The Fresh Loaf

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Groats and Oats - Take 1

HeiHei29er's picture
HeiHei29er

Groats and Oats - Take 1

I tried this recipe a while back and really enjoyed it, especially toasted with a bowl of oatmeal in the morning.  Thought the flavors complimented each other well.  Ever since then, have been wanting to try to put something together, and this is Take 1. 

Still some kinks to work out, but I'm happy with the first step!  Biggest thing is either lowering hydration or going back to KAF 100% WW.  Store was out of KAF WW, so I tried a brand that is milled locally.  Not NEARLY as thirsty and had trouble managing the dough.  Couldn't get it to hold any shape no matter how much tension I put into it.

All that said, the flavor is exactly what I was going for.  May stick with the flours for Take 2, or I may try adding the groats and oats as an inclusion.  A few iterations to go before I settle in on a recipe...

Comments

Benito's picture
Benito

Troy your loaf looks really hearty and delicious.  At what point did you realize that they hydration was a bit too high for the flour you used?  If it was early enough during mix or even around the first fold, next time you could just sprinkle in a bit of flour at a time until it comes together.  I’ve had to do this as recently as yesterday and you can easily save an overhydrated dough this way especially if you sprinkle in a whole grain with the very absorbent bran.

HeiHei29er's picture
HeiHei29er

Thank you Benny.  It's a work in progress, but I'm looking forward to reaching the final iteration.

Early on I could tell the dough was much more pliable than I'm used to, but I'm still learning the different characteristics of doughs at each stage.  I know sometimes things look slack early and then gluten develops more and the dough comes together with folds.  Figured that since it was the first go around with this recipe, I would press on and learn!  Adding to that was the gluten free flours.  Didn't know for sure what impact they were having.

Today, I am doing the 100% WW recipe that Abe posted.  After that, I'm sure my problems yesterday were from the new WW flour I bought.  Today's recipe calls for 90% hydration.  I was conservative and went with 80%.  The dough was a wet, sticky mass with no gluten development this morning after the overnight autolyse at 77% hydration (100% starter would bring it up to 80%).  I had to add 45g of KAF WW (an extra 9% flour) to get the dough even manageable.

HeiHei29er's picture
HeiHei29er

I wish I would have taken a before and after picture.  The loaf had a pretty significant volume increase, which I attributed to "oven spring" in my notes.  However, the loaf mainly spread out as much , if not more, than it rose.  Based on the recipe and what I described in my notes, do you think that's likely a symptom of a lack of gluten, too much hydration, or ??? 

Abe's picture
Abe (not verified)

Looks wholesome and delicious. As for hydration it's always best to start off lower and work your way up. Still it's tasty and I bet toasts up a treat. I'm in favour of using the yeast water to build a biga and using it as a starter. The oats and honey must really add a lot of flavour. 

HeiHei29er's picture
HeiHei29er

It is a nice blend, but what comes through the most is the toasted buckwheat.  I can't be sure, but it seemed to me the buckwheat aromas became more noticeable later in the fermentation.  It could also be that I was less stressed with trying to figure out the slack dough (I had decided that I had done all I could and it would be what it would be), and I just finally noticed it.  The buckwheat flavor/aroma clearly comes through in the final loaf.

I was leaning towards the biga as well, and your comment confirms it.  Will go that route for bake #2.