20% Multi - Whole Grain Sourdough - Lucy's 44 Hour Fat Bags

We are out of white bread again.  Not surprising really since we don’t make much white bread and, when we do, Lucy puts at least 20% whole grain in it…. to tan it some and get rid of that blinding white crumb so damaging to the eyes of anyone who should be exposed to retina debilitating, white bread.

This version had equal parts of 8 different whole grains that were home milled.  Per our usual MO, Lucy specified that the hard bits be extracted from the grind resulting in a 17% extraction of the hard bits.

This was fed to 6g of 3 week refrigerated 100% hydration starter.  Normally we keep our starter in the fridge at 66% hydration but after 12 weeks it was a little weak and Lucy felt sorry for it being in such a weakened state

I think I see a Varda Knob on that Nury Style Fat Bag.

There wasn’t enough hard bits to make the whole levain since the 20% of whole grains only produced 21 g of 17% extraction so we chucked in another 30 g of the 83% extraction flour to make the small 10% levain.  We used our progressively larger 3 stage build for the levain and it easily doubled in 4 hours after the 2nd feeding so we refrigerated it for 24 hours when it rose 50% after the 3rd feeding. 

Normally we would do a 1 hour autolyse, 3 sets of slap and folds, 3 stets of stretch and folds and retard a shaped boule right after gluten development for 12 -18 hours and bake it the next day either cold if it fully proofed in the fridge or we would let them warm up on the counter to finish proofing before baking.  We like the safety net

The Nury Fat Bag did crack at the underneath seam so I'm guesing it was over proofed at 95%.

 But after David Snyder’s San Joaquin post and Alphonso’s baguette post this week Lucy decided to combine the 2 methods, with some of David’s SFSD while incorporating a little bit of Pierre Nury’s  2” end to end pull, after proofing, shaping method for his Rustic Light Rye bread we love so much.   These 4 methods combined all in one is never too much for a German Bread Baking Apprentice 2nd Class…… whose motto is’ Go ahead sucka’ ….bring any kind of bread on at any time!’

That is some nice cod under those crab cakes.

So, this one ended up being its own untested, possible scientific oddity producing method that didn’t end up resembling any previous known one for bread making – at least not one that  Lucy had ever heard of or seen around anywhere that ended up being 2 thin batards – one slashed and one stretched without slashing.

We have somethng Chinese or Oriental evey week like this Chicken Chow Mein.

We love batards because we have a hard time shaping them and they let us use our bamboo, bartard shaping helper thingamajig we found at Goodwill which hardly gets used at all.  I hate buying stuff at Goodwill and then not using it.

2" thick Ahi Tuna is best cooked no more thsn 2 minutes a side on the grill - yummy with a citrus Siracha sauce!

We took the levain out of the fridge to let it finish its doubling after the 3rd build and retard – like David Snyder’s SFSD.  We also autolysed the dough flour, 100 g of KA bread flour and the rest being 10% protein Pillsbury AP, for 1 hour holding back 10 g of dough water for mixing in the salt later.  Like David’s San Joaquin.  We also did 30 minutes of bulk ferment with the autolyse and the levain for 30 minutes - with the salt sprinkled on top.

This bread made a fine knobby bologna sandwich for lunch when turned inside out with the crust inside.

Once the salt and 10 grams of water were mixed in by squeezing the dough through our fingers, we did 1 minute of slap and folds to make sure everything was distributed.  30 minutes later we did another 1 minute of slap and folds.  These were followed by 4 sets of David’s style stretch and folds in the bowl also on 30 minute intervals.  The gluten was coming along nicely by the end of the gluten development.

We then did a 22 hour bulk retard ala Alphonso, in a oil coated, ceramic bowl where we hoped the no knead technique would strengthen the gluten further – and it did.  When we took the dough out of the fridge it had risen 70%.  Surprisingly the dough was fairly extensible even though a cold 38 F.

We pre-shaped it into thin, longer batards or fattish, short baguettes – now known as Lucy’s Fat Bags with baguettes being small bags.  5 minutes later we final shaped them.  After final shaping we put Lucy’s Fat Bags seam side down onto parchment that was lining the bamboo form.

Instead of letting them proof for a couple of hours and baking, we decided to do another long shaped retard of 22 hours ala David Snyder’s SFSD.   We have done a combined double long retard of 42 hours total before….. when following a weird no knead SD recipe so Lucy decided, what the heck?  A few slap and folds and stretch and folds shouldn’t get in the way of a doubly sever retarded dough - when it comes to SD bread!

Lunch the next day pointed out that this 8 grain 20% whole grain bread was sourer after a day of aging.  But ,when paired next to the 10 grain, 50% whole grain bread (at the same hydration) the whiter bread of this week's bake really looks white even though the holes are similar.  Guess that 50% whole grain loaf was pretty special after all:-)  Here is the 10 grain 50% whole grain post 10 Grain 50 Percent Whole Grain Sourdough - Back To The Old Sourdough Ways

 The next day once the dough came out of the fridge if we wanted to let it warm up or bake it on the cold side depending on how ell it final proofed over the last 21 hours.  We decided to let it warm up for an hour as we heated Big Old Betsy up to 550 F and readied the mega steam of 2 of Sylvia’s steaming towel cups and a pan of lava rocks – all half full of water.

15 minutes later the Mega Steam was Mega Enough.   We moved the parchment laden with proofed dough to a peel and slashing one of the Fat Bags and pulled the other one out 4 ".  Both were over proofed .  The scored Fat Bag was impossible to score with the razor just dragging along the the wet, poofy surface.   We forgot to flip the Nury style one over so it would bake seam side up and open along it but did mange a knobbu end for some fun.  We loaded them onto the bottom stone as we turned the oven down to 475 F.   After 10 minutes of steam it was removed and the oven turned down to 425 F- convection.

Chicken and veggie kabob.

10 minutes later, 20 minutes total, the Fat Bags hit 205 F on the inside, declared done and they were removed to the cooling rack.  The Fat Bags sprang a little, bloomed a bit but browned well with the stretched version, ala Nury, cracking naturally where they pleased - on the underside.  The crust came out of the oven very crispy and blistered.   The crust stayed crisp too.   It looks like we will have and OK crumb on these  but will have to wait for lunch to cut into them.  The crumb turned out soft, moist, light and glossy with holes that were smaller than we expected.  The taste is superb and this bread is now one of our favorite white breads.

Formula

Lucy always reminds me to never forget a fine salad wih lunch and dinner - or last Friday's 2 Fig, Pistachio, Sunflower and Pumpkin Seed bake - just delicious.