The Fresh Loaf

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Almond Joy Levain

WoodenSpoon's picture
WoodenSpoon

Almond Joy Levain

 

I have been making a ton of whole grain breads lately, breads were the flavor comes entirely from fermentation and the actual flavor of the grain, and while I think that is essentially the only way that great bread should be flavored every once in a while I feel like messing around and experimenting with flavors that would be otherwise impossible to coax out of grain alone.

 

Hence, the Almond Joy Levain was born, with a crunchy crust and heavy additions of toasted coconut, toasted almond, toasted wheat bran and coconut chocolate this loaf is great with peanut butter and/or salty butter. In hindsight I would of upped the hydration by 7-10% but the autolyse was so darn wet I was scared to add more, and by the time I was folding in all the additions it was to late to add the liquid that it was suddenly painfully apparent I needed.

 

Heres how I made it

  • 206g sifted white wheat (sift it yourself and save the bran)
  • 34g unsifted red fife
  • 80g T85
  • 40g Ap
  • 40g Bf
  • 80g Youngs chocolate stout (20%)
  • 268g Coconut water with pulp (67%)
  • 80g Levain (20%)
  • 10g Salt (2.5%)
  • 47g Toasted coconut flakes (12%)
  • 72g Toasted sliced almonds (18%)
  • 92g Chopped coconut chocolate (23%)
  • 23g Toasted previously sifted white wheat bran (6%)

 

  1. autolyse @ 0 min
  2. mix in salt and levain @ 40
  3. stretch and fold @ 50
  4. fold in almonds, coconut and bran @ 80
  5. fold in chocolate @ 120
  6. stretch and fold @ 180
  7. preshape @ 220
  8. shape @ 255
  9. retard @ 360

The next morning, bake at 550 for 10 min with steam, then turn the oven down to 480 and continue baking for 15 minutes, then down to 465 for 10 or so minutes, then down to 450 until the loaf is done.

 

 

 

Comments

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

top notch as well - thanks to the low hydration :-)  Almond Joy bread sounds wonderful.  I wonder if Lucy has coconut chocolate in her pantry? Young's double chocolate store is pretty killer too.  This has to be a treat for a desert bread.  Well done and

Happy baking WS

nmygarden's picture
nmygarden

WS, we can always count on you for inserting a creative twist. What a treat you've devised! I didn't know coconut chocolate exists, but now am compelled to locate some.

Love the scoring, too, evidence that if a little is good, then a whole lot more is excellent. Enjoy ... and come back to see us real soon!

Cathy

bread1965's picture
bread1965

Wow.. I love the scoring and the idea of this bread.. I've bookmarked the page and really must give it a try at some point.. thank you for sharing.. i can almost taste it now! Thanks! bake happy..

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

in my pantry is crying it's eyes out not to be included in such a delight!  Marvellous scoring!  Think a higher hydration would change the effect?

I'm currently munching on dried melba with one side coated with what appears to be crystallised honey garlic icing.  I'm thinking... and twisting ideas...  I shouldn't even be eating the stuff but it's like candy.  

What happens if a thin slice were dried? Would it be too hard to bite?  What if that thin slice was brushed with a coconut icing and dried?  

Mini

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

that looks so very, very good. What difference do you find you get from the blend of flours that you use? How did you arrive at such a blend?

dablues's picture
dablues

What is BF in the recipe?  Sorry I don't know what he abbreviation stands for.

dablues's picture
dablues

I must be dense, I just figured out what BF stands for.

cristina.w's picture
cristina.w

The scoring, crust, crumb - all spectacular! 

Cristina 

Tyler Dean's picture
Tyler Dean

Someone was wondering what BF stood for but here I am wanting to know what T85 means???

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

85 is the ash content.  French system defining flours.  A fine whole wheat flour.

If you look up wheat in Wikipedia and change the language to French, you will find the list.  :)