The Fresh Loaf

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Sourdough Multi-grain

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

After seeing David's  post earlier this week  about his experiment with using old dough vs a levain to make bread here "Old Dough" vs. Natural Levain ....... my apprentice just knew she hat to put her 4 cents in and replicate the experiment to see if we came out with would match David's bake.  Plus it was going to be fun because we haven’t used old dough to make bread for a very long time and had forgotten how good a no fuss job it could do.

  

Old dough is the way commercial bakers, as opposed to home bakers that baked smaller quantities and used levain, made all of their breads before 1870 or so when the Fleischmann brothers perfected their first commercial yeasts.

  

We didn’t have any old dough after bulk ferment to use so we decided to make a 125 g old dough from scratch.  We first did a formula that we would use for the levain dough and then scaled everything back from the larger dough weight to the little, what would become, old dough.  Spreadsheets really helped in this regard. 

  

Once we had everything together using the exact same ingredients that would be in the levain bread, we developed the little dough ball just like we would the larger one later.  We did an autolyse of 3 hours, added the tiny whole grain starter, salt, other flours and water and did 3 finger one hand tied behind the back French slap and folds until the gluten was well developed and the dough satin smooth.

  

After a 15 minute rest we did (3) S & F’s on 15 minute intervals and then let it ferment on the counter for 1 hour before refrigerating for 12 hours where it rose very well by doubling.  The next morning, while the old dough and the 125 g of the same levain were coming up to room temperature, we autolysed the dough with the salt, flour and water for the levain bread exactly as we had done the little old dough the previous day. 

  

Then before the levain went in we cut off half the autolyse for the old dough.  After that each dough was treated the same, together at the same times, yet separate .  The same - yet separate would make a good book title for a story about twins separated at birth.  Back to baking.

 

After the 10 minutes of French Slap and folds and the 15 minutes rest, the (3) sets of French slap and folds were done between  15 minute rest increments.  The Janet inspired bulgar and flax seed scalded mash was incorporated on the 2nd fold and fully distributed by the 3rd fold.

 

Each dough was allowed to ferment on the counter for an hour before being bulk retarded in a 38 F fridge for 18 hours.  After removing them from the cold, the dough balls had doubled in the fridge, they were allowed to come to room temperature for 1 ½ hours on a heating pad set to low.  Each was then formed into a boule and placed in like sized baskets even though one was more of an oval shape.

  

The baskets were placed in a nearly new trash can liner and placed back on the heating pad for a 78 F proofing.  After 2 hours, Old Betsy was fired up to 450 F with two DO inside, one a CI Martha Stewart and one was the Magnalite MagnaWare Turkey roaster.  Since the turkey roaster has a trivet insert that allows extra water to be put in for steam, we used the bottom of our spring form pan to raise up the bread off the bottom so extra water could be placed in it too.

  

Once the baking temperature was reached we un-molded each from the basket, slashed them and placed them into the hot DO’s with a parchment sling.  These smallish 525 g breads were baked 18 minutes with steam then the lids were removed and the temperature turned down to 425 F, convection this time.

  

The bread was baked another 5 minutes before being removed from the DO’s and rotated 180 degrees on the stone now.  The darker bread was done in 5 more minutes at 205 F on the inside and it was removed to a cooling rack,  The lighter colored bread was baked another 3 minutes before it too hit 205 F and we left this one on the stone with the oven off and door ajar for 5 minutes.

The darker colored boule spread more the lighter oval one.  The lighter oval rose and sprang higher and had a slightly softer and less open crumb but they were very close crumb wise.  The darker bread had more and bigger blisters.  The one in the WagnerWare turkey roaster was the lighter bread and we do not know why because nothing has been able to put crust on bread better than it does – except this time.

 

There is no question that one had a better more complex and deeper sour flavor just like David's bake and it was the one that used old dough too!  The difference in taste was definitely there and easy to decipher.   I’m would be using  this old dough technique  on bread from now on…… except that I forgot to hold back from this bake - darn…..typical the apprentice didn’t bark out a word of warning either!

So which one is old dough?  It’s the one that tastes the best and they both are great breads - some of the best we have made to date.   Let’s see who can guess the taste winner by looking.

Formula

Old Dough VS Levain Multigrain SD With Bulgar and Flax Seed Scald

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Starter

Build 1

Build 2

Total

%

SD Starter

25

0

25

9.26%

Spelt

8

9

17

8.19%

WW

8

8

16

7.71%

Rye

8

9

17

8.19%

Water

25

25

50

24.10%

Total Starter

74

51

125

60.24%

 

 

 

 

 

Starter

 

 

 

 

Hydration

100.00%

 

 

 

Levain % of Total

23.63%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dough Flour

 

%

 

 

Dark Rye

12.5

6.02%

 

 

Whole Wheat

12.5

6.02%

 

 

Potatoe Flakes

10

4.82%

 

 

Spelt

12.5

6.02%

 

 

Oatmeal

10

4.82%

 

 

AP

150

72.29%

 

 

Dough Flour

207.5

100.00%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salt

4

1.93%

 

 

Water

155

74.70%

 

 

Dough Hydration

74.70%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total Flour

237

 

 

 

Total Water

217.5

 

 

 

T. Dough Hydration

91.77%

 

 

 

Whole Grain %

41.35%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hydration w/ Adds

76.99%

 

 

 

Total Weight

529

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add - Ins

 

%

 

 

Red Rye Malt

1.25

0.60%

 

 

White Rye Malt

1.25

0.60%

 

 

Toadies

2.5

1.20%

 

 

VW Gluten

7.5

3.61%

 

 

Total

12.5

6.02%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scald

 

%

 

 

Flax Seed

12

5.78%

 

 

Bulgar

13

6.27%

 

 

Total Scald

25

12.05%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

My wife asked for a sandwich loaf that was made with whole grain, mainly whole wheat and a tiny bit of sweetness supplied by honey.  She wants a replacement for her old favorite Oroweat Whole Wheat.

 

She doesn’t like sprouts or seeds or soakers in her bread which makes it easier if more boring.  So we came up with a loaf she can take for lunch every day and not be forced to read the ingredient label that scares folks to death.

  

The whole grains include home ground whole; wheat, spelt and kamut with more emphasis on wheat.  Since wheat would be the dominate flour, we decided to use our Desem starter that is fed only whole wheat and tends to produce bread that is less sour and more sweet than our rye sour starter.

  

Method

We levain was a 5 hour single all in one shot kind of build, which had the same variety of home milled whole grains in it.  We like using whole grains in levains and at220 gthis one was 23% of the total dough weight - right in the 20-30% range we like. 

  

While levain was building itself up to full strength we autolysed all the other ingredients including the salt for nearly 5 hours.  When the levain was finished we mixed it by hand with the autolysed portion of the mix.  Once mixed we did a full 12 minutes of French slap and folds before allowing the dough to rest in a plastic covered  and oiled bowl for 15 minutes.

 

After the brief rest, 4 sets of S&F’s were done one 15 minute intervals with the resting done back in the covered bowl.  Once the S&F’s were completed the dough was allowed to develop and ferment for 1 hour before being pre-shaped into a loaf and allowed to rest for 10 minutes before being final shaped and place into a loaf tin.

 

As soon as the tin was filled with dough,  it was placed into a plastic bag and refrigerated for a 15 hour retard at 38 F.  The dough was taken out of the fridge and allowed to come to room temperature for 1 hour.

 

With 15 minutes left for the warm up, (2) of Sylvia’s steaming cups were prepared with dish cloth, Pyrex cup 1/2 full of water and micro-waved to boiling and the Mini Oven heated to 500 F.

One of Sylvia’s steaming cups were placed in the back of the oven, the bread tin slid in and the other steaming cup placed in front.  It is a perfect fit that ensures maximum steam if you throw in ¼ C of water on the bottom of the mini oven when you close the door like we did.

 

We steamed the bread for 2 minutes and then turned down the mini oven to 450 Fand steamed for another 8 minutes – 10 minutes of steam total.  When the steam was removed the MO was turned down to 400 F - convection this time.  Every 5 minutes the tin was turned 180 degrees.  After 5minutes the bread was removed from the tin and baked directly on the oven rack.  In 10 more minutes the bread tested 205 F and in Fahrenheit degrees too.  Total bake time was 25 minutes.

 

Since we wanted a softer crust the bread was removed to a cooling rack instead of being allowed to crisp in the off oven with the door ajar.  It was surprising how nice this bread really is - no kidding.  The taste is nice and wheaty and the sour is mild.  The crust baked up blistered and softly chewy like we had hoped for.  The crumb is glossy, soft, and very moist.  A real challenger to Oroweat Whole Wheat that tastes and looks better too.   

 

Nothing like laying down in the cool grass when it is 104 F outside - if you are a tired baking apprentice.

Formula

Starter

Build 1

%

Desem Starter

20

5.00%

Kamut

20

5.00%

WW

40

10.00%

Spelt

40

10.00%

Water

100

25.00%

Total Starter

220

55.00%

 

 

 

Total Starter

 

 

Hydration

100.00%

 

Levain % of Total

23.40%

 

 

 

 

Dough Flour

 

%

AP

150

37.50%

Bread Flour

150

37.50%

Whole Spelt

12

3.00%

Whole Kamut

6

1.50%

Whole Wheat

80

20.00%

Dough Flour

400

100.00%

 

 

 

Salt

8

2.00%

Water

270

67.50%

Dough Hydration

67.50%

 

 

 

 

Total Flour

510

 

Water

380

 

T. Dough Hydration

74.51%

 

Whole Grain %

45.10%

 

 

 

 

Hydration w/ Adds

72.83%

 

 

 

 

Total Weight

940

 

 

 

 

Add - Ins

 

%

Honey

12

3.00%

VW Gluten

10

2.50%

Wheat Germ

10

2.50%

Ground Flax Seed

10

2.50%

Total

42

10.50%

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