Oat Bran Sourdough - The Flavor!
Wanted to share this success. Like you all, I hate discarding so much starter, so I've been experimenting with uses - pancakes, english muffins etc. Got the English Muffins to where I'm happy - more batter-like than dough is the secret. Emboldened by English Muffin success, I wanted to experiment with some bread. I tried this formula:
2 days before baking:
Fed 25g of my 100% starter with 50g each KAP and water = 125 G.
Day before: saved 30g, and used 50g in a levain (discarded the rest).
Levain
50g starter
68g AP flour
12g Rye
100g water
Baking Day
Dough - about 68.5% hydration
650g KAP
480 water
All of the Levain (230g)
85G White Whole Wheat (KA)
45G Rye
20G Oat Bran (Bob's Red Mill)
10g salt
7 g flax seed meal (Bob's Red Mill)
Mix all but salt. Autolyse 90 minutes. Add in salt and knead 10-12 minutes by hand.
Bulk ferment 2.5 hours with S&F at 50 minutes
Preshape; rest for 10 minutes, then shape.
Final Proof 90 minutes (my house was a cool 68F, while outside was about 20F)
Then, my usual baking regimen: 500F preheat with cast iron dutch oven/combo cooker; 20 minutes covered at 475F; 20 minutes uncovered (final 10 minutes with parchment paper removed).
This bread came out great! The flavor was really sublime - slightly nutty and sweet - I guess from the oat bran/flax seed meal combo. Not much sourdough tang at all, which was fine with me. The crumb was a little too open, owing I think to not enough kneading/development. We demolished the first boule with some homemade minestrone and grilled cheese.
Comments
I have recently discovered how absolutely delicious adding bran to my sourdough is. I was introduced to this idea over the holidays when I baked the Genzano Country Bread from Daniel Leader's Local Breads. The Genzano is dusted with bran on the outside and it delivers such great flavour through the crust. I adapted the Genzano from being a yeasted final dough to a sourdough and loved the texture and flavour, too!
Question: can one bake in a cast iron pot lined with enamel?
but you might want to remove the lids top handle since this might not handle the high heat and just stick a piece of chopstick in the hole. Many folks don't like using their expensive enameled CI for bread baking though and use cheaper alternatives like CI dutch ovens, cheap turkey roasters, overturned SS bowls on a stone, Goodwill found thick aluminum pots etc. All work just as well.
the flavor even more you might want to try, toad.de.b's, Toady Tom's Tasty Toasted Tidbits (TTTTT) in your bread. Take some wheat bran, oat bran, wheat germ and some sifted out middlings if you have them and dry toast this mix until medium brown in a skillet on the stove top. What a difference it makes to the flavor of breads. I use about 10 g per loaf in just about any bread now a days :-)
Happy Baking
Many thanks, dabrownman, for your suggestions on a cloche. And the TTTTs look interesting; I'll have to try them.
Awesome. I use toasted wheat germ, but will now try. Thanks!