40% Beremeal VSSDR
As I posted the other day, I had some beremeal, flour from an ancient variety of barley, I wanted to try using in a bread. And I also wanted to try Abe's very simple sourdough recipe (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/66384/very-simple-sourdough-recipe [1]). And although combining two unknowns (new ingredient and new process) - what's the worst that could happen? So I just went ahead, but only made one loaf instead of my usual two, just in case it's a disaster, or if it doesn't behave during bulk I could treat is as a preferment and double the recipe with just bread flour. But none of that happened, everything went fine! Here is the formula: https://fgbc.dk/13td [2] Adding water to what I thought was the right consistency took me to just over 78% hydration, but actually I think perhaps I could have gone higher, maybe to 80%.
I've never used barley before, it's interesting: very weak gluten, but not sticky, like rye. So the dough was not particularly strong, but not difficult to work with either. I developed the gluten as much as I could with some slap&folds, and traditional kneading, but it didn't give a windowpane, so I just hoped the overnight bulk would do its magic, but also wasn't sure with 40% bere it would be even possible to have a very strong gluten. Fermented overnight, for around 11 hours, at 21C. It grew a lot, definitely at least doubled (but hard to tell in a mixing bowl). Can't say it gained much additional strength overnight. Shaped into a batard and proofed for 2 hours in a "proofer" set to 27C, but in my woodpulp banneton the dough would warm up quite slowly. With weak gluten was tricky to tell when to end proof using the poke test, but it definitely grew over that time, and I decided it was ready.
Preheated the oven, scored and baked 15 min with steam and until nicely coloured without. Not the most beautiful bread in the world, slightly uneven, and got some cracks.
The crumb is very even though!
[5]
The flavour is great. Nutty and slightly sweet. Perfect with butter. Taste-wise definitely reminds me of that bread I had in a restaurant (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/66727/beremeal#comment-476167 [6]), but theirs had a much softer, fluffier and lighter crumb. And not as strong taste, but somehow more rounded, if that makes sense. I am sure they had less beremeal in the dough, and probably higher hydration. Something to try next time!
And obviously the VSSDR process works, even with big changes to the dough composition!