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After last Friday’s bake of 2 different breads from on dough we decided to do only one this week.  We upped the whole grains to 38% from 20%  and used 8 different grains in the home milled portion of the flour.

In keeping with out recent process, we sifted out the 25% of hard bits and used that for the first feed of the multigrain levain and the 2nd feeding was the part of the 75% portion.

Once the levain had risen 25% after the 2nd feeding, we refrigerated the levain for 24 hours to bring out the sour.  We started the sprout at the same time as the levain and the berries had cited nicely after 30 hours.

We autolysed everything else except the salt, sprouts and seeds for 2 hours.  The dough liquid was unfrozen cranberry re-hydration liquid and scald liquid left over from last weeks bake.

Once the autolyse met the levain and the salt was added, we did our usual 3 sets of slap and folds of 8, 3 and finally 1 minute on 15 minute intervals.  We did 3 sets of stretch and folds on 15 minute intervals and incorporated the multi-grain sprouts during the first set and the sunflower and pumpkin seeds on the 2nd set.

The dough was then pre-shaped and shaped as an oval and placed into a rice floured basket, bagged and immediately placed in the fridge for a 12 hour retard.  We used a little less levain this time hoping to be able to take the dough out of fridge and give it 1 ½ hours to warm up instead of baking it right out of the fridge.

After 12 hours of cold the dough had risen 65% but it would be a little more than 2 hours before it was at 85% and ready for the steamy, 550 F hot maw of Big Old Betsy - between two stones.  After 2 minutes we reduced the temperature to 500 F and 2 minutes after that we went down to 475 F.

After 15 steamy, total minutes we took out the steam and reduced the temperature to 450 F, on convection now, and continued to bake for 15 minutes.  We rotated the bread every 5 minutes until the bread registered 203 F on the inside when the oven was turned off.  When the bread read 205 F it moved to the cooling rack.

The bread sprang, bloomed and browned nicely with some nice blisters showing.  The mahogany color of the crust was likely due to the cranberry re-hydration liquid.  The crust stayed crispy as it cooled and was very tasty.  The seeds were a great contrast to the open soft and moist crumb.  It was more open than I expected too a 40% whole grain and all the add ins.

This bread tastes , sour nutty and complex with just a hint of sweetness to counter any whole grain bitterness.  We actually like this bread as much or more than last Friday's fine outcome.  It comes of as a special everyday sandwich bread that most all would like.  Perhaps Lucy is starting to get the hang of this non pumpernickel baking:-) This is some fne bread all around.

Formula  

First salad greens from the winter garden

Greens become a salad

Last week's 20% whole grain bread wih scald for comparison.

Here is 1 of 4 pizzas I made.  This one had cherry tomatoes and basil from the garden.  The nitrate free pepperidge farms jalapeño and Monterrey Jack cheese gourmet grillers added a level of spice.  I made a modified puttanesca Sauce for my pizza.  This was really good.  The boys are Hawaiian pizza guys so they had their own.

I haven't been here in a while. Life has been busy..hectic..sometimes tiring..

But, I am not here to complain, but to tell you about the good things that happened:

I took a bread baking course at the E5 Bakehouse in London and loved it! That's why I went back and wrote an article about them for the amazing Bread Magazine - the August issue.

I didn't do much baking after the course, unfortunately, but I did visit an English institution: Shipton Mill, one of the last traditional mills in the country and wrote another article about them for the October issue of Bread Magazine.

I loved the visit and most of all I love the fact that I bought some amazing flours and two of them I used in the making of this loaf, that is now our favourite: Canadian Strong White Bread Flour and Seeded White Organic Flour.

Sooo, here it is all about the loaf.

Time schedule:

Day 1: Make the preferment, leave for 12 hours at room temperature to mature. I don’t know exactly what the temperature in my kitchen was over night, I guess not above 21C, so I've left mine for about 13 hours and a half. I usually leave my preferment for around 12 hours until it’s nice and bubbly and has not sunk. You can test if it’s ready by putting a spoon of it in a bowl of water, if it floats it’s ready, otherwise it needs more time.

Day 2: Make the bread

• Mix the preferment with the water and flour.
• Leave to rest for 30mins (autolyse)
• Add the salt and mix for 3 minutes on low speed and another 2 minutes on medium speed
• Leave to rest for 50mins
• Perform 1st stretch and fold
• Leave to rest for 50mins
• Perform 2nd stretch and fold
• Leave to rest for 50mins
• Preshape the bread
• Leave to rest for 15 minutes
• Shape the bread
• Proof it for 110mins
• I've baked the bread on a pre-heated baking stone at 230C for 5 minutes then reduced to around 215C for the next 40 minutes - this is because my oven is very small and the bread is too close to the heat.

Sourdough culture: For this bread I used a 100% hydration, 100% white sourdough culture.

Recipe for 1 loaf (aprox. 67% hydration):

Flour: For this loaf I used Canadian Strong White Bread Flour and Seeded White Organic Flour. from Shipton Mill.

Ingredients for the preferment:

Make it 12 hours before you want to start on your bread.

Method for the preferment:

Dissolve the starter in the water. Add the flour and mix until well combined. Cover tightly with cling film and leave it to rest at room temperature for about 12 hours or as I said above: until it’s bubbly and floats.

Ingredients for the bread:

Final baker’s percentage (including preferment):

Seed mix: I bought a seed mix from Waitrose and used that one to seed the bread on the exterior. Not sure exactly how much I've used probably around 100gr.

Method for the bread

I dissolved the preferment in  the water and then added the flour. Mix until you have quite a weird and not smooth mass of wet flour coming together. Do NOT add the salt at this point. I covered the bowl and left it to rest for 30 minutes for the autolyse. When the 30 minutes are up add the salt and mix for around 3 minutes on low speed and another 2 minutes on medium speed. I use a Kitchen Aid with hook attachment for this. If you want to knead it by hand do it for about 10-15 minutes. Transfer the dough to a clean greased bowl (I used an oil spray to grease the bowl), cover it with cling film and leave it to rest for 50 minutes.I use shower caps for this ;).

When the 50 minutes are up you are ready for your first stretch and fold.

I did my stretch and folds directly in the bowl, but you can either tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface or you can initially place your dough in a large rectangular container so you can do them directly in there.

Now cover the bowl again and leave to rest for another 50 minutes. Do another stretch and fold (the last one) and again leave to rest for 50 minutes.

After this final rest you need to preshape your bread. I preshaped it as a boule and left it to rest on my counter covered with a kitchen towel for 15 minutes. Then I shaped it as a batard. 

I've rolled the battard on a wet kitchen towel, to make sure the seeds will stick to it and then rolled one side (the smooth one) on a bed of seeds (I've just sprinkled the seeds generously on a different kitchen towel).

I then moved it in a floured banneton, seeds side down, placed it in a plastic bag that I closed tightly and left it to proof for 1hour and 50minutes. You can find here a clip on shaping and scoring a batard.

You will need your oven to reach 250C so start pre-heating sometime after the proofing period has started, depending on your oven.

To bake the bread I use a 3cm thick granite baking stone, that I've left in the oven for 2 hours at 250C, to heat up properly.

So, after 1 hour and 50minutes of proofing, I tipped my bread on a baking sheet scored it with a long score and put it in the oven.

I also keep in the oven one of the trays, while it is pre-heating, so it gets hot hot. Then, immediately after transferring the bread on the stone, I add a cup of hot water to the tray below to create some steam and shut the door quickly.

Take the water tray out of the oven after first 20 minutes, otherwise the crust will not form properly.

You will need to bake this bread for 45 minutes at 230C. For me the baking was 5 minutes at 250C and then, because I have a really small oven, I reduced the temperature to 210C for the rest of the 45 minutes. To get a nice crust I've opened the oven door 5 minutes before the baking time is up, to release some of the steam and then left the bread in the oven for another 5 minutes oven turned off and door closed.

Resulting bread:

Amazing! Rich nutty flavour, a good crust improved by the crunchy seeds and a lovely buttery crumb.

I started a dough last night that was somewhere between Ken Forkish's Poolish Pizza Dough and Peter Reinhart's Neo-Neopolitian Dough. 

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Not bad.  Using AP flour, it was nice and extensible, but I'm not getting as much crunch on the crust as I was when I used a stronger flour.  I'm not sure if there is much I can do about that, but I'll keep tinkering.