Ru's Seeded Sourdough -- My Attempt
A week or so ago Ru posted her seeded sourdough, and I felt inspired to give the recipe a try.
The recipe is unusual for me in that with the sole exception of nine grams of salt there are no additional ingredients on the second day. No more flour. Not even any new water.
The night before, I combined 20 g of starter, 40 g of whole wheat, and 36 g of water for the levain. (Ru uses a rye starter; mine is a 50/50 combo of AP and whole wheat fed on a 1:2:2 basis.) I toasted 15 g of black sesame seeds, 40 g of white sesame seeds, and 25 g of flax seeds and then poured 66 g of boiling water on the mix. (The 66 g exceeds Ru's 55 g, but seems about right.) Lastly, I mixed 330 g of bread flour, 80 g of whole wheat, and 296 g of water into a somewhat shaggy mass. After a little time in the fridge for the seeds and dough mix, all sat out for the overnight.
Just before 9:00 am the next morning, I combined the salt, levain, seeds, and dough and repeated Ru's four sets of mixing (2-3 min.) with ten-minute rest intervals. After fifty minutes I did a stretch-and-fold, and there were three of those sessions. After the third S&F the dough sat in my cool kitchen as the afternoon warmed a bit. Eventually the dough went onto the countertop around 5:45 pm, was pre-shaped, and had a thirty minute bench rest. After final shaping into a batard, the dough went into a banneton. I expected a slow rise, but the wee beasties had sprung into action, and by 8:00 pm I sensed the need for refrigeration. My intent had been to retard overnight, but I could see as the night wore on that waiting until the next morning to bake could be a mistake. By late evening the dough nearly filled the banneton, and the poke test produced dents that sprung back, but not fully. Time to heat the oven.
The dough went into the oven shortly before midnight. The first twenty minutes were at 475 degrees (F), and then I reduced to 450 degrees. The total bake time was forty minutes, and the loaf weighed 815 g.
A fun loaf to make, and the seeds definitely add something both in taste and texture. My wife tends to like seeded loaves, so I am waiting for her reaction when she has a chance to try some tonight.
Comments
That is a beautiful looking loaf! Hardly something a mere 'newbie' could make! :) Well done!
Many thanks. It took me a long time (and many loaves of practice) before I got even a little bit of the hang of mixing dough and -- more importantly -- having some sense of judging the conditions. Loaves that are familiar turn out better than those that are out of my practice range. For example, I can make a baguette that tastes fine, but the crumb looks nothing like anything found in Paris. For now my name will remain intact.
A baguette specialist would not be able to bake every type of bread of finest quality. The same applies to you. Just because you're not making exceptional baguettes doesn't mean you're still a baking newbie! Or else no one could earn a bread master tittle :)
Your bread looks very nice. Great bake indeed!
Thanks for the compliment. I agree that progress in one area should not be ignored just because progress in other areas has not occurred. In the beginning I focused on boules to get that shaping down. Then I finally moved to batards. Not a newbie, I suppose, but still mindful of the experience, skills, and knowledge that others on TFL have.
and now I want to make it again myself! It is very good and I your wife enjoys it. the crumb is lovely and you made a lovely batard indeed!
happy baking
Leslie
Thank you (and my wife did like the bread). The crumb turned out nicely, and I do feel that pulling the plug and baking at midnight rather than going for an overnight retarding worked out well.
Your loaf looks great!!! I'm so honoured that you tried it, thank you. What is the temperature in your kitchen? Maybe that's why your dough proofed faster than mine. Or maybe your starter is just more lively? Hmmm....
I love the crumb you got, it's so pretty. Next time I make this loaf I'm also going to leave off the seeds from the outside, I like the look of your loaf.
Did you find the hydration of the dough okay? I think you would have noticed that the seed soaker was quite dry, I like doing this because I don't like excess water ending up in my dough.
Very well done! Please let me know what your wife thinks of the taste, I'm a seed loaf person too!
Happy baking
Ru
"Your loaf looks great!!! I'm so honoured that you tried it, thank you."
Thanks, and you are very welcome. As I mentioned above, it was a bit strange not to be measuring a bunch of ingredients on the baking day, but you did a great job of setting out the procedure and having a lot of the prep done in advance.
"What is the temperature in your kitchen? Maybe that's why your dough proofed faster than mine. Or maybe your starter is just more lively? Hmmm.... "
I figured this might come up, so I left out the details in my initial posting. In the morning the kitchen was 67 degrees (F), which is about 20 degrees (C). Although the kitchen did warm up as time passed, I was not seeing a lot of increase in volume during the bulk fermentation, nor was I seeing much in the way of bubble production in the glass container. Late in the afternoon, I set the container of dough in a sunny spot, and that additional heat was sufficient to get the dough to rise and produce bubbles. On the other hand, it also gave the dough enough heat so that the proofing in the banneton sitting on the counter moved along faster, and the dough probably retained enough heat so that even when placed in the refrigerator the dough expanded noticeably. If I had not put the glass container in the sunny spot, I suspect that the bulk fermentation and proofing times would have been much longer.
"I love the crumb you got, it's so pretty. Next time I make this loaf I'm also going to leave off the seeds from the outside, I like the look of your loaf."
This is really funny. My first reaction was "Oh my, her loaf has all of these nice seeds on the outside and mine has very few." During the four initial 2-3 minute mixes, I worked fairly hard to get the seeds distributed throughout the dough, and they are scattered pretty uniformly inside, but that means not so many on the surface.
"Did you find the hydration of the dough okay? I think you would have noticed that the seed soaker was quite dry, I like doing this because I don't like excess water ending up in my dough."
The hydration of the dough is fine and reminded me of a Hamelman dough rather than a Forkish or Robertson dough, but the hydration could be upped a bit if desired (but only a bit). The seed soaker was dry, but not a crusty dry, simply dry because the seeds had soaked up all of the water. If someone wanted to use a little more water in this step, that could be done, but I would probably go with what I did.
"Very well done! Please let me know what your wife thinks of the taste, I'm a seed loaf person too!"
My wife liked the seeds for the texture, but she wasn't sure whether she could really taste three different seeds (and I am inclined to agree). We talked about using other types of seeds. I made a loaf once that included sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds. Three different tastes, sizes, and textures.
Thanks again for posting your bread and supplying the inspiration for a really fun bake.
If I had had some in the house, I probably would have replaced the black sesame seeds!
a handsome fella...:D Kat
Thanks. I did not know what to expect of the crumb when I sliced the loaf. My chief fear was a dense crumb, but the result was very pleasing (and the seeds scattered inside are neat to see).
in that beautiful, luxuriant crumb!
Lovely job which makes me want to try…
Enjoy it!
Carole
Thanks. This bread is definitely worth trying. The crumb is also as tasty as it looks.
I see a whopping huge success.
Lovely!
Thank you very much. Today I toasted a couple of slices and enjoyed them greatly.