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This bread combines Larry's idea for kneading the cheese into the flour with my own practice of showering the top with parmigiano and then topping it with caramelized onion, which in turn came out of Silverton.

I mixed a dough of about 75% hydration using Central Milling flour. 100% starter made up about 20% of the formula by baker's percentage. I wanted a soft, white crumb, so I added some olive oil and some milk. I kneaded about a cup of finely grated cheddar into about 18 ounces of flour. This gave a very mild cheese flavor to the crumb. Twice as much cheese, or a more strongly flavored one would give more flavor.

Given the schedule this week, I fermented the dough in bulk overnight after folding it pretty aggressively in the first hour. This yielded a dough in the morning that was both wet and taught. 

I flattened out the dough and gave it two hours on the bench, which was about an hour less than it needed. This, with the milk and olive oil and cheese kneaded in, did no favors for the cell structure. I docked it all over with wet fingertips before loading. It baked at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes. I gave it another five minutes at 475 to darken it.

So, not a pizza, not a foccaccia, and not really a loaf of bread; sort of a bastard, but very well received by tasters. After all, everyone loves cheese and onions baked to brown and black.

I've been homing in on a 50% Whole Wheat sourdough loaf, made with a levain built entirely with Whole Wheat flour. This quest has been ongoing (but relaxed) for about a year, and recently I've been close: flavors are especially to our liking, crumb al dente as we like, and nearly as open as desired, but still room to improve. Today, I think I've hit it.

My previous attempts' short-falls were all dough strength related, in two words: slack dough. And slack dough directly led to shaping difficulties, flat loaves, and closed crumbs.

Getting to this point has been evolutionary.

I've only been baking sourdough a little more than two years. For the first six months I religiously mixed and kneaded doughs in my KA mixer, usually following the formulae authors' recommended mixing times and mixer speeds (generally 2 or 3 minutes on speed one, often followed by 1 to 3 minutes on speed 2). Early on, I learned about Stretch-and-Fold; never a fan of hand-kneading I adapted it quickly. I was mostly content with the results, but, prompted by TFLer suggestions, I switched to hand-mixing, and for about a year except for speciality doughs, e.g., Foccacia, Brioche, the mixer gathered dust. I learned how dough "feels" in all its various stages. I also developed a skin rash, on my mixing hand only, that may--and I emphasize "may"; I've not yet seen a dermatologist--be attributable to flours or sourdough.

For the past four months I've returned to mixing doughs in the mixer, and wearing latex gloves when I S&F, or hand manipulate dough. The rash is clearing slowly.

At the same tiime I was in the middle of my quest to bake a satisfactory 50% WW loaf. I'll define satisfactory; these are in priority order:

1. Good, strong wheaty flavor

2. Al dente crumb; i.e., when you mash it, it springs back; when you bite it, there is resistance.

3. Open crumb. Now I'm not looking for gaping holes. I want irregular size aveoles,  the biggest of which occupy no more than the thickness of a good sandwich slice--about 3/8ths of an inch radius. I frequently use sourdough breads for sandwiches. Unquestionably, sandwich-making is its singlemost use. So, I don't want mustard or mayo dribbling on my shirt front. I also think #2 is closely related to #3--if you don't have 3, you don't have 2.

4. Eye-appealing loaves. If I can have 1, 2, and 3 I'm a happy baker; if I can also have 4 I'm an elated baker.

So, back to the evolution.

Two changes from my earlier routine are, I reasoned, the keys to this success.

1. I now machine-knead the dough on speed 2 for 7 minutes, following a 1 hour autolyse. Subsequently, I still S&F 3 or 4 times at 1 hour intervals (3  or 4 depends on the perceived tenacity of the dough).

2. I retard the dough at reduced temperature (54°F) for 15 hours.

Furthermore, I believe these two changes are coupled, meaning it requires both to achieve the desired open crumb. I haven't found a corraborating "expert" reference yet, but I'm certain I perceive a change in dough's attributes occuring between S&F's and the beginning and end of retarded fermentation. I retard dough primarily for flavor development, but I'm convinced, too, it also conditions the doughs' physical behaviors.

I got the idea for this two changes from two TFL members: #1 from TxFarmer's blog, and #2 from an e-discussion with Proth5.

The formula for this bread is simple:

100% hydrated levain  30% (all whole wheat flour except seed starter)

Whole Wheat flour       35%

Bread Flour (KA)         50%

Salt                                    2%

Hydration                     68% 

Preheat: 500°F

Bake: 450°F with steam 15 mins; finish bake 450°F (steam removed)

I've also changed the way I refresh my seed starter. Following Debra Wink's guidance, now, when I build levain for baking I make enough extra to completely replace my seed starter with fresh levain. I normally build levain using bread flour. This time I built the levain using Whole Wheat flour. Consequently, I also built a small amount of levain with bread flour to refresh my seed starter for the week.

As usual, I after mixing the dough, and refreshing my seed starter I still had levain left over. I mixed the two together, fed the mix 1:3:3 with a 50/50 mix of Bread and Whole Wheat flours, and popped it into the refrigerator overnight. This morning, while I worked the bread baking, I let the leftover levain come to room temperature, and work another three hours. While the bread loaves were proofing I made a 50% Whole Wheat version of my Sourdough Biscuits ala Cookie (see http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/21536/sourdough-biscuits-trying-real-thing and http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/21967/sourdough-biscuits-trying-real-thing-take-2 ).

It's been a fun Whole Wheat Sunday

David G

Szánter a Facebookon.

Sourdough Potato Focaccia

INGREDIENTS

   For Dough

      Starter (70% hydration)   70g

      Strong flour   100g*

      T65 flour    100g (or 95g Plain flour + 5g WW)*

              *(or alternatively, 195g AP + 5g WW)

      Salt  4g

      Extra Virgin Olive Oil  1 tbls

      Water   155g (78%)

  For Topping

     150 – 200g Small new potatoes (no need to peel)

     1 clove garlic, crushed and chopped

     Rosemary

     Salt and freshly ground black pepper

     Olive oil

     Coarse sea salt

     Optional … Parmesan cheese

  METHOD

1. Mix all the ingredients for the dough and autolyse for 30 minutes.
2. S & F 3 times in the bowl every 40 minutes or so until medium gluten development.
3. Put in the fridge and cold retard for overnight – 24 hrs.
4. Take it out of the fridge and leave for 30 minutes -1 hr at room temperature.
5. Letter-fold the dough once or twice to give extra-strength if necessary. 
6. Rest until fully proofed.
7. Meanwhile, thinly slice the potatoes to a thickness of ₤1 coin….which may not give much clue to people outside UK. :p….it’s about 3mm thick. The important point is that the slices should be quite thin or they won’t cook in the time the dough bakes.
8. Put the sliced potatoes, olive oil, rosemary, chopped garlic and salt & pepper in a large bowl and mix well.
9. Spread the dough into 20-21cm X 30-31cm rectangular on a well oiled baking parchment, dimpling all over with oiled fingertips.
10. Layer the potato slices over the top and scatter the rosemary and garlic over the potatoes.

  11. Cover and leave for 1- 1 1/2 hours until dough increase the volume and the edges get puffed up a little. 

  12. Pre-heat the oven to 200 – 210 C.

  13. Sprinkle coarse sea salt over the top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese (if using). Drizzle with more olive oil and bake for 25- 35 minutes until golden and potatoes are soft and cooked.

Roast Turkey Sandwich with the left-over focaccia next day