home-milled

Sometimes good things are right in front of you, or a bit off to the right under "Also on the Fresh Loaf."   The other day I was nosing around, when I clicked through an image that had intrigued me for awhile, and discovered JMonkey's version of a desem whole wheat loaf.   Reading through it, it all seemed so simple, even though Desem has lurked in my brain as something very strange and mysterious.    So I took a dab of my ordinary white starter and built it up over three feedings with fresh milled whole wheat, at low hydration, and matured in a cool but not cold environment.    Then made a loaf, roughly following JMonkey's numbers, but not his times (I followed the dough's times which were different.)    As I have no cloche, I baked for the first time in a year or more in my dutch oven.    I find it difficult to get the dough in the DO gently enough, and manhandled it a bit in the process (just like JMonkey apparently.)   Since I was never able to manage a preheated DO without burning myself, this time I placed the dough into an unheated DO and then into a preheated oven.  

The aroma of the dough while fermenting was strong yet strangely sweet and very pleasant.   The finished loaf didn't come out looking anything like JMonkey's and of course I have no idea if I captured his taste either.   

I will say that this bread makes for very hearty eating.   I just had a slice, and don't know if I'll have room for dinner.   The bread itself is almost overwhelmingly whole wheaty to my taste, but seems very much the staff of life.  

I know, particularly in light of Eric's untimely passing,  that bakers come and go on this site.   I believe that I started participating on this site some time after JMonkey stopped contributing.   Yet here he has taught me about desem and I appreciate his help.    Of course I wouldn't even have been aware of this type of bread had it not been for Phil's wonderful baking efforts. 

Formula and method: