Flax Seed Bread
Ever since returning from the King Arthur Rye class, I've been itching to make the four breads that we baked there, but first I wanted to get my rye starter into better shape. I put both my rye and wheat starters on a twice a day feeding regimen, and gave them time to become happy and well fed. Yesterday I decided it was time, and decided to start with the Flax Seed bread. I followed along with Mr. Hamelman's formula and instructions, and didn't allow myself so much as a tweak. Since I have been keeping a tiny amount of starter (around 50g) to make the twice daily feeding easier, and also to avoid unnecessary wastage, I built it up to quantity yesterday in three stages. While I never got the in your face pungent smell of the KA rye sour, I did remember JH had asked us to taste a bit before baking. So I tasted a bit this morning, and it was pretty tart stuff.
I made two other changes to my routine. First, I recently purchased a cordierite stone to replace the block of granite I've been using for the last few years. That was mostly because the granite was both two small and too heavy, but I think the cordierite is better as well. Second I changed my steaming routine. I have been using towels for the last few years and thought I was getting good results, but when I saw the crust colors at KA, I thought I would see if I could do better. So I ended up doing a combination of the two cast iron pan methods PeterS and Yerffej discuss in this post [1] and this pos [2]t respectively, not neccesarily intentionally and I'm glad no one was watching as I was flinging hot water around and trying not to get burned. More refinement to come, but I was pretty happy with the crust.
Now on to tasting. This bread has a really nice tang to it, nicely complemented by the flax seed flavor. Despite my inclination against it, given my no tweaks rule, I used a bit of old bread in the soaker. I have no idea what impact that has but it didn't ruin it.
So I'll call myself moderately pleased, and on to formulas 2, 3, and 4.
3/3/2013 | 1st feed | 2nd feed | Total | Percent | |
Rye sour | 4:30 PM | 10:00 PM | |||
Seed | 49 | ||||
Whole Rye | 27 | 50 | 140 | 217 | |
Water | 22 | 42 | 115 | 179 | 83% |
396 | |||||
Soaker | 10:00 PM | ||||
Flax Seed | 50 | ||||
Old Bread | 40 | ||||
Water | 150 | ||||
3/4/2013 | Final | Sour | Soaker | Total | Percent |
KAAP | 300 | 300 | 60% | ||
Whole Rye | 199 | 199 | 40% | ||
Water | 86 | 164 | 150 | 400 | 80% |
Salt | 10 | 10 | 2.0% | ||
Instant Yeast | 3 | 3 | 0.6% | ||
Flax Seed | 50 | 50 | |||
Old Bread | 40 | 40 | |||
Rye Sour | 363 | 1002 | |||
Starter factor | 91.7% |
Night before mix make final starter build, and soaker. When starter is ripe, mix all ingredients. DDT 76F. Proof 1 hour. Preshape, rest and shape. Place in banneton. Proof around 1 hour. Bake at 440F with steam at beginning. JH’s notes say 38-40 minutes. I think we did longer than that in class, and today I baked for around 45 minutes.