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Another summer gone, and another summer away from baking.  Prior to taking my bake break, I mentioned to my Barcelona friends that upon return, I would also return to complete some unfinished tritordeum business.  That being to use the grain in a ciabatta.  My recent go-to ciabatta formula is a modified version of Scott MeGee’s biga based dough.

Two runs, two types of tritordeum used.  Each was a mix of 50/50 AP/tritordeum, employing the Hamelman-like AP levain at 125% hydration.  With bassinage and 3% olive oil, the overall hydration of the total dough stands at 79%.  In both cases, the water and the levain are kept refrigerated until mix time, owing to the mixing friction of my old Kitchen Aid planetary mixer raising the temperature as it developed the dough.

As with other ciabatte formula mixes, as the speed of the mechanical mixer increases, I seek two distinct signs that the dough is sufficiently developed.  Not only do I listen for the slapping sound of the dough against the sides of the mixing bowl, but I also wait to see the dough being intermittently picked up off the bowl onto the dough hook and then re-deposited onto the bowl.  Once these two qualifications are met, the dough has gained sufficient strength, and the mix is over.

The first bake used the 'T150’ flour.  The result was a relatively handsome set of loaves although the crumb, while tasty, left a lot to be desired as far as open structure - especially for a ciabatta.  I will attribute this to three culprits.  1) Tritordeum is referred to as a low gluten flour in the online literature, 2) the ‘T150’ is akin to whole wheat flour, which will “consume” more of the hydration and also contribute to a tighter crumb, and 3) to my being away from the baking craft for a few months and therefore this served as my refresher bake.  I’ll pretty much dismiss the last point as I’ve stepped away before and found little to no degradation in my skill set.

The second bake was with the ‘T65’ tritordeum, and I had just enough of that flour to fashion two 500g loaves before my store of the grain was depleted.  On this run, one can see that the crumb is more open and fairly close to when I use 100% KA AP flour at ~11.7% protein.  I also decided to allow for a rest time of 20 minutes between the initial incorporation of water and the final mix.

In both cases the shaping was decent, but fell short of being as consistent as I would like.  The girth of the loaves also didn't equal what I’ve produced before with all AP flour - the barrel just wasn’t big enough in circumference.

My opinion is that while the ’T150’ version creates a pleasing and tasty bread, it would be hard pressed to pass muster as a ciabatta from the crumb alone and delivered a heavy and dense character to the bread.  I would not recommend this as a ciabatta bread.  It was quite tasty - just don’t sell it as a ciabatta to avoid disappointment.  

The ’T65’ version has more of the ciabatta open crumb characteristic with a crumb that is open enough for what one might expect from a ciabatta at the lower end of the hydration scale.  And I think that this version could very easily please most palates and not disappoint when presented as a ciabatta.

This was just furthering my experimentation and knowledge of the grain itself and what it potentially can and cannot do well.  And I feel that the 'T65' version holds up quite well to an AP flour with the added benefits and enhanced flavor profile of the tritordeum grain.

In each run all loaves were ~500g. 

'T150' Tritordeum

'T65' Tritordeum

And for comparison, here is what the all AP version of this bread looked like from two previous bakes...

This was inspired by Rushuyama's beautiful Fig & Walnut multigrain posted a few years ago here. I scaled the ingredients to 70% of the original to make one larger loaf. I didn't have any spelt on hand (we love spelt and it disappears) so subbed in some Kamut, used freshly and finely ground durum instead of semolina, and I added chopped date along with the chopped figs, since I didn't have enough of the latter. The durum, Kamut, and Red Fife were all freshly ground.

This is my second attempt at this loaf; first version (a boule) came out flattened on top owing to a mishap when flipping the dough from banneton to parchment lined peel. I flipped it without first removing the shower-cap cover on the banneton. D'ough! Had to then unflip it, then remove the cap, and re-flip it. The top of the dough stuck to the plastic. [This was a new mistake for me; hopefully I won't make it again!]. The bread was tasty, however.

This time I remembered to remove the plastic cover. BUT....when I opened the oven to remove the pre-heated oblong clay baker, gobs of smoke *billowed* out, choking me and setting off the smoke alarms. My husband had made pizza earlier that evening and been a little too enthusiastic with the sauce and cheese, which had overflowed onto the racks and bottom of the oven. There was *no* way I could bake with the oven in that condition. Unfortunately, I had already flipped the dough onto parchment and scored it. Again, there was unflipping and reflipping of the dough back into, then out of, then back into the banneton as I pondered my options. Much swearing and cursing ensued, in my head anyway. It all seemed to be a disaster, one comprised of high quality, freshly ground ingredients.

Long story short, my husband, a nurse, recognized my distress, sprang into action, scraped off the smoking gunk, reheated the oven and baker, and 20 minutes later I was able to bake the loaf. The results are excellent.

Note: I proofed the loaf on the counter for 45 minutes, then put it into the fridge for another 5 or so hours. I then baked it at 475 F in a pre-heated, covered clay baker for 30 mins, and at 450 degrees for 12 mins w/cover off.

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My version based on the original: