Still testing high percentage prefermented flour to obtain an open crumb. So this time stepped up the wholegrain to 50% of the total flour. The levain still contained 40% of the total flour at the same 1:1 ratio of whole wheat to bread flour as the final dough. I’m quite happy with how this turned out, but I think I could increase the hydration another 2% to see if that would open up the crumb even more. I’m really enjoying the poppyseed crusts and once again I added the seeds to the pan after buttering it.
Once the dough was developed, the total time of bulk at 82°F was just under two hours. Final proofing also at 82°F took only an hour and 50 minutes.
For 1 loaf in a 9x4x4” Pullman Pan
Overnight levain build, at 74°F about 10 hours to rise 3x.
In the morning add salt to water and dissolve. Add levain and mix.
Add flours and knead until good gluten development, I will use my Ankarsrum Assistent and mix until a good windowpane is achieved about 12 mins.
Remove dough from the bowl and do some slap and folds. Next set up aliquot jar.
Bulk fermentation at 82ºF.
End bulk when aliquot jar reaches 40% rise.
Shape the dough into a batard and place in buttered Pullman pan. Optional, sprinkle poppyseeds on the bottom and sides of the pullman pan.
Shape and allow an initial final proof warm until 100% rise in aliquot jar, start oven preheat 425ºF preparing for steam bake.
Allow the dough to rise until within 1 cm of the rim of the pan and then bake immediately or about 130% rise in the aliquot jar.
Once oven reaches 425ºF score top of dough and then brush with water. Optional sprinkle with seeds and then score. Transfer to oven and bake with steam for 25 mins. Vent the oven (remove steaming gear) rotate the pan and drop temperature to 350ºF. Bake for another 30 mins rotating as needed until browned. Remove from the pan and place directly on the rack baking for another 5-10 mins to firm up the crust if desired.
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Overall happy with this bake, the crumb looks great to my eyes and the enhanced wheat flavours from 50% whole wheat are just great. The convenience of the process going so quickly is also great especially when there is nothing lost in flavour or texture.
Hope you give a high percentage pff a try in some of your bakes, I’d love to know the results.
Benny
Good lord, Benny, your loaves look even more perfect time after time. I tip my hat!
TomP
Tom you are far too kind, thank you. Practice and repetition really helps me improve.
Benny
Wonderful loaf, Benny. It looks nice and light, great for sandwiches. Well done. Thanks for the formula as I'll give this one a go. I'll adjust up the dough weight as my Pullman is the larger one.
Cheers,
Gavin.
Thank you Gavin, I hope you do give this a try and please let me know how it turns out. I’d love to know how reproducible the results are.
Benny
Beautiful bake Benny!
Nice ear, nice open crumb, and I love the seeded crust, they're a bit messy but they add a nice crunch. I'll bet it tasted great.
Tony
I agree with you on how messy the seeds are and also that they do add a lot to a bread Tony. Thank you for your kind comments as always.
Benny
Stellar bake Benny, the recipe that can't be improved is still getting better and better. I too want to give this one a try.
I did have the thought that putting all/most of the whole grain into the preferment might be something to try just to see if such a fabulous outcome could still be achieved like that.
For two reasons: putative softening of bran, but also nutritional reasons - phytic acid is reduced by long fermentation. Are these factors that you think about?
The science behind PA is mostly coming from in vitro studies though, and you managed a very fine crumb so clearly bran isn't a problem here, so perhaps the benefit of doing this isn't so clear either.
-Jon
Jon, thank you for your comments. I had thought about making the levain all whole wheat. I changed my mind at the last minute thinking that it could cause the bread to be more acidic tasting with the bran acting as a buffer and allowing the LAB to produce more acids during fermentation.
I hadn’t given phytic acid a thought in a long time, but what little I know about it, it seems that LAB produce phytases that help reduce the binding capacity of phytic acid. Also, lower pH also helps speed up the action of phytases. Phytic acid acts as a chelator of minerals so reducing the binding capacity should make the minerals more bioavailable and absorbable into our bodies in the GI tract. What I don’t know is how much time is a factor. If the dough is acidic enough and the LAB population is large enough, does the dough need to ferment for a long time for the phytases work, or is a few hours enough? You pose a great question and it isn’t something I was considering I have to admit.
I believe that phytic acid concentration is greater in the bran and germ portions of grain. It would make most sense, if you’re wanting to make the minerals more bioavailable, in this formula to make the levain fully whole wheat to give the phytases more time to reduce the phytic acid.
Definitely something to think about. I’m not sure that I have it all correct.
Benny
During WW II, Ireland experienced severe food shortages. the Irish government progressively required that flour for bread be made from higher and higher extraction flour until it went to 100% extraction. After that, it was found that the incidence of rickets, calcium deficiency, and TB increased in children, even with fortified flours. Apparently extraction in the range of roughly 90 - 92% did not result in these problems.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/03324893231161928
Since I read this paper I prefer to sieve out whole grain flour to around 90% extraction (or less, depending on how the screen and flour play together). Of course, if you get enough of these ingredients elsewhere then 100% extraction will be less of a nutritional problem.
TomP
These nutritional issues related to phytic acid are far more significant in places where there is poor nutrition overall. In first world countries we will get enough of our mineral nutrients from other sources and don't need to rely on bread for it. In places with food shortages, it is far more important that the nutritional impact of everything they eat is maximized.
Benny
Great looking loaf 🍞 Already added poppy seeds to my shopping list 😉
Not sure if with this amount of WW you can get even more irregular crumb alveolation and bigger alveoli. The crumb looks pretty dang good to me.
Maybe if you add the whole amount of WW to the starter as suggested in the previous comments. This will of course change the acidity profile. On the other hand you still have the main dough fermentation, the final proof and last but not least the temperature with impact on the acidity.
I’m certain all not mad at the crumb that’s for sure! That’s the fun of baking bread isn’t it? There are so many things that you can change that can alter the final bake.
Benny
Wonderful loaf and exemplary write up, Benny. Thank you for sharing. Like the others who have posted, it is definitely the kind of loaf I would like to add to my baseline breads, so will also be trying it out. Been looking for a good straight forward recipe like this one.
I know you are aiming for an open crumb, so wondering how you go about figuring out the right balance between BF, proving, and putting in the oven times/rises.
This is definitely going into my bookmarks!
When I think about putting something new together, I look through my previous formulas as a starting point and make adjustments. Then depending on how it turns out, make more changes that I think might improve the bake. For this one I looked at previous lean 50-60% WW sourdough batards that I had baked and how they turned out. I do like to end bulk at 40% for many of my bakes as I find it challenging to shape when the dough is more fermented than that. Also shaping earlier can lead to a more irregular crumb. Although I’m hoping for an open crumb, I still like it to be somewhat more even than what many IG bakers like to have.
Anyhow, by doing a series of similar breads I can learn a lot about how to improve it, so repetition is something I like to do. Keeping detailed notes on each bake really helps.
Benny
The crumb looks like lace! You’ve definitely achieved a stunning loaf and with the excellent write up it should be a great inspiration to others to make a move in this direction of increasing the levain amount.
I have been increasing my home milled flour amount with each bake and been very pleased with the flavor profile.
Congratulations! 🎉 🙏 c
Thank you for your very kind comments Caroline. Maybe someday if I ever move to a place with a much larger kitchen I’ll get a mill, but for now I’ll have to continue to get what I can find in stores. Fortunately there are some that sell local organic stoneground flours.
Benny
There are more old mills reopening around here out in the countryside so that’s exciting . Tom gave me Kamut from one of them when we met up in April . If I request the whole grain they have said they will set it aside for me. I just have to find the time to drive to their open mill days.
Did you sell your place in Ft Lauderdale? What will you do now in Winter?