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I’ve had this loaf on my list to bake for sometime.  I’m still not sure that I love high percentage rye breads, this one is 59%, but wanted to try a different recipe to find out.

Daniel’s description of this bread from the book:  “ There aren’t many bakers who continue to follow the tradition of building a rye sour in several stages. Josef Hinkel organizes his bakery around a mixing room where he has large mixing bowls of sauerteig at different stages of development. It’s hard to tell from looking, but the bakers know exactly which bowl is ready at which moment. Because the bowls are all open, the air is thick with the powerful, pungent aroma.

This particular bread is Hinkel’s go-to everyday loaf. He makes hundreds of them a day, selling them exclusively at his two shops, both on the same busy shopping street in Dusseldorf. For people who are new to 100 percent rye breads, this is a great gateway recipe.”

START TO FINISH: 21 to 22 hours

FIRST STAGE STARTER AND OLD BREAD SOAKER 15 hours

SECOND STAGE STARTER 3 to 4 hours

KNEAD 12 minutes

FIRST FERMENTATION 1½ hours

FINAL PROOF 1 hour

BAKE 50 to 60 minutes

MAKES one 1-kilo loaf

Total rye flour 314.5 g (includes starter but not Altus)

Total flour 534.5 g

Rye 59% overall not including Altus.

I think that the instant yeast is too much, the first proof only took 30 mins rather than the 1.5 hours that the author (Daniel Leader) suggested.  Perhaps reduce to 4 g

1. PREPARE THE GRUNDSAUERTEIG (first stage rye starter): In a small bowl, dissolve the sourdough starter in the water. Stir in the rye flour until well incorporated. Cover and let ferment at room temperature (68 to 77 degrees), about 15 hours.
2. MAKE THE OLD BREAD SOAKER: In a small bowl, combine the ground bread and water. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 6 to 8 hours. Drain away excess water.
3. PREPARE THE SCHAUMSAUERTEIG (second stage rye starter): Preheat the oven to 200 degrees for 5 minutes. Turn off the oven. In a small bowl, combine the grundsauerteig, warm water, and rye flour. Stir to combine. Cover and let ferment in the warm oven until bubbly and soft, like a poolish, 3 to 4 hours.
4. MAKE THE FINAL DOUGH: Combine the schaumsauerteig, rye flour, Type 55 flour, old bread soaker, salt, and yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Stir with a rubber spatula a few times to combine. Mix on the low speed (2 on the KitchenAid) for 2 minutes. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Turn the mixer to medium-low (4 on the KitchenAid) and mix for 10 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and gather the dough into a ball.
5. FIRST FERMENTATION: Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and let stand until the dough increases in volume by about 50 percent, becoming porous and with small bubbles on the surface, 1½ hours.
6. FINAL PROOF: On a lightly floured countertop, shape into a loose boule (see this page). Dust the inside of a 10-inch round banneton with rye flour. (Alternatively, use a bowl lined with a kitchen towel and dusted with flour.) Place the boule, smooth side down, in the banneton. Lightly dust with more flour and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let stand until very active and puffy, another hour.  Alternatively shape into a batard/roll and place it a greased pullman pan.  Roll on a pan with oat flakes to coat.
7. BAKE: About 1 hour before baking, position an oven rack in the bottom third of the oven and set the Dutch oven (with the lid on) on the rack. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees for 1 hour. Wearing oven mitts, carefully remove the Dutch oven to a heatproof surface and take off the lid. Tip the dough onto a peel or your hands and put in the Dutch oven. Put the lid on and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the lid and bake until the loaf is a warm brown, another 25 to 35 minutes. Carefully turn the loaf out onto a wire rack. Cool completely. Store in a brown paper bag at room temperature for 3 to 4 days.

I questioned the huge amount of instant yeast, but I followed the quantities of all the ingredients since I try to follow most recipes the first time I try them.  In the end, this dough fermented much more quickly than described in the recipe so if I try this recipe again, I’d reduce the instant yeast by ⅔.

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I suspect that my dough over fermented.  The dough practically grew before my eyes when it was placed in the pan.  I couldn’t get the oven heated fast enough and even had to refrigerate the dough until the oven was ready.  The dough actually didn’t grow in the oven, it actually lost a bit of height.

We have friends coming into town this week, so I needed more bread on hand.  Seemed like a good time to take a run at Holiday Cranberry v2 (now BASED on Trevor Wilson’s formula, but tweaked more to my starter/process.)  Everything went very well with this bake EXCEPT for a hydration issue……. After I got all the water, levain and flours into my Ank, it was dry as dry could be!! I was completely confused, as I have mixed this volume of flour at this hydration so many times, and never had this problem.  I added water bit by bit until the dough finally came together and felt roughly the same as it normally does.  It was at this point that I noticed that I had about 1.5 cups of my water I had measured out still sitting to the side!!! Grrrr!!!!  I had mixed SOME of the formula water into my container for the levain, and completely forgot to add the rest!  Oh, well, disaster averted, and onward…….

Formula:

Bread Flour 435g (CM High Mtn)

AP Flour 434g (CM Beehive)

Whole Wheat 219g (fresh milled, CM hard white winter)

Water 749g

Levain 250g (100%, WW fed)

Dried Cranberries 300g

Salt 25g

 Process:

 Combine water and levain, mix in Ankarsrum on low until well combined.

Add WW, AP and bread flours, continue mixing on low until well mixed, rest for 20 minutes.

Mix on medium speed until dough is well developed (about 12 minutes in Ank).

Add cranberries by the handful over about 2 minutes, mix until well distributed.

Move Ank bowl to proofer @ 72°F. Stretch/fold twice at 30 minute intervals.

Dough after 2nd stretch/fold:

Bulk proof ~2:45 @ 72°F, or until dough seems a bit puffy (doesn’t seem to get jiggly with all the cranberries)

Dough after bulk complete:

Divide and pre-shape into rounds.

Dough divided/preshaped:

[

Shape into final forms (round, batard, etc.), then place into bannetons @ 72°F for 60 minutes.

Move to fridge and continue proof overnight (these went about 15 hours.

Dough just before heading to fridge:

Just out of fridge:

Slashed and ready to bake:

Bake, covered, in a preheated oven @ 475°F for 15 minutes.  Remove cover and bake for 25 more minutes.

Loaf #1 after removing inverted roaster:

Finished loaves:

Cool thoroughly, slice and eat!

As part of my search for some new formulas to work with (with an eye toward the holidays), I spent some time perusing PiPs blog posts.  If you haven't had the time to look through his content, I have to say, I could spend a month or two just baking some of the absolutely delicious looking breads that he presented here!  Lovely stuff!

Anyway, the Olive & Herb sourdough that he shared in his blog looked like a great option to play with.  I followed the formula very closely, making a minor adjustment to 72% hydration, which I tend to prefer.  My Whole Wheat flour was freshly milled hard white winter wheat from Central Milling, and I used a 50/50 mix of CM Organic AP, and CM High Mountain ("bread") flours.  I wasn't able to get to Whole Foods, where they have my preferred olives in their olive bar, so the olives I used for this bake were brined Castrellano olives from the local grocery.  As it turned out, they weren't quite as briny as usual, so my salt was a little low in the finished product.

Everything got mixed/developed in my Ankarsrum.  After about 12 minutes of development, things looked pretty good, so I added in the olives bit by bit to get them incorporated.  Interestingly, the olives didn't mix in quite as well as I had expected, and they seemed to want to crowd the roller in my Ank.  After a total of 15 minutes in the mixer, I did a bit of hand kneading/manipulation to get the olives as well dispersed as I could.

Did about 3 hours of bulk @ 79°F in my XL proofing setup (large cooler, seedling mat, and an Inkbird controller), then shaped and dropped in the fridge overnight (after another hour in the proofer.)  When I baked loaf #1 in the morning, it was a bit explosive in its oven spring, which led me to believe that it may have been a bit under proofed.  I left loaf #2 to sit in the proofer again at 75°F for about 3 hours and then baked it.  Not bad, but I feel like I missed my window in there somewhere! :) The taste is fantastic (as mentioned, a bit low on salt), the crumb is what I like as it holds onto things like butter better, and I look forward to baking this one again.

Oh, and here's the "XL Proofer" :)

Having friends over gives me an excuse to bake dessert.  Bags of lemons were on sale so I decided to bake a lemon tart.  I hadn’t tried lemon curd with chocolate before so decided to bake my chocolate pate sucrée for this tart.  Since the curd recipe leaves me with 4 egg whites I decided to make Bravetart’s marshmallow meringue to top the tart and then torch the meringue for a nice finish.  The eggs were farm fresh free run chicken eggs from our friend’s country home, so most of the yolks were such a beautiful orangey yellow, it was almost a shame to cover the curd with meringue!

The lemon curd is nice and sharp without being to sweet.  The curd goes extremely well with the chocolate pastry.  I reduced the sugar in the meringue because I always find meringue too sweet, this meringue was good.

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For the pastry - pate sucrée

75g icing sugar
250g plain flour 
125g butter
1 large egg, beaten (plus 1 large egg white, depending on consistency)

Cocoa powder variant - add 4.5 tbsp cocoa powder 31 g

Pinch of salt and 1 tsp vanilla 

Put the icing sugar, flour and butter into a food processor and blitz to breadcrumbs. Continue to blitz, and gradually add the whole egg until the dough comes together. You can check to see if it is hydrated enough by carefully picking a small amount up and compressing it to see if it forms a cohesive dough, if it does not, you may need to add a little of the egg white. Form the dough into a little round, cover with clingfilm and rest in the freezer for 10 minutes.

Roll the dough out to 12” diameter between two sheets of parchment paper (keep one for later).  If cracks form during rolling, just dab a bit of water on the cracks and bring the edge back together.  Remove the top parchment paper and transfer to the tart pan.  Gently press the dough into the pan ensuring that it goes into every nook and cranny.  Avoid stretching the dough as that leads to excessive shrinkage during baking.  If there are cracks just use excess dough that is above the pan edge to fill the crack smoothing it out quickly with your fingers trying not to melt the butter.  Dock the dough.

Chill it for 30 minutes in the freezer, this helps avoid shrinkage. Pre-heat your oven to 350F (180C) while the tart dough is chilling in the freezer.  Once the oven is ready line the top of the crust with foil or parchment paper and place pie weights or dried beans to keep the pie crust from puffing when baking.

Bake the pâte sucrée for 20 minutes. Carefully remove the parchment paper filled with weights and bake for 15 more minutes, until the edges of the crust are golden.  (I needed an additional 5 mins so bake for 20 mins once the pie weights are removed)

Set the tart shell aside to cool (still in the dish). Leave your oven on at 350F/180C.  Since we’re adding a partially cooked filling, the tart shell doesn’t need to be fully cooled.

In the meantime, make the lemon filling.

Grab a fine-mesh strainer before you start and have it ready within arm’s reach.

For the lemon filling :

1 cup (250ml) lemon juice (about 4 lg lemons)

Zest of 2.5 lemons (organic lemons)

3/4 cup (150g) sugar

1/4 tsp salt

¾ cup (170g) unsalted butter, cubed.

4 large eggs + 4 large egg yolks

In a medium saucepan (no heat yet), whisk together the lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar, salt, egg yolks and eggs. Add the cubed butter and turn the heat to medium. Whisk slowly until the butter is all melted. Continue whisking steadily until the mixture thickens to a thin custard consistency.  This took about 20 mins.

Immediately pass the lemon filling through the fine mesh strainer, directly into the tart shell. You may require a third hand to help get all the curd out of the pot into the strainer.  Gently tap the tart on the counter a couple of times to eliminate air bubbles.  Using an offset spatula (or back of a large spoon), smooth out the top of the filling. Bake the tart for 5-6 minutes, until the filling has slightly set and turned slightly deeper in color.

Set aside to cool for at least 30 minutes. Enjoy slightly warm or chilled.

Marshmallow Meringue

halve the ingredients to use the 4 egg yolks left over from the lemon curd.

1 cup | 8 ounces egg whites, from about 8 large eggs

1¾ cups | 12 ounces sugar or Roasted Sugar (page 102)

Consider reducing sugar as the meringue is very sweet.

½ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt (half as much if iodized)

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

¼ teaspoon rose water, or seeds from 1 vanilla bean (optional)

Key Point: With gently simmering water, the meringue should cook fairly fast. If you find the temperature climbing too slowly, simply crank up the heat.

Fill a 3-quart pot with 1½-inches of water and place over medium-low heat, with a ring of crumpled foil set in the middle to act as a booster seat. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine egg whites, sugar, salt, cream of tartar, and rose water or vanilla bean (if using). Place over steamy water, stirring and scraping constantly with a flexible spatula until thin, foamy, and 175°F on a digital thermometer, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and whip on high until glossy, thick, and quadrupled in volume, about 5 minutes. Use immediately.

Pipe on to the lemon curd, then using torch, burn the meringue.

My index of bakes. 

So I’ve discovered that most people prefer white bread to wholegrain, at least it seems that my friends do.  So in planning for a dinner party I decided I’d do my milk bun recipe but using only bread flour and no wholegrain other than the rye in the starter.  They turned out really really well especially when finished with some melted butter and some Maldon flaked salt.

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Levain 

Mix the levain ingredients in a jar or pyrex container with space for at least 300% growth.

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

At 75°F, it typically takes 10-12 hours for this sweet stiff levain to be at peak.

Tangzhong 

In a sauce pan set on med heat with about 1.5 cm of water, place the bowl of your stand mixer creating a Bain Marie, 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.

Dough

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the milk (consider holding back 5 g of milk and adding later if this is the first time you’re making this), egg, tangzhong, salt, sugar and levain.  Mix and then break up the levain into many smaller pieces.  Next add the flour.  I like to use my spatula to mix until there aren’t many dry areas.  Allow the flour to hydrate (fermentolyse) for 20-30 minutes.  Mix on low speed and then medium speed until moderate gluten development this may take 5-10 mins.  You may want to scrape the sides of the bowl during the first 5 minutes of mixing.  Next add room temperature butter one pat at a time.  The dough may come apart, be patient, continue to mix until it comes together before drizzling or adding in more butter.  Once all the butter has been added and incorporated increase the speed gradually to medium.  Mix at medium speed until the gluten is well developed, approximately 10 mins.  You will want to check gluten development by windowpane during this time and stop mixing when you get a good windowpane.  You should be able to pull a good windowpane.  

On the counter, shape the dough into a tight ball, cover in the bowl and ferment for 4.5-6 hours at 82ºF.  Aim for about 20-25% rise.

You can next place the dough into the fridge to chill the dough for about 1.5 hours, this makes rolling the dough easier to shape.  Remember, if you do so the final proof will take longer.  Alternatively, you can do a cold retard in the fridge overnight, however, you may find that this increases the tang in your bread.

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

Lightly flour the top of the dough. Scrape the dough out onto a clean counter top and divide it into 12 (you can first divide the dough into 4 equal portions and then divide each of those further into 3 to get 12). Shape each tightly into boules.  Place them into your prepared pan.

Cover and let proof for 6-8 hours at a warm temperature.  I proof at 82°F.  You may need longer than 6-8 hours if you chilled your dough for shaping. I proof until the dough passes the finger poke test.

Preheat the oven to 350F and brush the dough with the egg-milk wash.  Just prior to baking brush with the egg-milk wash again.

Bake the rolls for 30-35 minutes or until the internal temperature is at least 190F. Shield your buns if they get brown early in the baking process. You can brush the top of the loaf with butter if you wish at this point while the buns are still hot and sprinkle with flaked salt.

For 12 buns baked in a 9x13” pan, I think I would increase the weight of each bun to 60 g from 50 g pre-baked.  I’d also increase the pre-fermented flour to 25% to get these moving a bit faster as well.

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My index of bakes.

In the late 1800's, a lot of immigrants from Slovenia and Croatia came to this part of the world to work in the mines.  They brought some of their food influences too.  A local restaurant/bakery makes potica (pronounced Po-TEET-Sah), which is a Slovenian sweet bread with filling.  The most common filling is ground walnuts, and like many foods, each family has their own recipe.  This bread has been on my bake list for a few months now.  I have a friend from Slovenia, and recently, her mother was gracious enough to share their family recipe with me.  Hope I did it justice!  It's a wonderful recipe that introduced some baking elements I haven't used much and this one challenged me a bit. When I first tasted it, my first thought was that it needed cinnamon.  But the more I ate, the simple flavor grew on me and I think something like cinnamon would take away from the walnut. Next time, I think I'd add either a small preferment or less yeast and a longer ferment to develop a little more dough flavor.  Overall, a very fun bake!

The first challenge: holy butter!  I'm sure there are breads that use more than this but I was really doubting that she had copied the recipe correctly when I was looking through the ingredients.  38% butter was well beyond anything I've tried.  Combined with that EIGHT egg yolks.  Thought there was no way this would come together with only AP flour, but I was wrong.  In the end, the dough came together nicely.  I don't think I kneaded it quite enough early on and the dough was a little fragile when rolling, but it rose really well and ended up giving a nice open crumb.  Maybe thanks to the 4% active dry yeast!  :-)  On top of that, it also had 50% scalded whole milk, which is one of my favorite parts of making an enriched dough.  For some reason, I just like the smell of scalded milk and think it adds nice flavor to a dough.

The second challenge...  I didn't have a pan the size the recipe called for, so I had to estimate how much dough was needed for my 8.5" x 4.5" pans.  The remaining dough I formed into buns.  I overestimated a bit and should have made a couple more buns.  My pans were overflowing!  :-)

The third challenge...  Instead of adding the egg whites to the walnuts incrementally, I added the walnuts to the egg whites.  It was too much and made a very soupy filling.  In hind sight, I should have ground some more walnuts.  It did thicken up a bit as it sat, but never got to spreadable paste.  It made forming the rolls and handling them a little tough.  Kind of like a very limp noodle.  :-)

Despite all that, very happy with the result for the first attempt!

Makes 3 loaves for a 8.5" x 4.5" bread pan.  Alternatively, makes two loaves and approximately 5 buns.

Yeast Mixture
300g   Whole Milk, scalded at 180 deg F
32g     Sugar
24g     Active Dry Yeast

Dry Dough Ingredients
600g   All Purpose Flour (I used King Arthur's at 11.7% protein)
3g      Sea Salt

Wet Dough Ingredients
225g   Unsalted Butter, softened to room temperature
30g     Sugar
~144g  Egg Yolk (8 large eggs)
4g       Vanilla Extract (1 tsp)

Filling
500g   Walnut, ground to meal
300g   Sugar
~260g  Egg White (8 large eggs from above) 

1)  Scald milk by heating to 180 deg F and let cool on counter to room temp.
2)  Cream butter and sugar until fluffy using paddle attachment in a stand mixer. Add egg yolks and vanilla extract.  Mix and medium speed.  The mixture took on a look and texture that reminded me of scrambled eggs.  Wasn't expecting that!
3)  Combine yeast mixture ingredients and let proof for 5-10 minutes
4)  Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the center.
5)  When the yeast mixture is proofed, add the butter/yolk mixture to the yeast mixture and stir to mix.  Pour the combined mixture into the flour well.
6)  Slowly stir in the flour.  Continue stirring until all the flour is wetted.  Cover and let rest for 15 minutes.
7)  Perform 4 sets of bowl kneading with 10 minute rests between sets.
8)  Place in a oiled bowl and let double in size.
9)  While bulk is rising, beat egg whites at high speed until fluffy and firm.  Combine Filling sugar with walnuts and stir to combine.  Slowly add egg whites and rum to the walnuts until a thin paste forms.
10) After dough doubles, punch it down and divide the dough into the desired number of loaves and buns.  For the buns, use about 110g of dough weight.
11) Roll dough out about 16" long and wide enough for dough to be 1-2 mm thick.
12) Divide filling based on number of loaves and buns.  When dough is rolled out, evenly spread the allocated filling on the dough and tightly roll into a log.  For the buns, put the seem side down and then coil the log.
13) Cover the dough with a cloth and let proof in a warm area for at least 1 hour.
14) Preheat oven to 350 deg F
15) When dough is proofed, poke a bunch of small holes into the dough using a bamboo shish kabob skewer
16) Bake loaves for 1 hour and buns (on a sheet pan) for 25 minutes

"scrambled eggs" during mix

I haven't posted anything in ages since I tend to make the same loaves on a regular basis that I have shared before.  I am still baking weekly, and I visit here often to see what creations everyone is baking up!  This week, I decided to shake things up a bit and find some loaves that would be fitting for holiday gatherings and gifts.  As it happens, Trevor Wilson got his content back on line about the same time as I was perusing TFL for ideas, and his Holiday Cranberry Sourdough struck a chord with me.  So, off I went..... :)

I stayed true to Trevor's formula (after all, first time I'm making it, so......) The only changes I made were to scale the recipe for my usual loaf size, and to reduce the hydration to 72% (my comfort zone.) I also paid close attention to the dough, and my fermentation times were a bit different than his, but this is to be expected given starter differences, temp differences, etc.  My fridge proof was a bit shorter @ 10 hours, but, hey, who is in charge here, me or the bread?!?! ;) Ok, now that I typed all that, I guess I stayed true to the SPIRIT of Trevor's formula. :)

Anyway, everything went VERY smoothly for this bake.  I mixed the dough in my Ankarsrum, and it came together beautifully.  I mixed/developed the dough for about 12 minutes before slowly adding the cranberries.  The Ank got them mixed in well in about 2-3 minutes.  I baked off the first loaf this morning, and was a bit concerned that I had shortchanged the fermentation when there was just a small amount of oven spring when I removed my inverted roaster after the steaming period.  After another 25 minutes uncovered, my concerns turned out to be unjustified.  I did get a little splitting on one side of the loaf, so, I'd guess that I under proofed things a bit.

Happy with how this turned out for a first attempt, and will only make minor tweaks when I do it again.  Thanks for a great formula, and well written instructions, Trevor!

The recipe and method used to make the bread in this post is identical to this one with one extra addition. 14g (4% baker’s percentage) of wheat bran flakes are soaked in water, kept in the fridge overnight and strained before added to the preferment along with the coarse part of the ww flour and two starters, sourdough & sourwort.

Photos from this attempt:

Verdict

Mmmm om nom nom, this is serious whole wheat stuff. Suprisingly airy and soft crumb despite the large amount of bran in there. You can certainly feel and taste this fiber bomb exploding in the mouth. A thick slice slathered with butter will keep you full for many hours during the day. Ambrosial.

 Savvas

Please see here and here to learn more about concentrated lactic acid sourdough (CLAS). 

Thanks to CLAS, I can make delicious 100% whole-wheat bread with freshly milled flour in just a few hours without using fat, dairy, sugar, eggs, or vital wheat gluten!

Ingredients

A.

90% fresh white whole-wheat flour ground in the Vitamix, 450g

10% white whole-wheat flour from WW CLAS, 50g

15% water from WW CLAS, 75g

B.

55% water, 275g

C.

2% salt, 10g

0.3% yeast, 1.5g

D.

8% water, 40g

Total dough weight ~900g

Mix

I find the windowpane test unnecessary and usually skip it when mixing whole wheat dough. Instead, I check the dough's elasticity occasionally by tugging it during mixing. I consider the mixing done once it feels extensible and isn't stiff anymore. This method helps me create tall and airy 100% whole-wheat bread without using any enrichments or additives.

Mix the dough using the Zojirushi bread machine, programmed for 10 minutes - for the first 3 minutes, the paddles are just stirring gently to bring the ingredients together, and in the remaining 7 minutes, the kneading begins.

1. +A, start the machine

2. gradually +B until a dough forms; continue to mix

(1st 10-min cycle)

3. +C, mix to incorporate and develop gluten

4. once the dough feels strong, start drizzling D

(2nd 10-min cycle)

5. continue to mix and gradually +D until the dough can barely absorb more water.

(3rd 10-min cycle)

Bulk ferment 

32C x 120 mins

The dough doubled.

Shape

with wet hands

fold the dough ~4-6 times into a log

dump into a 9x4x4 Pullman lined with parchment slings 

Prove

33-34C x 45 mins

Bake

Preheat to 535F

Lower to 482F once loaded

482F x 10 mins with steam

392F x 30 mins w/o steam; cover the top with foil if it becomes too dark

unmold

392F x 15 mins directly on the stone, or bake longer until it taps hollow

That's it!

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How to make whole-wheat CLAS

 ground wheat malt: 25g

 Whole grain wheat flour: 75g

 Water T. 45°C: 140 ml

 Vinegar (5% acidity): 10 ml

 Fermentation temperature: 38°C±2°C

 Fermentation time: 24-36h

 Hydration: 150%

 End pH: around 4

To refresh wheat CLAS

1:7 (wheat flour in CLAS: new wheat flour), no vinegar needed

150% hydration@38+-2 C x 12 hours

I usually make about 500g of CLAS at a time with 200g of grains. It stays in the fridge until I need it to bake, and I stir it thoroughly before use. I usually warm it up with one of Zo's fermentation features while I prepare the remaining ingredients. When I've used up most of the 500g of CLAS, I refresh it using the 1:7 ratio to make another 500g, give or take. 

I set up a water bath (~low 40s C) in the Instant Pot, support the container with a trivet, and use the Instant Pot's yogurt feature to make CLAS:   

Then cover it with the lid.

P.S. 20230722 

I can also make CLAS in the Zo using its 'Rise 3' feature because it operates within the same temperature range as a yogurt maker. I can either take out the bread pan, place the container with CLAS in the bread machine, supporting it with a trivet, or ferment the CLAS directly in the bread pan.

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How I develop gluten for whole wheat dough

https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/68309/how-i-develop-whole-wheat-doughs-gluten 

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 The mixing is complete. 

It develops very strong gluten even without autolyse. CLAS rocks!💪💪💪

Just sit back and watch the dough rise. Easy peasy!

Ta-da!

I searched but could not find a posting on Hamelman’s Harvest Bread so I thought I’d post my experience. I baked a test loaf to see if I wanted this for Thanksgiving. I have gotten so much help and inspiration from this site over the years and I would like to extend my deepest thanks to all you bakers.

This bread requires a levain build that uses a stiff starter. I converted my 125% refrigerated starter to a stiff starter in the evening and fed again 12 hours later so that the starter was ready for the levain the following evening. (I converted my 125% starter to a 60% stiff starter using this spreadsheet convert sourdough starters.The spreadsheet was created using wayne on FLUKE’s text from his .csv file.)

The recipe also calls for a bit of yeast – I used slightly more than ½ teaspoon, ~ 1.65 grams of active dry yeast for ~ 750 grams of dough.

I opted to toast the walnuts in a 300 F degree oven for 14 minutes, turning them over a couple of times to make sure they didn’t burn. The other mix-ins were golden raisins and dried cranberries. I did not soak these.

I lowered the percentage of whole wheat (Bob’s Red Mill) from 40 to 30% to account for my husband’s tastes.

The recipe calls for 78% hydration, but the dough seemed a little too wet, maybe because I lowered the percentage of whole wheat or maybe because it was a bit humid here in San Diego. I added 8 grams of AP (King Arthur’s), which lowered the hydration to 76% and that did the trick, although it remained a very sticky dough. My final dough temp wasn’t quite at the 76 degrees, but it was close.

I bulk fermented for 2 hours (Hamelman: 1.5 – 2 hours) with a fold halfway through the bulk fermentation. I took the dough out of the bowl for the fold because I thought it needed more strength than I would have gotten with a bucket fold.

I pre-shaped, rested for 15 minutes, and shaped a boule. I did the final fermentation as best as I could at 75 degrees F using my microwave with the light on for 1 ¼ hours. (Hamelman: 1 – 1.5 hours).

I baked with normal steam on a stone at 460 F for 15 minutes, lowered temp to 420 F for remaining bake. Total bake was 38 minutes. 

My takeaways:

1. I think the bread should have risen more. I probably did not let the levain get to its full ripeness, which Hamelman indicates is key, especially for a stiff starter.  

2. I used scissors to score the bread – it was ok, but my scoring always leaves something to be desired. 

3. Fruit and nuts were not evenly distributed, but that did not detract from the taste.

4. This is a delicious bread with what I think is the right amount of chew. Hamelman says the complete flavor spectrum runs from the bitterness of the whole wheat to the sweetness of the raisins and sweet/tart cranberries and then to the crunch of the walnuts. He’s right – the taste is terrific. Next time I will use pecans because my hubby is not crazy about walnuts.

A piece is missing from the boule photo below because I forgot to take a photo before I ate some.