4th of July – 15 Grain Independence Sourdough Challenge Bake

Is there a better way to celebrate the 4th of July than to highlight the bounty and variety of grain grown in the USA by baking a couple of breads that have 15 different grains in them?  Maybe some smoked ribs and a beer but this bake was close and ribs and beer will happen later :-)

The bread has home milled whole grains that make up 50% of the flour and include 36 g each of: wheat, rye, spelt, quinoa, oat, Kamut, Ramona Farms Pima Club & Sonoran White, Hayden Mills Farro & Desert Durum, einkorn, popcorn, millet, barkey and buckwheat.   The rest of the flout was AP.

The other ingredients were water for the SD levain that came in at 8% of the total flour and water, cranberry soaker water for the Pecan Cranberry oval variety and potato water for the Pumpkin and Sunflower boule.  We add some VWG because there were so many low gluten flours milled and the AP was only 10% protein.  Both loaves have some salt, red malt and ground: flax, sesame and chia seeds.

So, there were only 29 different ingredients total which came in under the 30 ingredient self imposed limit.  We built one 3 stage levain using the sifted out 15% extracted hard bits from the milling and refrigerated it for 24 hours after it had risen 25% in volume after the 3rd feeding.

The ground flax, sesame and Chia seeds were first soaked in 70 g of water for 2 hours and then added to 50 g of 85% extraction flour and 250 g of water and tang Zhonged.      The dough flour was divided in half so half could be autolysed for 2 hours with cranberry soaker water and the other half with the potato water.   Each half was autolysed with half the tang zhonged flour and seed mix.

Don’t let the 65% hydration fool you.  This started out as 70% whole grain bread but it was so wet due to the large tang zhong, we had to double the AP dough flour just to get it to come together and not stick to the counter after the 3rd set of slap and folds of 8, 2 and 1 minute – all 12 minutes apart.  It ended up feeling like a 50%^ whole grin bread dough at 80% hydration.

We then did 3 sets of stretch and folds where we incorporated the pecans and re-hydrated cranberries for one loaf and the sunflower and pumpkin seeds for the other open the first set.  The sets were 20 minutes apart.  Once done, we shaped the dough and loaded the cranberry and pecan bread into the oval basket and the sunflower and pumpkin seeds dough into the round basket.

With such a low amount of SD levain the dough proofed perfectly in the fridge over the 16 hours it was in the cold.  We removed the dough from the fridge and preheated Big Old Betsy to 550 F to bake the two loaves at the same time on the bottom of two stones.

Steam was supplied with 2 of Sylvia’s steaming pans with a dish towel rolled up inside and 1 of David’s lava rock pans.  Al were half full of water and placed onto the bottom rack of the oven under the bottom stone when the temperature hit 550 F.  15 minutes later the stones had caught up with air temperature and the Mega Steam was billowing.

The bread was upended onto a peel covered in parchment and slid onto the bottom stone for 15 minutes of steam.  We turned the oven down to 500 F after 2 minutes and down to 475 F after 4 minutes.  Once the steam came out, we continued to bake - at 425 F convection this time - for another 30 minutes until the bread hit 205 F on the inside.

The bread sprang, bloomed and browned boldly – to that mahogany color we love so much.   The Cranberry & Pecan bread browned faster and darker due to the sugar cranberry soaker water used for the dough liquid.  They came out of the oven with exceptionally crunchy crust.  So far we like what we see  but will have to wait on the crumb shots till after lunch.

The crust stayed  crisp after it cooled,nice for a change and it was especially tasty due to the bold bake.  Both crumbs ended up about as open as they get with this may add ins.  The cranberry was slightly mire open.  Both were soft and moist .  The cranberry bread is sweeter and nuttier and the seeded loaf tastes more earthy and seedy..... so things ended up being what we thought they should be,- different breads but dough related. 

Happy 4th of July to all Fresh Lofian’s.  The ribs were very good last night - exceptional... even of an old KCMO Smokin' Joe.

Breakfast on the 5th was special with this bread toasted.

 Formula

And Lucy says not to forget the salad with the ribs  So that you can have some home made mince meat pie - with real meat in it and a puff paste top!