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I'm back again after long períod of absence of this blog. I will make efforts to contribute 2 times weekly with posts and discussions here sharing all my expertise on artisan breads.

I always bake with passion and curiosity. For me one of the bad things is to look that carbage boxes full of old staled breads that go away trough carbage trucks at final day at the bakeries of my wide country, Brazil.

I decided to revisit what ancient grains I have on hand with this simple loaf. It is about 60% a equal combination of Einkorn,  Spelt and Kamut  all fresh ground with the rest being AP for a total of 500g at 70% hydration. It is naturally leavened with one build using 50g starter 100g flour mix and 70g water. The rest of the flour was started to autolyse at the same time. The leaven doubled in about 3.5 hours at 80F and was mixed with the other plus some salt.

I love whole grains, and I wanted to go back to some of the loaves I’ve made and try and make them more whole grain. My polenta pepita SD has been one of my favourite loaves so I decided to start there. The first time I made it, I used 100% white flour (ignoring the rye flour in the 6g of rye starter I used). 

Here’s the formula I used this time: 

   I wanted to use some fresh milled flour from my Mock Mill that I'm testing out so I through together a simple bread using fresh milled whole wheat, fresh milled Kamut and some barley flakes.

I do have to say I'm very impressed with the control you get with the Mock Mill.  I used the second finest settings and did one sift and reground the sifted out parts again.

The end result was a very tasty wholesome bread with a moderate crumb.

My own version of a Chad Robertson's Tartine 3 recipe. It has 20% of Brûlée Creek partially sifted whole grain flour and 10% dark rye as well as 120 grams of toasted sesame seeds. Total flour amount not including Levain was 1000 grams. I used 150 grams of 100% rye/wholewheat levain that was fed 3 times after being taken out of the fridge. The dough hydration was 75% not including the levain. I believe it was 77% including levain. 

Toasted the sesame seeds in a dry frying pan and then used 50 g of the water to hydrate them.

Let's repeat the King Arthur Flour Classic Sourdough Bread and really nail that down before I try anything more complicated. The recipe makes two loaves but let's just make one over and over again with an eye towards practicing a baking schedule to fit everything easily into my day. My prediction is that the levain will rise 75% in three hours.

I've taught a basic 1-2-3 Sourdough Bread class at work and for friends a number of times and people generally ask what can they add to the dough in order of getting a variety bread from the same basic recipe.  I give them a few examples and off they go.  I would like to give them a bit more direction than that, like a longer list and approximate amounts (in Baker’s percent).  So, my target is Sourdough recipes like 1-2-3, Tartine (Chad Robertson) and FWSY (Ken Forkisk) and wondering what you would add and how much?

Figs x 2. I blended 120g dried figs after soaking in hot water and added it to my dough. After kneading I folded in 250g of chopped figs and let it rise overnight. A teaspoon each of coriander and caraway seeds goes really well with the figs. A great tasting loaf.

Sometimes I get nerdy with theme breads when trying to come up with new ideas, and yesterday was the final NBA game for the local boys (Warriors). I tried to follow the theme to the end. 

We just got back from travel, so my two starters (San and Fran) came out of the fridge on Saturday evening after 2 weeks of hibernation. They got only one good feeding after warming up, doubled overnight, and were added to this bread Sunday morning. We were in Pennsylvania, which is near Cleveland and just returned to the Bay area like the Warriors.