The Fresh Loaf

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Ezekiel's Chacon

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Ezekiel's Chacon

Having never made Ezekiel Bread before, this was a real treat for Lucy.  Us older ex-Hippie types haven’t made it for decades.   One reason is the 2 day sprouting for the beans and rice in one large pile and then sprouting whole grains in another.

 

Then you mix half of each pile, add the dough liquid to it and then chop them up in a mini Cuisinart chopper.  Chop them into the smallest pieces you can for adding to the dough as a horrible looking gruel .....that doesn’t smell too good either.  My apprentice appreciated me thinking of her by having this mix smell especially horrid.

 

There were 3 leavens for this recipe; SD, YW and a poolish.  Ezekiel is famous for rising from the dead and making the bread named after him into bricks.  He nmght do this just for fun or possibly spite since he was forced to eat an unleavened version of this bread for two years while wandering in a harsh desert.  I’d really be mad about that but maybe gladder at being alive at the end of the ordeal…. I guess.

 

The leavens were not made from sprouted grains but were made in (3) 4 hour builds.   The SD portion was then refrigerated overnight.   The poolish took 12 hours to double after the last feeding as did the YW levain.  Why they were so slow is unknown, but mysterious none the less as are most things coming out of this kitchen now a days.

 

As for using non sprouted grains in the leavens, Lucy said she is crazy as any other baking apprentice but she isn’t as stupid as some of them.  This is debatable and isn’t saying all that much anyway when you think about it a second longer than she does.

 

We were going to make this a 100% whole grain affair in keeping with the door stops that Ezekiel actually ate but thought better of it.   We could always do another bake at 100% whole grain if this one doesn't end up breaking rock in a quarry.

 

The leavens ended up being such a huge portion of this bread, we decided not to retard it and risk a possible IED in the fridge.  We are old enough to want to live forever so, tempting fate is not one of our strong suits - even though it seems we we do it all the time with much more dangerous things. 

 

We did our usual 10 minutes of slap and folds even though this dough, if you could call it that, was a sticky, goopy mess that wouldn’t begin to get tame until 5 minutes of being slapped around had passed.  Eventually it came together enough to let rest 15 minutes before 3 sets of S&F’s were done on 20 minute intervals. The left over half of the beans and rice sprouts, as well as, the grain sprouts were incorporated on the first set. 

 

The dough was allowed to ferment for 30 minutes before it being formed into one large chacon using a knotted roll in the middle, surrounded by 8 balls and then one twisted twin sister rope.  The design was then covered by the remaining dough that was shaped in the air into a huge bialy - a near unmanageable thing and I was glad my apprentice had 4 paws to make it into the basket in some decent shape,

 

The basketed dough was placed into a used trash can liner to final proof on the counter for 1 ½ hours before Old Betsy was cranked up to 500 F with top and bottom stones  .  Once the temperature hit 450 F we slipped in the CI skillet full of lava rocks, half full of water, on the bottom rack to create steam and set the timer for 20 minutes to allow the temperature lagging stone to get at least 450 F.

 

When 20 minutes was up, steam was aplenty and we un-molded the chacon onto a peel covered in parchment and slipped the bread into Betsy’s steaming hot maw.  After 2 minutes we turned the temperature down to 450 F.   13 minutes later we removed the steam and turned the temperature down to 400 F, convection this time.

 

We rotated the bread every 5 minutes on the stone for 25 minutes until the bread hit 203 F in the middle.   Then we turned off the heat and let the bread come up to 205 F when it was removed to a cooling rack.

 

The bread took on a handsome, if unusually deep, mahogany color that we have never seen before but like very much.  The crust was very crisp which we also like and it stayed that way as it cooled.   It wasn’t as aromatic as a bread containing aromatic seeds.  Even so, it smelled very earthy.

 

We can’t wait to taste it and see what this unusual ingredient list with beans, rice sprouts and grain sprouts will taste like.   The crust cracked beautifully right where we expected.   The taste wait is over and we have never had a bread that tastes like this.  Deep and rich like a pumpernickel... and with all the beans - Satan's Farts may be closer than you think.  It has its own taste but the taste isn't beans or grain.  My daughter liked it with butter out of the microwave.  I loved it toasted - a whole meal in one bread.  The process was long but the rewards were great.  One of those great meals in a bread.  Perfect as a salad foil.  The crumb was soft and moist but not as open as we thought it would be - not dense and heavy but not as open as we will get it next time.

Next time...... and there will be one, we will omit the YW levain - no need, do an overnight retard, make it 100% whole grain by subbing WW for the AP and get some crunch in there with whole hemp and millet seeds....possibly some dried edamame.  Haven't decided on the dried fruit but apricots come to mind.   It's a lot work for a baker and his apprentice compared to normal bread bakes - but worth it.

There is a  toasted and buttered slice of multi grain Dapumpernickel in the middle of this fine breakfast in order to compare it to the Ezekiel Chacon.  We like the Ezekiel even better and we love the pumpernickel.  Testament to a fine bread and breakfast.

Lunch wasn;lt bad either with a smoked pork, brie and hot pepper jack grilled cheese sandwich, watermelon, strawberry, pickled Thai eggplant, grilled summer squash and eggplant, salad and all the fixin's with home grown tomato, steamed broccoli and yellow squash, half a banana, BBQ baked beans, celery, red pepper and carrot sticks and a half an avocado.  Just yummy!  We like thsi bread very much and the sour has really started to come out on day 2.

Formula

YW, SD & Poolish

Build 1

Build 2

 Build 3

Total

%

Yeast Water

50

30

0

80

12.07%

WW & Rye  SD Starter

20

0

0

20

3.02%

Amaranth

10

5

5

20

4.52%

Rye

20

12

12

44

6.64%

Oat

10

12

12

34

5.13%

Kamut

20

12

12

44

9.95%

Farro

20

10

10

40

6.03%

WW

20

18

18

56

8.45%

Buckwheat

20

12

12

44

6.64%

Barley

20

12

12

44

6.64%

Spelt

20

12

12

44

6.64%

Quinoa

10

5

5

20

3.02%

Millet

10

5

5

20

3.02%

Water

100

60

90

250

37.71%

Total

350

205

205

760

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

YW, SD & Poolish

 

%

 

 

 

Flour

340

51.28%

 

 

 

Water

340

51.28%

 

 

 

Hydration

100.00%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Levain % of Total

46.88%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dough Flour

 

%

 

 

 

AP

250

37.71%

 

 

 

Mixed Whole Levain Flour

43

6.68%

 

 

 

 Dough Flour

 

44.39% 

 

 

 

Salt

11

1.66%

 

 

 

Water

102

15.38%

 

 

 

Dough Hydration

34.81%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total Flour

663

100.00%

 

 

 

Water

442

 

 

 

 

T. Dough Hydration

66.67%

 

 

 

 

Whole Grain %

62.29%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hydration w/ Adds

69.99%

 

 

 

 

Total Weight

1,621

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add - Ins

 

%

 

 

 

Red Rye Malt

5

0.75%

 

 

 

White Rye Malt

5

0.75%

 

 

 

Toadies

10

1.51%

 

 

 

Honey & Molasses

100

15.08%

 

 

 

VW Gluten

20

3.02%

 

 

 

Total

140

21.12%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sprouts

 

%

 

 

 

WW

25

3.77%

 

 

 

Buckwheat

25

3.77%

 

 

 

Oat

25

3.77%

 

 

 

Spelt

25

3.77%

 

 

 

Farro

25

3.77%

 

 

 

Rye

25

3.77%

 

 

 

Whole Wheat

25

3.77%

 

 

 

Barley

25

3.77%

 

 

 

White Rice

15

2.26%

 

 

 

Black Rice

15

2.26%

 

 

 

Brown Rice

15

2.26%

 

 

 

Moth Beans

15

2.26%

 

 

 

Mung Beans

15

2.26%

 

 

 

Pigeon Peas

15

2.26%

 

 

 

Black Eyed Peas

15

2.26%

 

 

 

Red Beans

15

2.26%

 

 

 

Black Beans

15

2.26%

 

 

 

Orange Lintels

15

2.26%

 

 

 

Green Lintels

15

2.26%

 

 

 

Total Sprouts

365

55.05%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dry weight for the sprouts.  Wet weight was 500 G

 

 

 

 

Comments

gmagmabaking2's picture
gmagmabaking2

Can't think of anything you left out of that bread... what a meal in itself... another awesome bake DA... you are my idol.  I think your breads must be wonderfully tasty! They look great... Lucy better be sticking to her exercise regimen... or she will be adding some weight! 

Beautiful.

Diane

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

as a bread with a lot of beans should but it doesn't taste like beans.  Very earthy bread for sure and it has to be good for you.  It should be very good for breakfast toast this morning.  I can see why it fell out of favor over the years with the professional bakers.  It costs a lot, takes a lot of time and they couldn't charge enough to make some profit.  So it is up to us to keep the bread on TFL pages:-)

Glad you liked it and poor Lucy better get on the treadmill before she explodes! 

Happy baking

BreadChubby's picture
BreadChubby

My goodness what a process it looks like, but well worth it I hope how was the taste?

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

other bread but it is delicious.  Lots of non gluten protein in this bread so it is a meal and not a light weight nothing good for you bread.  Earthy and rich would be my taste take,

Happy baking 

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

on this one and I haven't even seen the crumb shot or taste test!

The two perfect candidates for making this type of bread a real success.  Please give your apprentice a big hug for me...such effort made effortless looking.  Very nicely done : )

Sylvia

 

 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

that Lucy loves to make.  She wants bones in her beans though so you have to watch her.  If want to bake a bread you haven't tasted for a long time, or before, this is the one.   Very unique and lots of fun whenever shaping a chaon is involved.   Next time we will make it different - but don't we always and maybe it will be better for the tweaking. 

Lucy sure loves your bones and she gets hugged more often now with our daughter home from college.

Glad you like the bread and we are glad that Ezekiel didn't moosh this one flat  Can't imagine eating this as an unleavened bread like he did but a thick slice if it covered in hot water or chicken stock should make a great  soup out of a hockey puck.

Happy Baking Sylvia

varda's picture
varda

DA,   Now what happened to the namesake of this bread?   He somehow turned into anonymous and his posts are 50 years old.   And why did you name it after him to start with?   Is that lost in the mists of time?   Lovely bread.   And very full.  -Varda

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

would be 2,600 years old by now.  Poor Ezekiel, carried off from Israel to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar where he might have died but, his death; where, when and by what cause are unknown - not a good thing for one of great prophets of all time.  The original unleavened bread was made with sprouted; spelt, wheat, barley, millet,  soy and lentils.  It has historically been made with the sprouted grains being about twice the weight of the sprouted beans. 

But, of course, this was just the recipe inspiration for Lucy to work her tiny brain around and expand it to just about any leaven, bean, rice and grain sprouted or no, with malts, Toadies, VWG, and sweeteners.   So, the name came from a tiny brain that was inspired by a lost prophet.  Lucy figures that if no one cared what happened to Ezekiel at his death then they wouldn't care what she did to his bread recipe.  Hard to dispute powerful logic like that.

Yes this bread could be named 'Full Of It' bread just as easily and  I can't believe that some EB recipes have a cup of honey in them now a days.  This bread is like  an even more flavorful abd hearty pumpernickel without the pumperdime berries cut in half or baking low and slow.   But 'm guessing it would be a fine candidate for DaPumperizing none the less. 

You would like this bread Varda.   The removal of the molasses and replacing it with your chocolate malt would be wonderful. 

Glad you  loiked the bread adn happy baking Varda!

Song Of The Baker's picture
Song Of The Baker

Hey my Arizona gringo.  Wow, wow, wow.  Can't believe you go through all the effort as this.  Ahh to be retired.

My wife asked me a few months ago what Ezekiel bread was.  Now i can tell her it's a difficult to make bread that's best for the true artisans to tackle ;)

John

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

is supposed to be unleavened bread made from 4 specific sprouted grains and 2 specific sprouted beans.  But that would be horrible bread by my reckoning adn hardly worth the effort.  So we took it to Ezekiel Steroid levels never seen before.  Why?  Because we can!

Being retired sure helps with these ho hum bakes but having an insane, if determined, German baking apprentice with a very small brain helps too.  Next time we will make it closer to the original and possibly DaPumperize it but ,who knows, it might be slow day that needs some spicing up too and then all hell might break loose - something even Ezekiel couldn't prophesize. 

Happy baking John.  Glad you enjoyed your AZ trip.

Noah Erhun's picture
Noah Erhun

...I must attempt a version of this wonderful loaf. Your methods and creativity are inspiring. 

-Peter

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

It is a fun process and the bread is beautiful, tasty, as well as, healthy.  Inspiration, if not one of the goals of TFL and Fresh Lofians everywhere, it should be.  We all need that little boost and impetus to try new things.  I say, have no fear, pride and ego and just go for it - success will eventually follow.  Unleavened Ezekiel Bread might be one of the bread  things that prove this theory wrong though :-)

Happy baking Peter

FlourChild's picture
FlourChild

Looks like a lot of fun- sprouting is something I haven't done much of, you're inspiring me to give it a whirl :)  Still loving the rustic beauty of your chacons.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

for each other.  A little bit of work that requires the smallest of effort and then waiting a long time for something to happen..... so you can do a little more of something...... so you can then wait some more.   It's like curing and smoking meats too.  I think a lot of food preparation is like that but,  then there is that Chinese chowing of everything animal and vegetable which requires real effort and would be illegal if it wasn't so good.

So fun is nothing more than hardly doing anything and then waiting around forever for something to happen that requires little effort to wait even longer.  That is why fun is so easy but so hard to actually wait around for and experience.

We love sprouts and they take a couple of days to make while doing almost nothing twice.  The perfect fun thing if you have patience.  Patience is what comes to those who wait a long, long time.

We love chacons to.  They are a great way for us children who shouldn't be allowed around knives or razor blades of any kind.   Lucy wants to do a Jackson Pollack Chacon where you just throw lumps of different kinds of bread into the bottom of the basket and call it the highest form of bread art.  I can hardly keep her from having this kind of invigorating fun and possibly injuring herself.

Glad you like this bread and it is very tasty!

Happy Baking FlourChild

Isand66's picture
Isand66

You left out Lima and kidney beans!

you never cease to amaze us with your impressive bakes.  I don't think anyone else could have  come up with this list of ingredients and turned it into such a masterpiece.  I love the look of your crust and crumb.

I'm still stuck in Minneapolis for another night.  Hopefully I can work on something new this weekend.

Regards

Ian

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

just wouldn't be kosher.My apprentice would put her paws down in protest :-)  It is a very nice bread all in all and I really think next time we will do it all SD, fewer ingredients and DaPurnperize some of it.  he crust is especially thick, not has crunchy as it was was but just as tasty. 

At least it isn't winter where you are and could be stuck there for a week or till Spring :-)  Hope your week end baking goes well Ian and glad you liked this bread. 

Happy baking Ian 

evonlim's picture
evonlim

a whole lot of different sprouts, and different flour! as i was scrolling down the formula, i am ticking the ingredients i have in my pantry.. hmm more than 50% not too bad. good for my next bake. 

i love the way you and your apprentice bake with no hessitation and full of passion. said it out loud with this heavenly loaf. 

thanks for the brief history on Ezekiel. just lovely to read your post everytime :)

i wonder what is your next bake hmm... scratch scratch 

evon

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

for bread this will be right up your alley.  You will see the different taste that beans lend to the normal grain taste in bread.

Ezekiel, being one of the great prophets, had his bad days too.  While in captivity in Babylon, Old King Neb was bound and determined to burn 3 of Exekiel's followers at the stake.  They came to him saying that they thought God would not let them die in the fire.  Ezekiel told them he didn't think that God would intervene to save them.  This notion, coming from such a renound prophet, must have given the 3 a pause to reconsider and flee post haste. 

Sure enough, these 3 were caught and sentenced to die by fire.  God came to Ezekiel and rebuked him saying that He would not let these 3 die in King Neb's bonfire but told Ezekiel not to let the 3 sentenced to death know that God had told Ezekiel that they would live.   Why would this be important to the story?  I suppose God did't want Ezekiel to profit personally from this information by claiming another prophecy had come true?  Who knows

Ezekiel just faded away as old soldiers do and we know nothing about where, when and how he passed away.  An odd ending for a man who personally spoke to God and was considered one of the greatest prophets in the Bible.  This tale was recently part of the mini series 'The Bible' that was recently on TV.

All I know is that the original bread recipe would have been terrible and you don't need to be prophet to know that!  

Glad you liked the bread adn you will have fun woth it Evon and

Happy Baking!

sourdoughlover's picture
sourdoughlover

Thanks for posting this! I have been wondering about this for awhile. Looks like a lot of work, yet definitely rewarding!

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

make ti with the original 6 ingredients and it would still be teriffic and much less work.  Is seems all my breads take 3 days now a days :-) Glad you liked it and

Happy baking.

hanseata's picture
hanseata

that I missed this delightful post? My guess is Ezekiel faded away, because he got a chronic diverticulitis after subsisting on this bread for a sustained time. Must have been tough on his teeth, too, since he had no clue about preferments and no apprentice to put him straight.

Karin

 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

I haven't had any of this bread for 2 months but ran out of bread for breakfast this morning so went to the freezer and took out a quarter of the Ezekiel Chacon.  After dinner, and polishing off the quarter having some for lunch today, I see two comments on this bread!  Very strange....but the bread was still great.  Poor Ezekiel go short shrift if you ask me.   A toothless prophet who was wrong now and again deserves a special bread named in his honor - even if it has beans in it.  I think we will put epazote in it next time just in case Satan's Farts are hanging around.

My wife, who says all my breads taste the same, asked what the bread was for dinner tonight after taking a bite and I told her it might be a Jewish Deli Rye or possibly some other religious based bread - hard to tell since they all religions taste the same :-)

Happy Baking Karin - looking forward to your next bake.