20210517 School of CLAS - 100% Whole-grain Cranberry Walnut Bread
To learn more about concentrated lactic acid sourdough (CLAS), please see here [1] and here [2].
Cranberry walnut bread is my family's favorite dessert bread. I used to make it [5] mainly with AP flour. I am excited to transform this delicious recipe into a tastier and healthier 100% whole-grain bread using freshly ground flour and more advanced CLAS techniques. Thanks to CLAS, this whole-grain bread is as soft as its AP cousin and does not have the unpleasant grassy taste generally associated with whole-wheat bread. Rum-soaked cranberries, toasted walnuts, fresh flour, and CLAS create a moist whole-grain bread with mellow, complex flavors that one finds irresistible.
As usual, it's super simple to make such delicious bread with CLAS.
P.S. To prevent unsightly pinhole crumbs caused by excessive hydration of whole wheat flour, you can test the flour's absorption capacity by autolyzing it under different hydration levels and observing gluten development. The hydration at which the dough starts to slack/tear is the bottom line for you to stop adding water to the dough.
Alternatively, if your dough contains more than whole wheat flour, you can still judge the maximum hydration of the dough during the mixing process without pre-testing (such as how I do it here [6]).
Pre-dough
3% whole rye CLAS
97% fresh WW flour ground by Vitamix (Central Milling organic hard red spring wheat berries)
72% water P.S. (just enough water to hydrate the flour so that you can knead/mix easily)
0.2% dry yeast
dough temp 86F/30C-ish
86F/30C x 240 mins
Dough
pre-dough
8% water P.S. to reach your dough's maximum hydration (or slightly under)
1.6% salt
38% rum-soaked cranberries
38% toasted walnuts
Total dough weight ~1650g
P.S. Mix
Knead/mix to further develop/strengthen the pre-dough's gluten to ~ medium+ development before adding more water
Continue to mix and add more water gradually to maximize the dough's hydration
Bulk
86F/30C x 60 mins
Shape
Proof
86F/30C x 60-75 mins
Bake
425F x 10 mins w/ steam
375F x 50 mins w/o steam (P.S. adjust timing according to dough size)
[7] [8] [9] Better lighting reveals the attractive purple hue of walnut bread. [10]