Della Fattoria's Seeded Wheat Sourdough

Hello Everyone,

I have been baking sourdough bread weekly for at least 5 years now, but this is my first blog entry, and my first time posting a picture on Fresh Loaf!  I participated in Stan Ginsberg's Rye Test this winter, and really loved learning so much and trying out such a variety of recipes, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to post pictures to share.  To be honest, I am still figuring it out, as I can't figure out how to add another picture to this post. I really miss having new recipes to work on every week, and I am hoping that blogging my own bread adventures will push me in new and different directions.  This is such a great and positive community, and I have learned so much just by reading various posts here!  I am excited (and a little intimidated) to share my bread with all of you:-)

Lately I have been trying out a variety of seeded sourdoughs.  I really enjoyed the Two Castle Rye recipe in Advanced Bread and Pastry as well as the 5 grain sourdough rye from Hammelman's Bread, and this week I decided to try out the Seeded Wheat from Della Fattoria's new cookbook. I am really pleased with the intense flavor in this 70 % whole wheat bread! This may in part be due to the (unintended) delayed fermentation it underwent, but it also comes from the mixture of toasted sesame, pumpkin, and sunflower seeds (as well as untoasted flax and polenta).  Despite the intensity of the seeds in the flavor profile, my husband, who does not like seeds in his bread, really enjoyed it.

I followed the recipe pretty closely, but I did use a slightly sifted whole wheat flour.  I purchased a bunch of Great River's organic Wheat bread flour (self-described as "lightly sifted of bran") in the hopes that it could be a stand in for high-extract flour, but it is in fact very low-extract and I now use it as a wheat flour.  I loved the way the seeds are added into the very wet dough, instead of soaked in advance, as it makes the bread baking process one step quicker, but I do think the dough could have used an increase in hydration, and I will up the water content a little next time I bake it.  The formula uses a small portion of firm sourdough (13%), and the recipe is for one 3 lb. loaf.  Since our ambient room temperature in the winter hovers in the low 60's, the bread rose much more slowly than the recipe described.  I mixed the dough at 2 pm, saw very little rise by 6, but shaped it anyway and let it rise (slightly) until 9, then popped it in the fridge until morning (6 am ) when I brought out the heat lamp and let it rise until 1:30 p.m.  Despite the long fermentation, the bread is only slightly sour, while the whole wheat seems to contribute a very sweet earthiness which complements the seeds.  Next time I plan to mix the dough in the evening and let it rise overnight (when our heat can drop as low as 55), just like my adaptation of Forkish's Overnight Brown, which is the familie's favorite and our normal weekly bake.

I am excited by this recipe, and plan to try out Della Fattoria's meyer lemon and rosemary bread today!