Multi-Grain Sourdough with Porter

I have never made beer bread before, so I had to do it, inspired by dabrownman's 16 grain and some other wonderful beer breads I have seen on this site.  My husband is a real beer guy, so the first order of business was not to use a beer he wanted to drink.  Someone got him some porter, and it is not his favorite, so I had my start. I should point out that I do not like beer, which is strange for a girl originally from Milwaukee. 

I did a three stage levain build (per dabrownman's recipe) and prepared the soaker.  I wanted to have lots of seeds and grains in the bread, so I kind of morphed dabrowman's recipe and my adapted five grain into one recipe.  Both the levain build and the soaker smelled great, but that hot porter and the seeds really had a wonderful aroma.  Loved it.

It was a very fast bake and browned beautifully.  The crumb was incredibly moist....perhaps I could have used less porter. I think the beauty of this bread is that you can use so many different combinations of flours and seeds.  I wanted to use some of the many different flours I had on hand, and that is why I used kamut and oat flours.  I actually had many more flours around, but just decided to stop with a couple of different ones that I don't use as often as I should.  I also think I was a bit loose on some of the measurements, as I tried to write them down as I went along and I wasn't sure I remembered them quite correctly!

We had some much-needed rain this weekend in southern California, and as the clouds started to clear last night we had a another stunning winter sunset.

I enjoyed the sunset with a glass of Pinot Noir (not beer!), celebrating the big Green Bay Packers win.  My husband drank his beer out of my Green Bay Packers shareholder glass. Yes, you can take the girl out of Wisconsin, but once a cheesehead, always a cheesehead.  I was on pins and needles the whole game.  I had to get the bread going after the game to calm down!  I had an elaborate dinner planned, but my husband requested pizza, so that is what we had--an appropriate dinner on a big football Sunday.  Tonight, I am making a new recipe:  risotto with wild mushrooms and peas.  Wish me luck.  Best,  Phyllis

Multi-Grain Sourdough with Porter

Inspired by dabrownman’s 16 Grain and my adapted Five Grain Levain recipes

Sourdough Levain Build

Build 1

12 g rye/wheat/AP starter

15 g water (meant to do 12g!)

12 g KAF white wholewheat

39g total

Build 2

22g water

22g dark rye

44 g total

Build 3

24 g water

24g KAF white whole wheat

48g total

131g Total Levain Build

 Soaker

50g rolled oats

50g sunflower seeds

10g sesame seeds

5g poppy seeds

45g flax seeds

20g kamut seeds

30g millet seed

30g bulgur

30g pumpkin seeds

30g cous cous

400 grams hot Wachusett Black Shack Porter

5 grams salt

675g Total Soaker

Final Dough Flour

50g kamut flour

20g oat flour

85g KAF white whole wheat

20g dark rye

225 KAF bread flour

8g Salt

100g Wachusett Black Shack Porter (I kept 200 on hand, but did not need more than the 100g.  The soaker was still quite wet, so it will depend on how dry the soaker is to determine the final amount of porter).

Total 508g Final Dough

1. Prepare the Levain:  Build levain over hours/days.  I eyeballed it to see when it was ready to be built again. It depends on the temperature in your kitchen and other factors, but it has to be at least 6 hours or so.
2. Build the Soaker:  I heated up the porter before adding it to the seed mix.  (I actually wasn’t watching close enough, and it almost boiled over!)  Stir the porter into the seed mix very well and seal your container tightly.  It really smells great. Leave on the counter for hours or overnight until liquid is absorbed.
3. Final Dough Autolyze: Mix together the levain, soaker and all final ingredients except the salt. Let the mix utilize for 20-60 minutes.
4. Mix Final Dough: Add the salt and use your stand mixer and mix for 3-5 minutes on medium speed.
5. Bulk Ferment:  Bulk ferment at room temperature for 2-3 hours, turning every 45 minutes.
6. Shaping:  Divide into two loaves and shape into rounds. Let rest 30 minutes.  Final shape into batards or rounds.
7. Final Fermentation:  Place into brown rice coated bannetons, and put in plastic bag and refrigerate overnight.
8. Baking:  With normal steam, 235C (450F) or 40-45 mins, turn the loaves half way through the bake. (I retarded the dough and took it out in the morning. I then let it rest at room temperature for about an hour. It popped up nicely. In the meantime, I preheated the oven for about an hour to heat up the baking stone.) (For this particular bake, I used my covered baker, preheated at 500 degrees, baking with lid on for 30 minutes; lid off at 435 convention for 10 minutes). If you make smaller loaves, watch carefully as this dough was a fast bake.
9. Cool: On wire rack at least 30 minutes before slicing.