Half Whole Multi-Grain Sourdough with Fax & Sesame Seeds

We are always running out of white SD bread it seams even though there is an at least 30% whole grain in it.  The girls like it better than the heavier whole grains Lucy prefers so the lighter ones disappear faster.

This bread is 50% whole grain mix a little more than usual in hopes that we can all get along and like one bread - well not really…. but it sounds good.  In order not to put the bread over the edge for the girls, there is no additional scald, sprouts or other whole grains sneaking around on the inside making the bread a higher grain that specified as flour,

It really is a very plain Jane kind of bread for us with just some red and white malts, a dash of honey , some ground flax and sesame seeds and some VWG to give the AP flour  boost closer to bread flour.  So the 50% whole grains will be a blessing, with the lack of add ins.

We home milled the whole grains to a 75% extraction and put the sifted out portion of the barley, Kamut, spelt, rye and wheat mix in the levain to get it wet as long as we could to soften these hard bits as much as possible.

We threw the barley in because we really like it because it has the lowest GI of any grain we normally use plus Ian had some in his bake this week and we need to blame as many folks as we can, besides Lucy, in case something goes wrong.

The coarsely ground flax and sesame seeds gave a nice speckle to the crumb along with the bran bits.   For an extra kick and surprise we used the left over potato water from last Fridays bake in this one for part of the dough liquid.

We did an unusual levain build, starting on Tuesday for Friday’s bake, using 10 g of 66% hydration, rye starter that had been getting sour in the fridge for a week.  The first stage was a huge one that we let sit for 8 hours on the heating pad until it doubled and then we fed it for the 2nd stage and  let it rise 25% before refrigerating it for 24 hours. 

We autolysed everything else, including the salt sprinkled on top, for 4 hours after the levain came out of the fridge the next day and waiting for it to finish its belated 2nd doubling.  The hydration of this dough came it at 82% due to the thirsty 50% of home milled whole grains.

We did our usual 3 sets of slap and folds for 8, 2 and 1 minute this time followed by 2 sets of stretch and folds.  This dough developed very well so we skipped the 3rd set of stretch and folds.  It went into the lightly rive floured basket and immediately into the fridge for an 18 hour retard.

We took the dough out of the fridge 30 minutes before we fired up Big Old Betsy with a preheat setting of 550 F. When the oven got to temperature we slid the (2) Pyrex pans with lava rocks and half full of water into the GE to supply mega steam. The dough had proofed to about 80% in the fridge so we thought the extra time on the counter would get it to 85% - no baking right out of the fridge this time which has been our usual..

We un-molded the bread onto parchment paper on a peel and slashed the bread in a modified T-Rex and slid it onto the bottom stone 15 minutes after the temperature hit 550 F - by then the steam was billowing.

After 2 minutes we turned the oven down to 500 F and 4 minutes later we turned it down to 475 F and then, 6 minutes later, at the 12 minute mark we removed the steam and turned the oven down to 425 F, convection.   Every 5 minutes we rotated the bread 180 degrees on the stone until it read 205 F on the inside. It was done in 30 minutes total bake time.

Lunch with last Friday's Fine Fig Bread with pear, sweet potato, Japanese black rice, veggies, brie, salad, avocado, pickles and a new batch of CeciC's multi-grain flax and sesame crackers.

The bread browned up, sprang and bloomed nicely. It even had some blistering on the surface.  Overall, it was pretty handsome on the outside but not as handsome as Max according to Lucy.  We will have to wait on the crumb until after the loaf cools completely.  The crumb came out open,  moist and very tasty.   We like the bread a lot andevey bit as much as the fig or prune or walnut versions with scalds and sprouts.  All in all a very nice bread indeed. 

Formula