9/5/10 - 5/10/20 Pain Au Levain and Walnut Raisin Bread
Hi All,
Just wanted to share with you my bake from Monday, 9/5/10... I had some friends in from San Francisco, who have never had my bread, so I wanted to make them something special to take home with them after brunch...
Here is a pain au levain, that I will call my 5/10/20 pain au levain... It was inspired by JT's 85x3 bread that Farine blogged about here: http://www.farine-mc.com/2010/04/jts-85x3.html
I did not have any T85 flour, but I could make 3 starters... This bread is basically 95% AP (king arthur) 5% rye (hodgson mill), approx 66% hydration, 2.4% kosher salt.
Starter 1 (Rye Sour): All of the rye flour (5% of total flour) prefermented at 83% hydration for 24hrs at room temp. Use 4% sourdough starter.
Starter 2 (Liquid Levain): 10% of total flour (AP) prefermented at 100% hydration for 1 hour at room temp, and 23 hours at 40F. Use 20% sourdough starter.
Starter 3 (Stiff levain): 20% of total flour (AP) prefermented at 55% hyrdation for 1 hour at room temp, and 23 hrs at 40F. Use 20% sourdough starter.
I'll continue this if anybody is interested... The result I think speaks for itself...
This is the walnut raisin pain au levain using the same dough as above but adding buttermilk powder, a little sugar, butter, toasted walnuts and raisins... I think it turned out really good... Note to self: Mix this dough separately... Trying to knead in powdered buttermilk is an excercise in futility. Some of it combined OK, but the stuff that didn't clumped in the dough, and I had to spend about 15 minutes kneading and picking out the clumps before kneading in the butter, walnuts and raisins...
Cheers!
Tim
Comments
Tim, I think you can truly call this method "complex fermentation"
And I'd say it is worth all the effort. Crust and crumb just look out of this world.
Lovely stuff
Andy
Andy,
Thanks! This was more complicated in thought than execution... The starters are relatively easy to make ahead of time... I am very pleased with the results...
I think though that maybe my brain is over-fermented...
The pain au levain boules could have been proofed for a little longer as they sort of blew out... I just took pics of the nice sides of the boules... Don't tell anybody... OK?
Tim
You pain au levain looks fantastic. Was the crust as crunchy as it looks?
I made a hazelnut fig bread today and a walnut SD rye---I"m curious, did you toast your walnuts before adding to the bread?
Thanks! The crust was as crunch as it looks. It was a little humid here in NYC so a little toasting helps make the crust crunchy again...
Yes, I did toast the walnuts before adding it to the dough... Toast them early enough so they can cool before you add them to the dough...
you just have Tim!
Oops! My secret is out...
Hi Daisy_A,
Thanks! I'll have to dig through my notes and write out a proper full formula for all the stuff required for this... I'll get back to you in a few days...
This bread is all levain based, so there is not added yeast. Also, I did all of this by hand... Also as for the salt, one of my friends at work said one of my sourdough breads tasted bland... For that one, I used only 1.8% salt... Using 2.4% salt doesn't make things all that salty unless you are very sensitive to salt...
Tim
Hi Daisy_A,
Here's the formula and method:
Total Formula:
95% AP Flour (1974g)
5% Rye Flour Stoneground (104g)
66% Water (1372g)
2.4% Kosher Salt (50g)
168.4% (3500g total dough yield approx)
Starter #1 - Rye Sour - 5% of total flour prefermented
104g Rye
86g Water
4g Stiff Sourdough Starter (50-55% hydration)
194g Total
Starter #2 - Liquid Levain - 10% of total flour prefermented
208g AP
208g Water
42g Stiff Sourdough Starter (50-55% hydration)
458g Total
Starter #3 - Stiff Levain - 20% of total flour prefermented
416g AP
230g Water
84g Stiff Sourdough Starter (50-55% hydration)
730g Total
Final Dough
1350g AP
848g Water
50g Kosher Salt
730g Stiff Levain
458g Liquid Levain
194g Rye Sour
3630g Total Dough Yield
Method to the Madness...
24hrs before baking - Mix all the starters in separate bowls, cover and leave on counter for 1 hour at room temp. After 1 hour, place the liquid levain and the stiff levain in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Leave the rye sour out on the counter at room temp.
Bake Day - Take starters out of the refrigerator. Weigh out all remaining ingredients.
Mixing - In a large metal mixing bowl, place all ingredients in the bowl in the following order: Water, rye sour, stiff levain, liquid levain, flour, salt. With a large rubber spatula, mix all ingredients until a shaggy dough forms, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a plastic scraper. Then with wet hands, squish the dough to make sure there aren't an lumps dry clumps. Place bowl in large plastic bag, close and let rest for 30 minutes.
After rest, knead dough in bowl with no extra flour, only wet hands and plastic scraper for about 5 minutes, cover and let rest for 30 minutes.
After rest, turn dough in the mixing bowl, cover and let ferment for 2 hours, turning the dough twice at 30 minutes and 90 minutes.
After the bulk ferment, divide dough into 4 equal parts, shape into boules, place in floured linen lined baskets to proof for 2 1/2 hours. Cover baskets with plastic wrap, or place into plastic bag.
1 hour before baking, arrange baking stones on 2 levels in the oven along with steam pan. Preheat oven to 550F with convection.
When loaves are proofed and oven has reached temperature, turn out loaves onto a lightly floured peel, slash as desired, place into oven directly onto stone. When the last loaf is in, put on your oven mitts and pour 1 1/2 cups water into steam pan, close door. Turn oven town to 450F and bake for approx 50 minutes rotating loaves half way through the bake between stones. Loaves are done when internal temp reaches 210F. If desired, turn oven off and return loaves back to oven for about 10 minutes. Cool completely before cutting, preferably overnight...
Tim
You are welcome. Please let me know how yours turn out...
Tim
Daisy_A,
I usually figure out the overall formula for recipes and scale up or down in dough yield. I typically make 1500g to 3600g of dough at any one time...
Well, I have 2 baking stones and bake on 2 levels... You could do 4x750g in boules or batards, or 2x1500 miches... I know it's a lot of dough... You will probably have to do 2 bakes if you only have one stone and do some retarding...
Tim