11 Grain, YW / Sourdough Chacon with Apricots, Seeds and Nuts - Version 3

Here is the 3rd version of this bread.   Even though none of them have been exactly the same they were close and the main goal was to se if not aging home milled flour for at least 3 weeks would have an adverse effect on the bread if not used within 1 day of milling.

This on was different than the other 2 in several ways.  Less levain was used for this bread.   We did a 21 hour final retard and a 1 ¼ hour warm up on the counter.  This bread had some additional whole grains getting it up to an 11 grain bread from the previous 7 and 8 grain version.

Since this loaf was so big, it wouldn’t fit under our largest DO bottom used as a cloche  so we had to bake it on the stone in BOB using Mega Steam.  We also included the 2 week soaked chia seeds in the autolyse this time instead of adding them in before the slap and folds. 

Lucy voted this the best looking rustic dough ball of the year so far. Another major change was making this larger loaf into a chacon.  The first version rolled out the dough to cut it into strips that were seeded and then twisted twice to make the shape.  All of this handling really seemed to hurt the openness of the crumb.

So we thought that manhandling 40% of this dough to make 2 sizes of balls, a knotted roll for the center and a braided twisted sister rope to surround them would give us a better base line for the crumb to compare to version 1.  We also dipped the middle knot, the smaller balls and the twisted rope in sesame and poppy seeds to give the design some extra character

The two previous versions are found here Cherry Yeast Water Sourdough Italian Bread with Apricots, Seeds and Nuts and here Cherry YW Sourdough Italian Boule with Apricots, Seeds and Nuts - Version 2 if you want to do some comparing.

We followed the same YW and SD levain builds, the autolyse and the gluten development as the previous 2 versions.  But we did the chacone design and final proofed it shaped for 21 hours.

We preheated the oven to 500 F instead of out usual 550 F and baked it under steam immediately at 465 F since the larger the loaf the lower the temperature – if you don’t want to burn it.  We also steamed it longer at 18 minutes rather than our usual 15 minutes due to its size.

When the Mega Steam came out, we continued to bake at 425 F, convection this time, for another 10 minutes when the bread read 208 F on the inside and we removed it to the cooling rack.  Total bake time was 28 minutes - pretty short for a loaf this size.

This bread smelled wonderful as it baked.  It also cracked lightly at the design points showing it was probably a bi over proofed but it browned up to that beautiful mahogany color we love so much   it was crunchy crisp as it came out of the oven too.

We love the outside but will have to wait for lunch to see what the inside looks like.  it looks pretty much like the last bake - version 2.  Open, soft and moist - plus...it is plain delicious for a bread that isn't plain at all.  We love the inside as much as the outside.

Formula

My wife cam home from work last night saying "Did you see tnight's sunset?" I did and took a picture of it