50 Percent Whole Grain 25 Percent Sprouted 9 Grain SD with Whey

We took another step down the sprouted grain trail this week, even after vowing not too, when we decided to defrost the chest freezer and found a peanut butter jar full of frozen whey in the bottom of the icy depths near the bottom-  along with too many quarter hunks of bread.

Other changes this week are that we reduced the amount of levain to 10%, changed the 3 slap and fold sessions to 4, 2 and 1 minute keeping the 3 following stretch and folds the same.  This weeks whole and sprouted grains were a 9 grain mix of emmer, spelt, rye, wheat, einkorn, oat, Desert Durum, Kamut and barley.

We did not retard the 3 stage levain for 24 hours, like we normally would and we did not retard the shaped loaves for 12 hours as normal either.  We decided to try a bulk 12 hour retard followed by 2 hours of warm up in the heating pad and then a 2 hour final proof in the basket, also on the heating pad.

We used the oval bottom of the MagnaWare, Magnalite aluminum turkey roaster for a cloche over the bread and stone this week instead of the bottom of a thick round aluminum pot.

We did 18 minutes under steam at 450 F after preheating to 500 F and then did 15 at 425 F convection to finish if off uncovered and baked it to 205 F instead of the our usual 210 F for sprouted grain bread.

This one puffed itself up and sprang mightily under steam and cracked between the 3 slashes as well as blooming at the slash.  It baked up the beautiful mahogany color we love so much. It didn’t blister much as the last 3 sprouted grain bakes but it was nicely crisp as it came out of the oven.  It also smelled fantastic when it came out of the oven.

We won’t get to cut it for taste and crumb inspection till later but we think it will be similar to the last 3 bakes based on spring and bloom.  The Holidays have been pleasantly uneventful, calm, stress free and cheerful this year.

We have my daughter’s boy friend staying with us and we got to do some fishing on the lake but got skunked first time out.   Cousin Jay also joined us for Christmas Eve prime rib dinner.   Our daughter made the salad, sides and rolls this year – yea!

The crumb came out much tighter than we had hoped but exactly the way it always comes out when we bulk retard for 12 hours, let it warm up for 2 hours and then shape and proof.   The crumb is always more open when we shape adn then retard for 12 hours and let the basketed dough warm up on the counter for 1 and a half hours before baking.  Working he dough again to shape right before baking 2 hours later really makes the crumb tight.  The taste was similar even though this bake had an extra 2 hours of time on the counter on the heating pas after gluten development

Another batch of chocolate rugelach and the prime rib before roasting