March 31, 2009 - 9:08pm
Four pound monster....
I baked this today.....it's a hybrid recipe of my own......a few months ago it was a sourdough Poilane....the formula has evolved to a sourdough firm starter
, with instant yeast 4 pound monster loaded with sunflower seeds, walnuts, flax seed, rainsins, and dried apricots. I added the instant yeast because the seeds, nuts, dried fruit, and whole wheat flour make the dough heavy......
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It is a well-shaped and baked monster- wish you placed something next to the bread to show the scale :)... Sounds really yummy. I am inspired- I was thinking what I should do next this weekend. I wonder if I can play with BBA's Poilane recipe to come up with my own monster too.. Maybe increase hydration, add/change flour ratios to develop more open crumb and add other ingredients, such as nuts and dried fruit... By the way, do you soak dried fruits before incorporating into the dough? I assume you add these fine ingredients towards the end of kneading, correct?
Thanks for sharing!
Hazim
As for scale, the loaf just about covers the pizza peel, and this almost covers both burners on the stove top.
I make my "firm starter" with 75% hydration starter, and adjust the formula to make 65% hydration firm starter.......@20oz. to stay in the bounds of the recipe.
At the same time, I only make 75% of the finish dough recipe at the same time. It's not a complete Poilane recipe. I make this with half whole wheat flour, and halt unbleached bread flour. I mix the flour and water/milk (50/50) at the same time and it does it's thing right along with the firm starter overnight. I stretch out the final dough, add yeast, salt, olive oil, and other ingredients if I choose such as the sunflower seeds etc...... I cut up the firm starter and place the pieced evenly over the stretched final dough. I fold all this in and start to knead and mix by hand. It's quite a mess for about 5 minutes, but then it all comes together into a nice moist, smooth dough.
I don't use any flour when I'm mixing and kneading.....The finished product is at 65%, and this is good enough for mixing and kneading without additional flour on the counter.
Rainwater- thanks much for the additional info. You will see the results of my trials :)
Hazim