The Fresh Loaf

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Farmer's Market Week 38 (Sunflower Sour + Fig n Fennel)

golgi70's picture
golgi70

Farmer's Market Week 38 (Sunflower Sour + Fig n Fennel)

Well the great produce is really kickin into gear and the amazing fruit is just starting to show.  I opted to go with the Sunflower Sour Rye I made http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/38296/farmers-market-week-30-sunflower-sour and make a few changes.  I reduced the Sunflower Seeds to 15% and added a Rolled Rye Soaker (10% rolled rye soaked in 150% it's weight of water the night before).  The rest remained the same but a very different loaf indeed.  With 22% prefermented flour, all of which is fresh milled whole rye, this dough was gonna move quick.  

For Tuesday I finally used the Organic Non-GMO Calimyrna figs for my Fig n Fennel loaf.  Formula is the same as http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/38207/farmers-market-week-29-fig-n-fennel with different figs and some Oregon grown hard white wheat.  It's hard not to love this loaf.  I was smart this time and sliced up one and stashed in the freezer for toast treats til the next time.  

And with all the stems from the figs I made my own yogurt culture.  I've been making yogurt for a few weeks now and I can't express how easy it is.  And this has made it so I can produce 1/2 gallon of yogurt a week with local organic milk for less than $3.  After a few tries I got curious and wanted to make my own starter.  I dug around and found the most common answers to be fig stems, chili pepper stems, and ants.  I had the fig stems so no need to gather the ants just yet.  Basically you just inoculate your milk with one of these and treat just like yogurt.  You do need to do it a few times to build up the culture and remove off flavors from stems/ants.  I've done two builds successfully and it smells like good yogurt so my next full batch will be "au natural".  Then I'll find some ants just to see.

 

Cheers

Josh

Pluots, cucumbers, local honey, local tuna, zucchini, broccoli, Walla Walla Onions, fennel, asparagus, mustard greens, wasabi arugula, and some fresh eggs came later in the day. 

Cheers

 

Josh

Comments

CeciC's picture
CeciC

always delicious josh!!

its time for me to try a loaf with figs n fennel. How could you have such a open crumb with a big chunk of figs!! You are truly incredible!!

does the bread taste different with a rolled rye soaker? 

Hapoy baking josh

btw where iOS ur brounty

golgi70's picture
golgi70

Biggest problem for me and the figs is gettin them to mix evenly.  Hand mixing 12Kg of dough is a challenge in it's own.  And for some reason seeds and dry fruit love to clump around in the dough. I do highly recommend this bread as its fantastic.  King Arthur Hard White Wheat works well in this bread.  

The decreased Sunflower Seeds which I was sure to toast deeply and added Rolled Rye Soaker made for a much tastier bread.  But just increased Rye% overall may be the true reason more so than the soaker.  

Just added bounty photo.  Spaced it yesterday

Cheers

Josh

 

emkay's picture
emkay

I love your weekly posts, Josh. As always, great bread and bounty.

Ants are naturally acidic, right?

 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

It looks like you have these formulas figured out too.  Both of them look fabulous inside and out.  The stems i get but the ants are on he odd, if not weird, side of yogurt if you ask me.  Lucy eats ants all the time and she seems normal if you consider stupid whack jobs OK :-) Well done and

Happy baking

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Lovely baking as always and love the scoring on these loaves.  My veggie garden is starting to take off the last 2 weeks so I can see why your bounty is so abundant.

I do have to say I never thought I would see a post mentioning ants on this site.....just goes to show you never know!

Regards,
Ian