40% Whole Multi-grain SD and YW Altamura Style Chacon

This 40% whole grain bread is a combination YW and SD starter, seeded, multi-grain that does not have sprouts or a scald.  The hydration of 79% is not too much for a bread with so much whole Rye, WW, spelt and WWW.  There is also semolina in the starter and the dough as well.  There is a little potato flake, red and white rye malt, wheat germ and 6 kinds of seeds.  Sunflower-25 g, anise-3g, hemp-10g, coriander-2g and fennel-3g with only the flax seeds ground into a flour.  Since the bread was not retarded to bring out additional SD flavor it had a slight tang but the aromatic seeds really came through nicely.

Marking the fold lines.

Folded with knot roll added.

It’s not often we get to work on a new bread shape but one was needed for the 6 sided basket requiring the new shape.  Thomas Chacon came up with the unique way to fold the 6 flaps to the center so the bread could be loaded into the basket and this bread is named after him - he deserves it.  I added the knotted roll in the center to complete the loaf.  The hard part was flipping the whole thing into the basket after the shaping.  Instead of flipping I should have folded the bread on the peel with parchment under the dough, added the knotted roll, placed the same shaped basket on top and turned the whole thing over causing no damage to the Chacon shape.- Next time!

Flipped into teh basket.

Risen nicely. Can you find the poke test?

Since the skin couldn't be tightened like a normal loaf, and was just folded like an Altamura ‘Priests Hat’, we didn't know how the loaf would perform in holding in the gas and generating spring.  It proofed up nicely though and was amazing how well it filled in all the space from the end of the fold to the knot.  Spring wasn't what we had hoped but a different folding method could possibly cure some of that problem.  All in all it was a fun experiment that resulted in a nice looking loaf of bread.  It smelled great when it finished baking and was crisping on the stone with the oven off and door ajar.

The Chacon is nice looker even before baked.

The crust was deeply cracked (since there was no scoring) brown, and crisp - and it stayed crisp after cooling.  The basket left some nice flour marks too.  The Chacon was very nice looking overall on the outside but the spring would have been better if the loaf wasn't over proofed by an estimated 30 - 40 minutes.  When it passed the first poke test the oven was still cold – not a good thing and shows you need to be testing earlier than 2 hours after start of proof.  It is summer time and every bit of 112 F outside today.  A/C keeps it 80 F inside though.

Nicely cracked and we like what the knot roll did for the baked looks.

The crumb was nicely open for the amount of whole grains and the manhandling it took.  I'm still impressed with what the YW   can bring to a loaf of bread when it comes to moist and soft crumb - amazing really.  The bread tasted like a seeded rye loaf that had more rye than this did.  Maybe this was because of the seeds though.  I would be tempted to put some caraway in the seed mix next time.  This Chacon is hearty, tasty and visually stimulating.  Method and formula follow the Pix’s

The Chacon made a very nice taasting grilled chicken, queso fresco sandwich witha plate full of fruits and veggies. 

The Chacon Method

 The SD and YW levains were built over 3 stages of 4 hours each. The next stage is added to the previous one and all of the eventual 320g of levain is used in the final dough. After the 3rd stage was built, the levain went into the fridge for a 6 hour retard.  In the morning when the levain came out of the fridge to warm up the flours, malts, VWG and slalt were autolysed with the water for 2 hours on the counter.  The seeds and levain were the only things held out of the autolyse.

After 2 hours on the counter, the autolyse and Levin were mixed on KA 2 for 4 minutes and KA 3 for 2 minutes.  The dough was transferred to a well oiled bowl and allowed to rest covered with plastic wrap for 15 minutes

4 S&F’s were performed at 15 minute intervals in the bowl.  The 5th S& F was performed on a floured counter where the seeds were incorporated.  After the 6 S&F the dough was allowed to ferment and develop in the bowl for 1 ½ hours.   

The dough was then placed on a floured work surface, a small ball removed for the eventual knotted center. The remainder of the dough was gently jostled  into a1”thick circle that was 12 “ across –2”wider than the widest part of the Chacon 6 sided basket.   The basket was used to mark the dough to establish the 6 fold lines.  The dough was then folded to the center at the lines, leaving a 4” diameter open circle in the center.   The knotted roll is placed in the center of the Chacon to complete the loaf.  The entire loaf was then flipped over into the well rice floured 6 sided Chacon basket and allowed to final proof on the counter for 2 hours in a plastic bag where it doubled and passed the poke test.  Don't do this flip into the basket though.  Put some parchment on a peel, press out the circle of dough 1" past each of the points of the basket, mark the fold lines with the inverted basket, make the six folds, add the knotted roll and place the basket over the dough. Then just turn the whole assembly over removing the peel and parchment.

At 2 hours the oven was preheated at 500 F for 45 minutes with stone steam in place. Overturn basket onto parchment on a peel. No slashing is required for the Chacon.

Slide bread into the oven.  After 2 minutes, turn oven down to 450 F.  After 13 more minutes, remove steam and turn down oven to 4oo F convection this time. Turn Chacon 90 degrees every 5 minutes and bake until temperature in the middle of the bread is 205 F. Turn off oven and crack the door to allow the crust to crisp for 12 more minutes. Remove bread from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.