50 Percent Whole Sprouted 16 Grain SD with Lake Havasu Desert Magic IPA

Lucy decided to do another take in her minimum 15 grain no more than 30 ingredient challenge bake found here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/39184/4th-july-%E2%80%93-15-grain-independence-sourdough-challenge-bake  but this time using sprouted whole grains for 50% of the grain and cutting way back the other ingredients to a total of 22 (LaFama AP, KA bread flour, salt, water, IPA  added to the 16 whole sprouted grains.  22 is a pretty big number around here so it seemed fitting for this challenge bake.

We used a new IPA for the dough liquid in this bake - A Desert Magic IPA from Mudshark Brewery located in Lake Havasu,  AZ.  I did get a swig of it this time and thought it tasted pretty good.   My daughter’s boyfriend was kind enough to leave one in eh fridge after New Year’s.   He also left a Four Peaks Peach Ale that probably won’t make it into and bread

We followed our usual MO for this bake.  A 3 stage levain build that was retarded 24 hours, 3 sets of slap and folds of 8,1 and 1 minute  and 3 sets of stretch and folds all on 20 minute intervals where the dough was kept warm on a heating pad.  Since it is cold we added in a 1 hour bulk ferment before shaping, putting it in a rice floured basket, bagging and retarding it for 15 hours instead of 12.

We cut the hydration down to 78.5% from 80%, increased the levain to almost 15% from 11%, increased the sprouted grains to 50%.  We also used our new Lodge combo cooker that Hanukah Joe brought and our new dehydrator that Santa brought – nothing like celebrating both holidays when these things can’t be found at Goodwill for a buck!

We let the dough warm up on the counter for 2 hours, before un-molding, slashing and  loading it into the 500 F combo cooker and baking with the lid on for 20 minutes at 450 F.  Once the lid came off, we turned the oven down to 425 F and removed the bread from the bottom of the combo cooker 5 minutes later and let it finish baking on the stone until it reached 203 F on the inside which took another 20 minutes. 

Yep it is a Ande's Mint Fudge brownies with a dark chocolate ganache top and sprinkles of more Ande's mint chunks on top - delish.  Lucy says no to forget a home salad with home grown cherry tomatoes and greens with chunks of Gorgonzola. 

It sat on the stone in the off oven until it reached 205 F.  It blistered, bloomed, sprang and browned to a very dark patina.  We will have to wait and see how the crumb came out but so far this one has promise for the first bake in 2015.

The crust stayed crisp and was fantastic!  The crumb was soft, moist, open and glossy.  This bread tastes as good as it looks and the extra sprouted grains is what makes it taste so unusually good.  Can't say more with a full mouth.

This bread made for a fine lunch including : a grilled chicken sandwich with 6 year old aged cheddar, a garden salad, sweet potato, apple, berries and Triple cream blue infused Camenbert called Cambozola.

 Lucy invites everyone to take part in her at least 15 grain but no more than 30 ingredient challenge bake.