Mixed flour bake for today
Hello,
Today's bake was yet another mash bread :). 20% of the flour was mashed. Since the PID temperature controller makes it so easy to do, I don't see any reason to not mash, because the flavor is great. This was a mixed flour mash - equal parts of rye, whole wheat, and barley, milled at home, unsifted. This loaf had a slightly lower profile than some of my previous ones, I tried a new (for me) scoring pattern and it seems to be the reason. I am happy with it. Tastes very good.
Total Dough Weight: 950
Total Dough Hydration: 68%
Total Dough Flour Weight: 565
Total Dough Water Weight: 385
Levain Percentage: 20%
Levain Hydration: 125%
Starter Percentage: 10% of levain
Starter Hydration: 125%
Soaker Percentage: 52%
Soaker Hydration: 80%
Soaker Salt Percentage: 1%
Mash Percentage: 40% of soaker
Mash Hydration: 200%
Overall Dough Salt Percentage: 2.0%
Levain:
White Flour Weight: 108
Water Weight: 135
Starter Weight: 11
Mash:
Whole Rye Flour Weight: 40
Whole Wheat Flour Weight: 39
Whole Barley Flour Weight: 39
Water Weight: 236
Diatastic Malt Weight: 2
Soaker:
All Mash
White Flour Weight: 176
Salt Weight: 3
Final Dough:
All Levain
All Soaker/Mash
White Flour Weight: 158
Water Weight: 9
Salt Weight: 8
Crumb was a little closed, but the texture is nice. Will make a good sandwich or maybe french toast for breakfast.
Cheers, and happy baking.
Hi GVZ!
Looks great! If you have been making loaves that were much taller you were probably underproofing! This looks really nice from that perspective. The three slashes will tend to make loaves shorter though for they will tend to spread a bit more after slashing. I really like the crust color. You might try a deeper slash which should make the slashes come out a bit more dramatic.
The crumb is nice but a bit uneven. While it could be handling, I am going to guess that you incorporated a bit of flour into the loaf during forming that contributed to the dense areas.
I think it is a really lovely loaf and your approach should (as you indicate) taste great! You clearly aspire for even more and that is why I offer my suggestions. NOTE: They may or may not work take you in the direction you truly want so...stay true to yourself and keep baking!
Great loaf!
Jay
Thanks longhorn. I don't think I incorporated much flour into the final dough, it was more of a rougher handling... my fault. Also, having a significant quantity of mash in the bread also has a tendency to make the crumb less open... but this one's taste was most excellent.
The crumb is pretty good but as you say a bit uneven. There are many things that could contribute to that. Handling is certainly one. And the mash can also, as you suggest. The reason I went with flour was that it seems the dense area is relatively contiguous. If it is handling one possible improvement is a shorter ferment and a longer proof to give the crumb more time to develop before baking. Of course more gentle handlng might help but might not also..
Nice loaf! Keep at it!
Jay
Thanks Jay. I appreciate your feedback. I am zeroing in on a combination of mash, soaker, levain, flavor which produces a good open crumb for a "Daily Country Bread". Except I don't live in the country. :) Yesterday/today I tried a lower 10% mash with Spelt + Whole wheat. It was much better in terms of open-crumb and still tasted great.
All of the mashes, whether it is a combination of rye/wheat/barley, or spelt/wheat, or whatever... they all taste so good when added to bread. I'm willing to take a tradeoff of a bit of openness in the crumb for flavor. Like people say, open-crumb isn't everything. But at the same time, rough handling is not good. For the above bread, I accidentally tore the dough a few times during stretch+folds.
In your recipe you only refer to white flour. Given the formula and the oven spring I am going to guess you used is bread flour and not AP. If it is AP I think you got great crumb. And if it is AP, switching to BF should allow you to handle it more roughly without impacting the crumb. I was amazed at how vigorously we degassed dough at SFBI and got really good crumb. However, they were really wet doughs, perfectly developed, and instant yeast leavened. The whole wheat, rye, etc., and starter all diminish the gluten and tend to yield tighter crumb so....I would think BF would be preferable over AP.
Two other thoughts, you might also try to get a bit more development in the initial mixing....the SFBI experience suggests that small increases in mixing development can have big impacts on the characteristics of final loaves. Bumping the hydration another percent or two should help open the crumb a bit...if you achieve the same dough development. NOTE: I don't think you need or want much more development. Just a bit to better organize the gluten to hold gas. And IMO it should be early - before or during the bulk ferment. Shortening the bulk ferment and lengthening the proof could be beneficial also as I said before.
Fun! I may try that formula!
Jay