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This is a follow-up bake to my 90% hydration ciabatta minis using different levain proportions. From that experiment I became more confident of using up to 50% rye levain in my dough, so I decided to apply it to this bake.

The goal is an everyday family loaf that has 1) good flavour; 2) extremely subdued sour tang; 3) is not too dense; 4) does not require much mixing; and 5) has most of the whole grains in the pre-ferment for easier digestion (husband suffers).

I made two loaves, one with 40% rye levain in the final dough, and the other with 50%. The measurements for the 50% loaf are:

Levain: 245g

Rye starter: 35g; Rye flour: 105g; Water: 105g

Final dough: 500g

Rye levain: 245g; Bread flour: 152g; Water: 100g; Salt: 3g

Total hydration of the dough, accounting for the levain, is 78%. % of rye/total flour is 40%.

Mixed the ingredients together in the morning and just left it to do its thing. Bulk fermentation to 50% took 4.5 hours at room temp 22C. After shaping, it rested for an hour before it was baked at 220C for 35 mins.

Verdict

Good. Both are keepers. The 40% levain actually did not taste sour at all and had a really fragrant profile. The 50% had a more pronounced character and was only very mildly sour.

Lovely aroma; husband says: "This bread smells like beer." Did not expect the children to eat it, but our 2 year old polished off one slice (extracted the walnuts, though).

I don't know if I will pursue an even higher rye levain loaf. This works for what I wanted. I might incorporate a soaker to to enhance the flavour profile.

I'm experimenting with the same recipe for my red wholegrain spelt. Yesterday was a flop; the dough did not behave. I shall try again.

Picture on left (top): 50% crumb. Picture on right (bottom): 40% crumb.

During the Infinity Bread Community Bake, I created an Infinity Soda Bread. See it at 

https://www.thefreshloaf.com/comment/529736#comment-529736

Today's bake is nearly the same recipe except I leavened it with sourdough starter instead of baking soda.

This CB called for 1/3 of the flour to be white, 1/3 some version of whole wheat, and the remaining 1/3 to be any combination of grains and flours you want. Today's bread used graham flour for the WW, and a combination of spelt and rye for the remaining 1/3. The formula also included some oats.  The liquid remained a thick, rich cultured buttermilk, the same as I used for the soda bread version.

Pictures then details: 

_DSC1420_lzn.jpg

The bread is a little delicate but good eating. The loaf has a thin pleasant crust, a soft fairly open crumb, and a good balanced flavor with no sourness.  The nigella seeds come through as a faint perfume that can barely be tasted, which brings in a hint of mystery.  The slices are more delicate than a sourdough loaf would usually be so they should be cut thick.

Steve, the baker of our local bakery, liked it very much.

I purposely made the dough to be wet and it turned out between a batter and a normal dough.  It was very sticky and gloppy. I baked it in a 4 X 4 X 9 inch Pullman pan without the lid. I buttered the insides of the pan with soft butter. 

Recipe
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Flour Weight: 420g

Dough
----------
        Baker’s Percent          Actual Weight g
-----------------------------------------------------------
Total Flours  100.0                          420.0
------------------------------------------------------------
AP                 33.3                           140.0
Graham         33.3                           140.0
rye                 20.0                             84.0 (stone-ground)
spelt              13.3                             56.0 (stone-ground)

Liquids
------------
buttermilk       86.9                            365.0

Starter/Levain 16.6                             69.7

Salt                  2.0                                8.4 Sugar

Other
-------
rolled oats        7.0                               29.4
caraway seeds 1.2                                 5.0
nigella seeds    1.8                                 7.6

Process (times are very approximate)
-------------------------------------------------
- 6:45 PM - Finish mixing all except for oats & seeds
- 7:30 - knead (thick sticky paste)
- 8:15 - stretch on countertop
- 9:00 - s&f (in-bowl folds)
- 11:00 - Form log with some stretching, put into Pullman (still sticky but had some cohesiveness)
- 6 AM - Risen to top of pan. Preheat oven 450°F
- 6:20 - Bake 415°F no lid 20 min, 20 min 390°F. Remove from pan, bake 5 min 350°F.

 TomP

I made a batch of rieska (Finnish flatbread) this week using the recipe on KAB's website. I made it once before using the optional barley flour instead of rye flour; it was delicious. Most recipes from Finnish websites seem to use barley instead of rye.

I had purchased barley, rye, and buckwheat from a Serbian grocer. The bags do have English on them but the large type is in Serbian. I made this recent batch at breakfast and I don't think the morning caffeine had taken effect. I thought the bag of flour was barley but I discovered a day later that I had grabbed the bag of buckwheat flour instead of barley. I don't have any pictures of the batch because it was mostly consumed before I thought of posting here. I like buckwheat anyway and the buckwheat version may even be better than the barley one. I'm going to try the barley one again for comparison.

In honor of my 16 Year old  Mookie! This one was made with high extraction freshly milled whole wheat, spelt and rye with a little bread flour mixed in.

The crumb was nice and open and it tastes amazing.

I like using the whole potato skin and all and just chop them up in my mini food processor. It makes for a soft crumb and the bread will stay fresher longer.

I’ve been lowering the % of starter with my fresh milled flour bakes and it’s helping control the fermentation much better.

I used one of my favorite whole wheat berries from Barton Springs Mill called Rouge de Bordeaux as well as some fresh milled spelt, Danko rye and some KAF bread flour. The whole wheat and rye were milled and sifted twice and the spelt was milled twice and sifted once.

The dough was left to bulk at a lower temperature than I usually use at 75 F with a target bulk rise of 50% which took 5 hours and 45 minutes in my proofer.

The end result was a nice open and moist crumb and one tasty bread. This was great grilled with some EVO and melted cheese.

Formula

Levain Directions 

Mix all the levain ingredients together for about 1 minute and cover with plastic wrap.

Let it sit at room temperature for around 6-7 hours or until the starter has almost doubled. I used my proofer set at 76 degrees so it took around 5 hours for me. Either use in the main dough immediately or refrigerate for up to 1 day before using.

 Main Dough Procedure

Note: I use an Ankarsrum Mixer so my order of mixing is slightly different than if using a Kitchenaid or other mixer. Add all your liquid to your mixing bowl except 50-80 grams. Add the levain in pieces and mix for a few seconds to break it up. Next, add all your flour to the bowl and mix on low for a minute until it forms a shaggy mass. Cover the mixing bowl and let it rest for 20 – 30 minutes.   Next add the salt, mashed roasted potatoes and sour cream, and remaining water as needed and mix on medium low (about speed 3) for 12- 24 minutes. 

Remove the dough from your bowl and place it in a lightly oiled bowl and do several stretch and folds.  Make sure the dough is as flat as possible in your bowl/container and measure the dough in millimeters and take the temperature of the dough as well. Based on the chart from http://www.thesourdoughjourney.com, determine what % rise you need and make a note. If you have a proofer decide what temperature you want to set it at and what rise you are aiming for. If the dough is fully developed you don’t need to do any stretch and folds, but if it’s not, do several sets 15-20 minutes apart.

Once the dough reaches the desired bulk rise, pre-shape and let rest for 15-20 minutes. Finish shaping place in your banneton, bowl or on your sheet pan and cover it so it is pretty airtight. You will then place it in your refrigerator so you don’t want the dough to get a crust on it. Since there is such a high percentage of whole grains in the dough I didn’t want to leave it in the refrigerator for more than 12 hours. Depending on how cold your refrigerator is you could leave it longer and have to experiment to make sure it doesn’t over ferment.

When you are ready to bake, an hour beforehand pre-heat your oven to 540 F and prepare for steam. I have a heavy-duty baking pan on the bottom rack of my oven with 1 baking stone above the pan and one on the top shelf.  I pour 1 cup of boiling water into the pan right after I place the dough in the oven.  Remove your dough from the refrigerator and score immediately.

After 1 minute lower the temperature to 450 degrees.  Bake for around 35 minutes or until the breads are nice and brown and have an internal temperature of around 200-210 F. 

Take the bread(s) out of the oven when done and let them cool on a baker’s rack for as long as you can resist. 

These little things are very good. I first had them in a fancy restaurant in Antwerp after multiple courses of little plates. Didn't care much for the plates, the bread was lacklustre, the dessert nothing to write home about, but the canele that came with the coffee, damn that was good.

Since then I've been trying to make them that good. Crunchy and caramelized on the outside, soft and custardy on the inside. It's a really spectacular sweet thing.

Good results today.

For 15 of them:

1 egg, 1 egg yolk, 2 tablespoons of melted butter, 240ml milk, 80g sugar, 50g low-protein flour.

Mix and rest in the fridge overnight. Next day pour batter through a sieve into oiled molds (I used clarified butter) without excessive stirring (you don't want air in the batter). Bake in a 250C oven for 13 mins then 180C for 40 mins.

5b824bf9-fd59-47cb-b59c-37bc0810a12b.jpg

Just wanted to share a fun experiment I did yesterday. Made three different levains overnight from my white-rye sourdough starter. All levains were 1:5:4 (starter, flour, water), but I changed the added flour for each levain: one had white AP, one had spelt, one had rye. In the morning, the white and rye had tripled, but the spelt only doubled (this surpised me). I proceeded to make mini ciabattas with the levains.  From each levain, I made three mini ciabatta rolls, one with 15% levain, one with 30% levain, and one with 50% levain, all at 90% hydration, 1.5% salt, and added white bread flour. I expected the 50% levain rolls to fail due to acidic degradation of dough during BF.  All ciabatta rolls survived! As you can all guess by now, the 50% levain rolls were the fastest to proof, followed by the 30% and finally the 15%. Interestingly, the rolls with white levain were consistently the slowest to rise (the 15% took 7 hours from BF to oven at room temp 23C). Spelt and rye levain rolls rose equally fast.  I proceeded to get the husband to do a blind taste test of all 9 ciabatta rolls (more bread?! he said, lol) after they were baked and had cooled. He consistently preferred those made with the rye levain - lots of flavour, with the 30% only very mildly sour.  This experiment really boosts my confidence to bake with rye or spelt levains at different proportions, especially if it's a same-day bake! Context: family likes spongy, springy bread with lots of flavour but very little sourness. That's why I'm experimenting with freshly made somewhat stiffer levains, limit BF time, have it happen between 18-22 C, and avoid cold retard. Next experiment will be a 40% rye levain walnut loaf. Crumb shot below of rolls with 15% levain           

It is amazing what can be done with faux substitute ingredients nowadays. I've previously had some bread and rolls made by a local 'low carb' company specializing in keto products called "We Love Low Carb" and the baked goods product range is truly outstanding -  bread (sourdough and CY), buns, bagels, pies, pitas, wraps, pizza bases, and why not have hot cross buns as well!

I'm always into exploring what makes products tick, and this bake was mostly about learning more about how these modern miracles of food technology work.

With that in mind, I baked some rolls and bagels using a bag of their all purpose flour mix. The bag of their flour mix lists the following ingredients: sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, oats, almond/macadamia nuts and vital gluten. In other words, what we have here seems to be the use of low carbohydrate seeds and nuts (except for the oats, which I wouldn't count as low carbohydrate, right?) and the magic ingredient that allows for a bread texture and makes this suitable for so many different kinds of breads would be vital gluten. It is interesting, and notable that flax seeds aren't listed as an ingredient, and in reviews of the product people seem to regard this as a positive thing! Perhaps people are tired of the taste if they're on a diet where this is a major constituent.

The bag contains a brief recipe: "500g of we love low carb flour, 300g water, 15g yeast, 14g salt, 30g sweetener. Mix all together for 12-15 mins. Let rise then bake for 40 mins at 160C". A couple of things are noticeable - a lot of yeast and salt. And more emphasis on the mixing than on how long you should leave it to rise! Rather cheekily the recipe leaves the sweetener up to you, which could be a source of carbs or artificial sweeteners, I guess (I used agave syrup for this).

In the initial mix with a Danish whisk, it felt and looked like a gluten free bread, and that had me fooled at first.

danish hook.jpeg

In fact, I left it for 10 minutes before using my Kenwood as I was treating this similar to a gluten free bread. But, the mixing is essential, and this is the opposite of a gluten free bread, there is a lot of gluten here. The strangest thing is that after mixing for 10 minutes on the dough hook it developed a really tight elastic ball of dough. So tight that it was very difficult to remove from the dough hook, I've never struggled as much to remove a ball of dough from my dough hook as with this bake.

I made both rolls and bagels. The bagels were boiled, because to me a bagel has to be boiled. The dough could handle the boiling treatment acceptably well, although you do have to be gentle with your handling when you're seeding the boiled bagels as they're softer than with normal bagels and do deform easily.

And there was a lot of lovely oven spring. Nice browning on top. Beautiful texture and crumb. Flavour-wise it tastes like the ingredients, not as nice as real bread, but the texture can fool your mouth.

rolls and bagels fridge.jpeg

bagel crumb.jpeg

Here's a list of all the bakes sent in for the Infinity Bread Community bake. Hope I didn't miss any!

[September 10 - added three template test bakes]

Still can’t get photos to load. Oh well the bread is perfect. 😊
Danni doesn’t post here anymore but her amazing breads reside in my list of favorites forever. 

I flake my own oat groats. I use my Trinity , add 100g of very active Apple YW along with SD levain and sub an assortment of fresh milled grains.

The biggest and most notable change for this bread is the fermentation temps and timing. I’ve never done either like I did this time and likely won’t be able to replicate exactly but will try due to how well the bread dough performed.

100g oats toasted and then add 200g boiling water stir and set aside. 
250g active levain -100% hydration

100g active YW 

200g hard red wheat milled

100g rye milked

100g spelt milled

175g Stardust 

425g Arrowhead Mills unbleached AP 

23g salt

40g each- Yogurt . Honey. EVOO = 120g

550-650g water ( hold out 100g depending on your porridge consistency add as needed when doing first in the bowl folds) 

Put the 550g water, 100g YW, salt, levain and  Trinity into large bowl. Whisk together. Add the room temp porridge. Mix well. Add all the whole grain flours and beat hard with a wooden spoon like cake batter. Add all the AP flour and do in the bowl folds turning and folding til everything evenly moist. This is when you can add held back water as needed. Just enough so all is moist. Cover autolyse 30-60 min. Wet counter and do folds using part or all of that held back water. Dough should be very pliable and not sticky. 
Oil a large bucket and place dough into bucket. Lightly oil top of dough. 

This where I departed from all previous bakes . It was late so I placed the covered container on the screened porch approximately 50° out at 7 pm. Left it to rise til midnight- it wasn’t as much as I would have liked so went back to bed. At 6 am it looked fantastic! I lightly floured the counter dumped out divided gently into two huge pieces gently rolled each into a long cylinder tucked ends rounded into boule and placed into cloth lined bannetons. 

Left at room temp a couple hours til quite puffy then retarded in the fridge til late in the day . They grew well above the banneton sides. Huge beautiful loaves. 
Preheat 475 turn down 450 - 25 min covered graniteware roaster  then uncovered 425- 20 min. 

Perfect color. Natural burst on top and amazing crumb for a porridge high grain bread. And exquisite flavor profile.