Whole Wheat Sourdough
5/21/2016
This bread is a first trial of a mostly whole wheat sourdough bread leavened with my standard liquid levain rather than the one prescribed by Forkish or Hamelman, or Suas for their versions of a pain au levain with a high percentage of whole grains.
So, I tried this recipe from Teresa Greenway's e-book "Discovering Sourdough Part III-A". It's a lower hydration dough at 61% using a stiff starter that has been fermenting for 3 days in the fridge; a warm bulk ferment (80-90 degrees F.), and a 12 to 15 hour retard. The flavor and texture is very reminiscent of my memories of the San Francisco sourdoughs of my youth. I'm quite excited about it!
Here is a crumb shot:
I go hiking almost every Saturday, and when I do, I have a tradition of baking a snack to take along the Friday night before. I've recently been especially dabbling in steaming breads, and this was my most recent experiment.
I started to make this from Bread but then looked at my notes and saw an old post from another TFLer who cited Shiao Ping's version. Since her adaptation fits with my usual procedures I decided to carry on with her ideas. Everyone comments on how wet this formula is. I always have my levain at approx 80-100% hydration. Again I carried on. I used equal parts Red Fife and Kamut and finished with organic bread flour.
This is seriously good, for a craving for a perfectly square white sandwich loaf... French sandwich bread, or pain de mie - meaning 'crumb loaf' as there isn't supposed to be any crust.
With the hot weather and no central air conditioning, I needed to be able to bake in the morning when it is still cool. Trevor helped me to work out the timing with his Champlain Sourdough. First day, in the early evening, I mixed the flour, water and salt for the long "autolyze" and popped it in the fridge. Took it out at bedtime and set on counter. In the morning I mixed in the starter and for the next six hours did hourly stretch and folds. Then I pre-shaped and let it rest for an hour.
9 Grain 50 Percent Whole Grain Half Sprouted Sourdough Chacon with Pepitas and Sunflower Seeds
Lucy formulated this bread as an entry for Bread Baking Day #83 here http://www.kochtopf.me/bbd-83-brot-spezialmehl-bread-special-flour where flours other than rye, red wheat and spelt were used. In this case we added, Pima Club, emmer, einkorn, Buckwheat, oat and white wheat.
Somehow I lost track of the ingredients during mix....and I kept adding water during kneed...so I guess its very wet...Not sure if that is the reason but I have never seen my dough size increased so much....after 1.5 hours in the room (3 folding) then 9 hours in refrigerator
Hopefully the result turns out okay.
We love this time of year. It is the time the first cherries come out in the stores from CA. They aren’t the great trasting cherries from the Pacific Northwest that come a bit later but they are perfect for one thing - converting the YW from apple tom cherries. We just love the cherry color the YW takes on from being fed these little jewels.
