Multigrain Combo Levain with Seeds & Sprouts

We are down to baking bread on Friday’s only now and outside in the mini oven at that until the amount of bread in the freezer disappears and the temperature gets below 90 F - sometime in late September.  We went with a more simple multigrain formula this time with 6 of them in the levain only.

We ended up at 40% whole grains if you discount the whole grain sprouts and the effect the toadies would have it they weren’t separated out of whole grains for a separate toast.  Including the toadies and sprouts we would be at 60% whole grains – 50% just with the sprouts.

We used 2 dough flours AP and semolina – the left over from Golden Temple Durum Atta where we had previously sifted out the atta (bran) to make toadies.  We went with 5 of the levain whole grains to make the larger amount of sprouts for this smaller sized loaf.

We limited the add ins to Toadies, red and white malts and some toasted and ground golden and brown flax seeds and white, brown and black sesame seeds.  Then for some seed chew we added 50 g of sunflower and pumpkin seeds to the dough and reserved 40 g to do some kind of seed art on the outside of the chacon.

After seeing Ian’s fine chacon example this week we wanted to get back to an earlier bake where seeds really spiffed up the outside of a chacon.  My apprentice thought with some actual design for a change the bread wouldn’t suffer any.

There were two levains for this bake.  A yeast water levain that was two builds of 3 hours each using 50 g of YW and 124 g total.   There is also a SD levain 3 stage one that was built separately.  It totaled 156 g and was initiated with equal parts totaling 12 g of our rye sour and WW starters.  Both the SD and the YW levains were refrigerated for 24 hours at the 6 hour build mark right after the 3rd feeding of the SD.

When removed from the fridge at noon the next day, the SD levain was allowed to do its final double while the YW levain just sat on the counter warming up while going for a ride with its SD buddy.

We autolysed the dough flours, ground seeds, salt, malts and toadies with the dough water while the 2 levains did their thing in the afternoon…about 2 ½ hours.  Once the autolyse met the levains, we did 10 minutes of Slap and folds until the dough was silky smooth and the gluten well developed. 

Breakfast on bake day.  This bread found here  http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/33480/dark-russian-jewish-deli-rye-porter-onion-sprouts-and-aromatic-seeds

We did 3 sets of S&F’s and incorporated the sprouts on the first set and the pumpkin and sunflower seeds on the 2nd one. By the 3rd set all the seeds and sprouts were well distributed.  After a 25 minute rest we started the chacon artwork. 

First, a 100g Franz Joseph roll went into the bottom of the basket and part of the reserved seeds were laid next to it so they should be on the outside of the 150 g (2) rope braid that covered the seeds while surrounding the central roll.   Then we made (10) 1” balls and placed them next to the rope braid climbing the inside of the basket in one layer.  Then the rest of the seeds were placed next to the balls.

Then a reverse bialy was made where the edges were much thinner than the middle - in an oval shape so that the dough would match the basket and to make the dough be the same thickness throughout the finished loaf.  After forming, we immediately put the basket in a used trash can liner and placed it in the fridge for a 15 hour retard.

It proofed up nicely while in the fridge so when it came out of the fridge all it really had to do is warm up.  When ready we un-molded it onto the parchment covering the vented top of the broiler pan of the mini oven after warming up 2 of Sylvia’s steaming cups in the microwave.

We decided to go without the bottom of the broiler pan that would usually have extra water in it.  We tossed 1/2 C of water into the bottom of the oven as we shut the door on the 500 F preheated mini oven.  2 minutes later we turned the oven sown to 450 F and continued to steam for 13 minutes.

What a great lunch for a hot Friday.  Sweet potato, tomato, home grown salad greens, hot pepper jack chunks, sliced carrots, cukes, red and  black raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, cantaloupe. red pepper, avocado, home made Southwest hummus on a few lime tortilla chips.  The sammy is a grilled chicken, brie, tomato and lettuce.

At the 15 minute mark the steam came out of the oven and we turned the oven down to 425 F, convection this time.  We turned the bread 180 degrees every 5 minutes and it registered 205 F 25 minutes after the steam came out – 40 minutes total baking time.

The crust browned up very nicely and the design was unusual with the seeds showing up where they were supposed to poke out.  It stayed crunchy too.  The crumb turned out light, moist and fairly open for a bread with a high amount of whole grains and lots of tasty tuff in it   Best of all it is a terrific toasting bread, so earthy,chew and complex.  Could eat it all day but.... my daughter is taking it to her boyfriend in Tuscon tonight after dinner as he loves my seeded breads like this one.

How did that apple crisp get in there?  Maybe Lucy had something to do with it?  She looks guilty if you ask me.

Breakfast at Brownman's. 1 slice of maple cured bacon, hashbrowns, an egg,  cantaloupe, straw and blue berries, toast with homemade strawberry jam.

Formula

50 G of Pumpkin and sunflower seeds are in the dough.