dabrownman's blog

It is supposed to rain for the net two days here in the AZ desert but be clear for the Super Bowl on Sunday. No worries anyway since the stadium has a real grass movable field and a movable roof too. Still, Lucy was thinking about how beautiful, if dry and desolate, the desert usually is while I was thinking about how much the desert and Lucy’s brain are alike. It’s odd how the names of her breads come about.

This one was a mix of 5 sprouted and whole grains including, wheat, spelt, rye, einkorn and emmer (Hayden Mills Farro) The whole and sprouted grains totaled 40% of the flour and half of them were sprouted. The levain was 13% of the flour and the hydration was 77% so, it was not too wet for a change.

With sprouted grains in the mix, we start on Tuesday for a Friday’s weekly bake. First the grains have to be soaked for 3-4 hours and sprouted up to the 24 hour mark or so – stopping them when they first begin to ‘chit’ showing their first tiny toots Then o Wednesday we dry them in the dehydrator at 105 F and then grind them with the other whole grains.

Then the milled whole grain sprouted flours are sifted to remove hard bits (in this case 28% extraction) that we feed to the starter in 3 stages (2 -3 and 4 hours in this case) to make the levain. This left the 72% extraction for the dough flour mix. Once the levain doubles after the 3rd feeding it goes into the fridge of a 24 hour cold retard at 36 F.

On Thursday we got out the levain from the fridge and the yogurt whey from the freezer. We zapped the whey in the microwave to thaw it out and warm it up for the autolyse which was an hour as the levain warmed up. We sprinkled the salt on the top of the autolyse so we wouldn’t forget it.

Once the levain hit the mix, we mixed it in a bit with a spoon before beginning the 3 sets of slap and folds on 8, 1 and 1minute and 3 sets of stretch and folds from the compass points . All were done 20 minutes apart, and the dough stopped sticking to the counter at the end of first set of slap and folds.

A yummy cheesecake and a deep dish chicken pot pie!

We then let the dough ferment and rest for a half and hour before putting it in a plastic oiled bowl for a 8 hour bulk ferment, followed by a shaped 12 hour cold proof making this bake a quadruple retard - a week for the starter, 24 hours for the levain and 8 hour bulk ferment and a 12 hour proof.

How Lucy comes up with these methods just goes to show how much she has slowed down. It has been forever since we tried to do this quadruple madness and the last time wasn’t pretty if I remember right - which proves beyond a doubt how much I have slowed down too.

Thank goodness geneticists have isolated a jellyfish gene that makes people not be so forgetful – great for Alzheimer’s cases. You can now be genetically modified to perk up the old brain pan in ways like never before. I’m trying to get them to put it in wheat so I can kill two birds with one stone!

Once the dough came out of the fridge after the 12 proof, we let it warm up on the counter heating pad for 1 ½ hours before starting up Big old Bets to 500 F preheat. We un- molded the dough onto parchment paper on a peel, gave it one big slash, onto the bottom stone it went and quickly covered by our heavy aluminum MagnaLite turkey roaster bottom for 20 minutes of steam . After 2 minutes we turned the oven down to 450 F

Once the lid came off, we continued baking at 425 F convection for 20 minutes until the temperature read 205 F. Once the oven was off, we left the bread on the stone for another 5 minutes until it hit 208 F and then removed it to a cooling rack. The dough sprang and bloomed pretty good under steam and browned up well enough too. It was a bit over proofed but not horribly so.

Can’t wait to see the crumb once it cools down. The crumb came out not as open as the rise and spring would suggest. Still, it was very soft moist and glossy. A perfect sandwich crumb. This is the kind of crumb we get when we do a long bulk ferment in the fridge and then a long shaped proof in the fridge too -just too much messing with the dough. Once the again, the taste was great and quite different than the porter bread. The whey added a sharper tang but not too much. The sprouts really came through too. A fine loaf that we can't wait to make toast out of tomorrow for breakfast and a sandwich for lunch.

Taco Tuesdays are always a hit as was the sandwich for lunch.

SD Levain Build	Build 1	Build 2	Build 3	Total	%
1 Week Retarded Rye Sour Starter	10	0	0	10	1.53%
28% Extract Sprouted & Whole 5 Grain	10	20	43	73	11.18%
Water	10	20	43	73	11.18%
Total	30	40	86	156	23.89%

Levain Totals		%
Flour	78	11.94%
Water	78	11.94%
Levain Hydration	100.00%
Levain % of Total Flour	11.94%

Dough Flour		%
72% Extraction Sprouted and Whole 5 Grain	185	28.33%
KA Bread & LaFama AP 50/50	390	59.72%
Total Dough Flour	575	88.06%

Salt	13	1.99%
Yogurt Whey	425	65.08%

Dough Hydration	73.91%
Total Flour w/ Starter	653
Yogurt Whey & Water	503

Total Hydration w/ Starter & Adds	77.03%
Total Weight	1,169
% Whole & Sprouted Grains - half each	40.28%

Lucy reminds us to never ever forget to add a good salad to any meal.

Read more about Tête du Désert Vide de Lucie Sud-ouest Germées 5 Pain au Levain
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January 23, 2015 - 1:51pm

dabrownman

Lucy Takes Another Shot at Not So Tzitzel Like Sprouted Rye

We baked a version of rye bread called Lucy’s Sorta Tzitzel back in the middle of August and it turned out to be one of the very best rye breads we have made to date – found here.

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/39721/lucy%E2%80%99s-sorta-tzitzel-sprouted-sourdough

So naturally, Lucy wanted to try and mess with it and see if she could improve on it somehow to make it more Tzitzelish. She dropped the whole grains to 40% from 60% but made them all sprouted rye instead of equal amounts of rye and wheat with only half of them sprouted. Tzitzel doesn’t have any sprouted grains in it but, since sprouted grain taste so much better, Lucy says –why not?

Lucy remembered to use some corn meal on the crust this time which is traditional and shaped the bread into an oval shape which is closer to the traditional batard than a boule. She also upped the bread spices considerably to get closer to the traditional rye. She also used some barley malt syrup this time in place of the red malt which would get a bit closer to traditional rye bread.

She also decided to up the hydration this time even though the last Tzitzel Like bake had 50% more whole grains and came out perfect. Hey, she won’t listen to me about the hydration anyway so I just go with the flow which in this case was a sticky, sloppy mess that never stopped sticking to the counter until the end of the 3rd set of slap and folds.

She strayed from tradition by using a New Belgium porter from Fort Collins, CO for all of the dough liquid. As far as the process goes, we followed the previous Tzitzel bake with the exception that the long cold retard was reduced to 16 from 20 and the dough was allowed to proof on the counter for 3 hours on a heating pad before Big Old Betsy was fired up to ramming speed.

We slashed the oval more traditionally than the T-Rex we used the last time and we also decided to bake under the Magnalite turkey roster bottom, used as a cloche, instead of using Mega Steam which is much more work than we wanted to expend today.

What is better than LA red hot tamale and chicken taco?August was hot, so the last rye bake really proofed well in the fridge but this one, in the AZ winter cold, just didn’t move along as fast. In fact it hardly puffed itself up at all in the fridge. Temperature really makes a huge difference in how bread ferments and proofs. So we hoped our rule of: watching the dough instead of the clock would work out so that all would be fine in the end.

We are really starting to get into home made fresh noodles, can trailrunner's SD ones be far behind? This bread baked up nice and brown, sprang and bloomed well enough and smelled teriffic as it baked - must have been the bread spices.

Can't wait to see the crumb The crumb came out soft, moist and fairly open for a bread of this type. The best part was that this bread has outstanding flavor. This isn't your 'everyday Jewish Deli Rye. This is an assertive rye that belies its tiny amount of rye in the mix. Those of you that don't like bread spices might want to cut them by a third or half.. Adding in some reconstituted dries mined onion would be a fine addition to this sour rye bread. The porter just made everything a little more complex to the palate. This is the best JDR bread we have ever made but it could be better.

SD Levain Build	Build 1	Build 2	Build 3	Total	%
10 Week Retarded Rye Sour Starter	8	0	0	8	1.42%
27% Extraction Sprouted Rye	8	17	34	59	10.44%
Water	8	17	34	59	10.44%
Total	24	34	68	126	22.30%

Levain Totals		%
Flour	63	11.15%
Water	63	11.15%
Levain Hydration	100.00%
Levain % of Total Flour	11.15%

Dough Flour		%
72% Extraction Sprouted Rye	162	28.67%
KA Bread & La Fama AP 50/50	340	60.18%
Total Dough Flour	502	88.85%

Salt	11	1.95%
New BelgiumPortage Porter 340	355	62.83%
Bread Spices	20	3.54%
Barley Malt Syrup	22	3.89%

Dough Hydration	70.72%
Total Flour w/ Starter	565
Tot. New BelgiumPortage Porter 355 & Water	418

Total Hydration w/ Starter & Adds	76.71%
Total Weight	1,036
% Whole Sprouted Rye	39.82%

Bread spices include 10 g Caraway & 10 g Anise, Corriander & Fennel

And Lucy reminds us not to forget the salad

Read more about Lucy Takes Another Shot at Not So Tzitzel Like Sprouted Rye
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January 16, 2015 - 11:00am

dabrownman

Sprouted Sourdough White Bread - A New Style SFSD

I guess this isn’t technically a white bread but is about as close a Lucy gets to one at 23% whole grain with all the whole grains sprouted, dried and milled at home. This one was a little bit different with the hydration reduced to 73% making for a much less sloppy dough than usual.

The whole grains used were wheat, emmer, spelt and rye this time and the lower hydration required 2 slaps to 1 fold when we got around to doing them. We sifted the sprouted grain and used the 28% hard bits to feed the 3 stage levain as usual. This week the 8 g of rye sour starter used had been retarded in the fridge for 8 weeks and the levain ended up being 13% of the flour.

We built the levain on a heating pad, per our winter method, and after the levain had doubled after the 3rd feeding, we retarded it for 16 hours instead of our usual 24 hours. Once the levain came out of the fridge the next day we warmed it up for 1 hour on the heating pad as we autolysed the dough flour and water with the salt sprinkled on top.

The white flour was a 50 / 50 mix of KA bread flour and LaFama AP. Once everything came together in the mixing bowl we did 3 sets of slap and folds of 7,1 and 1 minute and 3 stets of stretch and folds from the compass points. All the dough development exercises were done on 20 minute intervals.

The dough was rested between manipulations in an oiled SS bowl on the heating pad between manipulations. The dough was pre-shaped, then final shaped 10 minutes later, placed seam side down in a rice floured basket, bagged and placed into the fridge for a 16 hour retard in place of out usual 12 hour one.

Once the dough came out of the fridge the next morning we let it warm up on the counter for an hour and half before firing up BOB to 500 F with the Lodge combo cooker inside. We planned to watch it closely after over baking last week’s first attempt with the cooker due to a faulty probe thermometer. So this week’s theme is’ no thermometer means better bread in the end!

The blisters even showed themselves on the bottom! This bread made for a fine lunch sandwich with turkey pastrmi and the usual fruits, berries veggies and salad.

Since the bread was baked seam side up, no slashing was required. After upending the dough onto parchment the transfer to the hot combo cooker was easy as pie. Once the cooker went into the oven we turned the oven down to 450 F for 20 minutes of steam instead of 15 like last week..

Once the lid came off we turned the oven down to 425 F – convection this time. The bread sprang and bloomed well under steam. And 5 minutes under the lower dry heat we took the bread off the cooker bottom and finished baking it on the stone. 10 minutes after the lid came off, 30 minutes total, we called the loaf done, turned off the oven and let it sit on the stone for 5 more minutes and then transferred it to a cooling rack.

It browned and blistered well enough and the bottom thump sounded hollow too. We will have to wait and see how the crumb came out with the much lower hydration of this bake. The crust is thin and softly chewy. The crumb is soft, open, moist and glossy. The taste is superb! I prefer it to the same bread made with the same but not sprouted whole grains. We will have to see what the wife says about it tonight. I can see olive oil, Parmesan, Pecorino, fresh basil, and roseary with a grind or 3 of pepper on a plate for dipping right now.

This bread cost 95 cents to make including energy costs. If you include the combo cooker, baking stones, dehydrator and mill this loaf of sprouted SD was only $300 :-) We would like to try this recipe at 30% whole sprouted grains to see lf we like that version better. Nothing like a new style of SFSD to play around with.....

For those using thermometers, now that I have new batteries in mine, we baked this bread to 207 F. After letting it sit in the off oven for 5 more minutes, it hit 209 F.

SD Levain Build	Build 1	Build 2	Build 3	Total	%
8 Week Retarded Rye Sour Starter	8	0	0	8	1.74%
72% Extraction Sprouted Multigrain	0	0	26	26	5.66%
28% Extract Sprouted Multigrain	8	16	6	30	6.54%
Water	8	16	32	56	12.20%
Total	24	32	64	120	26.14%

Levain Totals		%
Flour	60	13.07%
Water	60	13.07%
Levain Hydration	100.00%
Levain % of Total Flour	13.07%

Dough Flour		%
72% Extract Sprouted Multigrain	47	10.24%
KA Bread & La Fama AP 50/50	352	76.69%
Total Dough Flour	399	86.93%

Salt	9	1.96%
Water	275	59.91%

Dough Hydration	68.92%
Total Flour w/ Starter	459
Water	335

Hydration with Starter	72.98%
Total Weight	803
% Whole Sprouted Grain	23.31%

4 Whole sprouted grains include equal
amounts of rye, spelt, emmer (farro) & wheat

Lucy reminds us not to forget the salad or even the smoked chicken noodle soup:-)

Read more about Sprouted Sourdough White Bread - A New Style SFSD
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January 9, 2015 - 12:22pm

dabrownman

50 Percent Whole Sprouted 16 Grain SD with Lake Havasu Desert Magic IPA

Lucy decided to do another take in her minimum 15 grain no more than 30 ingredient challenge bake found here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/39184/4th-july-%E2%80%93-15-grain-independence-sourdough-challenge-bake but this time using sprouted whole grains for 50% of the grain and cutting way back the other ingredients to a total of 22 (LaFama AP, KA bread flour, salt, water, IPA added to the 16 whole sprouted grains. 22 is a pretty big number around here so it seemed fitting for this challenge bake.

We used a new IPA for the dough liquid in this bake - A Desert Magic IPA from Mudshark Brewery located in Lake Havasu, AZ. I did get a swig of it this time and thought it tasted pretty good. My daughter’s boyfriend was kind enough to leave one in eh fridge after New Year’s. He also left a Four Peaks Peach Ale that probably won’t make it into and bread

We followed our usual MO for this bake. A 3 stage levain build that was retarded 24 hours, 3 sets of slap and folds of 8,1 and 1 minute and 3 sets of stretch and folds all on 20 minute intervals where the dough was kept warm on a heating pad. Since it is cold we added in a 1 hour bulk ferment before shaping, putting it in a rice floured basket, bagging and retarding it for 15 hours instead of 12.

We cut the hydration down to 78.5% from 80%, increased the levain to almost 15% from 11%, increased the sprouted grains to 50%. We also used our new Lodge combo cooker that Hanukah Joe brought and our new dehydrator that Santa brought – nothing like celebrating both holidays when these things can’t be found at Goodwill for a buck!

We let the dough warm up on the counter for 2 hours, before un-molding, slashing and loading it into the 500 F combo cooker and baking with the lid on for 20 minutes at 450 F. Once the lid came off, we turned the oven down to 425 F and removed the bread from the bottom of the combo cooker 5 minutes later and let it finish baking on the stone until it reached 203 F on the inside which took another 20 minutes.

Yep it is a Ande's Mint Fudge brownies with a dark chocolate ganache top and sprinkles of more Ande's mint chunks on top - delish. Lucy says no to forget a home salad with home grown cherry tomatoes and greens with chunks of Gorgonzola.

It sat on the stone in the off oven until it reached 205 F. It blistered, bloomed, sprang and browned to a very dark patina. We will have to wait and see how the crumb came out but so far this one has promise for the first bake in 2015.

The crust stayed crisp and was fantastic! The crumb was soft, moist, open and glossy. This bread tastes as good as it looks and the extra sprouted grains is what makes it taste so unusually good. Can't say more with a full mouth.

This bread made for a fine lunch including : a grilled chicken sandwich with 6 year old aged cheddar, a garden salad, sweet potato, apple, berries and Triple cream blue infused Camenbert called Cambozola.

SD Levain Build	Build 1	Build 2	Build 3	Total	%
7 Week Retarded Rye Sour Starter	8	0	0	8	1.96%
80% Extraction Whole Sprouted 16 Grain	0	0	9	9	2.21%
20% Extract Whole Sprouted 16 Grain	8	16	23	47	11.52%
Water	8	16	32	56	13.73%
Total	24	32	64	120	29.41%

Levain Totals		%
Flour	60	14.71%
Water	60	14.71%
Levain Hydration	100.00%
Levain % of Total Flour	14.71%

Dough Flour		%
80% Extract Sprouted Whole 16 Grain	144	35.29%
KA Bread & La Fama AP 50/50	204	50.00%
Total Dough Flour	348	85.29%

Salt	8	1.96%
LakeHavasuMudshark Desert Magic IPA	260	63.73%

Dough Hydration	74.71%
Total Flour w/ Starter	408
LakeHavasuMudshark Desert Magic IPA	320

Hydration with Starter	78.43%
Total Weight	736
% Whole Sprouted Grain	50.00%

16 whole sprouted grains include equal amounts of Desert Durum, Buckwheat,
einkorn, quinoa, millet, oat, corn, rye, spelt, emmer (farro), Kamut,
wheat, semolina, barley, Pima Club and White Sonora

Lucy invites everyone to take part in her at least 15 grain but no more than 30 ingredient challenge bake.

Read more about 50 Percent Whole Sprouted 16 Grain SD with Lake Havasu Desert Magic IPA
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January 2, 2015 - 6:56pm

dabrownman

50 % Whole Grain Sprouted 8 Grain SD/YW with Japanese Black Rice & Seeds

Lucy originally set out to do her take on combining Karin’s take on Maria Speck’s Aroma Bread and Karin’s Great Wild Rice bread. Both of these breads are on our favorite list and on Lucy’s top three breads for various years.

But Aroma means aromatic seeds like caraway, anise coriander and fennel but you won’t find any in this bread because we forgot to put them in. But, don’t let this keep you from adding them in your version. With or without the bread won’t know the difference even though you might.

This is also our fist sprouted flour bread with lots of add ins in it too. We subbed Japanese Black rice for the wild rice since, while still expensive half the cost of wild and nearly as tasty. We sprouted some black rice too and put it in whole instead of grinding it into flour like the rest of the whole and sprouted grains.

Besides the BR, the other 7 grains were” Hayden Mills emmer (farro), spelt, rye, wheat, Kamut, Pima Club and Sonoran White from Ramona Farms. Whole grains were 50% of the mix and half were sprouted and dried in our new dehydrator. The white flour was KA bread flour.

We sifted out the hard bits and fed them to the SD 3 stage levain build and then retarded it for 24 hours in the fridge. We also made a small 1 build, 12 hour, YW levain of 50 G that we made the next day which was ready in time for mixing it into the dough.

We thought this dough would be on the heavier side with 200 G of seeds in the mix and a YW kicker should help open the crumb some even if on the small side. We omitted the autolyse this time and just mixed everything together with a spoon and let it sit 30 minutes before the slap and folds began.

Even though the hydration was only 80%, the mix was still sloppy due to the Ramona Farms, spelt and black rice being in the mix. It finally quit sticking to the counter during the 2nd of 3 sets of slap and folds 2ith the first one 8 minutes and the next 2 1 minute each.

We also did 3 sets of stretch and folds and each of the gluten development manipulations were done on 40 minute intervals. The sesame seeds, sprouted Japanese rice, flax seeds, pumpkin and sunflower seeds were added during the first set of stretch and folds and they were thoroughly incorporated by the end of the 3rd set.

Because of the cold we kept the dough in a SS bowl 0on a heating pad during the gluten development. We skipped the bulk ferment and immediately shaped the dough, placed it in a rice floured basket, bagged it and retarded it for 12 hours. After a 3 hour warm up on the heating pad, we fired up Big Old Betsy to 500 F and put in the Mega Steam.

We upended the basket on parchment on a peel, slashed it and slid I on the bottom stone for 20 minutes of steam at 450 F. We then removed the steam, turned the oven down to 425 F convection and continued baking another 25 minutes until the temperature read 208 F wj=hen the oven was turned off the bread left on the stone till it hit 210 F and was removed to a cooling rack.

The dough bloomed and sprang well under steam, became a deep mahogany color and smelled seedy in a good way. We like everything about it so far and hope the crumb is a as nice when we slice it for breakfast toast in the morning, The crumb wasn't as open as the same bread without all the add in seeds and black Japanese rice sprouts but it was open enough not to be too dense. We thought that the YW woild do a better job of opening the crumb but we thought Lucy would be a decent bread baking apprentice too:-)

The crumb is just full of good tasting seeds and now we wish we wouldn't have forgotten the aromatic ones. In any event, this is a fine tasting bread and will be perfect with just about any kind of meal this week. It is a welcome change from the no added bits in the crumb breads we have been making of late. Lucy reminds us that she is really going to be watching us bread people this year to pick her breads of the year for 2015!

Levain Build	Build 1	Build 2	Build 3	Total	%
6 Week Retarded Rye Sour Starter	8	0	0	8	1.26%
83% Extraction Whole & Sprouted	25	0	10	35	5.52%
17% Extract Whole & Sprouted	8	16	22	46	7.26%
Yeast Water	25	0	0	25	3.94%
Water	8	16	32	56	8.83%
Total	74	32	64	170	22.87%

Levain Totals		%
Flour	85	13.41%
Water	85	13.41%
Levain Hydration	100.00%
Levain % of Total Flour	13.41%

Dough Flour		%
83% Extract Sprouted & Whole Grain	232	36.59%
KA Bread Flour	317	50.00%
Total Dough Flour	549	86.59%

Salt	12	1.89%
Water	423	66.72%

Dough Hydration	77.05%
Total Flour w/ Starter	634
Water	508

Hydration with Starter	80.13%
Total Weight	1,354
% Whole Grain	50.00%
% Sprouted Grain	25.00%

Flax & Sesame Seeds	60	9.46%
Sunflower & Pumpkin Seeds	120	18.93%
Sprouted Japanese Black Rice	20	3.15%

8 Whole and sprouted grains include equal amounts of Pima Club, Sonoran
White, Black Japanese rice, rye, spelt, emmer (farro), Kamut and wheat
Half the whole grains were sprouted

Read more about 50 % Whole Grain Sprouted 8 Grain SD/YW with Japanese Black Rice & Seeds
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January 1, 2015 - 10:15am

dabrownman

New Years Eve Pizza

We have a tradition to bring in the New Year with pizza. How this got started I can’t remember but I do remember the lobster tails that used to be NY Eve fare. This year’s crust was the best yet though and so was the sauce according to my daughter who keeps track of these things.

The crust was 12 g of olive oil, 2% salt and 70% hydration including 25 g of yeast water. The flour was (588g) half KA bread flour and half LaFama AP. The other leavens were 5 g of rye SD at 66% hydration stored for 6 weeks in the fridge and 3/8th tsp of instant yeast. No holiday pizza dough is complete without 3 different leavens according to Lucy.

Since I forgot to start the dough the day before, I got up early and mixed everything together making sure to dilute the SD starter un the water and let the shaggy mass sit for 30 minutes. Then we started in with 3 sets of slap and folds of 8, 1 and 1 minute and 3 sets of stretch and folds from the compass points – all on 30 minute intervals.

We added the 2 cloves of finely minced garlic and 1 T each of minced fresh rosemary and sun dried tomatoes during the first set of stretch and folds. These 3 ingredients make for our classic Focaccia Romana recipe that is our favorite pizza dough as well.

In between all the manipulations, the dough was kept in a well oiled bowl on a heating pad since it is so cold here. The sheets covering some for the plants got rained on last might and were frozen stiff this morning. We let it sit for 3 hours to bulk ferment and then chucked it into the fridge for 3 hours.

When it came out of the fridge, it looked like it had doubled so we immediately shaped (4) 256 g balls and put them back in the oiled SS bowl on the heating pad for another 2 hours when they doubled again.

The toppings included red, green, Poblano, Serrano, jalapeno and yellow Cuban peppers, Monterey Jack, mozzarella, pecorino and parmesan cheese, two different hot Italian sausages, pepperoni, button mushrooms, black olives, red and green onions.

The pizza was perfect for bringing in the New Year and why it is it its own food group around here. Wishing you all a fantastic 2015 and remember, like Arnold Palmer said, ‘The road to success is always under construction’ – he must have been a bread baker when he wasn’t loafing around playing golf!

And don't forget that salad! Or maybe some French onion soup on a cold day.

December 26, 2014 - 4:02pm

dabrownman

50 Percent Whole Grain 25 Percent Sprouted 9 Grain SD with Whey

We took another step down the sprouted grain trail this week, even after vowing not too, when we decided to defrost the chest freezer and found a peanut butter jar full of frozen whey in the bottom of the icy depths near the bottom- along with too many quarter hunks of bread.

Other changes this week are that we reduced the amount of levain to 10%, changed the 3 slap and fold sessions to 4, 2 and 1 minute keeping the 3 following stretch and folds the same. This weeks whole and sprouted grains were a 9 grain mix of emmer, spelt, rye, wheat, einkorn, oat, Desert Durum, Kamut and barley.

We did not retard the 3 stage levain for 24 hours, like we normally would and we did not retard the shaped loaves for 12 hours as normal either. We decided to try a bulk 12 hour retard followed by 2 hours of warm up in the heating pad and then a 2 hour final proof in the basket, also on the heating pad.

We used the oval bottom of the MagnaWare, Magnalite aluminum turkey roaster for a cloche over the bread and stone this week instead of the bottom of a thick round aluminum pot.

We did 18 minutes under steam at 450 F after preheating to 500 F and then did 15 at 425 F convection to finish if off uncovered and baked it to 205 F instead of the our usual 210 F for sprouted grain bread.

This one puffed itself up and sprang mightily under steam and cracked between the 3 slashes as well as blooming at the slash. It baked up the beautiful mahogany color we love so much. It didn’t blister much as the last 3 sprouted grain bakes but it was nicely crisp as it came out of the oven. It also smelled fantastic when it came out of the oven.

We won’t get to cut it for taste and crumb inspection till later but we think it will be similar to the last 3 bakes based on spring and bloom. The Holidays have been pleasantly uneventful, calm, stress free and cheerful this year.

We have my daughter’s boy friend staying with us and we got to do some fishing on the lake but got skunked first time out. Cousin Jay also joined us for Christmas Eve prime rib dinner. Our daughter made the salad, sides and rolls this year – yea!

The crumb came out much tighter than we had hoped but exactly the way it always comes out when we bulk retard for 12 hours, let it warm up for 2 hours and then shape and proof. The crumb is always more open when we shape adn then retard for 12 hours and let the basketed dough warm up on the counter for 1 and a half hours before baking. Working he dough again to shape right before baking 2 hours later really makes the crumb tight. The taste was similar even though this bake had an extra 2 hours of time on the counter on the heating pas after gluten development

Another batch of chocolate rugelach and the prime rib before roasting

Levain Build	Build 1	Build 2	Build 3	Total	%
4 Week Retarded Rye Sour Starter	8	0	0	8	1.33%
83% Extraction Whole & Sprouted	0	0	27	27	4.50%
17% Extract Whole & Sprouted	8	16	5	29	4.83%
Water	8	16	32	56	9.33%
Total	24	32	64	120	20.00%

Levain Totals		%
Flour	60	10.00%
Water	60	10.00%
Levain Hydration	100.00%
Levain % of Total Flour	10.00%

Dough Flour		%
83% Extract Sprouted & Whole Grain	242	40.33%
KA Bread Flour	298	49.67%
Total Dough Flour	540	90.00%

Salt	12	2.00%
Whey	450	75.00%

Dough Hydration	83.33%
Total Flour w/ Starter	600
Whey & Water 56	510

Hydration with Starter	85.00%
Total Weight	1,122
% Whole Grain	50.33%
% Sprouted Grain	25.17%

9 Whole and sprouted grains include equal amounts of
oat, barley, einkorn, rye, spelt, emmer (Hayden farro), Kamut, Desert Durum and wheat.
Half the whole grains were sprouted

Read more about 50 Percent Whole Grain 25 Percent Sprouted 9 Grain SD with Whey
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December 19, 2014 - 4:00pm

dabrownman

50 Percent Whole Grain 25 Percent Sprouted Porter SD

After last week’s Cosmic Calamity, Lucy has settled back down to her normal self but had to have a beer to celebrate her notoriety as the center of the universe even if only for one day. She has an affinity for darker beers and decided that Deschutes Black Butte Porter was perfect, not only for celebrating but for bread making too.

Continuing our recent experiments with various sprouted grains, Lucy decided to use this porter for the entire dough liquid and not levain me even a drop for tasting to make sure it wasn’t poisonous.

Beer doesn’t seem to affect our normal SD breads from a fermenting and proof point of view and usually you can’t taste it too much either but this black porter did darken the color of the dough a bit. We didn’t know how the sprouted flour would react to the beer but Lucy figured if it didn’t like beer we just wouldn’t sprout and grind grain anymore.

This recipe is similar to our recent ones with 50% whole grains and half of it sprouted. The 50% of white flour was half KA bread flour and half LaFama AP this time and the whole and sprouted grains were a equal mix of wheat, emmer (farro), rye and spelt dropping the einkorn and Kamut this week.

We did our usual 3 stage, 4 hour each levain build using 8 g of the 4 week retarded rye starter for the seed. The levain build was done on the heating goad and after it has doubled after the 3rd stage we retarded it in the fridge for 24 hours

The levain was fed the sifted hard bit 17% extraction of the whole and sprouted milled grains in the first to get them wet for as long as possible. The wee beasties really seem to like these hard bits and all the minerals and other goodies they contain.

The levain ended up being 12.77% of the total flour weight since it is winter time instead of the 9% we would use for a sprouted grain bread in the summer that was going to be retarded for 12 hours.

We autolysed the dough flour and porter, with the salt sprinkled on top, for an hour while the levain warmed up on the heating pad after its 24 hour retard. Once the autolyse and levain came together the dough was once again very sloppy but not as bad as last time since we did cut the hydration 3 points to 85% this time.

The dough did stop sticking to the granite at the 8 minute mark and end of the first set of slap and folds. This was followed by 2 more sets of 1 minute each and 3 set of stretch and folds from the compass points. All the gluten development sessions were followed by 15 minutes rests instead of our usual 20 minute ones.

The dough was still a bit sticky when we went to shape it and put it in the basket so I put a touch of rice flour on the boule top before upending it on the basket seam side up. We hoped this would stop it from sticking like the last one did. This boule was going into a well seasoned basket too, unlike the last one. Still 82.5% hydration would have been better especially if you aren’t used to and comfortable with really sloppy dough.

We bagged the boule in a new trash can liner and put it in the fridge for its 12 hour chill. When we took it out of the fridge the next day, it looked like we could let it warm up on the counter for an hour, before firing up Big Old Betsy to a 500 F preheat, which would give it a 1 hour and 45 minute counter warm up total.

The dough was upended out of the basket onto parchment and peel, sticking a bit but no worries, slashed and loaded onto the bottom stone and covered with the hot bottom of a heavy aluminum pot for steaming. 5 minutes later we turned the oven down to 450 F After 18 minutes the lid came off and we continued to bake for another 10 minutes at 425 F - convection this time.

After deflating a bit when slashed and spreading just a bit like high hydration dough wants to do, the bread made a comeback with some decent spring, bloom and blisters under steam. Once the led came off, the crust browned nicely to that deep mahogany color we love so much.

It was baked to 207 F and left on the stone, oven off and door ajar for 5 minutes to really crisp the skin. We usually don’t get that color with sprouted grains so maybe it was the porter? For some reason, sprouted grains don’t usually put mahogany on crust!

The crust was crisp when it came out of the oven but softened as it cooled The crumb was darker in color due to the porter but as soft, moist, glossy and open as the other similar 50% whole grain with half sprouted breads of late. This one tastes very good too, like the other ones, but I wish the porter would come through more.

I think we have taken this as far as we need to right now and can move on to higher percent whole grain breads with lots of stuff in them and maybe sprouts and sprouted flour too!

Levain Build	Build 1	Build 2	Build 3	Total	%
4 Week Retarded Rye Sour Starter	8	0	0	8	1.70%
83% Extraction Whole & Sprouted	0	0	16	16	3.40%
17% Extract Whole & Sprouted	8	16	16	40	8.51%
Water	8	16	32	56	11.91%
Total	24	32	64	120	25.53%

Levain Totals		%
Flour	60	12.77%
Water	60	12.77%
Levain Hydration	100.00%
Levain % of Total Flour	12.77%

Dough Flour		%
83% Extract Sprouted & Whole Grain	175	37.23%
1/2 La Fama AP & 1/2 KA Bread Flour	235	50.00%
Total Dough Flour	410	87.23%

Salt	9	1.91%
Porter	340	72.34%

Dough Hydration	82.93%
Total Flour w/ Starter	470
Black Butte Porter & Water w/ Starter	400

Hydration with Starter	85.11%
Total Weight	879
% Whole Grain	50.00%
% Sprouted Grain	25.00%

Whole and sprouted grains include equal
amounts of rye, spelt, emmer and wheat
Half the whole grains were sprouted

Read more about 50 Percent Whole Grain 25 Percent Sprouted Porter SD
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December 12, 2014 - 11:39am

dabrownman

Ancient Grain Sprouted Sourdough

With the excitement and highlighting of Ancient Grains and Sprouted Grains in the bread world that we may be paying too much attention to, other really cool and interesting developments in the world can sometimes take a back seat and go nearly unnoticed. One of those ‘other’ things came to light this past week when Lucy found out that one thing that has baffled cosmologists and physicists for decades was finally answered..... and it involved her.

These learned men and women think that the beginning of the universe happened because of ‘The Big Bang’ some 13.5 plus billion years ago. Supposedly, the huge, very cold and sparse universe we see today sprang from an infinitely small, dense and hot tiny bit of nothing. Sadly, these most brilliant among us still can’t tell us; what banged, why it banged or how it banged but one of the great ancient Big Bang unknowns - exactly where the bang took place. has finally been solved.

I know it is hard to fathom, but apparently where the Big Bang took place, at least where it was last Wednesday, was right inside Lucy’s head! How they figured this out is totally incomprehensible to mere mortals like you and me, but Lucy was thrilled to no end as any Baking Apprentice 2nd Class would be - especially one from Germany who only barks in Swedish.

It was so wet it stuck badly and spread faster than the just banged, young, inflating universe. Before I could slash the boule, it was at least 4 inches in diameter bigger than when it came out of the basket. These things happen when you get the hydration 4-5 % too high - so don't do it:-)

The high Lucy was on only lasted for a short time though when she found out, much to my personal pleasure, that each of us (and all the aliens in the universe for that matter) also have had their heads at the center of one Big Bang or another. It seems there is a universe out there where the only difference between this one and that one is that there are no German Baking Apprentice 2nd Classes which might be a good thing for Masters everywhere.

Yep, your head was at the center of a big bang too. This of course makes better sense (and becomes more probable) when you understand and believe, like these scientists do who are way too smart and imaginative for. their own good if you ask me, that stuff can be in more than one place at a time and that stuff is only there when you are actually looking at it. Otherwise it could be anywhere else.

Now is the time to make that Holiday fruitcake.

Just think, you are stuck where you are because you always see yourself from the inside out but everything and everyone else is moving anywhere they want when you aren’t looking - pretty sneaky. Sometimes stuff and people don’t come back though and they aren’t where you thought they should be when you go looking for them.

This yeasr's red and green salad garden with cherry tomatoes and herbs.

I’m now convinced that this explains a lot of the weird stuff that goes on around here when it comes to the lost and missing things of all kinds I can’t seem to find when I need them. So my old age isn’t at all responsible for losing stuff like my Baking Apprentice reminds me of all the time. It’s just the way world is as we know it today.... as governed by the laws of physics! Now on to baking and we will keep that short since I have somewhere else to be when you aren’t looking.

At 3 pounds of apples for a dollar, this years crop is still perfectly priced for a big ginger, snockered fruit, apple cider galette - best one yet!

Lucy’s bake this week hearkens back to he short lived euphoria when she thought her head was at the center of the answer an ancient question and explains why she picked mainly Ancient Grains for the whole grains in this bread. The methods are exactly like last week’s bake found here Multigrain Sourdough Sprouter _ I am too lazy to repost them.

The differences, besides the grains used are we dropped the AP flour completely, upped the whole grains to 50%, dropped the sprouted whole grains to 25% and upped the hydration by nearly 9 points to 87.5% - 5 points too high we fouind out later

This last change made for a really sloppy dough compared to what we thought was last weeks sloppy mess. In hindsight, last week’s dough was pretty comfortable to work with but this one finally stopped sticking to the counter on the second set of slap and folds.

We were thinking big holes with it being so wet but you never know about dough that might be the center of a big bang somewhere or possibly might even come from a black hole. Now that would really be something since nothing , even lighht, is supposed to escape from a black hole. But still, supposedly all stuff, even bread dough, can be in more than one place at a time too. No wonder black holes are such paradoxes and difficult to bring into the light.

The grilled chicken and cheddar cheese sandwich for lunch today was very tasty.

This one baked up nicely brown with some decent spring and bloom like last time but more hole grains means two things smaller holes and smaller blisters – its just a fundamental law of bread. This bread was nicely open anyway, with a soft moist and glossy crumb. The taste was the best yet for a sprouted grain bread and one of the best tasting breads we have eaten - ever - and that is saying something!

Lucy is pretty pleased with herself and not just because she was the center of the universe for a brief moment. She reminds us to not forget the salad! The sunrises are pretty good around here too - when there are clouds in the sky.

Levain Build	Build 1	Build 2	Build 3	Total	%
3 Wk Retarded Rye Sour Starter	8	0	0	8	1.85%
83% Extraction Ancient	0	0	19	19	4.40%
17% Ext/ Ancient & Sprouted	8	16	13	37	8.56%
Water	8	16	32	56	12.96%
Total	24	32	64	120	27.78%

Levain Totals		%
Flour	60	13.89%
Water	60	13.89%
Levain Hydration	100.00%
Levain % of Total Flour	13.89%

Dough Flour		%
83% Extraction Ancient Grain	156	36.11%
KA Bread Flour	216	50.00%
Total Dough Flour	372	86.11%

Salt	9	2.08%
Water	318	73.61%

Dough Hydration	85.48%
Total Flour w/ Starter	432
Water w/ Starter	378

Hydration with Starter	87.50%
Total Weight	819
% Whole Ancient Grain	50.00%
% Sprouted Ancient Grain	25.00%

Whole Ancient Grains include equal
amounts of einkorn, rye, spelt, emmer and
Kamut - half the whole grains were sprouted

Read more about Ancient Grain Sprouted Sourdough
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The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

dabrownman's blog

2015 Dabrownman’s TFL Blog Index

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50 Percent Whole Grain 25 Percent Sprouted Porter SD

Ancient Grain Sprouted Sourdough

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