For the Birds Sourdough
I loved David’s San Francisco recipe and decided to add some seeds to it and change the flour combo. I got the inspiration for the seed mixture from a guy named Josh (JoshFox Bread) that I follow on Facebook. He has a micro bakery thing happening similar to what I do but on a larger scale. His breads always look so delectable! So between David’s recipe/method and Josh’s combo of seeds, I hope I have a winner!
Levain:
63 g starter
63 g water
110 g unbleached flour
15 g freshly milled Rye flour
Dough:
668 g strong bakers unbleached flour
116 g freshly milled Durum flour
116 g freshly milled Spelt flour
96 g freshly milled Rye flour
800 g filtered water
23 g pink Himalayan salt
30 g plain whole milk yogurt
Add-ins:
40 g toasted sesame seeds
40 g toasted sunflower seeds
40 g toasted flax seeds
40 g toasted millet
40 g toasted poppy seeds
A few days before:
- Get your starter up to speed by feeding it two or three times. I fed mine 3 times with rye and unbleached flour.
Two nights before:
- Mix the starter with the water and then add the flours.
- Let ferment at room temperature (70 F or so) for 12 hours.
- Refrigerate until the morning of making the dough. For me this was about 24 hours.
The night before:
- Mill and measure out your flours and set aside covered.
- Toast all of the add-ins in a dry frying pan. Cover and reserve.
Dough making day:
- Remove the levain from the fridge to warm up to room temperature.
- Mix the flours and the water in a stand mixer and mix on low for one or two minutes until you have a shaggy dough and no dry flour. Let autolyse for a couple of hours.
- Add the salt, the yogurt and the starter in chunks. Mix on low for 1 minute to mix the ingredients and then mix on the next speed up for 9 minutes to develop the gluten.
- Add the toasted seeds gradually and mix for a minute or two to distribute the seeds throughout the dough.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and cover. Place in a warm spot (82 F-My warm spot is my oven with the lights on and the door cracked open) and let ferment for 3 and a half hours with two sets of stretches and folds at 50 and 100 minutes. My dough rose about 30% by the end of bulk fermentation.
- Tip the dough out on a bare counter, sprinkle the top with flour and divide into portions of ~760g. Round out the portions into rounds with a dough scraper and let rest 30 minutes on the counter.
- Do a final shape by flouring the rounds and flipping the rounds over on a lightly floured counter. Gently stretch the dough out into a circle. Pull and fold the third of the dough closest to you over the middle. Pull the right side and fold over the middle and do the same to the left. Fold the top end to the center patting out any cavities. Finally stretch the two top corners and fold over each other in the middle. Roll the bottom of the dough away from you until the seam is underneath the dough. Cup your hands around the dough and pull towards you, doing this on all sides of the dough to round it off. Finally spin the dough to make as tight boule as you can.
- Place the dough seam side down in rice floured bannetons. Cover and roof in a warm spot until dough has risen 50%. When I made this recipe the last time, the dough had risen 50% in two hours but this time, it was ready after only one. ?
- Then refrigerate for at least 12 hours. This particular dough was retarded for 17 and a half hours.
Baking Day:
- The next morning, heat the oven to 475 F with the Dutch ovens inside for 45 minutes to an hour. Turn out the dough seam side up onto a cornmeal sprinkled counter. Place rounds of parchment paper in the bottom of the pots, and carefully but quickly place the dough, seam side up, inside. I was surprised at how light the loaves felt and hoped that they weren’t overproofed! ?
- Cover the pots and bake the loaves at 450 F for 25 minutes, remove the lids, and bake for another 22 minutes at 425 F. Internal temperature should be 205 F or more.
I think I caught them just in time. I have ears on most of them so happy about that!