Star Wars Sprouted Sourdough

Today is the day that all the Star Wars Stuff goes on sale.  We thought it would never arrive.  Now you can buy a Hans Solo action figure as 70 year old, retired, wannabe Jedi Knight.  Lucy was just besides herself.  I think she has a thing for older Jedi’s, even if they aren’t but you have to admit, Hans has a little bit more going for him than Jar Jar does.

So Lucy thought she would come up with a multigrain, sprouted sourdough that is her new favorite to commemorate the Star Wars Trilogy’s….uuummmmm…… 7th edition.  I’m guessing that there will be at least 10 more Star Wars movies and we should see the 17th one about the same time Gillette comes out with its 17 lade razor and I hope to around to see both.

 We personally can’t wait to see all the dead Jedis coming back as their smoky silhouette selves to once again council the aged Luke Skywalker.  That was my favorite part and Lucy hopes we will be able to come back to each other that way after she is gone but thinks it might be a Harry Potter thing instead. 

After weeks and weeks of making sprouted SD breads Lucy has come to the conclusion that 50% whole grains is too much and 30% not enough so she settled on 40% sprouted whole grains as her favorite – just like she did for the whole rye in Jewish Deli Rye - or Tzitizel.

She decided on a paling bread with no add ins too.  I asked her why a big super duper, celebration bread for Star Wars would be so plain and she said Jedi’s have taken a vow of poverty and can’t eat bread that would be too showy or possibly cause flatulence.

I asked her if we were going to make a Frisbee shape to mimic a flying saucer and she about had a heart attack and said she was thinking about making 2 proud boules and placing them together on the flat side to make a Death Star – so no flat sauces here.

Our rye sour starter had been in the fridge for 18 weeks, 2 past where we would normally use it, but tit seemed to perk up OK over the 3 stag build when fed the 25% extraction hard bits of the sprouted whole grain mix of spelt, rye wheat and oat.  It did take the full 4 hours at each stage though – so it was a bit slower than the usual which seems fitting for the extension of a nearly 40 year old movie.

We are all a bit slower than we used to be – except Lucy of course.   The finished levain was retarded for 24 hours and it came out to be around 10% pre-fermented flour.  We did our 1 hour autolyse of the dough flour and water with the salt sprinkled on top.  We did 1 set of 60 slap and folds to mi in the levain and salt and then 2 more sets of 30 slap and folds on 30 minute intervals.

Grilled shrimp and veggie kabobs,

We then did 2 sets of 4 slap and folds from the compass points on 45 minute intervals.  Once the gluten development was done, we shaped the dough into a ball and placed it in an oiled stainless bowl covered in plastic wrap.  It then went into the fridge for a 21 hour retard.

Smoked pulled pork tamale with salad, green chili and Mexican beans  Today's lunch with this fine bread.

When it came out of the fridge we did a quick pre-shape into a boule and then placed it back into the bowl for a 1 hour warm up before it was shaped and placed into a trash bag covered, rice floured basket for the final proof of about an hour.  We preheated the oven to 450 F and then placed the Mega Steam on the bottom rack of the oven for 15 minutes of additional warm up to steaming speed and to let the stone catch up to the oven temperature.

Once the dough had proofed 50%, it was time for the heat,   We un-molded the dough onto parchment on a peel, slashed it in a square and slid it on the bottom stone for 15 minutes of steam.  Once the Mega Steam came out we turned the oven down to 425 F for 20 more minutes of dry heat.

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Once the bread thumped done, we removed it to the cooling rack.  The bread had bloomed and sprang well under steam - it browned and blistered well enough without it too.  We will have to wait to see how the crumb came out when we slice this bread for lunch.  The crumb came out glossy, open, soft,and moist.  It was just plain tasty and perfect for any Jedi Knight of any age,

Lucy reminds us to  not forget that salad to go with the  stone fruit and apple galette