The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Oat porridge community bake and more rye (with crumb shot)

DesigningWoman's picture
DesigningWoman

Oat porridge community bake and more rye (with crumb shot)

Our very own Dan Ayo has organized another bakefest, so of course I couldn't resist. Especially since I've become a fervent convert to oatmeal soakers/scalds and have been wondering about the difference between pouring boiling water over oats and letting them cool overnight, and actually cooking a porridge. So this seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so.

Like Kat (NaCl), I looked over Maurizio's recipe, which got me thinking that I needed to hedge my bets. Maurizio's formulae tend to call for strong flours, much stronger than what I can get here. To make matters worse, the protein level in my go-to T65 bread flour -- from one bag to the next -- went from 12% to 9.9%! There was no way I was going to be able to hoist myself up to a 13% protein level with the flours at hand.

Not wanting to resort to VWG, I was already feeling kind of stuck, until I opened the fridge and remembered that I hadn't tossed the little lump of dough that I removed from the proofing stage of a midweek bake. So I decided to use that as a pâte fermentée, in the hopes of adding a bit of strength to the dough.

So that was hedge n°1.

Having read all the comments about the stickiness of the dough, and knowing from experience how absolutely gloppy a soaker dough can be, I opted to add the porridge at the same time as the salt, so as not to challenge whatever fragile gluten might have developed in the autolyse.

And there was hedge n°2.

Other than that, as we see so often on TFL, "I followed the recipe to a T".

Well, sort of. My oats, despite covered cooking over low heat, were quickly getting very dense and solid, and I was afraid to add more water. So they did not cook for the 16 minutes as directed.

Made my young levain in two stages, then "pseudo-autolysed" it with the flours and the water, holding back the quantities that Maurizio recommends.

Then came the final mix, with the salt and the porridge, which I first incorporated with pincering and folding and then did 20 minutes of SLAFs until the dough came together. Very sticky, very extensible, not elastic at all. Had I not already experienced what an oat soaker can do to dough, I probably would've started worrying.

But I let it sit and then did a first STAF at 30 minutes -- still very stretchy and sticky, with very little elasticity. I missed the STAFs at 60 and 90 minutes for scheduling reasons, then caught up with myself later on.

By the end of the five or six stretch and folds, it was getting on to about midnight so I decided to retard the dough overnight, then shape and bake the next day. I was also hoping that the dough would firm up a little to make shaping a little less tricky.

After being removed from the fridge, the dough sat out for a couple of hours, by which time it looked and felt like it might be workable. Did two preshapes and a final shaping. Despite the fact that the loaves didn't spread as much as I'd feared, I decided to do myself a favor by plopping them into low-sided wooden loaf pans.

Baked at 230° for 20 minutes, then 210 for an additional 10 minutes with cover. Don't you just love/dread that moment when you remove the cover from your roaster/DO? An additional 20 minutes uncovered at 200°C.

I was very eager to slice open a loaf this morning. The crumb is amazing; soft, supple, almost shreddable, with a wonderful, mild and wholesome taste. Crust is thin and crackly. I can (and did) eat this untoasted with nothing on it, it was that good!

I will definitely attempt this one again, maybe trying one loaf free-standing to see how badly it spreads.

Earlier in the week

Have become totally enamored of Wally's (Larry) rye loaf, I made another double batch, adding 10g of bread spices and swapping out 20g of T80 high-extraction flour in the bread-flour part of the formula. Just thought I'd document some of the steps, if anyone else would like to give it a try.

I love my starter. The rye sour had a nicer, rounder dome, but I dropped the bowl and sort of compacted things :-o

This is the clay-like dough after mixing

Scraped into pans and topped with seeds and flour

After an hour or so, almost ready for baking

After 75 minutes with steam, starting at 230°, then stepping down to 210° and 190° at 20 and 35 minutes.

They've been cooled and wrapped. One has been reserved and is in the freezer; I'm not sure when I'll cut one open, since I've got the porridge bread to eat too! But the kitchen smelled wonderful during the bake.

Yum!

EDIT: Some newbie notes

I may be repeating/stating the obvious, but since I gather that I'm not the only one who's been intimidated by the prospect of making rye bread, here are just a couple of thoughts, based on a few bakes of this bread:

  • make the soaker in your final (so biggest) mixing bowl; that way, you can just add in the sour and mix till combined, then pour over your flours and go to town doing Rubaud. It's a work-out, for sure!
  • while clean-up is minimal (there's practically no bench work, if any at all), don't dawdle: once you've scraped your sour into the soaker, give the emptied bowl a quick swipe with a damp something disposable (I use the little kraft bags from the fruit and veg man, I believe Mini uses the plastic net used for packaging produce). Wheat flour, when dried, flakes off and cleans up fairly easily; rye turns into cement.
  • to figure out what to do once you've scraped your dough into their pans, Mark Sinclair's video can be extremely helpful
  • and all kinds of rye knowledge can be found on Mini's post for her 104% hydration rye

EDIT: Crumb shots

OK, it was too hard to resist, and I guess I'll just have to double up on my bread eating. I'm really happy with this crumb and the taste, love that I can slice this to about 1.5mm thin!

Those are black sesame seeds; I thought I had a bag of golden ones, but couldn't find them.

Now, how can I tweak this? Up the percentage of whole-wheat flour in the bread-flour part of the equation? Use beer instead of water? Once I get a YW going (when it gets warm enough), I might try that… Or should I not tweak?

Am now tempted to take a shot at Mini's 104% hydration all-rye

Comments

seasidejess's picture
seasidejess

If I keep reading such very enticing blog posts I may work up the courage to try rye. Your loaves look absolutely delicious. Warmly, Jess

DesigningWoman's picture
DesigningWoman

Honestly, I wonder now why it took me so long to get my feet wet. Previous bakes of this have been really tasty. I'll be adding a couple of notes once I sort out my head.

Keep on baking,

Carole

Our Crumb's picture
Our Crumb

Thank you for providing such a detailed and entertaining account of your latest Community Bake and rye adventures.   I am shocked that your available T-65 varies so dramatically in protein levels but impressed that the miller provides reliable data for each lot.  Viva les differences I guess. 

What really caught my eye was your plopping the doughs into "low-sided wooden loaf pans".  And then you baked in those?  Wooden?  Maybe I misread it.  But...could you elaborate?  We have a french antique wooden dough trough that we like very much -- for holding grappes of lavender but never dough ?.  But wood for baking in?  You'd have to wet it pretty thoroughly first...

Intrigued,

Tom

DesigningWoman's picture
DesigningWoman

First of all, now that I think back on when I first started baking -- at about this time last year -- I was indeed feeling handicapped and underprivileged by the <10% protein in bread flour here. Then, towards the end of the year, it all of a sudden went up to 12%. Could it be harvests/seasons? Wheat here is, more often than not, soft wheat, which is why I have such a hard time compensating in North American recipes.

Now, about the loaf pans, it's nothing nearly as exotic/rustic/antique as any dough trough. I first bought these to use as proofing baskets until I could get a fix on what size/weight/shape of loaf I wanted to bake on a regular basis. Then, when the rye recipes popped into my life, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to use them for their original purpose. But soaking them! Now, how would that be for getting up a head of steam inside my roaster! You're right, though. The ones that were baked covered from start to finish are in OK shape, but I did scorch a couple when I left the loaves in the pans, in the uncovered roaster. In looking for a link to send you, I see that they say that they're good for up to 220°, but my health-food shop sells loaves in well-browned pans just like these, so I'm not gonna worry about it.

And you've got me intrigued by this porridge made with oat flakes rissolés.

Thanks for the lightbulb!

Carole

Our Crumb's picture
Our Crumb

One more thing:  You said you didn't want to "resort" to VWG.

I've come around to the somewhat liberating belief that VWG is not satan's evil spawn.  To bakers it has somehow acquired the bad rep that gluten itself has acquired for much of the non-baking public.  But VWG is not some synthetic industrial "additive".  It is in fact "purified" (albeit tres crudely, at only 75% 'purity') from wheat flour and is indeed already present in we baker's most central ingredient: flour.  Some say it adds an off-flavor but I've not detected it.  I've begun to experiment with adding tiny, calculated amounts of it to my weekly flour mix, to raise the protein level of the 40% AP in our bread to the 11.6% that I used to aim for when I could easily find and blend in "bread flour" from a local bulk bin but, despite now having a store with a truly dazzling array of bulk items, can frustratingly no longer find (and I try to avoid buying anything packaged or by mail order if at all possible).  I'm even experimenting with using my new friend VWG to make wheat-less pasta 'flour' out of dehydrated vegetable powders, just for the vegetarian experimental fun of it.  If it can impart an off-flavor, I'd surely detect it there at the higher levels I'm using.  But none yet.

Happy baking,

Tom

DesigningWoman's picture
DesigningWoman

I suppose I should have said "resort to experimenting with VWG". You see, I'm a lazy cuss, and undisciplined at that. Incapable of changing just one variable at a time, which means that if I were to start dabbling in VWG, I'd be opening up multiple cans of worms (and stocking yet another bag in a very small and crowded kitchen). I also have to keep reminding myself that what is written for North American flours may not necessarily apply here. As a matter of fact, I seem to recall one post which also said that, because of the different moisture conditions in which flours were tested, that 12% protein here is like 10% there. Which really makes me feel like I'm in the basement! I want to buy local -- and organic, if possible -- but when I see strong bread flour trucked in from the UK  at 13% for 'way cheaper than local flours, it feels to me like something isn't quite right…

Anyway, sorry, didn't mean to rant. And thank you for clarifying. I shall be eager to read about your various experimentaitons :-)

Keep on baking,

Carole

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

wonderful, wonderful bread and that crumb on the porridge loaf is amazing! I now feel like a coward with the Canadian bread and serves me right to have to battle with stiffness all around!! ha, ha....

It never occurred to my that my user name reads 'salt'...shows how scientific a soul I am - not!!!!  Now, dabrownman will be laughing his head off as he was referring to 'salty' all along and I never caught up with him on that!!!! Oh how funny! Made me laugh out aloud and needed that today!!!

So glad to have you lovely baking friends! Kat (NaCl) (and my son will be not amused by this just learning for his GCSE science exams.....and not expressed when he had to explain what a titration is when we discussed ph values of starters and TTAs).

DesigningWoman's picture
DesigningWoman

I thought you'd chosen your handle precisely because of the acronym -- you're right, dab must be laughing his head off!

And thanks for your kind words. I cannot believe the color of your loaves and the lace on that crumb looks like it should be a doily!

A very, very long time ago, in another life, I knew what titration was -- not anymore!

Carole

hreik's picture
hreik

Just stunning.  You should be so pleased.  So beautiful.

 

hester

DesigningWoman's picture
DesigningWoman

I certainly wasn't sure how this was going to come out, so yes, pretty pleased with the result. I think the most captivating thing is the texture of the crumb.

Looking forward to yours, lady!

Keep on baking,

Carole

hreik's picture
hreik

I might opt out of this one.  It's intriguing to be sure but no one has been ecstatic about the taste,.... so.... shamefully I might skip this bake. 

hester

DesigningWoman's picture
DesigningWoman

The taste is extremely pleasant, but I was wondering if the loaf would benefit from the addition of a smidge of bread spice or some seeds -- I could see flax in this pretty easily.

Certainly nothing shameful, anywhere! Looking forward to your next bake, whatever that may be :-)

Carole

trailrunner's picture
trailrunner

I'm so glad I had your posts to read and observe before trying the community bake. all the efforts put forth certainly helped me know what to look for ! Your ryes are stunning as well. I've not made a rye of that type ever but if I do I will reread all your posts !  caroline 

DesigningWoman's picture
DesigningWoman

I've been a long-time, envious admirer of your YW, hands-off, poofy bakes, and your contribution to the community bake is no exception!

Thanks for the kind words.

Keep on baking,

Carole

trailrunner's picture
trailrunner

hands off poofy I love it! I’m stirring up the last batch of unfed levain bread...pretty acid odor! So tempted to give it a shot of YW sweetness but resisted in the name of research ?. 

I always enjoy your posts though I’m not always commenting. Happy baking to you! c

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

just in case you want them... especially about timing the rye starter ...  :)

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/23226/mini039s-favorite-rye-mostly-happy-has-questions

DesigningWoman's picture
DesigningWoman

Lots of info. Need to bookmark that as a reference page!

Keep on baking,

Carole