The Fresh Loaf

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Fig Water, Multigrain, Apricot, Walnut, Whole Wheat Sprouter

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Fig Water, Multigrain, Apricot, Walnut, Whole Wheat Sprouter

I'm sorry about the pictures on this post.  We can't get them to line up no matter what my apprentice does :-) 

Sometime things just happen because they are triggered subtly and naturally by our senses.  We are reminded of something and then these thoughts lead to other unrelated ideas.  Next thing you know you have a new bread formula designed by the simplest of things - in this case smell.

  

After our; very tasty and soft crumb, not to mention good looking, fig, hazelnut, Tang Zhong, Italian bread,  we kept and froze some of the fig soaker water for a future bake to use as part of the liquid.  We didn’t want to use figs again, but the smell of the juice made us immediately think of dried apricots so the fruit decision was made.

  

While looking for the apricots we noticed a little bit of some buckwheat flour that we had purchased for sweetbird’s beautiful, hard cider, Buckwheat Bread.   My apprentice had reminded me to use up long ago – so it would have to go into the flour along with our usual spelt, rye and whole wheat multigrain mix.  We wanted to double up the whole grains from the last bake and get them closer to 50% than 25% too.

  

Instead of a whole berry scald, this time we decided to do a 48 hour WW sprouting of 100 g of WW berries.  It has been a while since we made sprouts for bread and this was the perfect time to get back to them.

  

sweetbird’s bread has a light purple cast to the crumb because of the buckwheat and knowing we couldn’t use hazelnuts two times in a row, we immediately thought of Phil’s purple and green Walnut and Sage Super Hero Bread we like so much.  We love the purple color the walnut paste gives to the crumb so 25 g of walnuts a 12 g of walnut oil were crushed together in a mortar and then we decided to use 75 g of quartered walnuts in the dough too.

 

To try to duplicate the soft crumb that Tang Zhong provides we decided to use some yeast water in the levain.  Yeast water provides a similar soft, moist crumb.  This time we decided to build one levain in 3 stages using all 3 of our wild yeast starters; the WW and the rye sour to go along with the YW.  This levain was very active doubling in 4 hours after the 2nd build.  We fed it the all flour 3 build and let it sit on the counter for an hour before retarding it overnight. 

 

When the starter came put of the fridge the net morning we also started the 4 hour autolyse of the fig juice, water, salt, flours, malts, VWG and Toadies.  We micro waved the chopped apricots in water to get them re-hydrated and then prepared the walnut paste in the mortar and chopped the add in walnuts to get them to a more manageable size.

 

Once the autolyse met the levain we did a quick hand mix with a spoon in the bowl before doing 10 minutes of double slap and 1 folds.  We made this dough a little stiffer than normal because the apricot soak and sprouts would give the dough a little more liquid than the hydration calculations take into account.

 

We incorporated the sprouts apricots and walnuts on the first of 3 sets of S&F’s that were started 15 minutes after the slap and folds and 15 minutes apart.  By the end of the 3rd set the add ins were thoroughly incorporated and the dough felt like it was at 75% hydration instead of the 72% in the formula.

 

After an hour on the counter, we put the dough in the fridge for a 15 hour retard.  In the morning we let it sit for 30 minutes before dividing the dough in half, shaping and placing each in a rice floured basket.   We proofed them for 3 hours   in a plastic trash bag before firing up Big Old Betsy to a 500 F pre-heat.

 

We haven’t tried shaping cold dough so we thought we would give it a try and see if it affects how our normal bread turns out in any way.   After another 45 minutes the oven was ready.  We upended the baskets onto parchment paper on a peel, slashed them with a paring knife (tough going for breads like these) and chucked them onto the bottom stone.

 

A nice YW pancake with sausage and egg.

We had another stone on the top rack of the oven and steam was supplied by a Sylvia’s large size steaming pan with two towels in it and a 12” CI pan that has lava rocks in it, ala David Snyder.  Each was filled half way with water an placed in the oven at the beginning of preheat.

 

We turned the oven down to 475 F when the bread was loaded in and we steamed them for 12 minutes.  After removing the steam, we turned the oven down to 425 F, convection this time.  We rotated the bread 180 degrees on the stone every 8 minutes.  The bread tested 205 F and was deemed done 16 minutes after we removed the steam. 

We let the crust crisp on the stone with the door ajar and the oven off for 10 minutes and then removed the bread to a cooling rack.  It came out if the oven nicely browned, hardly blistered and crispy.  The crust went softer as it cooled.

The crumb had that purple tinge we like so much.  It was fairly open, moist and soft.  The taste is unique, earthy and hearty.  Everything works well together from a flavor perspective too.   It is fun bread to make and well worth the effort.  We will be making this again.  Thanks to Phil and sweetbird for the fond memories of their great bread.

Formula

WW SD, YW and Rye Sour Levain

Build 1

Build 2

 Build 3

Total

%

WW SD Starter

20

0

0

20

2.77%

Yeast Water

80

0

0

80

14.95%

Rye Sour Starter

20

0

0

20

2.77%

Spelt

27

20

20

67

9.23%

Dark Rye

27

20

20

67

9.23%

Whole Wheat

27

20

20

67

9.23%

Water

0

60

0

60

8.31%

Total

200

120

60

380

31.39%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Levain Totals

 

%

 

 

 

Flour

220

30.47%

 

 

 

Water

160

22.16%

 

 

 

Hydration

72.73%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Levain % of Total

24.34%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dough Flour

 

%

 

 

 

Buckwheat

102

14.13%

 

 

 

AP

400

55.40%

 

 

 

Dough Flour

502

69.53%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salt

11

1.52%

 

 

 

Fig Water 175 Water 200

375

51.94%

 

 

 

Dough Hydration

74.70%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total Flour

722

 

 

 

 

Fig Water 175  & Water

535

 

 

 

 

T. Dough Hydration

74.10%

 

 

 

 

Whole Grain %

46.81%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hydration w/ Adds

71.73%

 

 

 

 

Total Weight

1,561

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add - Ins

 

%

 

 

 

White Rye Malt

3

0.42%

 

 

 

Red Rye Malt

3

0.42%

 

 

 

Toadies

10

1.39%

 

 

 

VW Gluten

15

2.08%

 

 

 

Walnut Oil

12

1.66%

 

 

 

Apricots

50

6.93%

 

 

 

Walnuts 25 g in walnut oil paste

100

13.85%

 

 

 

Total

193

26.73%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weight of apricots is pre re-hydrated weight

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sprouts

 

%

 

 

 

Whole Wheat

100

13.85%

 

 

 

Comments

chouette22's picture
chouette22

I think this is a new feature (or maybe I never noticed it before)? Very convenient. I have a feeling there will be many entries from you in my bookmarks! What a fabulous bake - again!

Floydm's picture
Floydm

The bookmark feature has been around but very hard to find.

Please use it!  You'll find your bookmarks listed on your profile page, and there is a block on the homepage generated from the most bookmarked posts. I'd like to add more things like that, maybe "most recently bookmarked posts" or "most bookmarked posts by {{author}}" to the sidebar.

 Agreed that this is another wonderful bread, dabrownman! I'm trying to smell it from here!

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

The new site sure is faster than the old one so the new server is working great.  I like the bookmark thing too but have never figured out how to use it.  I keep looking for a button that says 'bookmark this post' while I'm reading it.  I'll keep trying to line up the pictures but I haven't figured it out yet.  The old site you just lined them as you inserted them but that doesn't work anymore.  The preview doesn't mach the post either. I'm sure there is something I'm missing somewhere.  My first try at posting this blew up too but it was my fault.  I went to hit enter and I hit page down by mistake - poof - gone! 

Tisi is a  big improvement Floyd and you should be proud!

Floydm's picture
Floydm

Thanks, dabrownman, I appreciate hearing that.

The "Bookmark this" button is at the bottom of each post, right above the comments. 

Regarding the editor: I'm sure it isn't you, a few of the configuration options and behaviors in the editor have changed.  I'm working on restoring it and setting it up so it behaves more consistently with folks' expectations -- and so it matches the preview.  In the meantime, thank you for being flexible.  I'll try plunking in a few images and seeing if I can reproduce what you are seeing and fix it so it works the way you'd expect it to again.

-Floyd

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

What a nice feature - thanks.  I'm sure you will get the editor and preview well behaved soon enough.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

I made for a great sandwich for lunch.  Love this combination foe the purple crumb cast, moist crumb and unique flavor.  It was fun bake and it turned out t be a keeper.

Happy baking. 

Isand66's picture
Isand66

I always suspected you were nuts like me and now it's confirmed:)

Great formula DA.   I can't wait to travel back in time later today and get home and start baking again.  I love the look of this one and the nice moist open crumb.  I bet it must taste as good as it looks.

Regards

Ian

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Before ypou know it, you and your apprentices will be back in the baking swing of things after you get the garden in shape for your wife :-)  Never done a 3 in one levain before but it was fun and very vigorous.  You would like this one Ian = some cheese would be nice in it I think.

 

Isand66's picture
Isand66

I always suspected you were nuts like me and now it's confirmed:)

Great formula DA.   I can't wait to travel back in time later today and get home and start baking again.  I love the look of this one and the nice moist open crumb.  I bet it must taste as good as it looks.

Regards

Ian

Jerrywatts's picture
Jerrywatts

Looks lovely and yummy! 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

a lot Jerry and think you would too!

Happy baking

Mebake's picture
Mebake

Great, as usual DA! Those sprouts must add exceptional flavor, you add them frequently to your breads.

-Khalid

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

in our bread.  Sprouts just take a lot longer.  Some folks don't like these chewy bits but I just look at it as part of a healthy whole grain bread.  The walnut oil paste with the walnuts add nice color and flavor too.  The fig juice added a slight undertone of sweetness too.  Will make some French toast this morning and see how it fares that way.

Happy baking Khalid.

varda's picture
varda

DA,  I hereby dub you king of the TFL mashup.   Love the color that the apricot gives to it, and probably a lot of taste too.  -Varda

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

give the crumb a very interesting bright yellow splotch with a subdued purple tinged background .  It is quite pleasing taste wise too with the apricot and fig juices contributing a light sweetness to counteract the bitterness of the walnuts.  We loved it as a French toast this morning.  This bread has a unique taste that we find especially pleasing to munch on toasted or not with a little butter.

My apprentice gets bored easily.  She can't stand eating or making the same bread more than once.   So, I have her jumping through hoops in helping to come up with interesting things for her to bake.   I am sort of hoping she will run away, to a better in home bakery, where the master is more inventive and more free with the treat.

Plus, after getting Clayton's Complete Book of Bread in 1973, which has more than a thousand bread recipes in it and not one photo of a single loaf, I am determined to come up with another 1,000 bread recipes that aren't in his book to make it a little more complete :-)  150 down in the last 15 months and 850 to go.   That should keep me going another 10 years -  what a great hobby!

Glad you like the bread Varda and...

Happy Mashing It Up!

evonlim's picture
evonlim

another good combination. especially the walnut paste, not only it gives a purple color, it enhanced the taste of the bread . baked with walnut paste before.. 

how many days did you soaked the figs untill it bubles?

evon

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

last bake had been in the fridge for a few months so i soaked them in hot water for 4 hours.  I squeezed out all the excess water from their soaking and saved the liquid for the next bake - this one.  I didn't try to make a YW out of it but i sure bet you could!  What a great idea.....

I've got my cranberry bake all figured out for next week and ...I did find some purple carrots at Whole Foods yesterday.  They don't sell them as singles and you have to buy a bunch that includes yellow and orange ones for $4.99 a pound.  You only get 2 purple ones in teh bunch......,  That is only 15 times more than I pay for orange carrots!    They wouldn't sell me just one purple carrot even when i told them i was sending it to a starving bread baker in Malaysia.    So I passed on them.

While there I saw a very nice batard baked in a bakery in a small town in AZ that has a WFO.  It was a Pecan and Cranberry SD WW, Spelt and Rye loaf.  I'll never be able to duplicate that dark mahogany crust only a WFO can make but the rest seems fine enough to give it a go.  I need to work on my bartards - with no points :-)

Glad you like the bread Evon and Happy Baking.

 

kensbread01's picture
kensbread01

I admire your baking skill!  Gonna try something like this one day! 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

try out new recipes to see if we like them.  Thankfully most turn out OK and taste good enough to eat.     Skills won't make you successful but the character attributes required to be successful will also lead to gaining skills as part of the process.   Being determined to persevere and fearless while lacking pride and ego so that you never mind people seeing you fail as often as we all do - will go a long way to gaining all things worth owning and holding dear in this world - including  the lowly baking of good loaf of bread,

It is the doing that is important.  Baking all kinds of breads will eventually reward you with what you seek - all kinds of great tasting breads and the skill to make them....at least some of the time if not most of the time :-)

Thanks for yout kind words and happy baking in 2014.Ken!  .

grdresme's picture
grdresme

These breads look awesome. I must remind myself experiment more with shapes of bread! 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

can come up with near 'scientific oddity' bread recipes but this one is  fun to make and a treat to eat.  Experimentation with bread can lead to addiction and a permanent German Bread Baking Apprentice 2nd Class though.  They don't eat much and the room is tiny so no big deal that way but my goodness ...they can nose nudge you to death wanting a rub down..  Glad you liked the bread and

Happy baking.