21 Percent Whole 7 Grain Sourdough
Here it is the middle of the week and Lucy is nowhere to be found claiming she semi-retired and only works for the Friday bakes not Tuesday bakes. I told her I was totally retired and would help her in a pinch and she wanted to know when was the last time I baked her any dog biscuits.
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Well, I was left to my own devices for this bake that was requested by my daughter for a couple of friends at the hospital. Nothing fancy and more on the white side of things since we don’t know what these girls would like when it comes to sourdough bread.
To keep it on the less sour side we didn’t retard the dough or the levain but the 100% hydration bran levain was 11% pre-fermented flour that included all the bran from the 7 whole grains for the first stage and then high extraction 7 grain for the 2nd stage.
We used 15 g of NMNF starter that has been retarded since near the dawn of time though. We let the levain sit on the counter for 18 hours since it was so very cold in AZ at 68 F. I eventually got out the heating pad to speed it along and get it to double.
The Minneolas and Navels are finally ripe enough to eat.
We did a 1 hour autolyse for the dough flours and then added the salt and levain, bringing the overall hydration to 75%, before doing 60 slap and folds for the first set and then did 3 sets of 4 stretch and folds all on 45 minute intervals. We then let the dough rest for an hour.
Killer Instant Pot Squash Soup with butternut, Italian sausage, fresh corn and wild rice with tons of home make stock and sourdough croutons. My daughter's favorite.
!We then divided the dough in half and did a quick pre-shape. 10 minutes later we did the final shape and placed the dough in rice floured the baskets and then onto plastic shopping bags for the final proof of 2 hours
Instant Pot really killer chili verde, roasted poblano and Hatch chilies with home made stock, chicken thighs and 3 cheese enchiladas. My favorite and the IP makes it way better than ever! Making Sunday gravy next in the IP and I bet it will be killer too!
The dough was slashed and slid onto the bottom stone with a parchment covered peel and we tossed 2 C of water onto the 500 F lava stones to make Mega Steam before closing the oven door and turning the oven down to 450 F. After 16 minutes of steam it was removed and the oven reset for 425 F convection dry heat.
After another 20 minutes, the bread registered 208 F on the inside and it was taken out of the oven to cool on a raised rack. The bread had bloomed and sprang very nicely and it browned up well but not too dark since we didn’t know if a bold bake would be wanted. The bread really smelled nice as it cooled and crackled.
My daughter sent the girls some photos and they seemed ecstatically appreciative which put a smile on my face. Hopefully they will like how it tastes just as much.