Walnuts and their mysterious effect in sourdough
After about a year of regularly baking sourdough (and several years after moving to San Francisco - long overdue to change the username), I’ve been forking my recipes to make different types of bread in one go. To be entirely honest I have no idea how I started this given all the crazy variables in sourdough baking, but it really has been speeding up the learning process. And yes, keeping me up way past my bedtime given the size of my oven!
Here’s the trick: this past week I started one batch based on Peter Reinhart’s basic sourdough, using about 10% Guisto’s whole wheat bread flour , and at the end of mixing divided my dough into two halves. This was not a study in precision - there was some spillage as I was in a hurry and decided to see “just how much my old Ankarsrum could handle” (note to self: do not do that again) - but the final dough felt pretty good to the touch. Also allowed for a slightly longer autolyse.
I then added toasted walnuts to one half, about 40% of total flour weight. Walnut half was used to form 2 loaves, plain half became 3. Let everything rise, slightly too long for the first rise but the second went smoothly enough (I retarded the walnut-free half overnight) and then baked.
Ive attached a photo here for illustrative purposes, which I am painfully aware does not even come close to some of the stuff that gets posted here so please be kind! Also baked a bunch of Rose Berenbaums seeded sourdough - basically used every container that I own, I will not be doing this again.
Notwithstanding a little scorching, the result that I got was a pretty satisfactory plain pain au levain, the smallish loaves up front. The walnut loaves, however, were not only too dark, which I attribute only partially to the oil in the nuts, but the crust was way too thick and the loaf itself was a little too dry. They’re the very dark loaves in the shot, one to the right and the other cut to show the crumb (actually I just wanted to eat some).
So ... FreshLoaf experts, how do I get I these walnut loaves up to par? Fewer walnuts? Smaller loaves (which seems a bit of a cop-out, as I like large loaves)? Ideally I’d like a smoother, lighter and thinner crust, plus not as dry. Do walnuts act like raisins and suck up water? I know that gluten gets cut by seeds so I assume they act similarly. This is not the first time I’ve had this outcome.
Of course, since I’m putting it all out there for the world to see, I’m all ears for other tips if anyone has them. I scorched the plain loaves a bit so I need to figure out how to manage heat in my oven. And for all I know poor Rose would blanch at my version of her seeded sourdough, but I have no idea of what the real McCoy should look like. In this case I overproofed the first rise but I think I did ok on the second given my small oven’s limitations. I’m not thrilled by the mottling and greyish color of the loaves, through.
For the record, I use an instant read thermometer to determine when the loaves are done and follow Rose's/Peter's recommendations on internal temperatures.
Much obliged for any and all advice!
I have baked a number of formulas for sourdough breads with and without walnuts. I have never had a darker crust in the breads with walnuts. I don't think you can pin the rap on the nuts.
It is more likely something about where those particular loaves were placed in your oven, or another factor causing uneven heating. Assuming all those breads were baked at the same temperature for the same time, your oven probably has uneven heating. Placement in an oven hot spot is the most likely cause of your dark crusted walnut breads.
Other possibilities include unequal steaming and repeated oven opening causing uneven temperature (lower towards the front).
David
Thanks David for the suggestions! The walnut loaves were actually baked at a different time than the plain loaves - so yes, perhaps I did alter the heat or steaming in the ovens from one batch to the next. I use an oven thermometer prior to baking but usually take it out when the loaves are in - too much clutter was the thinking. I’ll leave it in next time to see. As for steaming, this is too much bread for my single la cloche so I go with an oven stone, cup of hot water in a pan at the start and then hit the oven walls with water spray 3x at 30 second intervals before dropping the temp from 500 to 450 based on Peter’s guidelines. Could definitely see room for error in turning down the temp with no monitor. Still, my lousy walnut bread outcome is consistent enough that I wonder if there’s some other factor at play, too. Is my 40% too much relative to what you use?
Thanks David for the suggestions! The walnut loaves were actually baked at a different time than the plain loaves - so yes, perhaps I did alter the heat or steaming in the ovens from one batch to the next. I use an oven thermometer prior to baking but usually take it out when the loaves are in - too much clutter was the thinking. I’ll leave it in next time to see. As for steaming, this is too much bread for my single la cloche so I go with an oven stone, cup of hot water in a pan at the start and then hit the oven walls with water spray 3x at 30 second intervals before dropping the temp from 500 to 450 based on Peter’s guidelines. Could definitely see room for error in turning down the temp with no monitor. Still, my lousy walnut bread outcome is consistent enough that I wonder if there’s some other factor at play, too. Is my 40% too much relative to what you use?
40% (baker's math) should be fine. That is what I use, actually. If I am also adding a dried fruit, I'll add 20% nuts and 20% dried fruit.
I used multiple spritzes per Reinhart at one time. I didn't like it for several reasons. I now steam by placing ice cubes in a perforated pie tin on top of pre-heated lava rocks in a cast iron skillet. I only open the oven once to take out the skillet after 12 to 15 minutes (for mostly wheat breads).
David
Tell us more about "the walnut loaves were baked at a different time"......
Did the finally shaped loaves sit and wait for their turn in the oven?
What temp were they at (room temp) while they waited and were they covered or open to room air?
Were they refrigerated? Covered?
Regarding oven temp: It may not be that simple to determine.
I had some really negative experiences with my oven last year and learned a lot about oven temp. The first thing I learned was that you need a lab-grade or tech-grade thermometer. I tried 4 different oven thermometers purchased at local hardware stores an tested them against a tech-repair level constant-read thermometer. It was laughable how different the readings were on the hardware store from the constant-read thermometer was and more so when I put all the oven thermometers in the oven at the same time. The variance was wild!
The most important thing I learned was that the temp.range can swing wildly and the cycle can change a bit from the first few minutes when the oven is turned on to later when everything inside has heated up. My elements were exposed on the bottom, the thermostat sensor was in the top corner and the thermostat setting was set for about a 50 degree swing. 35-40 degrees is the typical swing-ie when the oven cooled to the bottom of the range setting (baking temp setting minus 35-40degrees) the element would come on and heat the oven up to the setting and turn off. The oven temp would hold just a few minutes and start to drop and the cycle would repeat. But electrical elements take a while to cool off so there is always an overshoot. In an ideal world, the overshoot is just a few degrees and the element coming on is to re-warm(not blowtorch) the temp back up. My oven was a bit different.So if I set it for 400, the bottom element came on screaming hot until the sensor was at 400. Because the element was so hot, even though it turned off, it overshot the oven temp another 50 degrees. So my loaves baked with the element under it FULL ON RED HOT every few minutes and the temp swung from 350 to 450+. So the insides of the loaf baked/underbaked, the bottom was being blowtorched and usually overdone/burnt unless I shielded it or put it in the top of the oven. Due to the nature of the cycles, none of my baked goods were turning out and I had half the usable oven space. My solution: I had an electrician re-wire my stove with a PID controller so I can now control the temp within a few degrees but more importantly, the element does not come on screaming hot every few minutes.
My thoughts re: your walnut loaves are that you are gong to say they sat for at least an hour somewhere and the crust dried and fermented a bit. That will make the crust different. I do hope it is not your oven.
Easy oven test-put a layer of marshmallows (regular size-not minis) on 2 large baking sheets lined with parchment. Preheat your oven (350 or 400) and put 1 sheet on each shelf (assuming 2 shelves). Observe and see where your hotspots are.
Good thoughts here - the walnut loaves were proofed at room temp in bannetons, under a towel. I don't believe I let them sit for long once they came out but I did notice when I removed them from the bannetons that they were pretty dense. In contrast to the plain loaves that were refrigerated overnight in plastic bags, then removed from the refrigerator in the am and sat for four hours still in plastic (Reinhart recommends 4h - I usually go for less but had some distractions in the morning).
Just looking at this photo I feel like all of my loaves are darker than they need to be, but I've been following Reinhart and Berenbaum's internal temp recommendations, with a thermapen. Could I pull them out a few degrees earlier or will that make them gummy or underbaked? Will take a look at reducing the initial spray as well.
I'll take a closer look at the oven temp consistency and distribution; definitely a factor. Unfortunately in my case I doubt I can do much in terms of reengineering the oven .... what keeps me going in the thought that better bakers than I have probably been making sourdough in this since before I was born.
I don't think temp is the issue in that iron maiden. She is hot but only in the way a baker can appreciate!
I rarely measure the loaf temp and I never have a problem if I want to take the loaves out a little lighter color. Personally, I love the taste and appearance of a well-browned loaf.