The Fresh Loaf

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Buckwheat Groats Sourdough with Apples and Apricots

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

Buckwheat Groats Sourdough with Apples and Apricots

Thanks to everyone's input, my second shot at this bake turned out much better. I might have underproofed the loaves a bit but at least, I got decent if not great oven spring. Here is the changed recipe:

1. Toast 100 g of buckwheat groats. Cover with hot water and let soak for an hour. Drain. Add 50 g of yogurt. 

2. Autolyse the above with 650 unbleached flour, 50 g of freshly milled buckwheat flour, 252 g of freshly milled Selkirk wheat, 50 g fresh ground flax seeds, 70 g of diced dried apples, 75 g of diced dried organic apricots, and 625 g of water. In the end, I think I could have added another 25 g of water but I was very conservative due to my previous disaster.

3. After a couple of hours, I added 266 g of 84% hydration 4-stage levain and 22 g of salt as well as 30 g of water. The dough felt much better. I did add a bit more water with my hand as I was pinching and folding.

4. I did four sets of folds about 30 minutes apart and then let rise until double.

5. Once doubled, I divided it into portions of 795 g and did a pre-shape. I let rest 15 minutes, did a final shape and put into the bannetons. The dough was easy to handle and didn't stick at all. My usual work surface is out for repairs/replacement so I used my granite counter. I must say that I almost preferred shaping on the granite rather than the maple butcher block island. 

6. The dough was placed into the fridge to proof. 10 hours later, I took it out of the fridge and noted that it could have risen a bit more but due to tight timelines, they went into the oven anyhow. 

7. I baked as usual in Dutch ovens... 25 minutes at 450 F and 25 minutes at 425 F. The second batch had about a half hour out of the fridge and ended up looking a bit better. What I  mean by that is that the crevasses on the second batch weren't as deep.

I will get a crumb shot when I cut into the loaf.

Comments

Isand66's picture
Isand66

These look fantastic!  Can't wait to see your crumb shot which I expect to be perfect as usual :).

I'm sure everyone is going to love the taste of these beauties.

Regards,
ian

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

Sounds like you learned a lot about what works and what doesn't, at least for you. And I'm so glad you tried this bake again (eight of them, by gum! You're adventurous!). It just sounds so delicious.

Maybe next you could try fermenting the buckwheat with the yogourt for a day or two to see how it turns out? :)

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

I was going to only make only 3 batches (each batch makes 3 loaves) to replace the ones that I had sold but out of habit, I made 4. Which was a good thing because, while out for my walk, my hubby sold 2 to someone who had only ordered 1. I am slightly annoyed because I did tell him who was to pick up and how many. I had sold two of the extras and I only had one left over and I had frozen that one. So the lady who really has ordered two is going to get one frozen loaf and one fresh. Hope she is okay with that. 

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

Wow, you are branching out! Demand for your wonderful bread must be growing. And no wonder, that crumb looks awesome. I think you nailed it this time!

I know what you mean about the local sales staff. When I have to go out on bread day I put all of the loaves into bags and write each person's name and the status of their account (whether the loaf is pre-paid, or if they owe money) right on the bag. Sometimes the DH still gets confused and collects money when he doesn't need to, or doesn't collect when the person owes. Oh well, it all evens out in the end. :)

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

And really it isn’t going to make or break me since all the money collected goes to the soup kitchen. 

12 is the number of loaves that I have been making since I started selling to friends. That is as much as I want to handle right now since I am still mixing by hand and I only have so much space in the extra fridge. I finally got the last 4 750g bannetons last week so now I only need two shelves in that fridge rather than 3 because the baskets were much bigger. I don’t know how you do it with the large number of customers you have...And you make different kinds too!!

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

I have an extra fridge (the 'bread' fridge) in the garage that is only for bread dough. And I still sometimes have to squirrel things away in the other fridge(s) on the night before the big baking day. That's about the only way I could do it. I don't know how you manage to mix twelve loaves by hand. I also couldn't do what I do without my 30 litre mixer (and the smaller Ankarsrum). My poor old hands just couldn't manage.

The local community kitchens are great, aren't they? I just delivered four dozen buns (baked this morning) to our local Neighbourhood Place. They have a monthly 'Soup Day' to raise funds for their food security programs. For $5 you can get a bowl of soup and a Lazy Loafer bun. People line up early! :)

bread1965's picture
bread1965

Your loves look characteristically like a "danni loaf".. you have remarkable consistency! One question..

You say: Toast 100 g of buckwheat groats. Cover with hot water and let soak for an hour. Drain. Add 50 g of yogurt. 

Can you explain this? You toast them, then you soak them. Why would you do that? I appreciate toasting probably increases the flavour intensity. But you're drying them out and then adding more water to them. Why? Is this just about increasing the flavour?

And then the yogurt - you add it often to your recipes. How does it actually affect your final bread? 

Thanks.. again, great looking loaves!

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

Dabrownman and others on here call them toadies and it is done for flavour. Chad Robertson also toasts the buckwheat groats before soaking them in his Buckwheat with Creme Fraîche Sourdough. The soaking is to soften the groats up. I don't know what the bread would be like if I didn't soak them. I would be afraid to have hard bits in the bread and the other thing is that the groats might pull a lot of moisture from the dough as it ferments.

The reason I use yogurt in all of my breads is to end up with a more tender crust. I had a lot of friends who liked my bread but found the crust too hard and chewy. The yogurt really helps with that. I use a local organic full fat yogurt done by one of the local dairy farms (Slate River Dairy) so it is probably the fat in it that does the crust softening.

And thank you for the kind words. =-)

bread1965's picture
bread1965

And what a fine crust indeed.. I thought it was so easy to cut through.. as was the crumb.. not like any bread I've made..  I'll try it on a bread I make often and see how it changes it.. will let you know..

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

fat in it such as cream cheese, cream or even whole milk would have a similar effect. I occasionally use kefir from the same place as well with the same results. The ground flax probably helps too as that is a rather fatty seed as well. 

IceDemeter's picture
IceDemeter

your usual stunning standard!

I like the idea of apples and apricots with buckwheat - that takes the flavour profile in a whole new direction for me!  I've always gone with the "gingerbread" type approach with buckwheat when wanting sweeter.

I'm not so sure that it is just the fat in your yogurt that makes such a difference in your crumb and crust.  I find that there is a definite difference in effect when using a fermented dairy product instead of a non-fermented, even with the same amount of fat.  Sour cream or yogurt will soften it up more than using half and half, and even using fat free yogurt has a different effect than using skim milk.  I suspect that the high quantity of live bacterial cultures in your local yogurt is working with the fat to give you that lovely light crust.

Hope all is well with you and yours, and that you are getting a chance to be out and about and enjoy the autumn!

Best, Laurie

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

adding live cultures as opposed to plain dairy products. I happened to have some extra cultured buttermilk once and used it to see what would happen. Since then, I tried kefir and yogurt, liked the results and they have become a staple in my recipes.

Same thing with the ground flax. MutantSpace had it in his recipe and I liked what it did to the texture of the dough, plus the extra omega 3s are beneficial so I always include that too. 

Flour.ish.en's picture
Flour.ish.en

of baking big and going for the big flavors. Being able to make adjustments to fix baking certain issues is admirable. These loaves really sing. Happy baking!

alfanso's picture
alfanso

What a haul.  They look great and it must be so much fun to bake so many in a day.  Yum.