The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Clearing Out Leftover Flour

foodslut's picture
foodslut

Clearing Out Leftover Flour

I'm guessing I'm not alone here in trying different types of flour whenever I see some, leaving me over time with partial bags of a wide range of product. Given that, I thought: what would a REALLY multi-grain baguette using odds-and-end flour? Here's the formula (ingredients in italics are locally grown and milled, so it really is a bit of a "locovore" loaf) for 2100 grams/74 ounces of dough to create 6 x 350 gram/12 oz baguettes: * - 70% hydration pâte fermentée w/1% instant yeast & 2% salt Mix the dough, autolyse for ~30 minutes, knead until smooth, and set to ferment until doubled (~1.5 hours at ~22 C/72 F). Divide & rest the dough before shaping, slash, and load into pre-heated 510 F/265 C oven. I spray some water from a plastic ketchup bottle on one of the walls as I load up to create a bit of steam. After 10 minutes, I drop the oven to 350 F/175 C convect for 25-30 minutes (until the crust is to your liking, and internal temperature is at least 200 F/93 C). The results? Not as open a crumb as some prefer in a baguette, but I can live with it given how much denser, relatively un-gluten-y flour is included. Nice nutty taste from all the different flours, and I have a LOT fewer 1/3-full bags of odds and ends flour left in my storage area. Feedback, good, bad or ugly, welcome as always.

Comments

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

whole grains it is difficult to get white bread open crumb adn yours looks fine.  It has to taste wonderful.  Nice baking

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Looks pretty good to me.  If you want to try and get a more open crumb bump  up the hydration level next time.  Also you can try using Stretch and folds instead of kneading the dough.

Just mix for only about 4 minutes total after your autolyse and then do a few S&F's let it rest for 10 minutes, do another couple of S&F's and let it rest another 10 minutes and do a couple of more S& F's.  You can then shape and continue as always.  I prefer to over night retard the dough in a dough bucket for about 24 hours before I bake.  If you do this cut the yeast amount down by 1/3rd the amount.  This is Peter Reinhart's method  which has become my go to method of baking.  I find I am able to get a nice open crumb and also great flavor by using the over-night retardation.

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Looks pretty good to me.  If you want to try and get a more open crumb bump  up the hydration level next time.  Also you can try using Stretch and folds instead of kneading the dough.

Just mix for only about 4 minutes total after your autolyse and then do a few S&F's let it rest for 10 minutes, do another couple of S&F's and let it rest another 10 minutes and do a couple of more S& F's.  You can then shape and continue as always.  I prefer to over night retard the dough in a dough bucket for about 24 hours before I bake.  If you do this cut the yeast amount down by 1/3rd the amount.  This is Peter Reinhart's method  which has become my go to method of baking.  I find I am able to get a nice open crumb and also great flavor by using the over-night retardation.

foodslut's picture
foodslut

.... when I'm doing weekend baking, but I was less than fully organized this past weekend, so it was a same-day job.

Thanks for the tips for a wetter dough/process!