Greetings,
I recently tried the recipe on page 135 entitled "Millet Porridge and Cherry Loaf" as it sounded interesting to me. I closely followed the published recipe as it was my first attempt at this sourdough bread. My only deviation was incorporating 250 g. of Janie's Mill Sifted Artisan flour as part of the "bread flour". The hydration of the "dough" that I prepared was way off. I am wondering if anyone has attempted this recipe, and if so, what was your experience?
Very kindest regards....
I have the book and will make this recipe my next bake. When you state that the hydration was "way off" do you mean that it was too moist or too dry? With approx. 633 gr of liquid and approx. 745 gr of flour, the hydration is 85%. That's a fairly moist dough.
Greetings,
Thank you for the response! I was busy the last few days and am now catching up on things.
I found the dough to be massively over-hydrated. Water 1 and Water 2 are set forth in the recipe for the bread dough. I think my issue came with the preparation of the porridge. The recipe states to make a mixture of water, salt and millet, raise the temperature to a full boil and then simmer for 3-4 minutes. I simmered my "porridge" for 8 minutes which resulted in a slightly thickened mixture. There was a LOT of free water remaining in this mixture. This free water turned my bread "dough" into a bread "batter".
In hindsight, I should have simmered my porridge for 30-40 minutes - about five times longer than what I did. I liked the flavor profile of the bread that I salvaged from my messy dough. I will likely try recipe again with a much longer simmer time to make a true porridge. This will minimize the free water in the porridge, thus keeping the overall % Hydration closer to 85%.
Please advise of your results for this recipe.
Very kindest regards.....
I made the recipe, following the instruction carefully. Also had to simmer the porridge longer than the recipe called for. The dough was so soupy that I didn't even try to proof it in bannetons. I poured the dough into bread pans, let it proof and then baked at 375*F for almost an hour. The loaves turned out great and were very tasty.
Greetings Pete,
In my only attempt at this recipe, I sensed things were headed south early in the preparation of the dough. Thus, I was very careful to closely follow the recipe. As I mentioned, I prepared a soupy batter. I had a hunch that the dried cherries would swell the free water in the soup, resulting in something akin to a "normal" hydration dough. Wrong! I dumped in a LOT of bread flour to salvage the dough. The resulting loaf had great flavor even though the salt content was on the low side.
We will be inviting a couple to dinner in a few weeks. The woman very much likes foods featuring cherries, especially in the desserts. I thought that I would make this recipe again and surprise her with the cherries hiding this time in the bread.
Again, many thanks for the sanity check!!
Very kindest regards....