Multi-grain Cream Cheese Sourdough with Multi-grain Scalded Soaker

that if you are making a multi-grain bread you might as well throw in what ever grains you have little bits and pieces of hanging around doing nothing :-)  I think these breads taste great because of the grain mix and the add ins like Tom's Toasted Bits (a super flavorful combination for such little effort).  The red and white malts are flavor and color boosters and enzyme enhancers too as is the long autolyse and using the soaker water.  The scalded berries add flavor and texture.    The retarding of the levain and the dough for long periods really brings out the sour.  Now,  if my apprentice remembers to only let the dough retard for 24 hours instead of 36 maybe it won't be over proofed! But, she did warn me this time. Thankful for little favors, we have all the time in the world to do these crazy bread things and experimant as much as we want.

I have to admit that I use the cheapest tall kitchen trash can liners I can find at the dollar store for proofing basket covers!  They don't have to hold heavy trash and anything fits in them - so far!

Glad you liked the bread Barbra.  I hope you are resting after your fine baking marathon the past few days!

I like to heat the berries up (see my post to Varda) till just boiling in the MW and let them soak 8 hours.  Then reserve the water and then add more fresh water and heat them again in the MW till just boiling.  The water is usd for the liquid in the dough.

Since I add the grains whole to the dough during the S & F''s, I have found that 24 hours makes them nice and soft so their are no hard bits in the dough or finished bread - just chewy little bits.

I haven't decided whether I like the sprouts or soaked berries better in bread.  The soaked ones give us the water that is so good and the sprouts give us the enzymes.......Best to just use both  right?

Glad you liked the bread Janet!

I look forward to your next piece of bread art.  I have an octopus sitting on a cactus, or something like that, in my future bake list.

You would like this healthy bread.  It sure is tasty.

Happy New Year Zita!

Is it like an English Muffin?  The starter was part of the one I had built from a rye sour / Desem combo starter into white Italian one for a panettone bake.  It had been fed every 6 hours for 3 days with white flour for the panettone and then, after being in the fridge for a couple of days I converted some of it back to a starter with more whole grains over (2) 6 hour feedings (builds) before refrigerating it again.  It never went more than 6 hours without feeding except when it was in the fridge and it doesn't do much in the fridge except sit there and get a little more sour.   It wasn't as sour as my normal rye sour but I didn't want to throw it away. 

The red malt has the enzymes killed off due the high heat of the roast, 350 F, and is used for color and taste.  The white malt's enzymes are intact after sprouting and drying at less the 150 F but it is a very small amount at 3 g and that is the only add being used as malt or sprout to convert carbs and starch to sugar for the yeast to feed on.  The whole grains used as flours are all home ground from berries and are unmalted.  Any enzymes in the soaker berries is also killed off in the high heat of the boil - twice both over 150 F.   The white flours I use are also unbleached, unmalted and not bromated.   I don't think that the 3 g of white malt where the enzymes have not been killed off is an issue in this bake due to its small amount and as nearly the entire ferment and proof is at 36 F in the fridge.

There isn't much fat in the dough as the cream cheese used was a neuchatel that has 33% less fat than regular cream cheese.  Normally I don't put any fat in bread dough except for pizza, laminated doughs, some Italian breads and sweet desertbreads like panettone and some citrus tea breads.  I wanted to see what this small amount of cream cheese would do to the bread though.  Couldn't taste it but I think it did help to keep the dough moist though as most fat does with bread crumb.

Vitamin c or vinegar is an acid that when used in bread can help toughen the gluten structure made from weaker gluten flours.  Small amounts in the starter can lower the Ph, like orange juice and pineapple juice do, and help in establishing then the right environment for LABS and yeast to thrive in a SD culture. 

This is the kind of crumb I shoot for on every one of my bakes from an open, moistness and texture point of view but this one the dough was over-proofed too - as you can see from the photos.  I think it is the outdoor crumb photos that has you seeing a gummy crumb.  Here is an indoor photo that doesn't have any direct sunlight on it.  Does it still look gummy?

It is a nice bread and you don't have to worry about any adverse amylase enzymatic activity in the dough since most of the enzymes are dead due to heat, the flours are unmalted and the ferment and proofing are in a 36 F fridge - just don't overproof it!  The whole grains really want the yeast to take off even in the cold.  I suspect it is the spelt.

Thanks for commenting and they weren't critical and were helpful  from my perspective.  Donlt worry, I will keep posting all of my bakes - good or bad - otherwise it isn't much of a blog :-)

is about as good as it gets for food variety freshness and price.  Many of the winter green veg is grown here like lettuce, la;ecabbage etc, the rest comes in from Mexico.  With so many grocery chains duking it out in Phoenix for customers unlike anywhere else in the country, the pricing is the best in the North America for food - nothing even close.

I just got 6 pounds of tomatoes in the winter for a buck.  With the fresh  veg and fruits and other foods so cheap year round it is wise to eat  fresh and have as much a variety as you can keep in the fridge with it going bad.  making sun dried tomatoes today since we can't eat them all.  We're are so blessed to live here.

Here is tonight's salad and today's lunch.  They are always the same - varied, fresh, tasty and healthy.  You have to eat like this if you want to live forever :-)  Like bread - healthy food and eating habits is just a matter of not settling for less - and once you learn how, you don't have to!

multi-grain breads.  Ian is onto something with the cream cheese add in.  Healthy and tasty is a good discription.

Happy Baking Breadsong.  Can't wait to see your next inspiration!

you should have seen the pannetone.  That was gummy.  So bad I could't even take a photo of it - even after it was toasted :-)  I think sometimes the photos taken out side in the AZ sun can sometimes throw off what the bread is really like.  You pick up the glossy inside more and it does look more moist than it is sometimes.  I relate gummy to dense rather than an open crumb too since the gluten can break down when enzymes get out of control and the structure for holes is removed .  Open can be gummy too if under baked but, when it is baked to 205 F on the inside, it should be moist instead.  The over proofing did hurt the spring and enhance the spread though.  The higher hydration didn't help any either.

I was kind of shocked how wet and sloppy the dough got after adding in the soaker, which I dried with a paper towel, and the cream cheese.  It went from a really nice dough I'm used to to something like a dry ciabatta!  Next time I'm going to cut back on the hydration a few points.  I did like your method of a higher levain percent of the total dough too ala Peter Reinhart I think you told me one other time.

Have some Bao with some crispy Peking Duck skin and plum jam with some breast duck meat on the side.    You will forget all about bread for a little while. 

Safe journey Ian and Happy Baking when you get back home.

This one of our favorite combinations of sour, texture and flavor.  You get a big reward for a lower percent of whole grains in the bread.  Just delicious!  Doing a similar one today only Italian with the scald replaced with olives, rosemary, garlic, sun dried tomato, Asiago and Parmesan cheese.  Only doing a 24 hour refrigerator final proof this time and - no slashing required :-)

Happy baking in 2013!

of the baskets at Goodwill for 50 cents each.  They were both made in China and I am completely sure that are not rated food safe in any way.  I pick out ones that are either willow, wicker or rattan and make sure that they are not painted or coated in any way.  When I get them home I wash them with soap and water and dry them in the AZ sun for a couple of days under harsh UV light. 

They and the bread are coated in rice flour.  The bread is baked to 205 F that will kill anything alive and there isn't anything that the baskets could transfer to the bread that would be any more harmful than any other container.   I also have some plastic ones that can be washed after each use too but they look like real baskets.  

I'm sure it might bother some folks though and to them I say - don't use them if you have concerns - it isn't worth losing sleep over.    I also retard and proof the baskets and the bread in them in non food grade trash can liners too.   I have no worries about that either.  I do worry about my tap water though so I soften it first and then run it through an RO system to make sure it's not going to poison me. 

Happy Baking