The Fresh Loaf

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Pain au Levain with Atta Durum

varda's picture
varda

Pain au Levain with Atta Durum

Last month, while experimenting with durum flour, I hacked together a loaf that turned out to be surprisingly tasty.   Fortunately when I'm hacking around, I'm disciplined enough to write things down just in case.    Yesterday, I made it again, with a few minor changes, and it came out more or less the same as last time, so I'm declaring it a keeper.  

 

 

Formula:

6/23/2011

 

 

 

 

 

w. 68% starter

 

 

 

 

Final

Starter

Total

Percent

 

Bread flour

250

125

375

48%

 

Whole Rye

125

9

134

17%

 

Whole Wheat

125

 

125

16%

 

Atta Durum

139

 

139

18%

 

Water

435

91

526

68%

 

Salt

14

 

14

1.8%

 

Starter

225

 

 

17%

 

Total grams

 

 

1313

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Method:

Mix all but salt and autolyze for 1 hour.   Mix in salt.   Bulk ferment for 2.5 hours with 2 stretch and folds.   Shape into boule,  place in lined basket, and proof for 1 hour.   Then refrigerate overnight (9 hours).   Place on counter and proof until ready.   Bake at 450F for 20 minutes with steam, 25 minutes without.

The last time I made this I did not retard overnight.   This time I added a small amount more durum.   Neither change seems to have had much of an impact.   

Comments

suave's picture
suave

I have a couple of questions.

1. Which brand of atta?  Golden Temple?

2. Have you tried to compare ww vs ww+atta, and if you ave - can you see/taste the difference?

varda's picture
varda

1.  Yes, Golden Temple.

2.  I haven't done a side to side comparison, but I have certainly made similar loaves with say 30% whole wheat and no durum.   While there may be some superficial similarities (you can tell both have high percentages of whole grains) the flavor and texture are quite different.    It's hard to describe it.   Atta is more powdery than regular whole wheat, and provides a bit more loft.    But the resulting loaf is quite substantial, as would be a higher percentage whole wheat, but with a different character.   I got into a discussion with copyu on this thread http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/23682/suggestions-using-whole-durum-flour where I tried to describe the flavor of this bread as "meaty."   His answer is quite interesting.   (Scroll down just past the halfway point.)I do not think I would describe a regular 30% whole wheat bread as meaty.   Hope that answers your question.

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

The scoring is very nice, Varda. The crumbs looks delicious and quite open for high percentage of wholemeal flour & rye flour too (to me, I usually take Atta as fine wholemeal flour). 

Sue

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com

varda's picture
varda

I was just looking at your post on the multigrain pan loaf.   I see you've upped the number of grains.   I only did four here.   I guess I'll ask my question about it over there.   It does seem that you can get very good expansion of fairly high percentage whole grain loaves with starter only.  This one is substantial but not at all dense or heavy.   And forms an excellent substrate for butter, olive oil, peanut butter and so forth.    Thanks for your comments.  -Varda

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

and scoring Varda.  I like your choice of flours fr this boule.  For me, its the color of durum atta that attracts me to it.  The yellow with the brown flakes is what separate it from WW.  I have to admit that like straight semolina, I do grind DA to a finer flour before using it.    That crust has to be tasty!

Nice keeper Varda.

varda's picture
varda

This old post was woken up by a spammer.   Wasn't that nice of him?   Anyhow, I never came back to this, and eventually got to dislike Atta for baking bread.    What a difference a year makes.    Hope you are well.   -Varda

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Never checked to see how old your post was.   Whole semolina is really nice in bread but I'm into kamut this week.   Going for 100% whole kamut at 100% hydration to see if it will break my KA, Michael Wilson style.  We are going for a 3 hour mix :-)  I might not put something else in it but, that will be hard.    Hope all is well with you and yours.  Miss your WFO loaves.   Hope your holiday was a happy one.    Still love your chocolate rye the best of the whole rye crowd and will make it if I ever run across the malt.  Been to my two favorite brew supply places - no luck.