50% Cream Of Wheat Loaf

Following up on our recent speculations about using Cream of Wheat, I made a loaf with 50% COW. It worked out very well, though there was an unplanned extra 4 1/2-day bulk fermentation in the fridge (it was supposed to be only overnight).

I didn't know how well the COW would absorb water, but I suspected that it would take longer than usual. I started with 62% hydration. I would use a little less next time since the dough ended up a little sticky and didn't want to hold its shape quite well enough. Still, a good result.

This loaf used 300g of KA AP flour. I used 80g of starter (at 90% hydration). Mixing (manual) and stretching was normal but the dough at first was fairly wet and sludgy, not pleasant to work with. But over several rests and S&F sessions it improved although it never gave up all of its stickiness. After about 4 or 5 hours I moved the dough into the fridge for an overnight stay. That was Friday night.

However, I could not get back to the dough until Wednesday morning. I feared it would be over-fermented and very sour, but neither turned out to be the case. I also had to modify my baking setup since I'm currently not supposed to lift something as heavy as my baking steel. Instead of the steel I used a large heavy baking sheet.

I shaped the loaf after a preform by stretching it out a little then rolling it tightly up into a batarde shape.

I proofed the loaf on a thin, smaller baking sheet with a layer of parchment paper under the loaf. At bake time, I slashed the loaf and put its baking sheet on the heavy preheated one, then made steam as usual.  I kept the heat up more than usual to compensate to the lack of the baking steel.

Baking time was 35 minutes at 410 deg F, then 5 minutes at 390 deg F.

In the end, the loaf rose well, the scoring pattern allowed for good expansion without too much sideways slumping, and I'm happy with the result.

As you can see, the loaf came out more yellow than most of mine do, with a fairly open crumb for the hydration.  The crumb is soft and the crust is easy to bite through, with a bit of crunch. There is a hint of sourness but mostly the loaf has a pleasant rich flavor. The taste goes very well with a cheese omelet.

Overall, as an experiment I would say it's a success. It's a little hard to say if the COW really added anything beyond making the dough a little harder to handle.  But the flavor was richer than you would expect for a plain lean dough, and with the long retardation I would have thought it would be quite a bit more sour. Maybe that's what the COW brought to the table.

TomP