Sourdough with rye and soaker in covered baker
My experiments continued this morning, as I baked another dough I had frozen very recently. This was a variation of Khalid's recipe that I have made a couple of times. I really enjoy this bread as it has lots of different grains in the soaker, and it is ready to go so quickly. I defrosted the loaf yesterday in the fridge and took it out at 6 a.m. this morning. (We had to get up early here in California to see the Liverpool-Chelsea game, as my husband is from Liverpool. Unfortunately, their winning streak was snapped today, creating a shadow over their chance to win the league.....we are suffering along with our family and friends in Liverpool today. It certainly was not the best start to the day. Then, we saw that the wind knocked over our lime tree and broke its clay pot. And you know about the lime shortage right now!) Despite these setbacks, I pushed forward with my bread experiment.
I took the dough out of the fridge to warm up and did a preliminary shaping. Khalid shared a nice illustration for batard shaping, link below.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/24865/shaping-batard [1]
I used my LaCloche oblong covered baker, which I do not use as much as my round domed LaCloche. I have to say that I think the crust turns out better in the LaCloche than when I use the heated stone and steam.
The bread I made today from frozen is on the left; the bread I made last week per the recipe (baked on the stone with steam) is on the right. I am baking longer to get the bold crust, and I do think that makes a real difference. For whatever reason, the scoring worked a lot better today than last week as well.
I still struggle with the shaping and transfer of dough to the preheated baker. I had to use parchment paper as the dough was quite sticky. It did not go into the oblong baker easily (that's probably why I don't use this one as much), and I was concerned that I botched it. The day was certainly going that way....
I was pleased that the loaf looked good as I took the lid off. I preheated the baker and lid at 500 degrees, and then baked it lid on for 30 minutes before lowering the temperature to 435 convention for another 20-25 minutes with the lid off.
Here is the crumb from the bake today with the frozen loaf.
This is the crumb from the loaf I baked fresh on the preheated stone with steam.
I would say the crumb is good in both, but perhaps just slightly better in the frozen loaf. The taste of the frozen loaf was great, very tangy with crispy crust and moist interior.
We enjoyed our sandwiches for lunch. I guess I will continue with my bread experiments, as my husband really enjoyed this loaf!
The original recipe I used is below. Phyllis
Sourdough with Rye, Spelt and Soaker | Prefermented flour % | 30% | ||||
Overall Recipe | Soaker | |||||
| Bakers % | Weight |
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Bread flour | 47% | 450 | grams | Coarse Corn Meal | 30 | grams |
Whole Spelt flour | 11% | 106 | grams | Couscous | 30 | grams |
Whole Rye flour | 26% | 250 | grams | Rolled Oats | 60 | grams |
Coarse corn meal | 5% | 45 | grams | Water | 250 | grams |
Couscous | 5% | 45 | grams | Salt | 6 | grams |
Rolled Oats | 6% | 60 | grams | Flax Seeds | 25 | grams |
Water | 84% | 800 | grams | Sesame Seeds | 5 | grams |
Salt | 2% | 18 | grams |
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Total | 187% | 1774 | grams | Total | 406 | grams |
Rye Sour | Final Dough | |||||
Whole Rye flour | 60% | 150 | grams | Bread Flour | 450 | grams |
AP Flour | 40% | 100 | grams | Whole Spelt Flour | 106 | grams |
Water | 100% | 250 | grams | Water | 300 | grams |
Mixed Starter | 10% | 50 | grams | Salt | 12 | grams |
Total |
| 550 | grams | Rye Sour | 550 | grams |
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| All Soaker | 406 | grams |
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| Total | 1824 | grams |
Prepare the rye sour by adding a tablespoon and a half of your active rye starter to the 250g water, and mix well to disperse. Add the flour, mix well, and let stand for 8-12 hours at room temperature. To prepare the soaker, weigh all soaker ingredients into a bowl, and then add the boiling water to the soaker. Mix well, cover, and let stand until overnight or until your rye sour is ready.
The next day, mix all ingredients using a stand mixer for 7-10 minutes. The dough will remain relatively sticky, so try to resist adding any flour at this stage. Shape as a round and let ferment in an oiled bowl for 2 hours at preferably 78 F, folding it using your scraper at the 1 hour mark. By the end of bulk fermentation, scrape your dough onto a heavily floured surface, pat the dough even, divide into the desired dough pieces, and round each piece leaving them to rest for 15- 20 min, covered. Shape your dough into a batard (see helpful videos on this). I did the final shaping and then placed the dough on parchment paper on a peel. You can also use your proofing basket. Dust your basket with a mixture of all purpose flour and rice flour, and shape your dough and invert it smooth side down into the basket. The final fermentation will be only 45 minutes, but watch the dough NOT the clock. Preheat your oven at this stage with a stone in place to 500F. Have your steaming apparatus in place. When ready, invert the dough on baking paper lined peel/ board and score it before placing on the baking stone. Place boiling water into steaming tray. Bake for 15 minutes with steam, and then remove the steaming tray and reduce the temperature to 450F for another 25-30 minutes or so. This last loaf turned out so big, so it needed a bit more baking time. Be sure to adjust based on the size and the kind of crust you prefer. Remember, you can experiment with different ingredients in the soaker--that's the really fun part.
Cool on wire rack before slicing.