The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Olympic loaf, come join the party!

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Olympic loaf, come join the party!

It's a Spelt & wheat loaf, with rye, chia, and fluffy hemp hearts.  It speaks Italian.

Cranked out a sourdough loaf with a rather slow starter based on the famous 1,2,3 ratio recipe.  Letting the dough retard in the fridge overnight gave it an edge and I didn't have to worry about it.  Set it out to warm up, gave it another fold and rested it in a make-shift banneton lined with a large paper napkin.  Baked it around noon.

The loaf is decorated with a slurry of rye, water, lemon juice, active malt, salt.  A small coffee cup transferred the "rings" from the plate of slurry to the flour dusted loaf.  Scoring could have been a bit deeper but I'll take it.  

RECIPE:

150g wheat starter (just peaked) 

285g water

 15g fresh lemon juice

13g or 1 Tbs olive oil

 

200g spelt flour

150g white wheat flour (I used Antimo Caputo 10% protein) (that's where the Italian comes in!) 

 55g dark rye (Rogers)

 25g hemp hearts

 20g chia seeds

10.5g salt  (2% of 525g total flour)

Mix dough by spoon adding the oil after the flour and seeds have been moistened.  Rest 30 minutes and lightly knead the dough one minute.  Let stand until the dough starts to puff up about a third.  In my case with a weakly yeasted starter, 4 hrs.  First firm stretch and fold followed by another in one hour.  Cover and place in the refrigerator.  

Next morning (about 12 hrs before baking) remove and let dough come to room temp and rise.  When almost doubled, turn out,  degas and fold to shape.  Place top side down in a basket lined with a large flour dusted paper napkin (wow, it works!)  (The dough had so nicely risen before I took notice that I think shaping sooner and letting double in the banneton or tin is also another way to go with this stiff dough.  Pretty easy to manage and not sticky.)

Heat oven to 230°C (450°F)  just before dough has risen enough.  Turn out onto parchment.

A slurry of 20g rye flour, 1/2 teaspoon of active malt (for a dark colour) lemon juice (for stretch) pinch of salt, and water( to make a thick paint) is mixed on a plate.  

Dip the rim of a glass or coffee cup into the slurry and then "print" it onto the dough. Easy!

These make the olympic Rings on the floured surface of the dough.  I got a little carried away adding more rings.

Slash and bake about 40 to 45 minutes turning down to 200°C (400°F) halfway into the bake.  

Inside temp measured 208°F (98°C)  

 

Comments

Gingi's picture
Gingi

the rustic look, the circles design and the texture...

 

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

could actually go higher.  The chia controlling the extra moisture.  I found the dough rather stiff.  Might up the moisture next time around.  The taste is lightly sweet, nutty with no bitterness, a flexible moist crumb.  

Total dough weight 923g.  A nice little loaf.

Sourdough starter is 100% hydration.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Now it won't let me post without a comment :-)  Well done Mini.  Lucy loves this loaf very much.  Perfectly baked and it has to be hemp tasty.. Will definitely try the slurry too.  Could have used it today in fact.  Well done and

Happy Baking

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

as paint as well.  Thin with a little water so it sticks to the cup rim or dig out some brushes.  I got a Canadian leaf maple syrup bottle here with, wonder if that would print an image on a loaf ???

Mebake's picture
Mebake

Wow what a creative method of adding patterns, Mini!  Paper napkins, huh?! Another great idea.The bread looks super delicious Mini. Love how the crust and crumb came out. 

So, you've baked it in a dutch oven? Or on sole?

Very nice.

ccsdg's picture
ccsdg

An Olympic loaf, what a great idea :-) looks beautiful mini.

Bakingmadtoo's picture
Bakingmadtoo

That looks really tasty Mini, you are so inventive!

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

I got from another TFLer    and it works Great!    Shook off the flour and let it dry for the next time.  She also said paper towels work too. 

SO bring your loaves with "rings" stamped onto them.   Different flours can make different colours.  

I baked this in my kitchen oven, no added steam, no dutch oven.  Open on parchment on a thin pizza pan.  No frilla-france.  The chia seeds are adding fibre & holding moisture and releasing it during the bake.  It's a lovely texture and I sent my husband off this morning sporting toasted scrambled egg sandwiches (bacon, cheese & tabasco.)

If we were to have a Bread Olympics, what would the events be?  Speed peeling?  Decibel slapping?  Baguette relay?

gary.turner's picture
gary.turner

Bacon, eggs and Tabasco on bread; all the basic food groups in each bite.

cheers,

gary

Mebake's picture
Mebake

Looks like your mini oven holds steam well; the crust color and oven spring is impressive.

:) @ bread olympics! More like speed slicing;)

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

parking the bread knife under the loaf for the picture?  lifts it up a little bit for a perky look.  Maybe not...

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Great creative loaf Mini.  Certainly worthy of a Gold medal for sure.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

as no one has come along to push me down to silver or bronze, I'll have to concede.   

See the spot or drip on the top loaf photo?  You can see the circle lines underneath meaning, the slurry is translucent.  So even solid shapes overlapping would give dark and darker effects.   I want to just drip a whole loaf now to see what it does.  Maybe that was a water drip off one of my fingers?  hmmm.

Now the design looks like round bamboo...   We continue to get snow.  

MontBaybaker's picture
MontBaybaker

Haven't heard of active malt.  I'm guessing it's not diastatic powder; mine is a pale cream.  Is it malt syrup, or something different that needs to come from a brewery shop?  What a great medium to play with painting free-hand, stamping, or using stencils to personalize our loaves.  I've done a little stenciling with flour, but don't like how it gets brushed off in the handling.

That bread looks great, a perfect hearty breakfast loaf.  Will try it soon.  You're so creative! 

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

and yes, it is a cream colour.  Don't over think it.   I happened to have diastatic malt and so I used it. 

Malt is assumed active unless stated "non-diastatic."  Diastatic (is an adjective that describes malt) means it contains Diastase, a Amylase enzyme that converts starch to sugar.  Easier to remember knowing where the words come from.

One could use sugar  or syrups just as easily.   Try it and see.  I've been digging around in the archives but haven't found the "painted breads" yet...   I bet even yeast waters will paint bread.

Cathfm's picture
Cathfm

You're so creative. How do you come up with these ideas?