The Fresh Loaf

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Last bake before holidays!! Happy days

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

Last bake before holidays!! Happy days

Yesterday was the last day to top up bread for the next week plus leave some in  the freezer for when we return.

So Sunday overnight refreshed the starter, then Monday made 2 builds, converting it to 100% hydration and using bran for the 2nd build.  2nd & 3rd builds combined as we were going to be out until evening.  Before going to bed built the levains required for my bake.

Hamelman"s 5 grain Levain (pictured)

Soaker

Flaxseed 62 g

cracked rye 62 g

sunflower seed 52 g

Rolled oats 52 g

salt 5 g

Boiling water 276 g

Levain

Bread flour 169 g

Water 211 g (yes 125% hydration)

Mature starter seed 34 g

Final Dough

Hi gluten flour 338 g (I used bread flour + 11 g gluten to approximate 13.5% protein)

Wholewheat flour 169 g

Water 175 g

Salt 12.2 g

All the soaker

All the levain

 

Monday afternoon weighted out the seeds, gave the flaxseeds a quick grind in the coffee grinder so it was a mix of fine and coarse. I use jumbo rolled oats so gave them a quick chop the toasted all the grains and left to cool.  Amazing smell.  I haven't used toasted seed in this amount before.

Monday night before bed mixed the levain and left on bench.  Mixed the soaker allowed to cool then covered it.  It soaked up all the liquid very quickly.

Tuesday morning room temperature is 21 deg C.  Added water and soaker to the levain, mixed well then added to flour and salt mix. Mixed with stretch and folds until all incorporated.  It was pretty sticky and much firmer than I remember from the other occasions I have made  this. Left to rest for 10 minutes then did some for stretch and folds.  I added 2 tspn water (about 6 g) at this point as I felt it was a bit too firm. Left to rest. I did 3 more stretch and folds over next 3 hours then left to finish bulk ferment. 

This is after 2nd lot of stretch and folds. 

2 hours later I divided the dough and preshaped, it had increased maybe 40%. 

I left it for 45 minutes but it didn't relax hugely, but was easy to shape into 2 batards. Turned the oven on to preheat DOs. This time I bench proofed and about an hour or so later it was looking poofy so popped them into the oven 15 mins lid on at 250 deg and then 20 minutes lid off.  I kept the convection on during this bake to keep oven temperature up and it seemed to help. 

Here is the 2nd batard.  After my recent experiences with Tartine style Country Champlain the shaping, scoring etc was a breeze.

and of course, the crumb shot. 

Very happy camper!

At the same time I made 3 small (300 g) 1:2:3 sourdough boules.   I found this was a very firm dough as well, much more so than normal.  I have opened a new bag of gluten flour (from a different source) and I really wonder  if that is influencing things so much.  I am adjusting my 11% protein flour to 12.5% but previous bakes have been much wetter. 

These had 4 x 10 stretch and folds, 2 hour BF followed by 20 mins preshape  with about a 2 -3  hour proof. 

No crumb shot, these were frozen as is.

The final part of the bake was Trevor Wilson's Champlain.  I will post details on  "Anyone interested in a Champlain SD bake?" shortly.

The day went well, it was busy and I was on a schedule to get it all baked before I went out to a 7 pm meeting.  lol, hubby had to take the final 1:2:3 loaf which was the final one, out for me.   I am happy with the crumb from the 5 grain levain as this has such a lot of grain, but I think it is the best I have baked this bread!

Leslie

Comments

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Very nice indeed and happy baking.

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

I reckon Lucy would like it too.

Leslie

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

I haven’t ever tried Hamelman’s 5 grain bread but your loaf is very enticing! I just might change my mind for my next bake and do this! That crumb is beautiful! Great job!

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

I was really worried as previous bakes  of this had been quite wet. I was happy with oven spring and although seeds like this can damage gluten I like to add them in at the start like you do? I also think it helps create little pockets of air to help the crumb, but I am just guessing.  Hamemans recipe has yeast as well but I did not add any, this is purely sourdough.

hope you do give it a go, its very yummy!

Leslie

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

I decided to take your recipe but use Trevor’s premix technique. I used my Komo mill to coarsly mill the rye and oat groats. I ended up with a very coarse flour with lots of fine chunks. I added the coarsly ground flax, the sunflower seeds and the salt as well as the boiling water. Within seconds, all of the water was absorbed by the mix. Did yours do the same?

Then I went to do the premix like Trevor and realized that there was no way that this was going to work with so little water. I did some calculations thinking I could steal water from the levain but it still wasn’t enough. So I decided to make the main dough, without the soaker, 70% hydration and the Levain 80% hydration. I know that’s a lot more water than what you used but I just can’t see how I could make this work with the hydration you had. I am wondering if my seed mix soaked up more water than yours. It was a solid lump when I was adding it to the water for the main dough. I know Canadian flour is more thirsty but I am adding almost 15% more water than you used in your entire recipe. ?

I didn’t use any vital wheat gluten mostly because I was too lazy to go out and buy some, but also partly because our flour is already 13% protein. 

The dough with the seeds is in the fridge right now and I am going to take it out shortly for it to warm up slowly on the counter. 

Oh the other change I did, is that I am throwing all of the Wholewheat flour into a one stage Levain that will rise overnight. I did sift out the bran and mill it again to get it finer but it is all going into the Levain. 

So hopefully, I haven’t messed up this recipe too badly! The proof will be when it comes out of the oven Friday morning as I am also going to proof in the fridge. 

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

I added the water to the seed mix to loosen it up, and then thought I will add it to the levain so it is evenly mixed before adding to the flour.  I actually added the flour to the seed, water & levain mix.  Hamelman actually says put all ingredients in together and mix, no autolyse and maybe this is why.  I can understand why you struggled when I looked at my formula.  I think the water is only about 35% in the final dough, all the rest is from levain and soaker.  So yes you would have had to adjust things quite dramatically.  

Hamelman just states Hi gluten flour so with your flour you wouldn't need the extra glutin. I think you are very brave playing around with the recipe the way you have, but I reckon you have a good feel for the dough so you should be ok.  I am very interested to see how it comes out. 

Leslie

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

maybe just very stupid. I don’t know what it is with me, but I can’t seem to just take a bread recipe and follow it as stated. I think the closest I came to doing that was with the Champlain Sourdough. Even then, I know I tweaked a few things. Ha ha!

With this recipe, I had measured the water out and was about to mix the soaker with the water first to loosen it, and then add the flour, until I realized how little water there was for the main dough. After adding the extra water and doing the premix, the dough didn’t feel particularly wet. So I am hopeful that it will be okay tomorrow especially if I stick to an 80% hydration Levain. Fingers crossed ??!

pul's picture
pul

I like your combination of seeds in the soaker. I gt try it next time!

How do you recover the taste and texture of frozen bread? It could be convenient to having some frozen bread when returning home.

peter

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

no dramas with defrost. crust isn’t crisp but if I am defrosting a whole loaf, I crisp the crust up by sitting loaf on a sunny window sill. ? with slices I just defrost in their ziplock bag. 

thanks  pul, happy baking

Leslie

pul's picture
pul

It sounds simple. I will give it a go sometime!

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

Wonderful Leslie. Love a seeded loaf. Can you describe how you shape your batards? It looks like you do a pre-shape and then roll without sealing the sides. Or is that that the pre-shape I'm seeing?

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

The final shape was fairly standard, pat out, fold corners in then top down, bottom up and roll.  It just held its shape without any drama.

Leslie

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

Lovely loaves as always. Happy Holidays.

bread1965's picture
bread1965

That is some fantastic looking bread.. and that crumb is truly great. Looks perfect to me! Well done!

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

it is a really nice recipe. tastes great.

happy baking bread1965

Leslie

not.a.crumb.left's picture
not.a.crumb.left

Beautiful crumb and I love all the seeds! How to you achieve that crumb with so many seeds...one day I have to try that too.... Kat

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

? have a go, its delicious

Leslie