The Fresh Loaf

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My jungle flour bread

sam's picture
sam

My jungle flour bread

Hello,

Many years ago, there was a term that certain kids used when raiding the parent's liquor cabinet, and mixing up all the bottles of XYZ into a single concoction:  Jungle juice.   Of course I never partook in such things.   Recently I decided 'what the heck' and milled all of the grindable things in inventory into a single flour.  I scaled out 150 grams of each of the following:  Hard red wheat, spelt, barley, rye, buckwheat, and whole yellow corn.   I call it my Jungle Flour.

Before grinding:

 

After grinding at the finest setting:

 

First I "aged" the flour for two weeks in a plain tupperware container, stirring it every couple days.  Dunno if that made any difference than if I used the flour when it was younger.

Today was my first attempt with it.  I made a 50% jungle flour, 50% KAF Bread flour dough, about 700 grams total.   The overall procedure was at room temp, a single long day.  I took all of the jungle flour and made a levain from it, at 125% hydration (natural leaven).   The yeast activity peaked in 6.5 hours.   I then added the white flour, salt (2%) and remaining water to arrive at an overall 68% hydration dough.   I did not use any baker's yeast.  Bulk fermented for 2.5 hours, then shaped and put into a floured cloth banneton.  The final ferment only lasted 1 hour, I was surprised at how fast it rose.  Baked for 40 minutes, with steam for the first 15 minutes.   Temperature reading of the bread was 210F.

It's a little scraggly looking, but it tastes great!   There is a delectable whole-grain goodness, and sweetness, and a fairly bold sour tang to finish.  My taste buds aren't good enough to detect the individual grains separately, though, but I think it is pretty tasty.

 

 

 

 

I wasn't expecting a very open crumb, due to all the bran and relatively low gluten level of the Jungle.   It is a closed crumb, but it is not dense at all -- light, a good chewing texture.  A nice little bread.

 

Sorry to the vegetarians...   one last pic to throw in.   I had the bread tonight with some grilled chicken on my new Mini Grill.

 

 

Cheers!

 

IBringThePain's picture
IBringThePain

Those are beautiful loaves. It's wonderful to see your spirit of adventure in trying radically new things in breadmaking. That's one of the things that keeps bread fresh and vital after several years of intensive baking. What sort of food items would you employ this for? Sandwiches?

                      

nicodvb's picture
nicodvb

gvz, your brave experiment paid off! This is one of the few breads with a "nutty" look :-)

Syd's picture
Syd

Love your jungle bread, and the name!

Syd

sam's picture
sam

Thanks everyone!

IBringThePain..  a small sandwich would be good, or maybe french toast...   or simply with a little spreadable butter and steak.    :-)

 

 

Yes I was using paper plates tonight...  didn't feel like doing dishes, my bad...  

 

Just Loafin's picture
Just Loafin

As a representative of the omnivores, I highly approve of that steak! ; )

The bread looks pretty darn interesting too!

- Keith