A Request for Bread

I just got a request from my daughter for some bread to take back to her compatriots at PA school at UTMB.  She said nothing fancy with olives figs and raisins since she hated all of them.  She likes the whole grains and seeds and some nuts but hasn’t had a chance to taste any sprouted grain bread.

I mentioned that Lucy had come up with her version of Jalapeno and Cheddar bread that we liked at Sunflower bakery in Galveston and she though she would like that but not to make any for her friends that not might be a hest tolerant as she is after eating 23 years of her Dad’s hot and spicy Mexican treats.

So Lucy was thrown into a quandary for this weeks bake – nothing fancy and we had bake twice as much of it while still having the variety that the girls would like.  Both would be sourdough made from the 3 day starter stored 3 weeks in the fridge.

One would be sprouted grains, 11 of them, but no more than 40% sprouted total.  The other would be a slightly modified 1.2.3 that would have some whole grain – 14% but  not sprouted.  So, it would be more of a white dough since the whole grain would only be in the levain at 136 g for the 1 of 1, 2, 3  This white SD bread would have a baked scald and flax, pumpkin and sunflower seeds to make it more flavorful, healthy and nutritious.

That was the plan at any rate and all went well from start to finish.   We split the stored 100% rye starter in half and fed it 40 g of whole rye one time and both halves doubled in 2 hours so it was still a very vigorous starter.

While the levain was warming up and doubling we autolysed the dough flour and the water with the salt sprinkled on top.   We also did the scald for the seeded loaf by taking 20 g of whole rye and wheat, 20 g of flax seed and 5 gram of red malt with 45 g of water and baked it at 150 F convection with the door open on the mini oven for 2 hours.

We toped up the water at the 1 hour mark and then again when it finished so that the scald weighed 90 g when finished.  Since the scald was at 100% hydration the overall hydration was around 77%.

We did our usual 3 sets of slap and folds and 3 sets of stretch and folds where the seeds were added on the first set of stretch and folds for the seeded version.  We then did a bulk retard of 15 hours before doing a pre -shape and shape right from the fridge the next morning.  The unseeded bread doubled in the fridge and the seeded bread tripled!

We let the cold dough warm up and final proof for 2 hours before hitting the heat of the oven with the sprouted bread under the oval turkey roaster cloche and the seeded boule in the combo cooker.  We turned the oven down to 450 F when the bread went in and steamed the bread for 18 minutes.

When the lids came off we turned he oven down to 425 F. convection this time, and continued baking until the bottoms thumped done and crust was brown – about 15 more minutes - our probe thermometer has been broken or need new batteries for several weeks now.  We did take the boule off the combo base 6 minutes after the lid cam off.

The dough looked liked it had over proofed on the counter before we loaded it but I was wrong.   It sprang well, bloomed wonderfully and blistered hardly at all since the dough was not cold.   Thank goodness for small favors since these are gift loaves - at least 3/4th of each are at any rate.

Can’t wait to see what the inside looks like. The crumb came out fairly open, soft, moist and glossy.  Both breads taste wonderful.  the plain sprouted bread is not as heatry and earthy as the bread with seeds but they both make for some fine sandwiches for lunch and toast for breakfast.  The plain one will try out grilled with EVOO., basil. Parmesan and cracked pepper for a dinner appetizer.

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 Sprouted 11 Grain Sourdough

Lucy says not to forge that salad to go with the Apricot & Nut Tart