Whole Wheat Multigrain
Nothing new here, my old favorite: Hamelman’s Whole-wheat multigrain. This time, though, and as I have come to appreciate sourdough preferments, as opposed to yeasted ones; I chose to skip the Instant yeast altogether. I have also chosen a new collection of grains for my hot soaker: Rolled oats, millet, Semolina, and sunflower seeds.
The initial fermentation took 3 hours, while the final fermentation was 5 hours. I increased the hydration as the dough was stiff, and ended up with an over hydrated dough. To adjust, I added 50-50% whole wheat flour to bread flour to arrive at a medium to loose hydration. It was wet, still.
The preferment % was reduced as a result of adding more flours to around 9% from 12%.
My Rye Sourdough is dead. I have rushed it once by adding more than comfortable warm water, and since then it seemed to go down the path of demise. Luckily, I can create one easily from my white levain.
For a change, i wanted to bake this bread in a pan. 
Although i have not tasted the bread yet, i could describe it as follows:
Soft crust, with rich sourdough aroma. Crumb is open, cool and moist, with an appreciable sour aroma.
I have yet to decide whether or not the 100% sourdough version is better tasting than the sweeter yeasted version.
Update: The flavor of the bread was great. the extended final fermentation did mask the subtle sweetness and wheatiness of the bread, and the sour tang was clearly present. Lovely bread, nevertheless.
Khalid
Comments
Great looking crumb Kahlid!
Looks like you did nice some audibles when mixing this one up and it turned out excellent.
Funny thing is I was just thinking how I never make any pan breads and maybe it's time to try one soon. This one looks like a winner.
Nice job as always.
I'm attempting to make the famous 36 hour baguettes from TX Farmer and I'm not off to the best start. I must have been brain damaged yesterday when I went to convert my 65% starter to a 100% starter for the recipe I never added any flour....just seed starter and water! Hopefully I can get my starter to activate in time to make this one. My last attempt was a failure so here's hoping for the best!
Regards,
Ian
Hi, Ian, and thanks :)
50% of the kneading was taken care of by my Mixer, and was finished off by hand (slap and fold). I'm relying more and more on my mixer nowadays to develop my dough half way through, so there wasn't much audibles as used to be.
I was eyeing my pans stacked near my oven, and thought why not bake my favorite recipes in pans every once and a while?
I've been tempted to bake some of TXfarmer's recipes for a quite some time now. I should give them a try.
Another beautiful loaf, Khalid! The crumb looks perfect. 5 hours of final fermentation? Your patience is impressive and obviously paid off. Nice to see that your sourdough version turned out so well, I may have to try this one. Was this dough hand kneaded?
Marcus
Yes, it was hand kneaded after a 5 minute slow speed mixing in my Mixer.
With it so wet you were wise to pan it up too. Love the and how it compliments your open crumb. Really like the crust too. Sorry about your rye starter but you are right, in a few hours you will have converted the white to rye easy enough.
Another nice bake. Didn't take you long to get back up to speed and hope your back is mending well.
The spell checker says to replace soaker with sake. Now there's a liquid I haven't seen used in bread, Will have to search for it :-)
I love baking, and i take it as a mental therapy.
I like your sense of humor, by the way :)
Gorgeous bread Khalid!
The crumb looks perfect Khalid. Really, can it get any better than that? I'm interested to know your decision regarding the sour version v the yeasted version. I'm betting you'll prefer the sour.
Best wishes,
Franko
Thanks, Franko! For a sandwich bread, i can't wish for more than what i got. Flavor-wise, sourdough version lost much of the attributes of the original recipe; the subtle sweetness, and wheaty aroma were subsided by the dominant sourdough tang. My wife, and i prefer the yeasted version. then again, this is not a fair comparision, as the previously baked yeasted version contained a different mix in the soaker, namely buckwheat, and coarse wheat. Moreover, the prefermented flour was reduced unintentionally, thereby increasing the final fermentation period, hence the sour tang.
I believe, that i should bake this bread as 100% sourdough with similar ingredients and procedures to the yeasted version, and then do a comparision.
A beautiful finished crumb Khalid
If your pre-fermented flour dropped to c.9% then the fermentation times are bound to be extended.
And I guess the result will be great flavour too!
All good wishes
Andy
Thanks, Andy! True, the flavor was enhanced, Sour-wise. It is an enjoyable bread, nevertheless.
Khalid,
What a beautiful loaf. I can't wait to hear how it tastes compared to the commercial yeasted version.
When I convert recipes to using WY with my whole grains I use 15% pre fermented flour and then let it bulk ferment overnight in the refrig. If a dough is on the wet side it generally stiffens up more overnight and is easier to handle in the morning - especially when oats and seeds are added that haven't been soaked prior to being added to the dough. The following day all I have to do is shape and proof then bake. (I learned this method from baking txfarmer's 100% ww sourdough breads and I liked it so much that I do it with most all of my doughs now.)
Anyway....your loaf looks absolute delicious and the crumb looks excellent for one containing so many seeds and that used SD only to leaven it!
Take Care,
Janet
Regrettably, i don't have the luxury of fermenting a dough overnight, the retardation i can do is 14-16 hours until i come home fromk work, in which time the sourness will dominate other subtle flavors. Nice method by the way.
I've described the outcome in my reply to Franko, above.
Thanks for your kind comments.
Hi Khalid,
Sounds like you have your experimenting cut out for you now that you have begun to change methods. The fun begins :-)
Yes, I understand the time element involved. There are days when I have to switch things around too but I am in my home most of the day so I have a lot more time to 'play' around with my recipes. I imagine it is a challenge having to fit work in around your baking schedule :-) but paying the bills is more important especially with a family to feed. No job = no bread.
I always love reading about what you are doing in your kitchen.
Take Care,
Janet
Yes, Janet... it sure did, pitty i can't bump up the learning curve as i wish, I'll have to do so with the time available.
By the way, why do you seldom blog about your bakes nowadays?
Thanks for your kind words!
It's a lot of work! ....though I do post pictures of breads that people do blog about when I give them a try and they turn out and I have my camera and time to do all that is required to post pictures....who knows - maybe someday I will...
Janet
Lovely whole wheat bread indeed. Really nice looking crumb Khalid. Have the sour notes become milder next day? I have read that it sometimes happens. Regards, Ray
Yes! the sourness has now mellowed, but is there still.
Very nice Khalid. Excellent crumb. I can tell you've taken care all the way through the process as the result is technically perfect.
I think sourdoughs can become milder due to the volatile nature of acetic acid. Even at room temperature it continues to evaporate.
Great work!
Michael
I never thought of it that way, Acetic volatility... I'm bound to try several tweaks of the formula.
Thanks for the warm compliment, Michael.
Michael,
I don't want to hi-jack Khalid's thread but I just read your comments and am always looking for way to keep my whole grain SD breads on the milder side. Can you please explaining what you mean by the 'volatile nature of acetic acid' ? I have never run across that before so now I want to know more.
I do know that when fermenting that the longer a sd ferments the more acetic acid is made by the LABS so I am thinking that you are referring to the bread becoming more mild after being baked and sitting for awhile but I am not sure.
Thanks,
Janet
Hi Janet
from wikipedia:
"In chemistry and physics, volatility is the tendency of a substance to vaporize. Volatility is directly related to a substance's vapor pressure. At a given temperature, a substance with higher vapor pressure vaporizes more readily than a substance with a lower vapor pressure"
A substance that is more volatile is easier to smell. Acetic acid is much more volatile than lactic. Hence why it's far easier to smell acetic than lactic.
Essentially acetic acid evaporates as does alcohol.
Michael
Hi Michael,
I know that volatility = vaporize....does that happen after a loaf is baked and it sits for several days - hence the sour taste becomes less over time?
Janet
Hi Janet, sorry for not being clear.
to quote wikipedia again...
"Evaporation is a phase transition from the liquid phase to gas phase that occurs at temperatures below the boiling temperature at a given pressure. Evaporation usually occurs on the surface."
So even at room temperature the acetic acid will continue to evaporate into the air. Proof of this occuring is that you can smell it!
This is my reasoning for perhaps why the sourness mellows in time. But it's just theory.
Regards,
Michael
Michael,
Makes sense to me. Now I will ask people for a flavor profile as the bread sits....I know my breads stay fresh for a long time due to the sd without drying out because of what people have said. Only time a bread has dried out was when I froze a loaf and then mailed it to my brother so it was about a week in the deep freeze and then a 3 days in transit but it still tasted good! Hearty stuff :-)
Thanks for taking the time to explain this until my brain grasped it!
Take Care,
Janet