99% Whole Wheat Desem Loaf
Sometimes good things are right in front of you, or a bit off to the right under "Also on the Fresh Loaf." The other day I was nosing around, when I clicked through an image that had intrigued me for awhile, and discovered JMonkey's version of a desem whole wheat loaf. [1] Reading through it, it all seemed so simple, even though Desem has lurked in my brain as something very strange and mysterious. So I took a dab of my ordinary white starter and built it up over three feedings with fresh milled whole wheat, at low hydration, and matured in a cool but not cold environment. Then made a loaf, roughly following JMonkey's numbers, but not his times (I followed the dough's times which were different.) As I have no cloche, I baked for the first time in a year or more in my dutch oven. I find it difficult to get the dough in the DO gently enough, and manhandled it a bit in the process (just like JMonkey apparently.) Since I was never able to manage a preheated DO without burning myself, this time I placed the dough into an unheated DO and then into a preheated oven.
The aroma of the dough while fermenting was strong yet strangely sweet and very pleasant. The finished loaf didn't come out looking anything like JMonkey's and of course I have no idea if I captured his taste either.
I will say that this bread makes for very hearty eating. I just had a slice, and don't know if I'll have room for dinner. The bread itself is almost overwhelmingly whole wheaty to my taste, but seems very much the staff of life.
I know, particularly in light of Eric's untimely passing, that bakers come and go on this site. I believe that I started participating on this site some time after JMonkey stopped contributing. Yet here he has taught me about desem and I appreciate his help. Of course I wouldn't even have been aware of this type of bread had it not been for Phil's wonderful baking efforts [2].
Formula and method:
Seed hydration | 71% |
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KAAP | 95% |
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Whole Rye | 5% |
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5:00 PM | 4:00 PM | 4:00 PM | 10:00 AM |
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Seed | 16 |
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KAAP | 9 | 9 |
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Whole Rye | 0 | 0 |
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Whole Wheat | 25 | 50 | 150 | 225 |
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Water | 7 | 14 | 30 | 90 | 141 | 60% |
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375 |
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Final | Starter | Total | Percent |
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KAAP | 0 | 9 | 9 | 1% |
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Whole Rye | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0% |
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Whole Wheat | 500 | 225 | 725 | 99% |
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Water | 410 | 141 | 551 | 75% |
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Salt | 13 | 13 | 1.8% |
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Starter | 375 | 32% |
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1298 |
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Used freshly milled medium course flour to feed starter | |||||||||||||
Used garage and just inside garage door to mature starter |
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Temp varied from 42 to 62F |
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Grind wheat berries at fine. |
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Mix flour and 350g water and autolyse for 1 hour |
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Mix in salt, starter, and rest of water |
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Mix for 40 minutes at speed 1 in compact Bosch |
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Rest 15 minutes |
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S&F on counter |
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BF 30 minutes, S&F on counter |
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BF 30 minutes, S&F on counter |
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Shape into boule and place in brotform with floured paper napkin at base |
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Proof 1 hour 15 minutes |
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Spray top, slash and place in Dutch Oven |
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Bake in preheated oven (cold covered DO) at 450F for 40 minutes |
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top on, 18 minutes with top off. |
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