38 % Whole Grain Multi Grain SD with Sprouts, Pumpkin and Sunflower Seeds

After last Friday’s bake of 2 different breads from on dough we decided to do only one this week.  We upped the whole grains to 38% from 20%  and used 8 different grains in the home milled portion of the flour.

In keeping with out recent process, we sifted out the 25% of hard bits and used that for the first feed of the multigrain levain and the 2nd feeding was the part of the 75% portion.

Once the levain had risen 25% after the 2nd feeding, we refrigerated the levain for 24 hours to bring out the sour.  We started the sprout at the same time as the levain and the berries had cited nicely after 30 hours.

We autolysed everything else except the salt, sprouts and seeds for 2 hours.  The dough liquid was unfrozen cranberry re-hydration liquid and scald liquid left over from last weeks bake.

Once the autolyse met the levain and the salt was added, we did our usual 3 sets of slap and folds of 8, 3 and finally 1 minute on 15 minute intervals.  We did 3 sets of stretch and folds on 15 minute intervals and incorporated the multi-grain sprouts during the first set and the sunflower and pumpkin seeds on the 2nd set.

The dough was then pre-shaped and shaped as an oval and placed into a rice floured basket, bagged and immediately placed in the fridge for a 12 hour retard.  We used a little less levain this time hoping to be able to take the dough out of fridge and give it 1 ½ hours to warm up instead of baking it right out of the fridge.

After 12 hours of cold the dough had risen 65% but it would be a little more than 2 hours before it was at 85% and ready for the steamy, 550 F hot maw of Big Old Betsy - between two stones.  After 2 minutes we reduced the temperature to 500 F and 2 minutes after that we went down to 475 F.

After 15 steamy, total minutes we took out the steam and reduced the temperature to 450 F, on convection now, and continued to bake for 15 minutes.  We rotated the bread every 5 minutes until the bread registered 203 F on the inside when the oven was turned off.  When the bread read 205 F it moved to the cooling rack.

The bread sprang, bloomed and browned nicely with some nice blisters showing.  The mahogany color of the crust was likely due to the cranberry re-hydration liquid.  The crust stayed crispy as it cooled and was very tasty.  The seeds were a great contrast to the open soft and moist crumb.  It was more open than I expected too a 40% whole grain and all the add ins.

This bread tastes , sour nutty and complex with just a hint of sweetness to counter any whole grain bitterness.  We actually like this bread as much or more than last Friday's fine outcome.  It comes of as a special everyday sandwich bread that most all would like.  Perhaps Lucy is starting to get the hang of this non pumpernickel baking:-) This is some fne bread all around.

Formula  

First salad greens from the winter garden

Greens become a salad

Last week's 20% whole grain bread wih scald for comparison.