disaster Chacon’ in multi-grains, mega seeds, super soak with YW and SD combo starter.  You have to pay homage to the bread gods as the Maya did to their gods when it didin't rain enough for their liking and needs.  gods like the attention when things go bad and if you don't comply with a suitable offering then who knows what bad and terrible things will happen to you.  So we hope the bread gods will accept this gift and let Ian's future bakes be fruitful, delicious, well risen with blistered, dark, crispy, thick crust and moist, airy crumbs.

The flours used included durum atta, semolina, dark rye, whole wheat and AP.  The soaker included rye, WW and  spelt berries, buckwheat groats, cracked bulgar and barley, steel cut oats and quinoa.  The seeds included; pumpkin, sunflower, millet, hemp and flax.

Ian loves his pistachio oil but we used walnut oil here.  What would an Ian bread be without potatoes?  So we put some in.  Sorry no caramelized onions, I feel a little guilty since they too would have been a nice addition.  In this case, grilled left over red and sweet potatoes were sautéed in butter, olive oil, and herbs.

We had some possum pelt and armadillo nectar but decided not to use them thinking they might get lost in the mix.   My apprentice was heartbroken since she had risked life and limb to catch these critters.   We will leave these exotic ingredients and those from the auto parts store to the Ian – the master of bread ingredient combinations, if not, scientific oddities.

These boules were not total disasters, were deeply browned and cracked as Chacons are wont to do.  Sadly, no blisters as Big Old Betsy just doesn't provide them as well as the mini oven does.  Small is beautiful they say and, when it comes to ovens, they are correct. Can’t wait to cut into one to see how open the crumb promises to be - even with 122% soaker and seeds. 

Well we didn't wait long.  The crumb was open and so moist.  Had the heel plain and a slice toasted with butter.  Delicious!  Then it was time for lunch.  This bread called for a nice limoncello for lunch, being a special occasion and all-  and some fine pate too.  Life is good.  Another great sunset last night.

The formula follows the pix’s as usual.

 The Method

The method for this bread is a little complicated but not difficult if you don’t mind really sticky dough.  The sourdough and yeast water starters were built together ‘en combo', instead of separately, over (2) 3 hour and (1) 2 hour builds.

The SD portion was seeded with 10g each of our rye sour, desem and multi-grain starters.  The levain was then refrigerated overnight for 10 hours.  The next morning it was allowed to come to room temperature before incorporating into the autolyse.

The soaker was made by pouring hot mocha coffee over the mix and allowing it to steep for 6 hours.  The mocha coffee was made by putting 5 heaping teaspoons of Ghirardelli’s Double Chocolate mix in our standard brew.  It was yummy on its own.

The dough, mocha, malts, potato and salt were autolysed for 2 hours.  The levain was added and incorporated into the autolyse in the mixing bowl on KA 2 for 2 minutes and then 2 minutes on KA 3. The dough was allowed to rest, covered, for 30 minutes.

This is sticky dough so it was hand kneaded on a lightly floured surface for 4 minutes until it was smooth.  The dough was allowed to rest for 20 minutes before the first of 3 S&F’s were done 20 minutes apart. The first one should have incorporated the soaker and the 2nd one the seeds.  But I dumped them all in on the first one and then struggled to preserver against impending disaster.

There is a lot of mocha, soaker and seeds in the Mocha Disaster Chacon!  Don’t give up, they will all get in there eventually. I had to add some bench flour and knead the dough to get it to work well for me.  The dough was then allowed develop and ferment for 1 hour in the oiled, covered bowl.

The dough was divided in half for two 800 plus gram boules.  102 g of this was pinched off for a knotted roll that was placed in the middle of the rice floured baskets (a Chacon directive) and the remainder of the dough was formed in the Chacone style and placed over the roll.

The 2nd oblong boule has a knot in the center but, instead of folding the edges up for the remainder of the dough, it was formed into a short fat batard (as opposed to a short, fat ba*tard) with a depression in the middle - just so it wouldn’t look the same as the round but it ended up looking the same anyway.

Once the baskets were loaded, the loaves were allowed to proof on the counter for 90 minutes in a tall kitchen trash can liner before being retarded overnight for 14 hours.  They doubled in fridge – a good sign.

Since it rained last might, it was 75 degrees this morning so we decided to bake these boules off together in the big GE for a change with (2) of Sylvia’s steaming pans in place below the stone.  The oven was preheated to 500 F.

The boules were removed from the fridge and overturned onto a peel covered with parchment – no sticking.  The Chacon never requires scoring since it is allowed to naturally open up as it sees fit.    Into the oven they immediately went, as cold as the fridge could make them.

They didn’t seem to notice the heat.  These boules sprang very well, cracked nicely and baked up deeply brown.   They were steamed for 15 minutes with the temperature being turned down to 450 F after 5 minutes.

The steam was removed at 15 minutes and the temperature turned down to 425 F convection this time.  The Chacons were rotated every 10 minutes until they were done, 205 F inside, about 20 more minutes or 35 minutes total.

The boules were allowed to rest on the stone for another 10 minutes with the oven of and door ajar before being removed to cooling racks.

After the last white bread bake using the Pharaoh’s Mastaba, we went back to a 67% whole grain; rye and wheat bread with rye and wheat sprouts and a variety of add-ins and seeds including wheat germ, flax, coriander, pumpkin, hemp, rosemary, chia, cumin and red rye malt baked in another variation of the Chacon.

 The Chacon is quickly becoming a favorite bread shaping method.  It is a fun way to make bread with as many variations as one can conjure up and imagine.  This time we used a plain knotted roll in the middle of the basket and surrounded it with a plain two strand braid that was twisted (Twisted Sisters).  Then we added the remainder of the dough which contained all the add ins and sprouts as a disk to the top – which will become the bottom when tipped put of the basket.

This gave us a new but handsome boule shape that had no add-ins in the finish top and all the add-ins on the bottom.  It will be like having two different breads in each slice.

The Chacon came out of the basket easily and it slid into the mini oven, without slashing, just as well and onto my new ceramic tile / stone - which quickly broke when we threw water onit by accident before closing the door to steam.  No worries, the tile only cost 88 cents and I have 11 more of them.  In the back of the mini, we used Sylvia’s steaming method with a Pyrex 1 cup measure half full of water with dish rag in it.

 The stone worked well and the Chacon was very brown and crunchy when it came out of the oven and it smelled wonderful too.  The boule cracked at each twist of the sister and at the knot seams.  We just love the way the Chacon cracks almost exactly where we want it to and think it should instead of willy nilly.  

 The crumb shots and tasting will follow after the Chaon cools.  The formula and method follow the pix’s. 

 Method

The method was similar to our recent bakes with (3) - 4 hours each, 12 hour SD levain build.  This time it was not retarded overnight because we used some sliced onion in the build that made it smell more sour than normal.  The flours were autolysed with the wet and salt for 12 hours in the fridge too.  We have been adding the salt in with the autolyse recently and cannot tell any difference when we do it this way.  Forgetting to add the salt days are now over.

After soaking in water for 4 hours, we placed the seeds to be sprouted on 2 damp paper towels covered with another and wrapped in plastic on a plastic cutting board.  Half way through the 24 hour sprouting period, we re-dampened the top towel and covered it back up.  The seeds were sprouted in 24 hours. 

 We mixed the dough with the autolyse with the KA for 8 minutes on 2 and  2 minutes more on KA3.  The dough was then moved to an oiled, plastic covered bowl to rest for 15 minutes before doing 5 sets of S&F’s every 15 minutes on a floured work surface.  When the S&F’s were complete the dough was left to develop and ferment for 1 ½ hours before going into the fridge overnight for 8 hours.  In the morning the dough was allowed to come to room temperature over 1 ½ hours on the counter.

 The dough was then portioned into (3) 150 g pieces for the knotted roll and the 2 strand, ‘twisted sister’ braid.  In a rice floured basket the knotted roll went in first in the center, then the twisted sister went in around the knotted roll.  The remainder of the dough was flattened out gently and all the sprouts and add ins were incorporated.  Once the add ins were incorporated evenly, the remaining dough was shaped into a boule and allowed to rest for about 5 minutes until it had relaxed.

 It was then flattened into a disk the width of the basket and placed on top of the roll and braid to make the finished Chacon in 3 distinct sections.

 After a 2 hour proof it had passed the poke test and was ready for the mini oven stone and 12 minutes of steaming at 450 F regular bake.  The steam was then removed and the mini oven turned down to 425 F convection this time.  The Chacon was rotated 90 degrees every 5 minutes.

 After the 2nd rotation the oven was turned down to 400  F convection.  20 minutes after the steam was removed, the bread was done – 32 minutes total.  It was allowed to cool with the oven off and the door ajar for 10 more minutes before being moved to the cooling rack.