Formula Development IV - You only try twice

It's a slow, agonizing sort of thing that I do.  (Especially being able to bake only once a week.  Hey, King Arthur Flour - if you need a full time high altitude test baker - call me!)  I would like to have the genius to throw many things in the bowl of My Preciousss confident that it will be good bread, but that is not me.  It never has been and I strongly suspect that it never will.  Even if the bread was delicious, I would pound myself with "what if I had done X or Y - would it be better?" No, better to stay single factor.

But I am nothing if not market driven (even overcoming my aversion to all acts photographic to post pictures of what I feel is much better described as "brown loaf - fine crumb") and so allowed myself to be influenced by cries for "More triticale, please!"

So I increased the percentage of tritcale to 20% of the total flour in a firm pre ferment. 

It was very informative. (That's never good...)

One thing to realize is like its cousin rye, triticale absorbs a lot of water.  Removing enough water  from that used to soak the oats to make a 60% hydration pre ferment with the triticale left me with an oat mixture that was wet enough to soak the oats, but not enough (even when the pre ferment was added) to create bread dough.

Did I achieve the elusive "hydration neutral?"  Hardly.  Once again there was no visible water, but the oatmeal mixture definitely gave up some moisture into the dough.  Ah yes, just what I needed - another ideal to struggle with! I'll have to tell the doctors at "The Place" about this...

 I had to add a full 8oz of water (in 2 oz increments) to get a somewhat tacky dough and I did need to mix for 8 minutes for the thing to come together.

The next thing that occurred is the dough still rose like gangbusters.  I spend time mulling over that I now have a dough that is weighted down with oatmeal and grain that has a reputation as one that won't support good rise in bread (I read that 50% triticale is an absolute upper limit) and it still rises like gangbusters.  I feel strongly that this will result in another ill conceived experiment with 100% triticale bread where I pre ferment a very high portion of the flour and bake it in a pan, but for now I must focus

In fact, there was some degradation in the quality of the crumb.  It was light and airy, but sliced thinly tore apart when buttered (unless toasted - it is delicious toasted).  And it was delicious, but not much more delicious than 10% which had a better crumb and nicer dough handling qualities.   Picture below - note the somewhat less sturdy crumb (if you can.)

So, another slow step forward only to decide that this time I went too far.

The bread wasn't bad, and to keep a complete log, I am presenting the formula in spite of its flaws.  But now I am going to stop a bit and remember what I was trying to accomplish: Take a simply made sandwich loaf (and there seem to be a lot of very small variants on the "oatmeal bread" in the baking literature), use some of the newer techniques to make it better, and use ingredients that might be more local to the Mountain West.   I have to lie to myself pretty much to claim that things like oats and triticale "could" be local.  Certainly they have wider growing ranges than the very fine, fine wheat that we produce on our high plains, but they are more adapted to cool, wet climates.  But oats are part of the original formula, triticale is my favorite, and there are times when my capacity for self deception is high. 

The formula:

Combine the two types of oats, boiling water, milk powder and shortening.  Allow to cool to lukewarm. 

Add the salt, molasses, yeast, levain, and flour.  Mix 8 minutes on the single speed of the spiral mixer. Or use your preferred method of mixing.

Let rise until doubled - 2 hours at 78-80F.  Fold.  Let rise again - about 2 hours 78-80F.  (Note the change - it was too cold in my house to use cool room temperature)

Shape and place in greased pans.  Proof (1 hour) and bake at 375F for 40 minutes.  Remove from pans and cool on a rack

And the picture (of a brown loaf with a fine crumb...)

But there are other ingredients to tweak (and using honey is just too obvious - or is it?) and the troublesome matter of "inclusions."  While not wanting to make a seedy, nutty bread (I actually have, as one of my 2011 formula goals such a thing, but not in this style) I ponder what might make a not too crunchy set of inclusions for a good "sammich" loaf.  I shall continue to ponder until I nail down next week's formula.