soaker

This christmas my Dad and I decided to combine our two passions (homebrewing, and baking, respectively). He came up with the idea of making two different types of soakers, a sweet mash of various homebrewing grains, and a sour mash of "acidulated barley malt". I was extremely interested, and so we went out and tasted the malts until we decided which ones ot use, and I just eyeballed how much of each, and the rest of the proportions, based on my past usage of soakers in breads (maybe twice). We then grinded the grains very coarsely by hand, and proceeded with the soakers. This is the recipe we ended up at:

OZ                  ingr                      Grams                  %

The sweet mash malts were ground very coarsely by hand. I think we actually forgot to grind the sour mash malt.  The sour mash was at 98 degrees fahrenheit (the LB bacteria thrive at body temp), and the sweet mash was at about 145 degrees fahrenheit (no real reason, was actually shooting higher, but we just wanted to get maximum enzymatic action to release the sugars in the malt). We immediately put them into a warmed lunch box, in a warm cooler, and let them sit overnight.

Today I mixed the dry ingredients, added the mashes, then added the water. My initial guess ended up being way too much water so I ended up having to add about 20 oz of flour, and some salt, and adjust the numbers a bit, until it felt kneadable.

Kneaded it for a while by hand, with a few 20 - 40 min long autolyses. It was a lot of dough so it took a while. Ended up being nice and quite tacky but not overly sticky. Let rise until doubled. Degassed/shaped into two loaves and one boule, ~33g a piece.. Let rise until fingerprint didn't pop out again. The boule was overproofed, even though i put it in a 50 degree environment.  Extra hour did the trick and caused a slightly flatter bread than would have been possible. No biggy. The second loaf pan went into fridge for an overnight retard, will bake tomorrow and update blog. Pics:

Turned out great, although slightly underdone, and a few of the barley grains were a bit too crunchy(maybe the acidulated malt). Next perhaps time a slightly finer grind, and a longer baking time. Today the final temp was around 200, and I didn't have my instant read digital. Tomorrow I'll make sure it hits 210.

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.

What do you do with the fruits of a couple of less than successful attempts at a Dark 100% Rye bread?

Altus!

What is altus you ask?

Old bread …namely, ground up leftover rye bread usually soaked in water.

In my case its old (ugly) dark sour 100% rye bread that is soaked overnight in water. I also crumbled dry altus and fed my rye starter portions of this along with normal rye flour.

Old bread, blended, coffee and soaker

I baked three different breads this weekend, all of them utilising altus. First was the “any grain” sourdough, this time in tins, another dark sour rye and the country bread with two starters.

The night before I prepared soakers, starters, milled and sifted the necessary flours so as to make the morning as peaceful and smooth as possible.

Any Grain Sourdough in tins (grains included in total flour)

Formula

Method

1. Autolyse bakers flour and water for 30min, then stir with wooden spoon for 5 minutes.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix 5-10mins. I use a scraper in my right hand to pick up and turn the dough and keep my left hand wet enough to avoid excessive sticking.
3. Allow bulk ferment for 15-30mins.
4. Shape and roll in rolled oats. Place into greased tins (mine were Pullman) seam side down.
5. I proved these for one hour and 45 minutes before placing into oven with lids on for 15 minutes at 270°C  then a further hour at 200°C

Country bread with two starters

I deviated from the procedure described in a previous posting on these breads in two ways.

The rye starter build was a fed a portion of altus crumbs and the final dough had a 200g altus soaker consisting of equal weights of water and dark rye bread.

The altus soaker was blended with water before adding the flours for the autolyse.

I have again tried my hand at a 100% Sour Dark Rye. I had to alter several things for this bake. I am out of rye grains for milling so for this bake I used Four Leaf Millings biodynamic rye meal flour. I also used the altus as a soaker instead of cracked grains.

Dark Rye Bread Ver 3

Formula

Method

1. Soaker is blended with warm water before the rest of the ingredients are added.
2. Mix until well combined.
3. With wet hands shape and place into greased pullman tin.
4. After my previous cases of overproving I watched the dough like a hawk and it seemed ready after one hour. I docked and placed into a 270°C oven for 15 minutes then a further two hours at 200°C.

__

The altus gave the breads a serious flavour kick and moistness to the crumb. The country bread’s crumb was significantly darker from last weeks bake due to the added altus and it was a delight to see the dark flecks of past rye failures given a new life.

… and again I wait with trepidation for the opportunity to cut the dark rye and peer inside…

cheers, Phil

p.s. A little side story ... My partner managed to create her own version of altus unbeknownst to her when she put a rye crust wrapped in a tea towel through the washing machine. Lets just say with toilet training children in the house a rye crust wasn't the first thing that came to mind when she saw the brown lump amongst the towels.

I make a 60% rye bread, and I use a buttermilk & rye soaker. Hydration is around 65%; remainder of flour is generic bread flour. I knead in a Kitchenaid for about 7-10 minutes total. I also stretch and fold 2-4 times, depending on how lazy I am. 

The unbaked dough of the last 2 I've made starts to "rip" after I start to fold it. I doubt I could windowpane it. Is that typical? I know rye is low-gluten, but could I be overkneading it? Seems unlikely, but I'm looking forward to feedback.

Thanks!

We were in Portland, OR last week. While I was in meetings, my wife bounced between Powell's (the biggest book store in the US of A) and the Pearl Bakery. I got to taste a number of their breads in sandwiches my wife brought back to the hotel, but I didn't taste their "multigrain roll," which my wife had one day and really liked.

Susan often asks me to make rolls for her lunch sandwiches, so with her description of the Pearl's roll in mind I went looking for a multigrain roll to make. I've made several of Hamelman's multigrain breads and liked them all. I think any of the ones I've made would make good rolls, but I wanted to try something new. Reading through "Bread," I found the "Whole-Wheat Bread with a Multigrain Soaker." (Pg. 126) It is a 50% bread flour/50% whole wheat dough with a soaker of cracked wheat, coarse corn meal, millet and oats. I had all the ingredients but for the millet. I substituted flax seeds.

This is one heavy dough. I added quite a bit of water, which Hamelman says is often needed, to get the consistency I thought was "right." I formed the 4+ lbs of dough into 2 bâtards and a half dozen 3 oz rolls.

Whole-Wheat Bread with Multigrain Soaker bâtard crumb

I baked the rolls at 450ºF for 15 minutes. The bâtards baked at 450ºF with steam for 12 minutes, then at 440ºF for another 15 minutes followed by 7 minutes in the turned off oven with the door ajar.

The crust was crunchy. The crumb was tender but chewy. The flavor is assertively honey whole wheat, mellowed somewhat by the soaker ingredients. It's outstanding with a thin spread of sweet butter.

My wife liked it but says it's nothing like the Pearl Bakery's multigrain rolls. Hee hee. An excuse to bake more rolls.

David

Submitted to YeastSpotting