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I still have a bag of whole buckwheat flour from Anita’s Mill that I am finding hard to use up. I decided to try it in a milk bread for something a bit different.  Then because buckwheat has no gluten I decided I’d use it in the tangzhong and also as half the flour in the levain.  Buckwheat is neither a grain nor a grass, in fact it is a flowering plant related to rhubarb and sorrel.  It is considered a pseudo cereal.  The seeds of buckwheat are what is used to make the flour and it is becoming in vogue at the moment in French bakeries for bread. 

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I forgot to take photos of the loaf prior to slicing so you’ll have to settle for the sliced photos.

Instructions

Levain

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

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

At a temperature of 76-78ºF, it typically takes up to 10-12 hours for this sweet stiff levain to be at peak.  For my starter I typically see 3-3.5 times increase in size at peak.  The levain will smell sweet with only a mild tang.

Tangzhong 

In a sauce pan set on medium heat, stir the milk and flour until blended. Then cook for several minutes until well thickened, stirring regularly with a spoon or heat-resistant spatula. Let cool in the pan or, for faster results, in a new bowl.  Theoretically it should reach 65ºC (149ºF) but I don’t find I need to measure the temperature as the tangzhong gelatinizes at this temperature.  You can prepare this the night before and refrigerate it, ensure that it is covered to prevent it from drying out.

If you plan on using a stand mixer to mix this dough, set up a Bain Marie and use your stand mixer’s bowl to prepare the tangzhong.

Dough

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the milk (consider holding back 10 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 and vital wheat gluten.  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 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, not quite as good as a white flour because the bran will interrupt the windowpane somewhat. 

On the counter, shape the dough into a tight ball, cover in the bowl and ferment for 2 - 3 hours at 82ºF.  There may be some rise visible at this stage.

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 pans by greasing them with butter 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 four. I like to weigh them to have equal sized lobes. Shape each tightly into a boule, allow to rest 5 mins. Using a rolling pin roll each ball out and then letterfold. Turn 90* and using a rolling pin roll each out to at least 8”. Letterfold again from the sides so you have a long narrow dough. Then using a rolling pin, roll flatter but keeping the dough relatively narrow.  The reason to do this extra letterfold is that the shorter fatter rolls when placed in the pan will not touch the sides of the pan.  This allows the swirled ends to rise during final proof, this is only done for appearance sake and is not necessary.  Next roll each into a tight roll with some tension. Arrange the rolls of dough inside your lined pan alternating the direction of the swirls. This should allow a greater rise during proof and in the oven.

Cover and let proof for 3.5-4 hours at a warm temperature.  I proof at 82°F.  You will need longer than 3.5-4 hours if you chilled your dough for shaping. I proof until the top of the dough comes to within 1 cm of the top edge of the pan.

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 loaves for 50 minutes or until the internal temperature is at least 190ºF, rotating as needed to get even browning. Shield your loaf if it gets brown early in the baking process. After 50 mins remove the bread from the pan and bake a further 10 mins by placing the loaf directly in the oven on the rack with the oven turned down to 325ºF. You can brush the top of the loaf with butter if you wish at this point while the bread is still hot to keep the top crust soft.

My index of bakes.

This bake was made by combining two starters together namely spontaneous sourdough (type I) and sourwort (natural  type II) in search of a more unique and complete taste profile along with good bread appearance.

The motive behind this test was based on the particulars of each one of the two ferments that I keep which possess very different but complimentary characteristics.

Sourwort, basically the hydrous outcome of natural anaerobic lacto-fermentation of malted grains at a temperature range close to 40C. These conditions discourage spontaneous yeast development and at the same time encourage native lactic acid bacteria to activate and produce mainly lactic acid and various other fermentation by-products that contribute to taste, dough development and subsequent yeast (wild and/or commercial) function.

Sourdough and because of the way I maintain it, lies at the other end of the spectrum. It is put to ferment at 18C aerobically, has a relatively stiff consistency encouraging the growth of yeast with robust leavening power and acetic taste.

You can tell immediately the difference between the two ferments by tasting them raw. One tastes more dairy the other more vinegary. Both aromatic each in its own sense. Here are some more in depth details of the two ferments used in this bake:

Sourwort

500g water ; 150g cracked spelt malt ; 1tsp a.c.vinegar 5°

Fermented anaerobically near 40C for 24hours. Then strained and letting its temperature fall gradually over the next 12-18 hours or so before transferring  it to the fridge (I’ ve tried 10 days old sourwort straight from the fridge with success). I have noticed that by letting its temperature fall slowly until it reaches 18-20C it enhances its characteristics, probably by allowing other temperature specific bacteria species to be activated and contribute overall.

Sourdough

This is a spontaneous type I sourdough starter, maintained by feeding it once a day with organic whole rye flour, inoculation rate 50%, hydration 75% and fermenting temp 18C. Maybe once a day I would give it a good stir either because I use part of it to bake with or deliberately to promote aerobic conditions.

To sum up, by combining these two different natural starters the final dough contains fermentation products and by-products produced/collected over a very wide temperature range, all the way from 40C down to 4C when final dough is retarded for nearly 20 hours to proof. And it is exactly this wide temperature range that engages a broader microbial species number to get involved which in turn (I hope) will grant bread superior and more unique taste as compared to traditional methods using single preferments. And as far as structure is concerned, sourwort (apart from other factors) certainly contributes positively  to openness/airiness/fluffiness of the crumb as it has been shown elsewhere.

The bread in the photos was made using these ingredient percentages:

304g RobinHood AllPurpose flour (p=13.2%)

16g Prefermented rye flour (sourdough 5%)

Overall hydration 75% ; sourwort 10% ; salt 2%

Plus soaked and strained bran flakes 4%

The Method

Involved a 3 hour extended autolyse of all the unfermented portion of flour with 65% hydration at 28-30C followed by mixing in the rest of the ingredients. Bulk 04:30 at 28-30C with lamination and folds (when needed) during the first 3 hours. Shaped and retarded (4C) in banneton for ~20 hours. Baked in DO as usual.

Taste

Well this is the most difficult part for me since English is not my first language but I’ll try. The taste came out as hypothesized having complexity and a variety of nuances from the stiff rye starter, presence of the lactic liquid and long autolyse. The characteristic spelt malt taste shows through in a pleasant way (makes it taste bready). Gentle sour after taste with a tad of sweetness. Definitely unique. These preliminary results encourage me to try it again, maybe with different flours, increased hydration for a more holey crumb, rye malt sourwort and what else pops in mind. Till next time…..

The rye sourdough type I

 Spelt Malt Sourwort. Nothing much to see really, just liquid.

    I was so happy with how my last bake came out using a two step levain build I decided to try it again.  I wanted to use some of the Vermont cheese we bought on our vacation last month and I had a bunch of tasty cherries we bought from the store just begging to be put to good use.

I combined some Artisan Bread Flour from KAF with some high extraction fresh milled Ruby Red Whole Wheat from Barton Springs Mill.  The cheese was a mild Vermont Cheddar that was cubed so it wouldn’t completely melt when baked.

This bake turned out as good as I could have expected.  A nice moist open crumb that tasted amazing especially when toasted or grilled.

Formula

Levain Directions Build 1

Mix all the levain ingredients for build one (including the seed starter) 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.

Levain Directions Build 2

Add in the flour and water as indicated and mix until incorporated by hand.  Cover and let sit another 3-5 hours until doubled and you should see plenty of activity.

Either use in the main dough immediately or refrigerate for up to 1 day before using.

 Main Dough Procedure

Mix the flour and water together in your mixer or by hand until it just starts to come together, maybe about 1 minute.  Let it rest in your work bowl covered for 20-30 minutes.  After 30 minutes or so  add the salt, starter (cut into about 7-8 pieces),  olive oil and mix on low for 5 minutes.   Note: If you are using the Ankarsrum mixer like I do, add your water to the bowl first then add in the flour.  After your autolyse add in the starter, salt,  and olive oil and mix on low to medium low for 15-20 minutes and add in the cherries and cheese at the end and mix for a minute until incorporated.

Remove the dough from your bowl and place it in a lightly oiled bowl or work surface and do several stretch and folds.  Let it rest covered for 10-15 minutes and then do another stretch and fold.  Let it rest another 10-15 minutes and do one additional stretch and fold.  After a total of 1.5 hours place your covered bowl in the refrigerator and let it rest for 12 to 24 hours.

When you are ready to bake remove the bowl from the refrigerator and let it set out at room temperature still covered for 1.5 to 2 hours or if using a proofer set at 80 degrees for one hour.  Remove the dough and shape as desired and cover with a moist tea towel or plastic wrap Sprayed with cooking spray and let rise at room temperature for 1 1/2 – 2 hours.  (I use my proofer set at 80 F and it takes about 1 hour to 1.5 hours).

Around 45 minutes before ready to bake, pre-heat your oven to 500 degrees F. and prepare it for steam.  I have a heavy-duty baking pan on the bottom rack of my oven with 1 baking stone on above the pan and one on the top shelf.  I pour 1 cup of boiling water in the pan right after I place the dough in the oven.

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 around 200-210 F.

Take the breads out of the oven when done and let them cool on a bakers rack for as long as you can resist.

I've been on a bit of a whole grain kick lately, and after a brief back and forth with Dave, I decided to give his 97th Bake a try.  Let the fun begin!

I converted his recipe to my standard 450g flour, and other than a few deviations, I followed his method as outlined in his post.  My only deviations...  I didn't have hard white wheat, so I substituted with hard red.  I didn't have whole coriander or time to toast the spices, so I used 2.5g ground coriander, 3.5g fennel seed, and 3.5g caraway seed.  I didn't have time to grind the flaxseed or chia seed, and based on Dave's observations about the bread drying out, I made a soaker with the flax/chia seeds using 150% boiling water.  Finally, I skipped the chia seeds in the topcoat.

While weighing out the ingredients, I thought the bread spice mix would be overpowering, but it doesn't appear so on the baked bread.  The fennel is definitely noticeable, but it doesn't seem over the top.  Looking forward to the taste test tomorrow!

At mixing, I made a rookie mistake #1...  I followed Dave's hydration verbatim and didn't contemplate the differences in our flours.  I used a blend of Glenn, Red Fife, Turkey Red, and Warthog from Janie's Mill.  It was great after the saltolyse, but the additional hydration with both leavening sources plus the soaker put it over the top.  The dough was extemely slack and sticky.  Rookie mistake #2...  I was stubborn and thought I could work the hydration into the dough.  A couple of tablespoons of flour would have gone a long way...  During folds, the dough would start to firm up and lose its stickiness but would go slack and get sticky by the next fold.  If I hadn't ground the grain myself, I would have bet good money that this was an 80% rye bread instead of 20%.  Next time...  I'll start at 73-75% hydration and bassinage in extra hydration as needed.

Shaping was "interesting"...  I did my best to handle it with a little extra flour.  Couldn't get any strength into it with folds.  Finally had to get a little tension into it by using my bench scraper and shaping a boule for about 10-12 quarter turns.  It was just enough to wet the surface and roll the dough through the seeds for the top coat.  Flopped the dough into the Pullman and crossed my fingers.

The dough was so slack, I didn't trust the poke test.  So, I let it go in final proof until I had a good rise and always watching for pin holes in the surface.  After 3.25 hours, it to was within an inch of the lip and hadn't formed a pin hole.  I didn't want to push it any further and moved to baking.

The bread has a nice aroma and formed a crisp (but not thick) crust.  Even though I didn't get a pin hole, I think it overproofed and I'll have caverns under the top crust.  That said, it smells really good and can't wait till breakfast! 

Last week Natalya Syanova of Natasha's Baking posted a short video of a babka with a cream cheese filling that I just had to make. The filling she used was made with cream cheese, an egg yolk,  sugar and vanilla, so you can imagine the resulting flavour, and she also use a brioche base for it to ensure a super soft and pillowy texture.

Instead of using her brioche recipe though, I used a Tangzhong one from Bread by Elise.

The resulting bread is delicious and so soft, although my guilt-o-meter is off the charts when I think of the cholesterol in it.

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The crumb is super soft and shreddable with small pieces of cream cheese fat embedded in it and only the very thinnest layer of filling visible in the final bread. I might be inclined to use a more conventional babka dough if I was to repeat as the brioche dough kind of collapsed a little under its own weight while cooling.

And next time I'll chill the cream cheese filling so that it doesn't ooze out during the roll up step of the babka shaping!

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After several years of thinking about making a loaf of Portuguese Sweet Bread, I finally did so today.  The recipe came from Bread Illustrated (produced by the folks at America's Test Kitchen) and is very simple.

All-purpose flour, instant dry yeast, and salt are placed in the bowl of a stand mixer.  Separately some water, eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract are combined in a container that can be used for pouring and mixed until the sugar is dissolved.  On low speed with a dough hook the fluid is slowly poured into the mixing bowl until there is no longer any dry flour.  The speed is upped to medium-low until the dough begins to pull away from the sides, at which point some butter is added in small pieces.  When the butter is fully incorporated and the dough is elastic and sticky, the dough is dumped onto the counter, formed into a ball, placed in a lightly oiled bowl, and covered.

The recipe estimates that two to two-and-a-half hours will elapse while the dough roughly doubles, but my 78F kitchen saw a billowing dough mass after an hour and forty-five minutes.  The dough is then deflated, shaped into a boule, placed into a greased 9" cake pan, given a light spray of cooking oil, and lightly covered with plastic wrap.

When the dough is 1.75" above the lip of the cake pan, it is ready for the oven.  In my case that occurred after about an hour and a half.  Using a paring knife, I scored the dough around the circumference at the lip level of the pan (to create uniform oven spring) and then brushed the top with a wash of egg, water, and a pinch of salt.

The dough went into a 350F oven and stayed in for forty minutes (longer than the estimated 30-35 minutes in the recipe), but I wanted to hit the 190-195F range stated in the recipe and avoid an undercooked center.  Apparently this was fine based on the results.

Here is another view of the crust.

And here is the crumb.

What a soft crumb this bread has!  The thin mahogany crust is nice too.  If you are looking for a change of pace from your usual sourdough breads, consider this one.  I omitted details on the amounts so as to give a general overview of the bread, but if anyone wants the full recipe just let me know.

Happy baking.

Ted

This is based originally on a Buttermilk Rye that David Snyder posted. He got it from a baker on the net. I’ve changed a number of things but want to give credit for the idea . 

This is another mostly hands off formula. The incredible outcome belies the easy process. This once again proves time and fermentation are your friends . 

2150g dough 2 boules 450 /20 min covered graniteware 

   400/30 min uncovered 

levain: 110g freshly ground rye sourced Breadtopia

            110g active  YW 

               60g stored Rye SD starter mixed all and left for 4 hrs was tripled. Left on counter til morning. 

Dough:

400g fresh milled  Spelt- Breadtopia

300g fresh milled Sonora - Barton Springs

300g Arrowhead Mills bread flour (+ 50 g extra if dough doesn’t form perfect non sticky ball in KA mixer) 

280g levain mixed into 740g buttermilk, 22 g salt ,60g EVOO and 60 g date syrup can substitute honey but crust/ crumb color will be lighter

mix on 1 till thoroughly wet. Let rest 1 hr. Mix on 2 four minutes. Should clean bowl completely dust in extra 50g +/-  to make this happen. Shape in ball into oiled large bucket. 30 min then one s&f. 30 min another s&f. Let rise til 30%. Shape and into  floured banneton rise approx 4 hrs in fridge. Can continue retard overnight or bake . I usually retard overnight but the dough was huge so I decided to try something new to me. Beautiful flavor crust and fine crumb much like the Pullman crumb. So much flavor. 

Heading to some friends for a celebratory lunch, one of whom is retiring. We cannot possibly arrive with only some flowers and a card, so what better to bring than some home baked bread. In this case I wanted to use fresh Canadian grown blueberries and enhance them with lemon.

Using the 50% WW SD sweet rolls recipe I’ve made now a couple of times, I added the zest of one lemon into the dough. The filling is butter, lemon sugar (ensure you zest the lemons into the sugar and rub it all together to get the lemon oils into the sugar) and fresh blueberries. Finally for some extra lemon zing they are finished with a lemon drizzle icing.

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Sweet Lemon Glaze

juice from ½ large lemon* this makes more than needed
½ cup (60g) confectioners’ sugar

1 Tablespoons (15-30ml) milk, half-and-half, or heavy cream

Make the glaze: Right before serving, top your blueberry rolls with glaze. Mix all of the glaze ingredients together. If you prefer a thicker glaze, add more powdered sugar and then add salt to cut the sweetness, if desired. If you’d like it thinner, add more lemon juice or cream. Pour over sweet rolls.

FOR THE FILLING:

30 g Butter melted and slightly cooled

3/4 c. Sugar

The zest of two lemons 

2 c. (Heaping) Fresh Blueberries

Melt 1 stick of butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Once melted remove from heat.

Brush melted butter over the dough, using your fingers to spread evenly.

Using your fingers, mix sugar and lemon zest so that it’s a nice, light yellow sugar. Sprinkle it all over the butter. Sprinkle the blueberries evenly over the surface.

Instructions

Levain

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

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

At a temperature of 76ºF, it typically takes up to 10-12 hours for this sweet stiff levain to be at peak. For my starter I typically see 3-3.5 times increase in size at peak. The levain will smell sweet with only a mild tang.

Tangzhong

In a sauce pan set on medium heat, stir the milk and flour until blended. Then cook for several minutes until well thickened, stirring regularly with a spoon or heat-resistant spatula. Let cool in the pan or, for faster results, in a new bowl. Theoretically it should reach 65ºC (149ºF) but I don’t find I need to measure the temperature as the tangzhong gelatinizes at this temperature. You can prepare this the night before and refrigerate it, ensure that it is covered to prevent it from drying out.

If you plan on using a stand mixer to mix this dough, set up a Bain Marie and use your stand mixer’s bowl to prepare the tangzhong.

Dough

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the milk (consider holding back 10 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 flours. 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 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, not quite as good as a white flour because the bran will interrupt the windowpane somewhat. Next add the zest of one to two lemons, that way they do not interfere with the gluten development. Mix until they are well incorporated in the dough.

On the counter, shape the dough into a tight ball, cover in the bowl and ferment for 2 - 3 hours at 82ºF. There may be some rise visible at this stage.

Optional cold retard overnight or just 1.5 hours to chill the dough for easier shaping.

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

This dough is very soft. Act quickly to roll, spread the filling, and cut before the dough warms and softens further. If it begins to soften, place it in the fridge to firm.

Remove your bulk fermentation container from the fridge, lightly flour your work surface in a large rectangle shape, and the top of the dough in the bowl. Then, gently scrape out the dough to the center of your floured rectangle. Lightly dust the top of the dough with flour, and using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to a 15″ x 15″ square or larger rectangle.

Brush melted butter on rolled dough. Sprinkle lemon sugar mix then blueberries on top.

Starting at one of the long sides of the rectangle in front of you, begin rolling up the dough as you move across. Be sure to tightly roll the dough by gently tugging on the dough as you roll.

Once finished rolling up the dough, divide it into nine 1 1/2″ pieces using a sharp knife. Transfer the pieces to the prepared baking pan and cover with a large, reusable bag, place in a warm spot. I use my proofing box set to 82°F. Final proof may take 2.5-4 hours, be patient and wait until the dough passes the finger poke test.

Be sure to start preheating your oven about 30 minutes before you feel the rolls will be fully proofed. For me, the final warm proof time was about 3 hours in my 77°F (25°C) room.

Bake

Preheat your oven, with a rack in the middle, to 400°F (200°C). After the warm proof, uncover your dough and gently press the tops of a few rolls. The fully proofed rolls will look very soft. The texture of the dough will be almost like a whipped mousse. Be sure to give them extra time in warm proof if necessary. If the dough needs more time to proof, cover the pan and give the dough another 15 to 30 minutes at a warm temperature and check again.

Once your oven is preheated, remove your pan from its bag, place it on a lined cookie tray and then slide it into the oven, and bake for 30 to 35 minutes.

Once fully baked, fully cool on a rack before glazing.

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My index of bakes.

A place where I order rye chops also has emmer flour, and I decided to get some.  Looking for a recipe, I found one on TFL by leslieruf.  By and large I followed his description, although there were a few fairly minor differences.

Instead of a starter build, I simply used 50g of my starter combined with 50g of bread flour and 50g of water for the levain the night before.  Overnight this did the usual of turning into a frothy bubbly mixture.  The next morning I put emmer flour (113g), bread flour (262g), and water (250g) into my 6-quart Cambro tub and worked them into a unified mass, which sat covered for 45 minutes.  The next step was to add  most of the levain (125g) and a small amount of salt (6.75g).

Leslie used a mixer, but I opted for working the dough by hand.  After a few minutes I had merged the levain and salt into the flour and water mix sufficiently that I felt comfortable dumping the dough onto a granite countertop on which I did 125 French folds (eighty-five and then a pause for a minute or two before the remainder) to build some gluten and strength.  The kitchen was 72F, and the dough temperature was 74F.

This is a soft dough (as Leslie described), not quite like ciabatta dough but tending in that direction.  Four stretch-and-fold sessions followed at thirty minute intervals, and the dough did gain strength during that process.  An hour after the fourth S&F I gave the dough another S&F and thereafter left it to sit while it expanded a bit and showed the presence of some bubbles.  For this I looked not only at the surface and sides but also lifted the container and looked at the bottom, which I have found to be a reliable way to judge the growth of bubbles during bulk fermentation.  Total time for the bulk fermentation was exactly five hours.

The dough went back onto the granite countertop for a pre-shape.  Leslie had omitted this step, and I felt that 20 minutes was about right given the extensible nature of the dough.  Shaping into a boule was straightforward, but I needed to flour the top surface and my hands to keep the dough from sticking during that process.  Next time I will also be sure to flour my banneton sufficiently.

The banneton went into a plastic bag and then into the refrigerator for an overnight proofing, which lasted a bit over fifteen hours.  The dough had expanded a little overnight and was sticking to the sides of the banneton more than dough usually does (hence the reminder to flour the banneton a little more next time).  The dough was also a challenge to score as can be seen from the top view photo.  Nonetheless, I managed to get the dough into the Dutch oven and placed into the 465F pre-heated oven.  After 15 minutes I removed the lid, and the total baking time was 42 minutes.

The loaf weighed 649 grams, has a nice soft but chewy crust, and has a pleasing crumb.

Here is another view of the crust.

Here is the crumb.

Leslie remarked in his post that he could not really detect the emmer flour at 30% of the total flour and felt that more the next time might change that.  I agree, but the next time in addition to slightly increasing the portion of emmer I will likely also slightly decrease the hydration.  This recipe is about 71.4% hydration, and given the nature of emmer I am wary of reducing the gluten and strength provided by bread flour without also adjusting the amount of water.  (Leslie, did you bake this bread again with any alterations to your first bake?)

This was a nice alternative to my typical bakes, and I will definitely try it again.  Thanks to Leslie for posting his bake and giving me the opportunity to try a bread with emmer flour.

Happy baking.

Ted

Inspired by a recent post by Eric Hanner’s daughter, I decided to have another go at the deli rye recipe that Eric has shared with us.  As you may know he passed away before his time and although I didn’t know him, I know many of you did here on TFL.  Based on my previous bakes of this recipe, I’ve made small changes which are reflected in the spreadsheet and instructions.  If you’re worried that the onion flavour will be too much, you can just used filtered water instead of the water used to rehydrated the onions.

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Build levain overnight 74°F for 8 - 10 hours

Boil filtered water about 250 g and use to rehydrate the onions overnight. When ready to start the dough in the morning, strain the onions and use the water to make the dough. If you’re worried there might be too much onion flavour, use regular filtered water than wasn’t used to hydrate the onions.

Mix bread flour, VWG, onion water (minus holdout water), yeast and sugar using a mixer. Once incorporated let rest for 15 mins. This is a stiff dough. Then mix on low speed to build gluten. If the dough seems just too stiff for your mixer to develop, add some of the levain since it is 100% hydration.

Once gluten well developed add levain mixing again until well incorporated and gluten well developed, the dough will be a bit loose at this point. Then add the salt and holdout water (if needed) gradually and again mix until well developed. The salt will tighten up the dough. Add the rehydrated onion and mix until well combined.

Transfer the dough to a well oiled bowl and continue bulk fermentation 82ºF for about 1-2 hour or until the dough has at least doubled.
Once bulk is complete and the dough has at least doubled pre-heat the oven to 500ºF with the dutch oven inside.
Dust the surface of the dough and the countertop with flour and release the dough onto the countertop. Degas the dough by patting it down with the heel of your hand. Shape into a batard.
Transfer the batard to your final proofing device. I used a cookie tray with bottles of wine on either side, then my couche and then a sheet of parchment paper. I placed the dough seem side down onto the parchment supporting the sides of the dough. I brushed the surface with water and put poppyseeds on the outside of the dough.

When oven pre-heated to 500ºF, brush the dough with the cornstarch glaze then score with the bread knife and load into the dutch oven to bake with steam for 15 mins at 450ºF then remove the lid and drop temperature to 420ºF for 20 mins and then drop temperature again to 350ºF and bake for another 10 mins. Make sure the loaf is fully baked, remove it from the oven and tap on the bottom to ensure that it sounds hollow. If hollow then it is done. Place on a cooling rack and brush once again with the cornstarch glaze.

Cornstarch Glaze - (makes more than needed)
Bring 125 g water to a boil in a small sauce pan.
In a 1 cup measuring cup, whisk together ⅛ cup (31 g) water and ¾-1 tbsp cornstarch. Slowly add the dissolved cornstarch mixture into the boiling water, whisking constantly until the glaze has thickened slightly. Take it off the stove and set aside until needed. It will be quite thick by the time it is needed.

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My index of bakes.