dabrownman's blog

Lucy was trying to get back to her bread roots with lots of add ins.  This is also the 5th year since we started sprouting our own grains and adding them into breads.  Originally we sprouted them and added them into the mix when the stretch and folds began and then later started drying them and grinding them into flour too.

So Lucy went back to her roots and took half the sprouted grains for grinding and making the bran levain and left the other half to fold into the crumb like we did so long ago.  Then she decided to get some cranberries and pistachios in the mix too.  So this turned out to be an old school Lucy bread.

The 5 sprouted grains were: Kamut, red and white wheat, spelt and rye in equal amounts – half ground for the 9% pre-fermented flour, 100% hydration, single stage bran levain that took 8 hours to double. After stirring at the 4 hour mark.

The dough flour and enough dough water to get to 85% hydration were autolyzed for 40 minutes with the Pink Himalayan sea salt sprinkled on top and an extra 3% water sprinkled on top of the salt for a double hydration that totaled 88%.  We did 3 sets of slap and folds of 50, 20 and 10 and then 3 sets of stretch and folds with the add ins going in on the first set.

SD pancake breakfast

All the dough manipulations were done on 30 minute intervals.  After a quick pre-shape we shaped the dough in to a taunt, squat oval and plopped it into a rice floured oval basket that had some conn meal sprinkled into the bottom at the last minute.  It was then retarded for 13 hours.

Light P&J Rib lunch

We let the dough warm up on the counter for an hour before firing up the big oven to 500 F.  When it hit temperature, we put the lave rocks half full of water; Mega Steam, in and let it really get going for 15 minutes before the bread was unmolded, slashed and slid onto the bottom stone for 16 minutes of steam.

Shrimp Lo Mein Stir Fry with broccoli, purple cauliflower, green bean, squash, yellow & red pepper, Hatch green chili, 2 kinds of mushrooms, red. white & green onion with some chocolate graham cracker cheesecake with strawberries.

When the steam came out we turned the oven down to 425 F convection for another 28 minutes of dry heat.  When we took it out it read 208 F.   It had puffed itself up, bloomed and browned nicely as well.  We think the crumb should be fairly open, for a bread with so much stuff in it.

This bread is nice open, with a soft and moist crumb, that is tart and sweet due to the cranberries yet hearty healthy and nutty from the sprouts and pistachios.  It is one fine tasting bread for sure.  I will n=make some fine toast for sure.

Formula

9% sprouted 5 grain bran and high extraction single stage, 100% hydration, 8 hour levain that was stirred at the 4 hour mark.

Dough

4% high extraction sprouted 5 grain

43% LaFama AP

44% Albertson’s bread flour

2% PH sea salt

12% Sprouted 5 grains – whole

15% Dried cranberries

15% Pistachios

Have a salad after that appetizer dipping plate

Lucy came up with a lite whole grain sourdough bread this week.  Each of the 8 grains were only 10 grams and nine were sprouted so this is really getting close to a the same type of SFSD style bread that David Snyder is so famous for around TFL.

The main difference is the 8 different grains – Kamut, oat, spelt, rye, barley, emmer, red and white wheat and the 10 g of NMNF rye starter used to make the 8% preferment bran and high extraction levain.  Lucy really cut the levain size this at the temperature outside reached 110 F and the kitchen was hovering around 91 F.

The levain was not retarded but we expect the bread to be fairly sour due to the heat, small bran 100% hydration levain, the 3 week old retarded NMNF rye starter and retarding the shaped dough for 16 hours.  LAB real love the heat and the wet and this dough came in at 75% hydration.

The dough flour was the leftover 40 g of the HE flour, plus half Lafama AP and half Albertson’s bread flour. We did a 1 hour autolyse with the Pink Himalayan sea salt sprinkled on top.  We were at72% hydration but the dough felt a little dry when we started the first set of slap and folds so we chucked in another 3% water to get it slappable.

The first set was 50 slaps and the 2nd set was 20 and the final two were 6 and 4 – all on 30 minute intervals.  The dough had expanded nicely even with the small levain because of the heat so we pre-shaped it and shaped it into a boule before plopping it into a rice floured basked, seam side down, bagged it and put it in the fridge for the retard.

When the we took the dough out of the fridge, we also fired up the oven to 500 F with the combo cooker inside.  Slashing was not required but, when we placed the dough in the cooker and the cooker in the oven we forgot to turn down the temp to 450 F so it stayed at 500 F for 20 minutes of steam.   This hurt the spring a bit,

We love chicken, bean, cheese and grilled veggie quesadillas 

When the lid came off it has cracked a bit and we turned the oven down to 425 F convection for 6 minutes of dry baking before removing it from the bottom if the cooker and baking it another 6 minutes.  At 32 minutes of total baking the bread was 210 F on the inside and nicely brown with small blisters.

It is a pretty handsome loaf….. very crispy on the outside and more boldly baked due to the oven error for sure but we will have to wait on the inside when we cut into it for lunch.  It is nice to make a 2 day sourdough instead of our usual 3-5 day sprouted bread.  Even if the tste may nt be as complex and satisfying

This bread is open, soft and moist on the inside and it tastes as good as it looks.  Maybe not as tasty as a 30% sprouted loaf but this one is closer to the old school SFSD and sourer than a typical SFSD you will find today.  We had a simple P&J sandwich with some honeydew and strawberries for lunch and it was about the best P&J possible especially with home made 4 berry, banana and ginger jam 

Formula

8% pre-fermented 8 grain, bran, 2 stage levain,  at 100% hydration - first stage was 4 hours  and the 2nd stage was 2 hours when it doubled – 91 F in the kitchen made the levain twice as fast as usual

Dough

8% HE 8 grain flour

42% LaFama AP

42% Allbertson’s bread flour

2% PH Sea Salt

Enough water to get the hydration up to 75%

There is Lucy's salad and a crack shot:-)

It has been a while since we made pizza and this is a shame after having it again on Sunday.  We have made Giant Strides in making pizza the past couple of years.  Once we had Biaco’s pizza. the best in the USA, we knew exactly what to do take ours to another level that more than rivals Chris Boaco’s masterpieces.

We had additional firepower in that we used the last of our home grown, heirloom cherry tomatoes to make the sauce this time to go along with the home smoked smoked sausage, onions and crimini mushrooms.  The very thin pepperoni was smoked but done elsewhere half a good as we would have smoked it.   The dough had our usual sundried tomatoes, fresh garlic and fresh rosemary in it.

The 10% pre-fermented flour, Albertsons bread flour, at 100% hydration with a pinch of Instant yeast made for the 4 hour poolish.  We added half Lafama AP and half Albertson’s flour for the dough and brought the hydration down to 70% with 2% sea salt, olive oil and sugar.  The EVOO and sugar are there to get the dough to brown properly in the 8 minutes it is in the 550 F oven.

The gluten is developed with 3 sets of slap and folds on 30 minute intervals and 2 sets of stretch and folds. The slops were 50, 20 and 10 and the stretches were from the major compass points.  The add ins went in on the least set of slap and folds

 As some as the gluten development as done, we oiled a bowl and put the dough in it to retard for 24 hours.  Do not forget this step if you want a dough that is flavorful and extensible but strong enough not to tear when making the pie.

We took the dough out fo the fridge 3 hours before we wanted to stretch it out.  1 hour after warming up we divided it into (3) 250 g pieces for 3 pies and let it proof on the counter for 2 more hours.  This dough stretched easily but we rolled it because we love our alligator rolling pin that is perfect for this. 

The only fresh topping was some fresh mozzarella and the red and orange peppers.  We had a blend of Parm, smoked provolone, asiago, Romano and mozzarella for the base cheese with fresh grated Romano and basil for garnish.

This pizza was thin, crisp and killer - as good as you can get anywhere on the planet.  We have cut down on the topping thickness and increased the flavor dramatically,  Now Chris Bianco has something to shoot for:-)  The next step is to make it on our temporary WFO brick oven so stay tuned.

It's not all about pizza.  Gumbo and cheesecake are OK too

It was very strange this week to see a new show called Year Million.  This week’s episode was called.  Hey Dude, Where’s my Body?  It was all about Lucy and my fascination with trans humans and our eventual transition of our brains and identity of who we are to the cloud to become immortal -  getting rid of our weak bodies that get diseased and kill us off today – not to mention cost a fortune to maintain…. only to die.

Transitioning ourselves to the cloud solves many of the world’s ills today.  No more planet despoiling to keep ourselves watered and fed.  No more worries about getting a good education or getting a good job to sustain ourselves and families. No worries about getting sick and dying.  No more poor sick or starving.  You can be whatever you want to be, any day you want to be it creating your own world and existence.  It has an appeal that they claim will be overwhelming.

We are in the beginning of virtual reality and artificial intelligence today.  We will soon be able to transition into Metaverse 1.0 where we can temporarily live in in whatever world we want in the cloud but be able to unplug and return to reality.   Metaverse 2.0 is where you leave your body behind never to return to the reality you left and be forever immersed in whatever world you want.  The question is when and since it isn’t any time soon enough to help Lucy and I out of our old age -  why worry about it?

Last week’s 40 % sprouted rye with walnuts and figs has been a real treat to eat this week for breakfast lunch and dinner.  I even tore up pieces of it and put it, as untoasted croutons, on some green chili chicken stew to sop up the soup.  This week Lucy went back to the whiter side of her pantry and came up with a half white sprouted SD bread.

The sprouted grains were Kamut. rye, spelt, oat, red and white wheat and barley.  After sprouting, we sifted out the bran to make a 100% bran, 100% hydration, 7 grain sprouted levain using 10 g of our just refreshed NMNF rye starter.  After it doubled after the 3rd stage feeding we retarded the levain for 24 hours to bring out the two sour notes.  The levain was 10% pre-fermented sprouted bran.

We stirred it down and left it on the window sill to warm up.  After the levain started to rise again, we autolyzed the rest of the dough flour and enough water to bring the hydration up to 85% for 1 hour with the PH sea salt sprinkled on top.  The bran levain had risen more than 50% when it hit the mix for the first set of 50 slap and folds to get it and the salt well mixed in.

Nothing like a good bacon cheeseburger or baked chicken breasts

We did 2 more sets of 20 slap and folds and 2 sets of stretch and folds from the compass points – all on 30 minute intervals.  We then pre-shaped and shaped the dough and placed it into a rice floured round basket, seam side up, and then bagged it for a 12 hour retard in the fridge for the final proof.

Yes that is a ship Kabob, even if spelled horribly,  and skewered Veggies with Basmati rice and more green veggies 

We took the dough out of the fridge to warm up a bit and fired up the oven to 500 F preheat with the combo cooker inside.  The dough looked to be fully proofed, instead of the 85% we like, so we didn’t expect huge spring and bloom.  We un-molded the dough, onto parchment, on a peel and then slashed the dough tic-tack-toe style before siding it into the combo cooker for 20 minutes of covered steam at 450 F.

After the lid came off, we continued to bake at 425 F convection for 15 minutes until the boule was nicely brown and 209 F on the inside.  It sprang and bloomed like we expected with some blistering making for a handsome loaf.  We will have to see what it looks like on the inside later today but expect it to nice even without the spring.  Don’t forget that today is national doughnut day – one of Lucy’s favorite days of the year.

The crumb was open, soft and moist - more open than we thought it would be for sure.  It is hearty; healthy and just plain delicious.  Can't wait to have it as toast and in a sandwich tomorrow.  Thi sis Lucy's new favorite sprouted grain bread and I have to agree woth her and can see why it is so good.

Formula

10% Pre-fermented sprouted 7 grain bran, 2 stage levain at 100% hydration that is retarded for 24 hours

Dough

40% Sprouted high extraction 7 grain flour

50% Albertson’s bread flour

85% Overall hydration using water

2$ Pink Himilayan sea salt

How about some salads for Lucy

After quite a few white breads in a row I was worried that Lucy may have gone to the white side and then she came up with this one.  Originally it was supposed to be a 40% rye Jewish Corn Bread but that got lost in the translation of having to replenish our very old NMNF stiff rye starter.

We started the process of replenishing the starter at 100% hydration and, at the end of the 3rd stage, it had tripled so we retarded it for 24 hours.  Then we split it in half.  We then fed half the sprouted rye bran and enough water to make it 100% hydration and let it double again and then retarded that part.

The other half was fed whole rye at 66% hydration and when it had risen 25% we retarded it as our new NMNF starter we will use over the next half year with no maintenance whatsoever.  The HE sprouted flour and some whole rye was used as part of the dough flour for this Friday’s bake.  In the end this bread ended up being 10% whole grain rye and 30% sprouted whole grain rye with the remaining 60% was Albertson’s bread flour.

It looked pretty naked so Lucy added in 10% each toasted walnuts and black mission figs, 2% caraway and 2% total of equal parts of anise, coriander and fennel seeds – or favorite mix of bread spices.  Overall hydration of this bread was 80%.

Since retarding the old NMNF starter for 24 weeks, the new starter build and the levain for 25 hours each for this bread was not enough….. we decided to retard the shaped loaf in the Oriental Pullman for 12 hours too – nothing like 4 retards to make a loaf of rye bread – 3 just won’t do for a purebred German like Lucy – even though Germans probably didn’t even retard their rye breads at all I’m guessing.

This one had a 1 hour autolyse with the PHSS sprinkled on top.  Once the levain finally I the dough, we did 3 sets of slap and folds, 4,10 and 4 followed by 3 sets if stretch and folds from the compass points. all on 30 minute intervals, go get the add in’s incorporated.  Once we shaped it and plopped it into the sprayed Pullman pan, we let it sit for 30 minutes before putting it in the fridge for 12 hours.

There is that salad for Lucy

When we took it out of the fridge the next morning we fired up the oven to 500 F.  When the pan went into the oven between the two tones we turned the oven down to 450 F for 15 minutes of covered steam and then another 15 minutes of covered steam at 425 F.  After 30 minutes of steam we removed the lid and continued baking at 425 F convection for 20 minutes.

We then removed the bread from the pan and finished baking it directly on the rack for 10 more minutes.  When we took it out of the oven at the 50 minute mark it read 207 F on the inside.  It browned up beautifully but we will have to wait n the inside until we let it sit wrapped in plastic wrap overnight to redistribute the moisture before slicing for breakfast.

This one came out just the way we had hoped.  Soft, moist and open on the inside with that bread spices giving off aroma as well as flavor.  The figs and walnuts are wonderful additions to what would be a plain Jewish Deli Rye bread.  The additions make it special and handsome to look at as well. It is one delicious bread.  Now we have to toast it and put some cream cheese on it for breakfast.

Here are the ribs and the strip steak for Lucy's baker

Formula

15% prefermented whole grain rye and sprouted rye bran flour levain at 100% hydration. 8% whole rye and 7% sprouted rye bran

Dough

2% whole rye

23% high extraction sprouted rye

60% Albertson’s bread flour

80% overall hydration

10% Mission Figs

10% Toasted Walnuts

4% Bread spices – half caraway the other half, amice, coriander and fennel

2% Pink Himalayan sea salt

After my future son in law brought me a beautiful loaf of Acme SD from SF this week. Lucy decided to make one of her own that she thought would look better on the inside and taste lot better too – the two areas the Acee bread was a bit lacking.

Wow you can really tell the 4 different grains here!

I also missed Lucy’s 13th birthday the week before when I was visiting my Dad after his knee surgery.  She was not happy about me being gone but life gets in the way of celebrations sometimes and I am happy to note that my Dad’s recovery remains on track.

The bran levain is s much darker than the dough flour.

Lucy was hoping I would bring her a pet raccoon from the Ozark mountains of Southern Missouri but we couldn’t quite get the one living under his shed trapped and every time it came out I wasn’t quick enough getting to the .22 rifle to bring Lucy home a pelt either.  So poor Lucy didn’t get a present this year except for this bread and she doesn’t get any of it to eat either!

This is a simple formula, as far as formulas go with Lucy, like most SFSD breads tend to be.  The levain was a 2 stage, 12 hour. 100% hydration, 12% pre-fermented sprouted grain one where all the bran from the sprouted grain was used for the first stage and the high extraction sprouted grain was used for the 2nd stage.   Once the levain doubled after the 2nd stage, it was retarded for 24 hours to bring out more sour notes.The 4 sprouted grains were rye, red wheat, spelt and Kamut and the overall sprouted grains came in at 20% making it a healthier and heartier SFSD white bread variety.  The overall hydration was 80% with the 80% white flour being LaFama AP and Albertson’s bread flour both of which were on sale this week for $1.49 and $1.79 for 5# bags at the grocery store. The 2% salt was pink Himalayan sea salt.

We did a 1 hour autolyse with the salt sprinkled on top and we did a double hydration with 2% water going in with the levain before the first set of 40 slap and folds.  We then did 2 sets of 10 slap and folds and 3 sets of 4 gentle slap and folds all on 230 minute intervals.  The dough has risen about 40% when we pre-shaped it and then shaped it into a squat oval.

We plopped it seam side up into a rice floured basket and bagged it in a new trash can liner for 14 hours of retard overnight.  When we took it out of the fridge we fired up the oven to 500 F with the Combo cooker inside.  Once hot we un-molded the dough onto parchment on a peel, slashed it 6 times, cross hatch style, like the Acme bread and put it into the oven as we turned it down to 425 F – the supposed temperature used at Larraburu.

Killer bruschetta using heirloom cherry tomatoes from the back yard and that Acme Sourdough bread.

It helps to have a nice sourdough blueberry pancake breakfast on bake day

Since the dough was cold I upped the stem period to 24 minutes from our usual 18 to make sure that the dough had enough time under steam to spring.  We were hoping, since it was a whitish bread, high hydration and cold, that it would blister nicely under steam as the crust gelatinized it would trap the water vapor from below to cause blisters right under the skin.  That is Lucy’s thinking at any rate and she is sticking to it!

It did spring and bloom explosively under stream, showing it was a bit under proofed and there were quite a few blisters too.  Once the lid came off we turned the oven to 425 F convection to brown it up which it did nicely.  We took it out of the oven when it read 209 F on the inside.  We will have to wait to see what it looks like inside but the outside was not quite as nice as Acme’s perfect 10 score that we gave it earlier this week but this one was close at a 9.

The inside of this bread is what SFSD is all about.  Even though it had 20% whole sprouted grain the crumb was very open.  It was also glossy, soft and moist.  The best part is that this bread tastes terrific - fantastically delicious.  My future son in law says that this bread is hands down way better than the Acme loaf he brought me - even when it was as fresh as this one. We ate a quarter of the loaf straight away as part part of cheese, tomato, bread, fruit and melon plate as an appetizer with a nice glass of red wine.

Formula

12% pre-fermented 4 sprouted grain flour, 2 stage, 100% hydration, bran levain retarded for 24 hours.

Dough

8% high extraction sprouted 4 grain – Rye, spelt, Kamut and red wheat

40% LaFama APp

40% Albertson’s bread flour

80% water - overall hydration

2% PH Sea Salt

Lucy reminds us to never for get the salad!

My future SIL had a bachelor party in SF over the weekend and he was kind enough bring me a boule f the closest thing that Acme makes to traditional SFSD.  It was a bit more than day old by the time I got it.  Here is the website - they just call it Sourdough - http://acmebread.com/bread

It is a handsome loaf for sure.  Deeply browned, scored perfectly with some blistering.  I give it a 10 on looks alone.  The crumb is moderately open for a bread that is all wheat grain - white flour.  I give it an 8.5 on the crumb.

It is slightly sour as today's SFSD breads seem to be and it is a a total white flour bread made of wheat so the taste is pretty bland.  I would prefer one with a bit of rye and spelt in it - say 5% each and one with a bit more tang to it so I give it a 7.5 for taste.

Overall it gets a 8.67 out if 10 - one fine bread for a balery that makes a lot of it.  Now I have t make some cioppino to see how it sops up a fine fish stew.

This is the last of the series end up at with 100% sprouted grain bread.  We started at 30% then 40% than 50% and last week was 75%.  What we learned last week was that the dough was getting very fast and it over proofed in the fridge during a retarded final proof.  So we cut the pre-fermented flour in the bran levain to 10% hoping to slow the dough down but did retard the levian for 24 hours after it doubled after the 3rd stage.

Rather than retarding the final proof we let this bread bulk ferment on the counter for 5 hours in our warmish kitchen after the 2 hours of gluten development using slap and folds and stretch and folds.  We kept the 1 hour autolayse.  The hydration ended up at 80%, 5% lower than last week because  it was so fast and over proofed the week before with 25% less whole sprouted grain.

Look how this proofed seam side down in the basket.  I've never had a loaf proof and crack like that on the smooth side before - weird!

The bran levain was so small that some of the bran ended up with the high extraction dough flour this time so not all the bran got the full immersion and softening in 100% hydration and the acid of the SD for 36 hours.  It was 78F in the kitchen overnight.

The 7 sprouted grains, in equal amounts, remained the same: red and white wheat, oat, barley, spelt, rye but this time we doubled up the Kamut hoping for that color to come through more.  This dough was really fast because we fermented it on the counter.  In 5 hours it had tripled!  I thought it was over fermented for sure but I degassed it and pre-shaped it and then 10 minutes later did a final shape.

This week was Hamburger Once a Month Day with home made buns. And we love grilled shrimp kabobs with grilled veggies

We plopped it into a rice floured basket seam side down because we knew we didn’t want to slash this giggly mass after it proofed in the trash can liner.  We checked it at 30 minutes and it was already 50% proofed so we fired up the oven to 500 F with the combo cooker inside.  In an hour it was 95% proofed. Over proofed for sure but not horribly so.

We also love grilled Ahi Tuna.  Yummy!  The cherry tomatoes from the back yard make killer bruschetta for lunch

We quickly un-molded it onto parchment on a peel and slid it right into the hot cooker and in the oven it went as we turned the heat down to 450 F for 18 minutes of steam.  When the lid came off it had cracked OK but no huge spring.  We turned the oven down to 425 F convection for 6 minutes of dry heat.

We then took the bread out of the cooker completely and finished baking it on the bottom stone for 6 more minutes.  At that point, the bread read 208 F on the instant read thermometer and was fairly brown but we turned the oven off and left the bread on the stone with the door ajar to see it would take on some more color.

Well it didn’t so 5 minutes we put it on the cooling rack.  The Kamut color did come though too.  Now we wait on the crumb shot for lunch.  I would expect it to nit be as open at the 75% but still very nice since it proofed up so well.  With the longer bulk ferment that tripled, I would expect a very nice sour coming through with this one.  It smelled wonderful coming out of the oven so early this morning.'

Yes it is Cinco De Mayo ...so a fresh blackberry margarita is in order. Have a Fiesta!

This one did come out a bit more sour than usual which is fine for a whole grain bread.  It is pretty tasty overall and the crumb was open soft and moist.  It is hearty and healthy too.  So a whole sprouted grain bread is possible but you really need to watch it since it lightening fast and I was not fast enough. 3 hours bulk and 45 min proof is enough already!

A prickly pear margarita  is the perfect chaser for the blackberry one

Formula

10% pre-fermented 7 sprouted grain bran levain 100% hydration

90% of the remainder of the bran and the High Extraction 7 sprouted grain flour

80% hydration overall

Lucy says to not forget the salad with all other good stuff

This was a crazy week and Lucy is about as happy as I have ever seen her.  There was so much new, interesting and good news fr where we live it was just amazing.  I have to admit that I am pretty well walking on clouds myself.

First off, what made Lucy happy was that robots are starting to design themselves now and the first new section of jobs they want to eliminate is – THE BOSS.  That’s right.  So many people have been replaced by robots in lower skilled repetitive jobs that there are very few of them left that aren’t either targeted to be replaced or being replaced already.

This made Lucy go nuts all week.  Just the idea that I would be replaced was like winning Powerball for the poor thing.  She kept looking at me like I was dead meat until I told her that she would never ever see it Baking Apprentices will be replace first.   Since I am an owner Boss not just the Boss, If I don’t buy the robot to replace me…… than I will still be around for as long as I wish to be - Yea for me!

Arizona was the first state this week to approve auto pilot, driverless cars anywhere in America.  We have been testing them and found out they drive better than humans.  Uber was so excited they gave everyone free rides this week.  That means that folks that drive for a living are toast – replaced by a robot.

We have been blessed to live in Gilbert AZ.  For years it has been at the top of the best places for families to raise their children, plenty of jibs, low housing costs, low food costs, great healthcare, low taxes – just one of the great places to live since it never ever snows, hardy ever rains and perfect for Snowbirds and retirees too.  This week we found out more good news.

Tortilla Soup

Arizona just took 5 of the top 7 high schools in America according to US News and World Report.  They are all branches of the same charter school called Basics.  They took the first 3 places plus 5th and 7th places.  The branches are from Scottsdale to Phoenix all the way to Tucson.  Arizona was the first to get into charter schools in 1994 and now it is paying off.  It is much harder to get into these schools than Harvard or Stanford but the graduates go to those Universities or any other of their choice easily.

Stuffed Pork Loin Roast

Great news for sure but not as important as this week’s bake.  This is week 4 of the bran levain, 7 sprouted grain sourdoughs with increasing hydration.  Lucy started at 30%, then 40% then 50% sprouted grains and this week she jumped up to 75%.   Can 100% be next?

Everything was the same as the last few weeks with the following changes.  This was a sprouted bran, no high extraction sprouted flour,  3 stage, 100% hydration, 14% pre-fermented flour levain that was retarded for 24 hours instead of being used right away.  We wanted that bran to be as wet and attacked by the acid for as long as possible.

 This should soften the bran as much as we could to get the most open crumb – we like light and airy whole grain breads.  The other major change was to bulk retard the dough for 4 hours because if we left it out on the counter till the next morning, it would have been way over fermented.

We also only did 1 set if slap and folds before switching to 5 sets of stretch and folds on 30 minute intervals followed by a 1 hour rest before retarding the dough overnight.  Less slapping and being more gentle should open the crumb too.  It fermented well in the cold – nearly doubling.  We let the dough sit for exactly 1 minute the next morning before pre-shaping it.  Then an hour later, we did the final shape into an oval after it had warmed up a bit but was still very cool.

An hour later we fired up the oven to 500 F with the Mega Steam dry  lava rocks in a pan in the boottom if the oven – no DO this week.  We also did a cornstarch glaze, alaDon Baggs, to begin the test of what effect it might have on blisters and cool dough.  The dough hit the heat at about 1 ½ hours after final shaping.

It looked over proofed by about a half an hour tome and was way too jiggly.   We slashed it straight down the middle batard style, and slid it onto the bottom stone and then poured 2 cups of heated water onto the lave ricks as we shut the door. As we turned the oven own to 460 F for 16 minutes of steam.  Once the Mega Steam came out (the pan was dry so it could have used more water), we turned the oven sown to 425 F convection for 14 minutes of dry heat when it browned up nicely. 

Rosemary Yukon Gold Potatoes pan caramelized in butter.  The first 8 minutes are under lid and steam so no browning takes place, photo below but poof, as soon as the lid comes off and 6 minutes later, they are brown from caramelizatioon since potatoes are plants and carbohydrates - Sugars linked together in long chains with protein bonds.  These potatoes are delicious!

We brushed the outside again with the cornstarch glaze to shine it up some more.  It looks OK the outside, nothing special – no blisters but we usually only get them with white breads and this isn’t one.  The bloom was minimal and spring just enough to dome the top a bit but we will have to see if the process we used helped the crumb as much as we hope it did - there is still hope for it.

30% sprouted grain crumb crumb above and 75% below

I don't like the taste of this crust with the corn starch glaze on it.  It tastes burnt to me.  You can see from the photo above that the 30% was way more open than the 75% as was the 40% and 50% but the 75% is pretty open for this kind of bread it was a bit over proofed and wet.  it was very soft and moist too and tasty as all get out .......so we are pleased with it for sure.

Formula

Levain - 14% pre-fermented 7 sprouted grain, bran, 3 stage 100% hydration levain retarded for 24 after doubling.  Use when taken out of the fridge after stirring down and it rises 25% again.

Dough

61% -  7 sprouted grain High Extraction flour – spelt, oat, barley, rye, Kamut, red and white wheat

Enough water to bring the over all mix to 86%

2% Pink Himalayan sea salt

 Here is the Rose Levy Beranbaum’s take on brushing on a crust

Type of Glazes and Toppings
A crisp crust: Water (brushed or spritzed)
A powdery, rustic chewy crust: Flour (dusted)
A soft velvety crust: Melted butter, preferably clarified (1/2 tablespoon per average loaf)
A crisp light brown crust: 1 egg white (2 tablespoons) and 1/2 teaspoon water, lightly beaten and strained (the ideal sticky glaze for attaching seeds)
A medium shiny golden crust: 2 tablespoons egg (lightly beaten to measure) and 1 teaspoon water, lightly beaten
A shiny deep golden brown crust: 1 egg yolk (1 tablespoon) and 1 teaspoon heavy
cream, lightly beaten
A shiny medium golden brown crust: 1 egg yolk (1 tablespoon) and 1 teaspoon milk, lightly beaten
A very shiny hard crust: 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch and 6 tablespoons water: whisk the cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of the water. Bring the remaining 1/4 cup
water to a boil and whisk the cornstarch mixture into it; simmer for about 30 seconds,
or until thickened and translucent. Cool to room temperature, then brush on the bread
before baking and again as soon as it comes out of the oven.

Note: When using an egg glaze, it goes on most smoothly if strained. I like to add a pinch of salt to make it more liquid and easier to pass through the strainer.  An egg glaze will lose its shine if using steam during the baking process.  My preference is to use Safest Choice pasteurized eggs.

The past two Friday bakes were a 30% and 40% whole sprouted 7 grain sourdough breads.   So this wee Lucy upped the sprouted 7 grains to 50%hoping the crumb would still be open by following last weeks method. 

We used 14% pre-fermented flour for the 100% hydration bran and high extraction, sprouted 7 grain, 3 stage levain that still took 12 hours to be ready in our warm kitchen,  We did a 1 hour autolyse with the PH salt sprinkled on top.

We did 3 sets of slap and folds on 30 minute intervals  and 3 stretch and folds on 20 minute intervals before letting the dough bulk ferment in the counter for 6 hours before shaping a and placing it ina squat oval basket for a trash can liner covered final proofinng of 1 3/4 hours.

We baked it in a combo cooker at 500 F f\or 5 minute before turning it down to 450 F fir 11 more minutes.  Then we took the lid off and turned the oven down to 425 F convection this time.    6 minutes later we removed the bread from the CC bottom and let it finish baking on the bottom stone for another  minutes until it read 210 F on the inside.

We sort if squished and mangled this one coming out of the basket when It stuck but it did spring bloom and brown up nicely in the steam and heat,  I would expect the crumb to have suffered from the sticking but you never know – we will have to wait and see what it looks like later.

This bread came out open, soft, glossy and mpist,  But it best attribute it that it s just plain delicious,  Couldn't wait to get some home grown tomatoes, basil, Parm, cracked black pepper,EVOO and balsamic on it for lunch.  Yummy Yummy Yummy!  This is so much better than the 30 and 40% versions but we love our whole sprouted grains.

Formula

Levain – 14% pre-fermented flour 100% hydration, 3 stage bran and HE sprouted 7 grain, 12 hour levain

Dough

36% HE sprouted 7 grain

50% Albertson’s bread flour

2% Pink Himalayan sea salt

Enough water to bring the hydration up to 80%.  This bread cost less than a dollar to make including the electricity.

Lucy reminds us to never forget the salad