50 Percent Whole 5 Grain Sourdough
Lucy has been crafting bread for my wife of late. I’m still not eating carbs but she is which is good if you like to make bread and can’t make any for yourself. We have been trying to stick to her what she likes as best we can and, this week, we didn’t add in a yeast kicker. The 5 grains were red and white wheat, rye, oat and spelt in equal proportions.
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She isn’t much for seeds, nuts or fruits so add ins are no, nos and she wants bread that has whole grains in it, but still tall, soft and moist with a soft crust. She likes her less open traditional, loaf bread the beat so that is what she is getting. She is coming around to sourdough slowly but this one we hope will get her over the hump.
Going in the fridge for bulk ferment.
This one has an 18% pre-fermented flour ,100% hydration, bran levain made with 15g of NMNF rye starter with all the bran from the whole grains in the levain. Once it had doubled we retarded it for 24 hours.
Going in the pan for final proof
We did a 1 hour autolyse with the rest of the HE, and the 25% King Arthur bread flour and 25% LaFama AP and enough water to get the hydration up to 80% with the 2% PHSS sprinkled on top. We took the levain out of fridge to warm up, stirred it down and used it when it had risen 50% after 2 hours.
Ready for the heat.
We did 3 sets of slap and folds of 150, 25 and 25 slaps on 30 minute intervals. It seemed tight during the first set so we added another 5% water to get to slap a bit easier. We then did 3 sets of starch and folds also in 30 minute intervals and then let the dough rest in an oiled SS bowl for 30 minutes before bulk retarding it for 12 hours. No over proofing that way - yea!
After warming up 2 hours, we shaped it and put it into a wide loaf pan instead of the tall oriental Pullman and let it proof until it reached about ¾ of an inch above the rim of the pan in the middle. It hit the heat at 550 F with 2 cups of water poured over the lava rocks to make Mega Steam.
It stayed at 500 F for 18 minutes of total steam because Lucy forgot to turn the oven down again. Once the steam came out, we turned the oven down to 425 F convection for 8 minutes of dry heat. At that point we took the bread out of the pan and baked it I the stone for 8 mire minutes at 400 F convection to try to compensate for the extra heat it got at the beginning.
It worked because the bread was only 208 in the middle but really boldly baked to perfection. We will have to wait in the crumb shot till tomorrow when my wife needs sandwich slices. The crumb ended up like a sandwich loaf should. Soft moist, not so open but not dense either. Just the way she likes it!
Its a plate of meaty, juicy, smoky ribs for me but Lucy says a salad a day will keep her at bay - she lied! But a good breakfast on bake day with veggie noodle soup for lunch can't be beat.