Whole Wheat Spelt with Caramelized Onions & Cheese Sour Dough

20Dec

Made with fresh-milled Stardust wheat milled from Barton Spring Mills berries, as well as fresh-milled spelt.

The last bake had a higher percentage of bread flour than I’ve been using lately. This one, I went back to almost exclusively fresh-milled flour. The total percentage was 88.46%!

I decided to mimic my previous bake and used a much smaller amount of levain, which helped increase the sourness by increasing the bulk ferment. The only issue was that I added some smoked cheddar cheese directly to the levain, and that, along with the added caramelized onions and truffle cheddar cheese in the main dough, really delayed the bulk fermentation. On top of that, I screwed up and didn’t calculate the temperature of the ingredients correctly, so my dough temperature after mixing was only 70°F. I usually aim for a minimum of 75°F.

I still set my proofer to 75°F and tried to push the bulk to 60%. To make things even more interesting, after I started my initial autolyze, my wife insisted on starting our weekend errands earlier than anticipated, so I left the dough in the mixer bowl for over 5 hours! By the time I did the final mix and started the bulk rise, which was as slow as molasses, I decided to put the dough to sleep in the refrigerator overnight.

The next morning, I let the dough finish bulk rising in my proofer set to 4 hours at 75°F. I then pre-shaped, rested, and did a final proof at 77°F for 2 hours before baking.

I’ve had a few bakes where, even though the dough was not under-proofed, it exploded in the oven. I’m pretty sure my oven is running hot, so for the last couple of bakes, including this one, I only pre-heated it to 500°F instead of my usual 540-550°F.

The fresh milled flour was milled with my Mockmill 200. I sifted once with a #30 drum sieve and re-milled at the finest setting.

I used my Ankarsrum to mix up the dough and open-baked it on a baking stone with steam.

I made the caramelized onions in my mini Crock-Pot overnight. I should have used more onions, but I only had one onion left in the pantry, so if you try this, I advise adding more to your liking.

Both the onions and cheese were laminated into the dough after 2 rounds of stretch and folds.

Overall, even with all the timing issues, the crumb was fairly open for this high % of whole grains. The dough may have been slightly over-proofed, but it ended up tasting very good. The truffle cheese and sweetness from the caramelized onions were a great flavor combination.

Note: the directions below are for my normal mixing and scheduling procedures and not the bizarre ones as described above.

Formula

Levain Directions 

Mix all the levain ingredients together for about 1 minute and cover with plastic wrap.

Let it sit at room temperature for around 6-7 hours or until the starter has almost doubled. Either use in the main dough immediately or refrigerate for up to 1 day before using.

 Main Dough Procedure

Note: I use an Ankarsrum Mixer, so my mixing order is slightly different from that of a KitchenAid or other mixer. Add all the water to your mixing bowl except for about 1/4 of the water. Add all the flour to the bowl and mix on low for 1 minute, until it forms a shaggy mass. Cover the mixing bowl and let it rest for 20 minutes.   Next, add the levain, salt, olive oil, and the remaining water (as needed), and mix on medium-low speed (about speed 4) for around 15-20 minutes, until you have a nicely developed, smooth dough. You should end up with a pretty smooth and silky dough. Mix longer if necessary until you develop good gluten strength.

Remove the dough from the bowl and place it in a lightly oiled bowl, and do several stretch and folds.  Make sure the dough is as flat as possible in your bowl/container, and measure the dough in millimeters and take the temperature of the dough. Based on the chart from http://www.thesourdoughjourney.com, determine what % rise you need and make a note. If you have a proofer, decide what temperature you want to set it at and what rise you are aiming for.

Do a set of stretch and folds after 20 minutes and a second one 20 minutes later. After another 20-30 minutes, place your dough on an oiled work surface and gently pat out the dough into a rectangle. Add a layer of onions and cheese, and finish laminating the dough with the remainder of the cheese and onions. Place the dough back into your rising container and let it finish rising.

Once the dough reaches the desired bulk rise, pre-shape and let rest for 15-20 minutes. Finish shaping and place in your banneton, bowl, or on your sheet pan, and cover it so it is pretty airtight. Note: I just read a post that suggests it is not necessary to cover the dough when refrigerating it. I have not tried this yet, but that is the way most professional bakeries do it, and they do have dedicated retarders for dough.

When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 500°F an hour beforehand and prepare for steam. Let your dough sit at room temperature while the oven is warming up. When ready to bake, score as desired. Prepare your oven for steam. I have a heavy-duty baking pan on the bottom rack of my oven with 1 baking stone above the pan and one on the top shelf.  I pour 1 cup of boiling water into the pan right after I place the dough in the oven.  I then lower the oven temperature to 450°F and bake until they are nice and brown, and the internal temperature is at least 205 – 210°F.

Take the bread(s) out of the oven when done and let them cool on a baker’s rack for as long as you can resist.