Multi-grain Sourdough with Figs, Walnuts, Whey and 4 Seeds

We took last week's more tame bake and decided to gussie it up some.  There is just no way to hold my apprentice back when it comes to gussieness.  She decided to add some walnuts and re-hydrated black mission figs (one of our favorite combinations for fruit and nuts in bread) and some pumpkin and sunflowers seeds

These new additions went along with last week’s ground sesame and flax seeds, Toadies, red and white malts and VWG.  We cut back on some of the whey and white whole wheat flour and replaced them with more water and our special mix of 75% extraction home ground flour consisting of 25% rye, 25% spelt and 25% Kamut and 25% farro.

Since we again used the 25% sifted out bran portion to feed a smaller levain, we ended up with 85% whole grain bread instead of 100% like last week.  With all the fruit, nut and seed additions, I didn’t honk that Lucy would notice that some of the whole grain was missing.  We need some sifted bran and middlings for the next batch of Toadies.

Even though the 85% hydration was the same as last week’s bake the dough felt more wet and sticky.  This was probably due to some of the whole gain missing and that the re-hydrated figs may have carried some extra water with them.  In any even the dough was more slack for sure and hopefully this will open the crumb some more and still provide proper lift.

We followed a similar method to last week with one exception. We built the levain on Tuesday instead of Wednesday so that it could sit in the fridge for 48 hours to get more sour.  Since all of the whole grain bits were in the levain we autolysed the dough flours for 3 hours while the levain was warming up and finishing in final doubling.  The levain was refrigerated when it showed a 25% volume increase after the 3rd feeding.

We did 12 minutes of slap and folds since the dough felt slacker.  We incorporated the ground sesame and flax seeds, along with pumpkin and sunflower seeds, during the first set of (3) S&F’s that were performed 20 minutes apart.  The figs and the walnuts went in on the 2nd set and by the end of the 3rd set everything was well distributed.

After a short 15 minute rest the dough was pre-shaped and then shaped into a short squat batard to fit our oval basket and then it was placed into a used trash can liner and immediately retarded in the fridge for 20 1/2 hours.  It wasn’t quite were we wanted it when it came out of the fridge so we let it warm upon the counter an hour.

The dough was then un-molded on the parchment covered mini broiler top, slashed and  placed into the 500 F preheated mini oven that was steaming with 2 of Sylvia’s steaming cups and a ¼ cup of water thrown into the bottom of the mini oven as the door was closed.  Three minutes later we turned the oven own to 475 F.

We let the bread steam for 16 minutes before removing Sylvia’s steam generators and turning the oven down to 425 F, convection.   We rotated the bread every 5 minutes and in 25 minutes the bread tested 203 F when it was removed to a cooling rack.  So, this time the total bake was 41 minutes.

The bread bloomed OK but didn’t spring that much.  It might have been over proofed a little bit. It must have been that extra half and hour in the cold.  It browned well and had the crust that the mini oven puts on bread nearly every time but without the blisters.  The kitchen smelled like bake day for sure even without any aromatic seeds in the mix  - I knew my apprentice forgot something!

This bread is one that you won't forget.  Earthy, nutty, seedy, with a hint of sweet figs.... just plain tasty.  The crust is boldly baked, thick and it stayed crunchy too.  the crumb is soft moist and fairly open for a near whole grain bread with lots of stuff in it.  If you are all alone on a deserted island, this is the bread you want to have in your knapsack.  It made one of the tastiest grilled chicken sandwiches with the typical fruits and veggies, some pickled veg from the sausages last night and a slice of brie - Yummy!

Formula

Brunch with this bread the next morning.  Delicious!