Seeded Multigrain Sourdough

I have a stash of seeds in the fridge that need using up so I thought that Hamelman’s 5 grain levain would be perfect for this, plus it is so incredibly good! I kept the weight the same but went to town with the selection of seeds. I also changed the selection and quantity of flours. Because of all these changes, I’m not calling it 5 grain levain. ?

For some reason, I thought that Hamelman did a ferment-autolyse without the soaker so that’s what I did. When I went back to check, he puts everything in the bowl except for the salt. Oh well! ??‍♀️

Recipe 

Makes 3 large loaves

Soaker:

50 g cracked rye berries 

50 g cracked oat groats

50 g raw sunflower seeds

50 g old fashioned oats (large flake)

36 g millet seeds

36 g amaranth seeds

25 g black sesame seeds

25 g chia seeds 

50 g flax seeds (freshly ground)

7 g salt

448 g boiling water

Levain:

70 g twice refreshed starter (procedure in recipe)

275 g strong baker’s unbleached flour

345 g filtered water

Extra wholegrain flour to refresh the levain

Main Dough:

600 g strong baker’s unbleached flour

100 g freshly milled Selkirk flour

50 g freshly milled Rye flour

77 g freshly milled Durum flour

30 g plain yogurt from the local dairy

330 g filtered water

21 g Pink Himalayan salt

Extra 50-70 g water

Two nights before:

1. Before bed, take 5 g of your refrigerated starter and refresh it with 10 g of filtered water and 10 g of wholegrain flour, and let it rise overnight at cool room temperature.

The morning before:

1. Feed 30 g of filtered water and 30 g of wholegrain flour, to your levain and let rise throughout the day at cool room temperature.

The evening before:

1. Coarsely mill the rye berries and oat groats  to crack them. 
2. To this combo, add all the seeds aside from the flax. Toast in a 350 F oven or in a dry frying pan until lightly golden and fragrant.
3. Grind the flax seeds in a “Bullet” or coffee grinder and add to the toasted seeds.
4. Add the salt and the boiling water. Stir, cover and let cool overnight 
5. Measure out the flours for the main dough and place in a tub. Reserve.
6. Eleven hours before the the final mixing of the dough, add the 275 g of strong baker’s unbleached flour and the 345 g of water to the levain and keep covered at room temperature (74 F).

Dough making day:

1. Place the dough water in the bottom of a mixing bowl, add the yogurt and 620 g of the levain. Stir and add the reserved flours. Using a stand mixer, mix on the lowest speed until you have a shaggy dough with no dry flour. Let sit for one hour.
2. Add the soaker and mix on speed one for 3 minutes. If the dough start climbing the hook, add the extra water bit by bit until it smooths out. I made 4 batches and some needed 50 g, others needed more. 
3. Add the salt and mix on speed two for 4 minutes.
4. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and place in a tub. 
5. Let the dough rise for an hour in a warm spot, do a coil fold and then let rise another hour until double (I gave my dough an extra hour as it wasn’t moving very fast and it never did double. Maybe I should have let it go longer but I had other things to attend to). 
6. Pour the dough out onto a bare counter and divide into 3 loaves of about 900 g. (I differed from this. I made boules of 830 g and combined the leftover 210 g of the 4 batches into an extra loaf. I wasn’t sure that 900 g would fit my Dutch ovens during baking). 
7. Lightly flour the top of the portions and gently round into boules using a dough scraper. Let rest 30 minutes on the counter. 
8. Do a final shape by flouring the rounds and flipping the rounds over on a lightly floured counter. Gently stretch the dough out into a circle. Pull and fold the third of the dough closest to you over the middle. Pull the right side and fold over the middle and do the same to the left. Fold the top end to the center patting out any cavities. Finally stretch the two top corners and fold over each other in the middle. Roll the bottom of the dough away from you until the seam is underneath the dough. Use your hands and a bench knife to round it off. Finally spin the dough to make a nice right boule. This dough was quite sticky so I used more flour than usual during shaping. 
9. Sprinkle a mix of rice and AP flour in the bannetons. Place the dough seam side down in the bannetons, cover, let rest for a few minutes on the counter and then put to bed overnight in a cold (38F) fridge.

Baking

1. The next morning, heat the oven to 475 with the Dutch ovens inside for 45 minutes to an hour. Turn out the dough seam side up onto a cornmeal sprinkled counter. Place rounds of parchment paper in the bottom of the pots, and carefully place the dough seam side up inside. 
2. Cover the pots and bake the loaves at 475 F for 25 minutes, remove the lids, and bake for another 22 minutes. Internal temperature should be 205F or more.

Oven spring wasn’t what I’ve been getting lately but then again, there are a ton of seeds in this bread.