seeds

My apprentice says that sane German bakers don’t usually try to do a pumpernickel style bake of; slowly reducing low temperatures over a long baking time, when baking white bread of any kind.  But, I figured that if professional bakers can call a bread with only 25% to 30% of rye flour in it a rye bread, then we should be able to DaPumperize a white bread too.  

I have to admit this is about the whitest bread we would usually make, but thankfully, only my apprentice is a German baker and she doesn't count when it comes to new and exciting things, bread wise, around here most always.  Now, if the bake goes horribly wrong, then it is all her fault - I mean she is only an apprentice.  She also looks ridiculous in that full body hair net when she bakes anyway.  So who could take what she says seriously looking like that?

We had to break the recent trend of 100% whole grain bakes or risk falling into the dark abyss.  Even though the dark side breads are fantastic and tempting, being stuck there forever is a little much if you aren’t a German bread baker,

We do like breads in the 25% - 30% whole grain range and they make fine sandwich breads.  Sandwiches, as some might know, are right up there with home made amber lager beer, as far as, my apprentice’s way of thinking goes - which admittedly isn't very far or even deep for that matter.

So, mainly out of boredom with a touch of insanity and a touch of spite, I decided to try to DaPuperize a white bread and see if the tremendous boost in flavor this technique usually provides would work with white bread too.  It was worth a shot even though a long one – otherwise you would think people would be doing it all the time as a matter of course – but they don’t.  Maybe it’s the 6 hour bake time that puts them off?

To give the bread a chance at being decent, we included bread spice seeds and the other usual other seeds we have recently been using, to give this bread a chance the bread at some depth and chew like our whole grain breads we DaPumperize.

Since this bake was planned to be 80% wheat we decided to use our new Not Mini’s Ancient WW starter ( a very powerful one)  to go along with a WW Yeast Water one and make separate levains.   All 25% of the whole grains are in the levains and are made up of a mix of WW, rye and spelt.

We upped the whole grains some using 100 g of wheat berries for the scald along with the Toadies and home made red and white malts.  We dropped the molasses and barley malt syrup for this bake. For much of the dough water we used the excess scald water. Aromatic seeds were the usual coriander, fennel, anise and bi-color caraway that we buzzed up a little after roasting this time.   The meaty seeds were also roasted and they included; black and white sesame seeds, cracked flax and 50 g each f pumpkin and sunflower seeds.

We followed usual routine of late by building the levains over 3 stages with the Not Mini’s Ancient WW one doubling every 3 hours from the first build on while the YW one took 4 hours. For the last build – its best showing.  We autolysed the dough flours, salt, malts and Toadies  for 3 hours before adding in the levains. 

10 minutes of Slap and folds followed when the slack dough really came around on the gluten development side.  After a 20 minute rest we stretched out the dough to do an envelope fold and dropped all the seeds and scald onto it and folded it up with a few S&F’s.   We did 2 more S&F’s on 20 minute intervals to further develop the gluten and to distribute the add in seeds thoroughly.

After a 30 minute rest we took half the dough and shaped it into a loaf and placed it into a large loaf tin, filling it less than half full and covering it with plastic.  The other half of the dough was left in the oiled and plastic covered bowl. Both were then refrigerated for 8 hours overnight.  They didn't expand much in the fridge.

In the morning, both were placed on a heating pad, covered with a cloth and allowed to warm up for 1 1/2 hours.  The bulk retarded dough was them shaped and placed into a basket for final proof on the heating pad with the tinned loaf.

After another 2 hours the tinned loaf was 1/2” under the rim.  We covered it with aluminum foil and placed it into the preheated 375 F mini oven for its 6 hour baking schedule where the bottom of the broiler pan was full of water to provide extra steam.    We didn't put any oat bran or poppy seeds on the top of the loaf because we wanted to see how dark a white DaPumpernickel could get in 6 hours.  The baking schedule follows:

375 F - 30 minutes

350 F - 30 minutes

325 F - 1 hour

300 F - 1 hour

275 F - 1 hour

250 F - 1 hour

225 F - 1 hour

For some extra thrill for my apprentice and a comparison baseline for me, we decided to bake the other half; the boule, as one would expect a loaf like this to be baked - just in case the DaPumpernickeled half was a total failure.

We decided to bake it in a hot DO but it took another hour and a half before we thought that it was ready for the oven.  After a poor slash job and lowering into the DO with a parchment sling, this boule was baked at 450 F for 20 minutes with the lid on and another 5 minutes with the lid off at 425 F convection before removing it from the DO and placing it on the lower stone to finish baking - another 10 minutes – 35 minutes total baking time.

We then turned the oven off and left the bread on the stone with the oven door ajar for 5 minutes to help crisp the crust.  The boule baked up nice and brown, blistered and the crust was crispy before went chewy as it cooled.  It smells terrific.

The loaf is now through with its slow and low bake and hit exactly 210 F at the end of 6 hours in the mini oven.  We will slice into this loaf after it has rested for 40 hours. Luckily we have tasted the boule and it is a fantastic loaf of bread.  The crumb is so soft and shreddable, glossy and open like it had butter, eggs and and cream in it - just delicious!   This bread cannot be sliced thin and 1/2" thick, or maybe a little more is its sweet spot. This is another bread could eat every day.  Already ate a quarter of the boule!.Can't wait for the loaf to be ready to slice thin.  It will have to go a long way to be better than the boule.

We got 33 slices oiut of the 83/4" DaPumpernickel loaf.  It wasn't as dark as a black pumpernickel about a couple of shades darker than the other part of this two way bake.  The flavor wasn't as deep or rich as a 100% whole grain pumpernickel but it tastes totally different than the regular baked boule.  This tastes like half a pumpernickel and is much more powerful a taste than the boule.  We like this bread a lot too!  For those that don't like pumpernickel but want something stronger than a rye then this loaf  might be the one for you!

Formula

This is yet another bread, and one still to go,  that resulted from the panettone bake where huge excesses of levain waste was required to build the Italian starter.  In this case we had some YW and SD levain hanging around in the fridge.  But the first thing we did was boil the scald for 5 minutes stirring all the time before covering and allowing it to cool on the counter.

The levain build was like a French casserole where any veggie in the fridge goes into the pot.  The two leftover levains, some more AP flour and some more YW and SD seed went into this levain casserole.   We’ve never zombied a levain like this before so it was fun, if not eventful, from a risen dead perspective.

The levain sat on the heating pad as we autolysed everything including the cocoa and instant coffee, except the scald and seeds, with the Guinness Black Lager- a beer we hadn’t tasted before.  This ended up being a 58% Whole grain loaf not including the whole grain scald and soak.  After two hours we deemed the autolyse ready for its zombie levain.

After mixing with a spoon to get things acquainted, we did 10 minutes of French Slap and folds to develop the gluten sufficiently.  After a 20 minute rest we incorporated the multigrain scald using a few S&F’s and a few slap and folds to get the dough back into shape.

The addition of the wet scald, that took the hydration up to what felt like about 82% or more, made the dough much slacker than its old self.  After another 20 minute rest, the aromatic seeds were incorporated into the dough with some more S&F’s and a few slap and folds which were more interesting with seeds and wet dough flying all over the place.

After another 20 minute rest we did one last set of slap and folds to get some shape into the dough and immediately  panned it into a large loaf pan that had been de-stickified with spray. We coverd the top with wheat adn oat bran and let it sit on the heating pad for about 3 hours until it had grown 3/4th of the way up the tin and then we retarded it for 12 hours.

When we retrieved it from the fridge it had risen to within ½” of the top of the tin rim.  We let it sit on the counter, no heating pad this time, for 2 1/2 hours before heating up the mini oven with Sylvia’s steaming cup.

The dough had risen to the rim by the time it went into the mini for 12 minutes of steam at 450 F.  It sprang about 1/2 “under steam.  Then we removed the steam and turned the heat down to 375 F, convection this time.

We continued to bake the loaf until it reached 205 F on the inside rotating the loaf 180 degrees after 10 minutes and also de-panning it to ensure even baking.  After 10 minutes we rotated the de-panned loaf again.  A total of 45 minutes and the loaf was done.

It browned up nicely but we will have to wait for the crumb shots.  Once cooled we will let this bread sit for 24 hours before cutting into it for lunch tomorrow.  Here it is the following morning and I couldn't wait for lunch since there was breakfast first :-) 

Plain, toasted with butter or with cream cheese... this bread is tasty - just plain delicious.  The crumb is open, glossy and very moist with chewy bits.  The crust went soft overnight which allowed for very thin slicing without crumbling.   I could eat this bread every day and if stranded on a desert isle, it would be one of the 50 breads my apprentice would lug along.  Can't wait to try it toasted with pate.

Formula

The last bake was so nice and this one is very similar except for a few differences that….. made a difference.  The sprouts, seeds, nuts, prunes and dough flours were nearly identical except we ran out of barley berries.

Yeast water replaced the SD starter.  The YW levain used white whole wheat flour as half of the mix instead of the home milled whole grains of the previous bake.  The amount of whole grains and the hydration was increased 5% to 59% and 74% respectively.

The first 15 minutes of the bake was at 500 F instead of 450 F (because we forgot to turn it down after the pre-heat) and the resulting total bake time was reduced 15 minutes to 35 minutes.  We think the higher initial temperatures reduced the spring and the higher hydration caused the chacon to spread more as well.   The openness of the crumb was affected in that the usually large holes of the yeast water were muted .

Another change was that instead of putting the dough into the basket right after the  S& F was complete and then allowing the dough to ferment in the basket, on the counter for 1 and ½ hours before being retarded, this dough was allowed to ferment in the bowl for 1 ½ hours before being placed in the basket and then it was then immediately retarded.

Both bakes had a 40 hour retard and a 4 hour warm up on the heating pad before baking.  Instead of using decorative knots in the chacon we used balls instead since the dough was too slack to make into ropes without adding some flour. 

We were going to add some aromatic seeds like coriander and anise but forgot to put them in.   I thought that if we just put them on the top they would burn after seeing the color of the crust after yesterday’s bake. 

One thing we noticed was since the dough was much wetter it absorbed the rice flour in the basket so the white surface outlines of the last bake were mainly gone and we had a better picture of the deep, dark, mahogany color that must have been under the white on the last bake.

The crumb is more moist than the SD as was expected since YW makes a more moist crumb in bread than SD for some reason.  Glad we baked this to 206 F instead of 203 F like the SD version since it was still moist and soft.

The crumb is as open as the SD but the largest holes are in the YW version.  The most uniform holes holes are in the SD.  I never thought I would say this but, the YW multi-grain bread is more tasty, at least to my pallet which is quite unlike the Brownman I know and my apprentice loves sometimes :-)  Both breads are terrific ans some of the best that have come out of this kitchen.

Formula

The last two bakes were a lower and then a higher percentage of whole grains  and more complex that this one at 48% whole grains.   We also used the KA mixer on speed 3 to knead the dough for 8 minutes instead of using French slap and folds and we baked the bread in a DO instead of on a stone with steam.

The rye sour and YW combo levain consisted of dark whole rye and water that was built over 10 hours with (2) 1 hour stages and one of 8 hours. After the levain had doubled we refrigerated it for 12 hours and then let it come to room temperature the next day for 2 hours as we autolysed the flours.

The AP, spelt, whole wheat, rye, potato flakes, oat flour ground flax seeds, baked potato, malts and Toady Tom’s Toasted Tidbits were autolysed with the Baltika #6 Porter and home made red wine vinegar for 2 hours before combining with the salt and the levain in the KA for kneading.

The dough was rested for 20 minutes and then 4 sets of S&F’s were done on 20 minute intervals.  The caraway and coriander seeds along with a new ingredient; caraway leaves and roasted re=hydrated onions were incorporated on the 3rd set.

The rye, spelt and ww sprout chits were incorporated on the 4th set.  Don’t forget to start your ww sprouts 48 hours ahead and the rye and spelt seeds 24 hours ahead to make sure they all chit together and are ready when needed.  Also take the 1 T of dried onions and roast them for a couple of minutes at 350 F to get them dark, not burned like I did the first time,  and then re-hydrate them in 3 T of water 4 hours ahead of time.

After the 4th set of S&f’S the dough was allowed to develop and ferment for 1 hour before being pre shaped and shaped into a boule and placed into a rice floured basket inside a trash can liner where it was allowed to ferment for another hour before being retarded for 8 hours in the fridge.

The dough was then allowed to come to room temperature and ferment and develop some more on the counter the next day for 6 hours since the temperature in the kitchen is only 67 F. 

The oven was preheated to 450 F.  The basket was upended into the cold DO, poorly scored (can’t seem to ever do it right in a DO), and placed into the hot oven that was immediately turned down to 425 F where the bread steamed itself for 25minutes.  Then the lid was removed and the bread baked for another 20 minutes.

10 minutes after the lid came off the bread was removed from the DO and continued to bake directly on the oven rack.  The bread was also rotated 180 degrees every 5 minutes until it reached 205 F on the inside.  The bread was allowed to crisp on the oven rack for 10 minutes with the oven off and door ajar before being moved to the cooling rack.  It sure smells tasty.

The crumb came out open and moist with a great chew due to the sprouts.  The taste was very good.  Instead of the dominate onion taste like last time, we had a caraway flavor that came through due to the caraway leaves and not the caraway seeds.  This is what Americans would call rye bread even though rye only makes up about 27% of the flours used in the bread.  We really like the way this bread tastes.  It is complex and earthy.  The combination of whole rye being twice as much as whole spelt and WW and the whole grains making up 50% of the flours is one we like very much.  The YW and SD levain combination also helps to lighten the crumb and open it up thanks to the YW while still getting a SD taste to come through too.

Formula

After the last 100% Kamut and 100% spelt bakes, both at 100% hydration, we decided to get bake to more of our normal kind of bread we like so much.

This one is 57% whole grains made up of Kamut, spelt, rye and WW.  The seeds at 20% and include, hemp, chia, pumpkin and sunflower seeds.

We had made some Greek yogurt earlier in the week and wanted to use some of the whey in this bread to help bring out the sour but not so much the whey took over.  The whey made up 20% of the dough liquid but only 14% of the total liquid in this bread.

The SD levain was built over (2) 3 hr and (1) 1 hour build and then refrigerated for 48 hours. The flours were autolysed with everything except the levain and seeds for 3 hours.  The levain was allowed to come to room temperature over and hour and then hand kneaded for 5 minutes into the dough now only minus the seeds.

After resting in an oiled and plastic covered bowl for 20 minutes, 4 sets of S&F’s were performed with a 15 minute rest between them back in the covered bowl.  The seeds were incorporated in stretch and fold #3 and fully distributed in fold #4.

There was only a15 minute ferment after the last S&F and the dough was pre-shaped shaped into a boule and final shape 10 minutes later.  The boule was upended into a rice floured basket seam side up.  The basket was placed in a trash can liner end closed and placed into the fridge for a 12 hour retard.

The mini oven was cranked up475 Fto pre-heat with the bottom of the broiler pan inside.  The boule was un-molded onto parchment that was on the vented top of the broiler pan.  For once it was artfully slashed, ½ C of water was thrown into the bottom of the broiler pan, the bread was covered with stainless steel mixing bowl and the broiler top, parchment, boule and bowl were placed into the bottom of the broiler pan to steam.

After 5 minutes, the temperature was turned down to450 F.  The bread was allowed to steam under the stainless bowl for an additional 15 more minutes - 20 minutes total.  The covering bowl was then removed and the bread was baked another 16 minutes at425 F, convection this time.  The bread was rotated 90 degrees every 4 minutes.  The bread was deemed done when it registered205 F  internal temperature.

The bread was allowed to crisp in the turned off mini oven, door ajar, for 10 more minutes before being moved to cooling rack.

My wife ran out of her Oroweat Whole Wheat bread yesterday so she asked for two pieces of bread for her bag lunch.  So I found some frozen Duram Atta SD for her we baked Mastaba Style here:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/29145/sourdough-duram-atta-bread-%E2%80%93-pharaoh%E2%80%99s-mastaba-style

She said she really liked it when she got home and asked for the same thing for her lunch sammy the next day.  Sadly, that was the last of it and the last of any white or nearly white SD breads on hand in the freezer.  So she had to settle for 67% Rye Whole Wheat SD with seeds and sprouts we called Twisted Sisters Chacon that we baked here

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/29172/twisted-sisters-chacon-67-whole-rye-wheat-sprouts-seeds

We also wanted to make a near white bread with seeds and soaker on the lines of our last bake - Ian’s Mocha Disaster Chacon.  Instead of using mocha coffee for the liquid we wanted to use a just as deep adn dark chicken stock since we were making that at the same time anyway.  Our stock is made from roasted bones and clinging meat, no skin and saved suitable veggie ends and pieces of all kinds that are frozen for this purpose.  It is totally de-fatted and unsalted.

After posting on the forum and checking the TFL search, only a few folks have used chicken stock for the liquid in bread with Glenn Snyder and Shaio-Ping among them. HeidiH did too but considers it one of her failures due to its poor and unusual after taste they did not like.   We wanted to lighten the load a little to reflect the whiter flours used, so only 30% whole grains this time and by reducing the seeds and soaker by 2/3rds to a measly 45%.

The flours picked for this loaf were; dark rye, spelt, WW, quinoa, steel cut oats and flax seeds all ground at hole in the little Krups coffee mill and AP.  No potatoes this time because we forgot to add the flakes.  The soaker consisted of; rye, red winter wheat and spelt berries with cracked barley and bulgar.  The seeds included; sunflower, pumpkin, chia, hemp and millet.

We also wanted to bake this in the mini oven (MO) and use our new heavy aluminum Goodwill 4 ½ qt  DO’s as a cloche.  We made the largest boule which experience to date says will still fit in the MO.  It doubled in volume while chilling out in the fridge for 12 hours.

Finally the sun came out after 4 days of rain - half a year's worth at my house.

Ian's T-Rex claw poorly slashed this time.

The bread slashed nicely, T-Rex style.  The crust baked up deep brown, blistered and crunchy with the thick crust going soft and chewy as it cooled.  We didn’t expect the crumb to be wildly open due to the 30% whole grains and 45% soaker and seeds but we were happy with the fairly open crumb that was very moist as usual - the YW trademark.

Thanks to Hanseata, my favorite hemp seed roae to the top.  Blisters, blisters adn more blisters thanks to MO and the DO.

It sliced well, tasted nutty, meaty and healthy with the quite a bit of seeds and soaker.   These add in’s really made the chew of this bread exceptional – its hallmark.  Hope the wife likes this for her work day sandwiches or we will have to bake up one of our white SD favorites, David Snyder’s Pulgiesi Capriosso or San Joaquin.  But we will have to see how she handles the subtle chicken stock taste which I found perfectly OK - probably because there was no fat or salt in the stock.

This bread is more moist and soft than any we have baked before.  The chicken stock comes through in good way and the blistered, chewy MO crust is back!   This is another bread unlike any other.  Just delicious, any way you want it or need it.

Breakfast of this fine bread with dragon fruit and prickly pear cactus tuna, sausage, egg, colby jack cheese and home made English muffin.  The lunch also features this bread with 1/2 ea. peach, mango and plum, cantaloupe chunks, black grapes, cherries, lettuce with feta cheese, brie cheese slices, carrot sticks and a strawberry.  The sandwich bread is spread with home made dijon mustard, then lettuce, tomato, grilled chicken slices, colby jack and brie cheese are piled on.

Method

We used a combo YW and SD starter with 10 g SD seeds taken from the rye sour, desem and multi-grain starters.  We used AP flour for each of the (2) 3 hour and (1) 2 hour levain builds and we built the YW and SD communally, instead of separately, this time.

The soaker was made and set aside for 6 hours by covering the grains with water and microwaving them until the water boiled.  The flours, honey, malts, VWG and salt were autolysed with the chicken stock for 2 ½ hours.  We no longer leave the salt out of the autolyse.

With autolyse complete we mixed it with the levain and kneaded it with the dough hook for 8 minutes on KA 2 until the dough pulled away from the sides of the bowl.  The dough was allowed to rest for 20 minutes covered with plastic.

After resting the first of (3) S & F’s was performed 15 minutes apart on a well oiled surface.  On the 2nd S & F the soaker was drained and dried with a paper towel and incorporated into the dough.  A little bench four was required to get the dough back in shape.  The dough was rested in an oiled, plastic covered bowl.  On the 3rd S & F the seeds were incorporated. 

The dough was then allowed to develop and ferment for 90 minutes before being pre-shaped and then shaped into a boule stretching the skin tight as we piulled ot across the un-floured surface.  The dough ball was placed seam side up in our favorite, larger sized, rice floured basket.  The basket was placed into a tall kitchen trash can liner and retarded in the fridge for 12 hours.

The MO was preheated to 500 F and (1) of Sylvia’s steaming towels in a half water filled Pyrex measuring cup was heated to boiling in the microwave.   We decided to bake the bread on parchment on the unheated, solid, lower portion of the MO’s broiling pan and cover it with the unheated aluminum DO bottom. 

The dough was removed from the fridge and tipped out onto a parchment covered peel, slashed in Ian’s T-Rex Style and slid onto the broiler pan bottom leaving room to cover it with the DO bottom while still leaving room for Sylvia’s steam in the back corner.

The whole cold apparatus, with cold contents, was placed into the MO and a half cup of water was tossed into the bottom of the MO when the door was closed.  When the MO beeped that is was back up to 500 F, about 5 minutes, the temperature was turned down to 450 F and the bread was allowed to steam covered for 20 minutes. When the steam was removed, the bread uncovered and the temperature turned down to 425 F, convection this time.  The bread was moved to the vented top of the broiler pan.

The bread was rotated 180 degrees every 5 minutes until it reached 205 F on the inside – About 15 minutes and 40 minutes total.   The MO was turned off but the boule was left inside it with the door ajar for 10 minutes to further crisp the crust.  It was then moved to a cooling rack for 1 hour until cool.

The formula follows the pix’s as usual.

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.

As you can probably tell from my name(it's Jorgen in case you're wondering) I have Scandinavian roots in my family. My great grandparents were immigrants from Norway and while I don't speak Norwegian nor have I ever been there, I've always felt a connection to Norway and the Scandinavian countries in general(I almost always root for the Norwegians when the Olympics come around, which for some reason is much more successful in the winter.). So when I was pointed, by breadsong, to this article and formula, written by Chad Robertson, I got excited and knew I had to give it a try.

I was further interested in trying this bread when I stopped off at Bar Tartine's new sandwich shop on the way home from work one day. This is where Chad Robertson is doing most of his bread experimentation these days so I was hoping to taste something new and interesting. I went in to try and get one of the Smørrebrød(an open faced danish sandwich) but upon entering I was informed that they had just closed. However, they also informed me that they would be happy to make one for me anyways, on the house, so I could get a taste of what they do there! What great customer service! I knew I would be coming back even before I got to taste the Smørrebrød. The Smørrebrød I ended up getting consisted of eggplant, white bean puree and a whole roasted tomato all served on an extremely delicious and seed-dense slice of rye. It was sooo good. Upon comparing the bread in the Smørrebrød to the formula posted on Food Arts I was fairly certain they were one in the same or at least very similar.

Smørrebrød from Bar Tartine's Sandwich Shop

I've already been doing a bit of rye baking recently(See: Sprouted Vollkornbrot with Seeds) and loving the flavor, heartiness and keeping qualities, however, Chad Robertson's formula brings some interesting new ideas to the table that I've never tried before. For one thing, the loaf is partially hydrated with buttermilk and beer. Such a combination sounded too delicious to resist. His loaf is also extremely seed and rye berry dense. The total seeds and rye berries in the formula add up to over 170% of the flour! I'd certainly never pushed seed content that high in any loaf so it was all the more enticing(I love trying new things). Finally I had never retarded a loaf with a high percentage of rye because of concerns about high levels of sourness but Robertson goes for it. And when in doubt, listen to Robertson.

This dough was a little bit scary in the beginning stages of the mix. It started out extremely wet. At first I was seriously concerned that there was a misprint in the formula but as I added seeds and rye berries into the dough, and they started to absorb some of the water, the dough came together some and became more manageable. Let me warn you though that it is still an extremely wet dough so don't panic if you give it a shot. Also, there are no guidelines as to what the dough should feel like at each stage. I would have to rely on the times and temperatures he states in the formula and my own baker's intuition to get through.

I ended up modifying the process some by switching the retarding to the bulk instead of shaped to accommodate my schedule. I also doubled the sunflower seeds because I didn't have pumpkin seeds on hand and used my remaining sprouted rye from my Vollkornbrot bake in place of some of the soaked rye berries. In the article Robertson mentions using sprouted grain in several of his breads so I felt like this would be a proper fit.

This loaf is my new favorite rye bread! I love how many seeds there are. It's almost like you're eating seeds held together with rye and spelt flour which is quite pleasing actually. Also there is only a slight hint of sourness despite retarding the dough. The only disappointment is that the beer and buttermilk flavors don't really come through. I think if I was to make this loaf again I would increase these two ingredients. Perhaps even replace all the water with beer.

I ended up taking a few slices of this loaf with me on a rock climbing session in place of energy bars. It worked great! One or two slices gave me plenty of energy and kept me feeling nourished for hours  without the sugar rush feeling. I'm guessing that was the effect of all the seeds, whole grains and good carbs slowly digesting. I may have to try adding some dried fruit to the bread next to truely make it the ultimate climbing snack.

You can check out my modified formula and process at aBreaducation.

Just ate this one plain before the apprentice could get at it.

When we baked our version of hanseata's ungodly, great and wonderful bread, we said at the time that it was the best bread we have ever baked or tasted here:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/28806/hanseata%E2%80%99s-wild-rice-sd-w-yeast-water-multi-seeds-prunes-beer-and-sprouts

 We were not exaggerating more than usual and we still feel this way.  We finally got to the other half of this huge loaf that we froze right after it had cooled after coming out of the oven.  We actually cut this half in half, knowing how good it was,  and still have a 1/4 loaf of this fine bread in the freezer. - and you don't - but you should!

with DaCarrrot and DaMinnieMarm jams.

Love grilled pak choy sum and Mexican grey squash with a fine pork sandwich.

My apprentice decided to feature this bread again with its various uses we have put it too since defrosting it rather than throw it in with the other breads we have been eating for lunch this past month.  They will be shown separately.

That's some aged cheddar there without any writing.

You just have to make hanseata's bread one time and you will be forever hooked and adding it to your top 5 favorite list that has 15 breads on it :-)

Feta, aged cheddar and brie, with a little dijon mustard, make for a nice grilled cheese for lunch.

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.