Insecure newbie's first real loaves: Soaker & Biga look right?
First non-bread-machine breads. Wondering if this looks right to everyone?
The recipe is Peter Reinhart's "100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread" from his "Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads" book (pages 95-98). The flour is my own, milled from Hard Red Spring Wheat, in a Magic Mill III Plus at the 1-1/2 dots setting, and I scalded the milk that goes into the soaker to hopefully help the rise. This recipe makes a 2 lb loaf, but I plan on dividing that between two Lodge cast iron loaf pans to make two 1 lb. loaves. I'm making the recipe without adjustments this first time (though I understand that I may need to increase my hydration since it is whole grain flour... if I don't get enough rise I'll try that future tries). I made the soaker and the biga yesterday morning and will be assembling the final dough and baking on Sunday.
I'm planning on trying a crust embellishment to these loaves, however, called "Dutch Crunch" which I found on this page [1]. It looks awesome! [2] and is apparently also called "Tiger Tail". I'll have to search BreadIt to see what others have said about it in the past.
So this is what my soaker and biga look like this morning.The final dough recipe is for combining them and adding only 7 Tbsp of whole wheat flour, plus the salt, yeast, butter and honey. From the looks of it, I will use my vintage stand mixer with dough hooks.
First time using my new Lodge cast iron loaf pans. Not sure if I preheat or not, etc. Any words of wisdom on that score would be appreciated.
Wish me luck! Photos and follow-up post , regardless of the outcome!