Nuts and berries for the holidays
I decided to do a test run of my planned bake for next week. For the last couple of years I’ve taken loaves around to our neighbors, this year it will be more than ever, 10 loaves. I still have to work out how to manage that, 2 at a time in my oven. I’ll be studying Danni’s posts for ideas!
When I’ve used cranberries before I thought it was too much, so this time I scaled back the cranberries to 30% of the add-ins and upped the walnuts to 70%. Total add-ins 11% of the dough weight.
I mixed 592 g of CM ABC+ and 254 g of sifted, freshly ground Red Fife with 657g of water and left it for a 90 minute autolyse with 18 g of salt sprinkled on top to dissolve. Then I added 108 g of 100% hydration levain (3-stage bran-fed from NMNF, retarded overnight) and mixed for 6 minutes, rest 15, mix 3 minutes, rest 15, and mix 3 more minutes before putting it into my bulk fermenting container and into the proofer. Overall hydration 79%.
I’ve been experimenting for several weeks with a novel method to get my dough temperature up where I want it for bulk ferment. Especially this time of year, the house is rarely over 66 degrees F and as I usually have to get done in one day due to limited refrigerator space, I want the dough to ferment at 82 to 84 dF. Because I use an Ankarsrum mixer, I’ve taken to using a heat gun on low power on the outside of the rotating bowl while mixing, keeping track of the dough temp with an infrared thermometer as I go. This works great, I can easily and gently warm the dough 20 degrees in under 10 minutes without getting any of it too warm. Then my cobbled-together proofer-cum-storage box can just barely keep the dough warm for a few hours, it was never able to warm it effectively.
I did 5 sets of stretch and folds on 30 minute intervals, adding 127 g of coarsely chopped walnuts and 53 g of chopped, dried cranberries after the second set. After 3:45 I judged that it was ready so I divided the dough in two, did a pretty tight preshape (the dough was pretty stiff, I’ll increase the hydration next time from 79 to perhaps 81%) and let it rest for half an hour before shaping 2 boules and proofing at 84 dF. My shaping was a bit uneven, I think because the dough was stiffer than what I’m used to.
I didn’t get the oven hot in time so it was still heating up when I thought the dough was ready after 1:30 and I had to wait another 15 minutes. The dough spread quite a bit when I turned it out and slashed it so I was worried the loaves would be pretty flat as I loaded them into the preheated Dutch ovens. Baked at 475 for 5 minutes, 450 for 15 minutes, then uncovered the Dutch ovens and baked another 17 minutes at 425.
Turns out I got decent if not spectacular oven spring and some small ears. In the morning I was anxious to see how the crumb turned out and was pleasantly surprised. The loaves were less than perfectly round to put it charitably, I guess I could say they have a rustic look. ;-)
Well that’s ok after all. I Won’t. Change. A. Thing. for next week. I’m very happy with the flavor of this bread, the walnut flavor is forward and the cranberries are more subdued but definitely there. Really good toasted with butter.
