The Fresh Loaf

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20160430 Millet Porridge Bread

Yippee's picture
Yippee

20160430 Millet Porridge Bread

 Hey, Stu, here you go...

 

 

 

 

  I love spring, the flowers are blooming in the garden... 

 

 

 

Trying something new today - making a "porridge" for bread.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your porridge is nothing like the porridge I have in mind...

 

 

 

 

This is my kind of porridge - pork and preserved duck egg porridge (皮蛋瘦肉粥),  my favorite...

 

 

 

 

Following your measurements...

 

 

 

 

 

Grinding millet flour in a coffee grinder...

 

 

 

 

Just fed these babies the day before. They are hyper-active...

 

 

 

 

Only yeast water is used, no starter this time...

 

 

 

 

Extra YW outside your formula, I'll find out if my speculation is right...

 

 

 

 

I don't have your fancy wheat flours, only have my good old Giusto's:  WW on the left, AP equivalent on the right...

 

 

 

 

Meet Zo, my "first love" baking partner.  It mixed all my beloved loaves of Hokkaido Milk Bread.  It's semi-retired now and only takes on R&D job like this...邏

 

 

 

 

Just as I speculated, your dough is too dry.  It lacks the extensibility that Zo needs to work with...

 

 

 

 

So I added about extra 8% of YW, little by little, they call it the "double hydration" method. Now your dough hydration is about 76%.  As usual, I pinch. It's ready for the millet porridge...

 

 

 

Adding millet in the dough...

 

 

 

 

 

Done mixing the millet in the dough...

 

 

 

 

Pinch again, it feels right...

 

 

 

 

Using a "fancier" container this time, just for you 

 

 

 

 

Standard procedure... To be honest, it doesn't really matter...

 

 

 

 

No flour in this dough is pre-fermented.  Bulk fermentation is going to take a LOOOONG time. Now it's Monday night/Tuesday morning.  In the morning when I go to work, the dough goes back to the fridge. It doesn't seem to have any activities at all at that time. But once it gets over a threshold, the activities pick up.  In the next few days, the dough is going in and out between the proofer and the fridge to complete bulk.

 

 

 

 

Dough on Wednesday night - coming out of fridge to continue...

 

 

 

 

Dough on Friday night - looks ready.  But I'm tired So wait one more night till Saturday...

 

 

 

 

What the dough looks like on Saturday...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now comes the challenge.  I haven't made a free-form bread for almost more than four years.  Totally out of practice, my mind just goes blank when I stare at the dough.  I can tell you, from this point forward, I mishandle the dough in ALMOST every step - not tightening the skin, not sealing the bottom seam, not scoring right, and ...the list just goes on... 

 

 

 

  

But I do ONE thing right...and I have Dabrownman to thank!

 

 

 

 

 

While the dough is proving...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scramble to find my stones and set them up...Use foil just to keep my husband quiet, don't ask me why.

 

 

 

 

Can't find my lava rocks, must have tossed them when I thought I'd never use them again.  So a pie pan in a rimmed baking sheet on the oven floor for steam...

 

 

 

1.6x, it's time!

 

 

 

 

 

Looking at this "flat disc", you wouldn't believe the oven spring I'm going to see.  The dough wobbles and stretches in front of my eyes as it expands upward, you know, like those crazy air dance tube man you see at a car wash! I think I'm hallucinating!

 

 

 

 

See how puffy it is...

 

 

 

 

WW flour 55%, AP flour 39%, millet flour 6%, 20% millet porridge; NO pre-fermented flour; 76% hydration, salt 2% - Stu's formula with hydration modified

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The crumb shot...

 

 

 

 

Mango coconut salad with goji berries, walnut, pecan, tomatoes etc.- my usual dinner...

 

 

 

 

Ahhhhh, flowers in the office....

 

 

 

 

and millet bread for snack... Simple pleasures in life...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Very nice bake Yippee.  Looks like your crumb is nice and open and it must taste great.  I have never ground millet into flour but I think I must try this soon.

Happy Baking!

Ian

Yippee's picture
Yippee

Thank you...The flavor is mellow with depth, no tangy note.  Good for someone who doesn't prefer sour taste.  I ground all sorts of light ingredients in a coffee grinder: quinoa, 9-grain, etc., and now millets.  Basically anything you can think of, as long as the grinder can handle.  If it's a heavy-duty job, I use my KA grinder.  

Happy Baking to you, too!

Yippee

PalwithnoovenP's picture
PalwithnoovenP

It's so nice! Is that a dusting of flour that adds to the beauty? I read somewhere that treating millet with heat before it goes to the bread releases a tremendous amount of flavor, is this true?

First time too to see a bulk rise that took 4 days long!


Yippee's picture
Yippee

I normally brush the flour off the dough before loading it but because I was so stressed out about this bake, I forgot to do so.  So the "beauty" was coincident but it's nice to know that it makes an impression.  The bread is flavorful but if you're referring to the millet flavor in particular, that I cannot distinguish.

4-day is long? I've done longer!  When you're a busy working mom, you break all the rules to make it work :-)

STUinlouisa's picture
STUinlouisa

Your bread looks great, so much better than mine did with the same basic formula. I too was struck by the long ferment and wondered if there was any twang because of it but you answered both. How long did the final proof take and what temp is the proofer? I don't know if you tried the leftover millet porridge but it is very tasty on its own as Pal was asking. I can't figure why except difference in flours your dough was so dry because mine was well hydrated, but not terribly slack at 70% and had the same pancaking and good oven spring.

I really appreciate the work and detail of your post. It is a very good documentation of the bread baking process. 

Stu

Yippee's picture
Yippee

was between 83-89F for 2.5 hours.  The dough looked only slightly puffed when the control showed 1.6x.  I would not have thought it's ready if I had not used DBM's guide.  It's really helpful. 

How long did your bulk ferment take? Did you preferment any flour? Without a preferment, my bulk was taking longer than usual and I couldn't sit around to watch and wait for the dough, hence the in/out between proofer/fridge.  I use this method quite often and it works for me.

 

 

 

STUinlouisa's picture
STUinlouisa

Bulk ferment if I remember correctly was about six to seven hours with no preferment but with an autolyse sans salt and porridge of 30 min and then some S&F every 20 min until the dough felt right. I have a tendency to get up early mix dough and see what happens. 

Yeast water is out of the fridge getting ready for next bake. The Granny Smith apple that it was fed last week didn't make it very happy so had to throw some raisins in and now is bubbling away. I think this week a fruit and nut bread, still have some walnuts from last falls harvest of a neighbor's tree.

 

Yippee's picture
Yippee

to your next bake... Nice to have a neighbor who shares.

STUinlouisa's picture
STUinlouisa

Changed my mind about the bread instead decided to do a high extraction multigrain with a different type procedure. Proofing now will report results.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

post is......Hey, Stu, here you go...

Just kidding

What no millet porridge croutons on that fabulous salad? It is so beautiful with the all the coconut, fruits and nuts - I've really got to get my salad A game going:-)

I never get any sour with YW either but i haven't tried a 4 day ferment with it - ever..... and neither has Lucy!  I wonder if it would turn into SD if a small piece was taken off after 4 days and fed some flour and water and kept going with additional feedings over say.... a total of 10 days?  I'm guessing it would but maybe not.  Eventually the LAB in the flour would have to wake up.

What a nice crumb you got with this method.  Just the way it should be for an 60% whole grain bread with a 20% porridge.  I got a white color on the crust, something I usually try to avoid, this week by coating the bread with a cornmeal slurry before it went in to the oven.   Really was surprising to it come out of the oven.

This one has to be tasty as well as healthy!  Well done and

Happy baking Yippee 

Yippee's picture
Yippee

after putting all the pictures together, so I that's all I could say in my post :-)

Your little trick of monitoring the fermentation saved my bread.  Thanks again for sharing!