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After many attempts, I finally achieved a light, (fairly) lofty seeded loaf, while utilizing a pretty high percentage of non-white flour.  The first experiments were tasty but pretty dense.  However, I will be cutting back on total volume next time as this dough literally filled the clay baker from edge to edge, resulting in...a torpedo!  The texture of the crumb is divine...soft and springy without being gummy.  I may have gotten even a little more loft if I had scored a little deeper--I think the crumb structure looks a little tight at the top.  I never quite know how to score the longer loaves.  Parallel slashes always result in broken bands across the top.  Any advice on the best way to score this type of loaf would be appreciated--I may just let it do its thing next time and go for a 'natural' score.  I used a long, thin clay baker, rather than a traditional batard or boule, in an attempt to make a more toaster-friendly bake.

Ingredients:

1:2:2 starter fed in the early morning (to double/triple in about 4 hours...will need 150 g fed starter for the dough)...I maintain a 60/30/10 starter mix of WW/AP/Rye respectively

365 g warm water (I used to use bottle spring water, but our tap water here is great quality, and I haven't noticed any change in my bakes since switching to tap)

300 g strong bread flour

135 g sifted/bolted Hard Red Winter Wheat (aka Golden Buffalo from Heartland Mills)

50 g duram flour

15 g dark rye flour (I used freshly ground since I had some berries on hand)

--total of 500 g flour with a 300/200 ratio

30 g honey

12 g salt

140 g mix of seeds (I used an eyeballed mixture of pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, poppy, flax and millet)

Enough boiling water to cover seed mixture by at least one inch

Day 1: Feed starter in the early morning (as noted above)

Around noon, mix the Autolyse ingredients (flour, water and honey), making sure no dry flour is visible, and let sit, covered, for 1 hour.  

Immediately after mixing flour/water/honey, place the seed mixture in a bowl and pour boiling water over to generously cover and allow for absorption.  Cover and set aside.

After one hour, spread 150 g of starter over the top of the autolyse mixture, and pinch into the top layer of the dough, then work in further by pulling small sections of the dough from the edge up and over the top, moving the bowl around in a circular motion.  Continue this action (essentially mini stretch and folds) for approximately 5 minutes, to fully incorporate the starter; cover.

Rest 15 minutes.

Sprinkle 12 g salt over the top of the autolysed dough, and with wet hands, pinch in and then repeat the working in method from above, pulling small sections of dough from the edge over the center.  Continue to work in for 5 minutes to fully incorporate the salt; cover.

Rest 15 minutes.

Complete 2 stretch and folds 20-30 minutes apart.  After the 2nd S&F, rest 20-30 minutes.

Drain the seeds over a bowl, immediately after the last S&F, which allows excess moisture to drain out in time for the next step.

Complete a lamination of the dough on a lightly dampened counter top, using wet hands, stretching out the dough fairly thin without tearing.  Spread about 2/3 to 3/4 of the seed mixture over the top of the dough, careful to not tear the dough.  The mixture will be a little slimy from the flax seeds.  Letter fold each side of the dough (right and left) so that all the exposed seeds are covered.  Spread the remaining seeds over the thin strip of dough, then fold up the top and bottom over the exposed seeds.  Cut away a small knob of dough, place in a fermentation jar (I use an old spice jar) flatten and mark the level.  Gently lift the remaining 'package' of dough into a lightly greased 8X8 or 10X10 square, glass dish and cover.  (Alternatively, I have also had some success just working in the seeds over the top of the dough while still in the bowl.  The dough will kind of 'break' but will come back together with numerous stretch and folds.  For me, the lamination method works better.)

Rest 45 minutes.  Complete a series of 2-4 coil folds every 30-45 minutes, or until the dough feels strong and supple, then let rest undisturbed.  The dough in the fermentation jar should rise around 30%-50%, which can be tricky to judge with so small a portion.  Essentially, I try to make sure it doesn't double, in either the jar or the main dough.  Under proofed is better than over with this dough.  (In a 70-degree kitchen, I'm usually ready to shape around 6-7 hours after starting the autolyse.)

Sprinkle some flour around the edges of the dough in the dish, loosen edges slightly with a flexible dough scraper, and gently tip out onto a lightly floured surface.  Gently shape as desired, careful not to deflate, and place into rice/flour-dusted banneton.  Place the banneton and dough in the freezer for 15 minutes, then switch to the fridge for a cold 12-hour retard.

Day 2:

12 hours later, pre-heat oven and DO of choice (I use clay bakers) to 500F for at least one hour.  Remove dough from the banneton onto a piece of parchment paper, score and bake at 500 for 25 minutes covered, reduce heat to 450 and remove lid and bake for a further 20 minutes.  Turn the oven off and leave the bread in the DO for an additional 10 minutes.  Remove to a cooling rack and cool completely, at least half a day.

So made the Forkish Walnut Levain bread which produces two loaves but now want to substitute cranberries for the walnuts. The recipe calls for 225g of walnuts. What about the cranberry amount and is there anything I need to do to the cranberries before adding them to the final mix. The image posted is of the walnut levain. Not bad but would like to try cranberries or something else. 

Paul 

This is the same recipe as the recently posted 50% whole wheat Hokkaido sourdough milk bread except that the total dough weight was reduced to make 8 buns in a 9” cake pan. These are going to my sister’s house for our Canadian Thanksgiving dinner tonight, the first time having a family dinner since the pandemic started.

 8 rolls in a 9” round pan or

9 rolls in a 8” square pan

Ingredients

Sweet Stiff Starter 

• 45g bread flour 
• 20g water
• 15g lbrown sugar 
• 15g sourdough starter ~100% hydration 

Tangzhong 

• 85g milk 
• 15g whole wheat (stoneground not sprouted)

Final Dough 

• 141g bread flour
• 164g whole wheat flour (same as above)
• 50g sugar (used 40 g)
• 6g salt 
• 124g milk 
• 1 eggs
• 57g unsalted butter 

Pre-bake Wash 

• 1 egg beaten
• 1 Tbsp milk

Post-bake Wash 

• 1/2 Tbsp butter
• Fleur de sel 

Instructions

Starter 

Mix the starter ingredients in a jar or pyrex container with space for at least 50% growth.

Press down with your knuckles to create a uniform surface and to push out air.

At room temperature, it typically takes 7-9 hours for this sweet stiff levain to be at peak.

Tangzhong 

In a sauce pan set on med-low heat, whisk the milk and flour until blended. Then cook for several minutes until thickened, stirring regularly with a spoon or heat-resistant spatula. Let cool in the pan or, for faster results, in a new bowl.

Dough

In the bowl of a stand mixer, briefly whisk the dry dough ingredients, and then add the sweet stiff starter, separating it into 5-6 portions as you add it to the bowl.

Now pour/scrape in all the wet ingredients (including the tangzhong), with the melted butter last. With the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed for a minute, scrape down the sides, and then mix on medium speed for 15-20 minutes. The dough will seem very soft, but as you approach the 15-20 minute mark, it should not stick to your hands and should pass the windowpane test.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, form it into a ball, flip it smooth side up, cover and let rise for 6-12 hours depending on room temperature. You can place the dough into the fridge to chill the dough for about 1.5 hours or retard overnight, this makes rolling the dough easier.

Prepare your pan by greasing them or line with parchment paper.

Scrape the dough out onto a clean counter top. Lightly flour the bench. Press the dough into a rectangle and divide it into 8 or 9 portions. Shape each tightly into a boule, place into a greased or parchment lined pan.

Cover and let proof for 2-4 hours (more if you put the dough in the refrigerator).  Mine took 5 hours to complete final proof at 82ºF.

Preheat the oven to 350F and brush the dough with the egg-milk wash.

Bake the rolls for 30-35 minutes or until the internal temperature is at least 190F. Shield your loaf if it gets brown early in the baking process. You can brush the top of the loaf with butter if you wish at this point while the bread is still hot and sprinkle with flaked salt.  I didn’t have fleur de sel so sprinkled a bit of pink salt on after brushing with butter.

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I was very taken with HungryShots/Denisa's recent blog post on her 40% spelt SD loaf and her excellent description of the evolution of her Mk IV version.

So when I found a bag of Doves Farm white spelt flour in a local shop, I thought it was time to give it a try.

Denisa had done all the hard work, so I changed very little:

• 10% stiff levain
• 35% white spelt/5% wholemeal spelt
• hearth baked batardes insead of dutch oven boules
• 4 folds - I skipped the lamination - too intricate for me! In fact 4 folds is 3 more than I usually do.
• no preshape and stitch shaped

For pH watchers, pHs were once again much higher than the "norms" - 4.60 at the end of bulk (70% rise) and 4.20 at bake. Dough pH continues to be problematic for me as a determinant.

I'm happy with the end result - good rise, good ears and very tasty bread! Thank you Denisa!

Lance

Ingredients:

• 300 g bottled spring water.
• 7.5 g of 50/50 blend of Himalayan pink salt, and standard US iodized table salt.
• 3/8 tsp active dry yeast. This is about 1/4 the yeast (for this amount of flour) that is normally used for the BreadIn5 master recipe. Because WW ferments so much faster, and because I used 98 g of old dough. (Last bake had 3/4 tsp of ADY and no old dough.)
• No sugar this time. (Last bake was 1 tsp dark brown sugar/jaggery, and I thought it was a touch sweet.)
• 200 g Bob's Red Mill stone ground whole (red) wheat.
• 100 g Patel brand stone ground WW durum. 
• 40 g Swad brand Sharbati Gold atta, roller milled, supposedly "whole wheat." This is to up the percent WW from 75% to 85%.
• 30 g Arrowhead Mills Organic AP flour. (Was 50 g last bake.) This was just to use up what I have on hand. (I usually avoid organic products due to the extra cost, but this was discounted below regular AP flour.)
• 30 g Gold Medal bread flour. (Was 50 g last time.)
• (400 g total flour, not counting what's in the old dough.)
• 26 grams fresh milk, 2% milkfat.
• 98 g of old dough from bake #60. (Has 40 g WW flour, 13 g white flour, 81.5% hydration, if you want to do the math on total dough.)

--

 Finished mix at 7:12 pm.

Working with a new whole wheat flour now, this is a local organic stone ground flour that I’m hoping will taste great. I’m also hoping that the thinner crust I achieved recently by not baking in my dutch oven wasn’t a fluke so I’m baking open in my oven with steam using the Sylvia towel and a cast iron skillet again.  

I’m also experimenting again with a very wet autolyse of just the whole wheat and using a stiff levain.  The idea I have in my mind is that if the whole grain component of the flour is autolysed with all the water, except the hold back water, the bran can hydrate more quickly.

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The levain is prepared the night before and fermented at a cool room temperature.  Not surprisingly, this lower hydration levain ferments more slowly than a 100% hydration levain and also holds its peak longer.

In the morning the whole wheat flour is mixed with the water and allowed to hydrate for 1 hour.  After 1 hour, the levain and salt and added.  Once the levain is well combined the bread flour is added and mixed until there is no dry flour.  Rest for 10-15 mins.  Reassess the dough and decide if it requires more water, at this point I added the hold back water and allowed the dough to fully absorb that water using Rubaud kneading.  After 15-20 mins of rest 400 slap and folds were done to achieve moderate gluten development.

Proofing box set to 82ºF.  Rest 15 mins and a bench letterfold was completed.  Aliquot jars were prepared, one for rise and one for pH.  The pH at this stage was 5.39.

A series of coil folds were then done the first 3 at 20 mins intervals as the dough relaxed by 20 mins and then the following one and a half coil folds at 30 mins intervals.  The the time of the final half coil fold the dough showed a 10-15% rise and had a pH of 4.99.

The dough was allowed to complete bulk fermentation at 82ºF.  Bulk ended when the dough reached a rise of 40% with a pH of 4.52.  It was shaped, no pre-shaping was done since the final coil fold acted as the pre-shape, and placed in a banneton.  It was allowed to proof at room temperature until it had a rise of 70% and a pH of 4.16.  Cold retard was then started at 3ºC.

Although I know other bakers who will target a pH of 3.9 for all doughs as the start of cold retard, it doesn’t completely make sense to me.  Doughs with more whole grain will buffer the acid produced more than dough with less whole grain.  Dough with more whole grains also tend to have less gluten.  If one were to target lower pH regardless of the type of flours used in the dough one would run the risk of over fermentation and more gluten degradation.  I believe that doughs with really strong gluten can tolerate a lower pH than ones with weaker gluten.  However, I’ll need to do much more baking to prove this to myself.

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The next morning the oven is pre-heated to 500ºF with the cast iron skillet on a rack well above the baking steel.  After 30 mins of pre-heating, the pan with the Sylvia towel is filled with boiling water and placed on the baking steel next to where the bread will bake.  When the oven is ready, another cup of water is boiled, the dough is flipped out of the banneton, excess rice flour is brushed off, the dough is scored and water is brushed onto the dough.  The dough is transferred on the baking steel and finally 250 mL of boiling water is poured into the cast iron skillet.  After a minute or two, the oven temperature is dropped to 450ºF.  20 minutes into the bake the oven is vented by removing both the pan and the skillet.  The bread continues to bake at 450ºF for ten minutes.  The bread is then removed so that a rack can be placed one position over the baking steel and the bread is then placed on this rack.  The temperature is then dropped to 420ºF and the bread is then baked for another 10 minutes rotating half way through.

Another benefit that I see at the end of the bake is that the bottom crust isn’t nearly as darkly baked as it would be when baked in a dutch oven.  I won’t know about the crust thinness until the dough is sliced, but so far the advantages of baking without the dutch oven seem to be worth the extra effort of baking using my open steaming method.

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Same recipe that I’ve used in the past but I switched out the flours to use Spelt and Durum and decided to try broken wild rice rather than the regular long grain. It was quite a bit cheaper too!

Recipe 

Makes 3 loaves

Dough:

700 g strong bakers unbleached flour

200 g fresh milled Spelt 

100 g fresh milled Durum

75 g dry broken Wild Rice 

150 g dried cranberries 

700 g water

30 g yogurt 

35 g honey

22 g salt

250 g of 3 stage 100% hydration levain (procedure below)

Wholegrain and unbleached flour to feed the levain

The night before:

1. I use homemilled flour so if you are doing the same, measure out the stated amount for each type of flour in berries or grain, and mill it on the finest setting of your home mill. If buying flour, get the freshest that you can and try to ensure that it is wholegrain. 

2. Place the required amounts of the wholegrain flours in a tub and add the unbleached flour to it. Cover and set aside.

3. Cook the wild rice in plenty of boiling water for a half hour. I was shocked at how much more quickly the broken wild rice cooked. Usually, with intact grain wild rice, it takes about an hour and a half before he rice is soft enough to use in bread. Drain, add the dried cranberries, and refrigerate overnight.

4. Take 10 g of refrigerated starter and feed it 20 g of water and 20 g of wholegrain flour. Let that rise at cool room temperature for the night. 

Dough making day:

1. In the morning, feed the levain 100 g of water, 50 g of wholegrain flour and 59 g of unbleached flour. Place in a warm spot to double (I use my oven with the lights on). This takes about 5 hours.

2. Take the wild rice and the cranberries out of the fridge to warm up. 

3. Two hours before the levain is ready, in a stand mixer, mix the water with the flour, and mix on speed 1 until all the flour has been hydrated. Let this autolyse for a couple of hours.  

4. Once the autolyse is done, add the salt, the yogurt, the wild rice and cranberries, the honey, and the levain to the bowl. Mix on speed one for a minute to integrate everything, then mix on speed 2 for 9 minutes.

5. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and place in a lightly oiled covered tub. Let rest 45 minutes in a warm spot (oven with lights on). 

6. Do 2 sets of coil folds at 45 minute intervals and then 2 more sets at a 30 minute interval. Then let the dough rise about 30%. It should have irregular bubbles visible through the sides of the container and  bubbles on top as well. 

7. Tip the dough out on a bare counter, sprinkle the top with flour and divide into portions of ~810 g. Round out the portions into rounds with a dough scraper and let rest 15-30 minutes on the counter. 

8. Do a final shape by flouring the top of the rounds and flipping the rounds over on a lightly floured counter. Gently stretch the dough out into a circle. Pull and fold the third of the dough closest to you over the middle. Pull the right side and fold over the middle and do the same to the left. Fold the top end to the center patting out any cavities. Finally stretch the two top corners and fold over each other in the middle. Roll the bottom of the dough away from you until the seam is underneath the dough. Cup your hands around the dough and pull towards you, doing this on all sides of the dough to round it off. Finally spin the dough to make a nice tight boule.

9. Sprinkle a  mix of rice and all purpose flour in the bannetons. Place the dough seam side down in the bannetons. Let rest for a few minutes on the counter and then put to bed in a cold (38F) fridge for 10 to 12 hours. 

Baking Day

1. The next morning, heat the oven to 475F with the Dutch ovens inside for 45 minutes to an hour. Turn out the dough seam side up onto a cornmeal sprinkled counter. Place rounds of parchment paper in the bottom of the pots, and carefully but quickly place the dough seam side up inside. 

2. Cover the pots and bake the loaves at 450 F for 25 minutes, remove the lids, and bake for another 22 minutes at 425 F. Internal temperature should be 205 F or more.

I saw a picture of your Debra Wink’s 800-gram loaf in a 330 mm / 13 inch Pullman pan. It looked terrific, so I ordered the pan from the USA. It arrived this week, so today I baked using the pan and was very pleased, apart from a shaping mistake (I shaped as per a batard out of habit instead of a blunt cylinder). I’m learning with each iteration of this wonderful bread. It’s such a beautiful taste that it is now has a place in our weekly breadbasket. A nice light soft crumb.

Cheers,

Gavin

Yep t65 plus 20% fresh ground rye . Dough was an absolute dream to work with. Used graniteware roaster instead of LeCreuset . The graniteware only preheats as long as it takes the oven to get to 450 degrees so approx 15 min. Will never switch them out again. Turned the banneton over onto parchment picked it up to transfer to pan and…. Dropped it! Grabbed the parchment said a couple “ words” plunked it into the roaster and slapped on the lid. When I uncovered it 15 min later could have knocked me over ! Amazing from pancake to probably my most beautiful loaf in almost 50 years of bread baking. 

Crumb shot to follow when cool. 
dough:

t65 515g 

rye 130g

heaping 1/4 tsp ADY

13 g salt 

465g water KA mixer 5 min. Fold a couple times on floured counter round and place in well oiled container ( use olive oil). Room temp 6 hrs. Fridge overnight. Shape very lightly by folding in 4 sides round and plunk in clothlined banneton. Let rise 2 hrs. Turn out onto parchment ( drop on floor) place in 450 degree preheated graniteware roaster. Covered 15 uncovered 30. 
Outstanding flavor! The rye adds so much depth. Lovely tender crumb. A little compressed at the bottom but given the huge drop to the floor I’m impressed with the dough resilience. Will definitely make again. The 5 mi. KA at “1” is a great way to get a lovely loaf. 

60th bake. 10/06/2021.  Lunch.

This bake was prompted by Mariana's link to an Artisan Bread in Five formula on a recent focaccia thread:
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/comment/494616#comment-494616

I was going to make focaccia with it, but after the dough had risen a bit, I got the idea to make some fry-bread with a portion. That is, deep frying the dough to turn it into bread, not baking bread and frying the bread.

Ingredients:

• 300 g bottled spring water.
• 7 or 8 g of 50/50 blend Himalayan pink salt, and standard US iodized table salt.
• 3/4 tsp active dry yeast. This is about half the yeast (for this amount of flour) that is normally used for the BreadIn5 master recipe. Because WW ferments so much faster.
• 1 tsp dark brown sugar (jaggery from India).
• 200 g Bob's Red Mill stone ground whole (red) wheat.
• 100 g Patel brand stone ground WW durum. (Again, hat tip to Mariana for turning me on to the Russian magic ratio of 25% WW durum, which is small enough to avoid the rubber glue effect of whole grain durum.)
• 50 g Arrowhead Mills Organic AP flour. This was just to use up what I have on hand. (I usually avoid organic products due to the extra cost, but this was discounted below regular AP flour.)
• 50 g Gold Medal bread flour.
• (400 g total flour)
• 26 grams fresh milk, 2% milkfat.

--

Added the water to the container, then the salt, stirred,  then added yeast, stirred, then brown sugar, stirred, then all the flour.  It felt like it was going to be too dry, so added 26 g milk.  Had to stir and knead a bit because of clumps.

Waited an hour, saw a little bit of a rise, and kneaded some more.

Waitied another hour and saw a good rise, did one set of weak stretch and folds, and  decided to deep fry some.

I pulled off a portion, to make a 4" diameter disc, about 3/8" thick. It was wet enough to be sticky, so I lightly dusted both sides with AP flour.

I put the container with the rest of the dough in the friidge.

I put the wok on the stove-top burner, set temp to 50%, and put in a mix of oils: refined coconut oil, regular olive oil, grapeseed oil, about a teaspoon of beef tallow for flavoring (it was on clearance at Kroger), and some butter-flavored Crisco that I need to use up.

Heated oil to 400 F, and after putting dough in, tried to maintain 375 F. It took about 1.5 to 2 minutes per side to get it golden brown. 

Forgot to take a picture.

The mish-mash of oil worked, as the flavor was good.