Double Levain SD with 5 Sprouted Grains

It has been some time since josh posted one of his loaves but of them from long ago was a double levain loaf that has a dark starter and an white starter mix into the dough.  Lucy was taken by this and she put it away for a rainy day but those are few and far between in the 110 F days of summer when the monsoon is far away.

We have built Detmolder and Desem levain and starter when different hydration and temperatures can be used at various stages to bring out certain characteristic in the dough.  Josh was using different flours to do the same thing.  Lucy thought she would put them all together to some degree and see what happens.

Once again the KA bread flour on the left is the whitest of the flours used.  Top right is the 80% extraction 5 sprouted grain and the below left is the Winco unbleached AP..

We really didn’t do anything close to how you start a Desem starter though. http://www.sourdoughhome.com/index.php?content=desemstarter  but that process is slightly aligned with Mini Oven’s Ancient Starter method of burying a dough ball in flour for 7 days. Ancient But Not Mini Oven's No Muss No Fuss 'Leave me Alone' Starter - 8 Days Later. The Detmolder levain process can be found here http://germanfood.about.com/od/germanfoodglossary/a/Detmolder-Three-Phase-Sourdough-Method.htm 

It didn’t do much for me seeming like to much work but, like Lucy, maybe these methods will get you thinking about what is going on in starters and levains and help you to bring out additional flavors in your SD bread whether you want them or not..

We made 2 separate levains for this bread.  One made with the 30% hard bit extraction of sprouted 5 grains consisting of: spelt, wheat, buckwheat, oat and Kamut. Notice there is no rye since we are still out of rye berries but the starter seed was from our 100% whole rye 11 week retarded No Muss No Fuss starter.

This one was a 3 stage build where the first stage was liquid at 100% hydration , the 2nd stage was stiff at 66% hydration and the 3rd stage got the levain back to 100% hydration and art each stage doubled the amount of flour used starting with 10 g of seed rye sour starter.  The stages were 2, 3 and 3 hours and done at 80 F.

After the starter had doubled after the 3rd stage we took out 2g and refrigerated the rest for 24 hours.  We took the 2 g and used that to make a smaller AP white flour starter following the same time and hydration schedules but upping the temperature to 90 F.  After it had doubled we retarded it for 16 hours.

I usually don’t question Lucy’s bread recipes that much but this was a lot of work for a loaf of bread.   After her latest fiasco with the app that inactivates all the other apps on any device it is loaded on until you pay her to fix your device and a run in with the FBI I am getting more discriminating about her potentially insane thoughts and deeds.

Instead of warming up the levains on the counter the next morning for 2 hours as the dough flour was autolysed with the water and the salt sprinkled on top like usual we left the levains in the fridge so they were 36 F when they hit the mix.  This was probably a good thing since the kitchen was high 80’s and low 90’s yesterday.

An nice breakfast is essential on bake day.  This one has a blueberry pancake lurking underneath.

Once everything came together we did 3 sets of slap and folds of 8,1 and 1 minutes followed by 3 sets of gentle stretch and folds – all on 30 minute intervals.  It felt a little slack at the end so next time I will cut the hydration a couple of percent.

This bread made a fine lunch sandwich of Swiss cheese and smoked beef sausage with the usual fixings.

,Sprouted whole grains, where the majority are low gluten to begin with, don’t take up water like whole wheat.  The dough was placed in an olive oil coated bowl covered in plastic wrap and bulk retarded for 10 hours.  We let the cold dough warm up for 1 ½ hours this morning and then shaped it gently into a boule and let it proof for another 1 ½ hours at 88 F before firing up Big Old Betsy to 450 F.  This pre heat is 50 F less than normal.

The reason is because we plan to bake this bread in a DO at 425 F under stream instead of out usual 450 F after Dough.doc posted the Larraburu baking process earlier this week.  The lower temperatures may make for a better rising loaf and a thinner crust.  I can’t abide or side with the supposed 105 F (4) hour final proof though.  I would have goo in one hour every time.

After un-molding, slashing it T-Rex style and 20 minutes of steam,  the lid came off and we baked the bread for anther 20 minutes at 425 F convection until it looked and thumped done .  The bread bloomed and browned fairly well. That mahogany color really came through.  It spread a bit too because the hydration was a bit too high.  It smell great coming out of the oven.  We will have to wait n the crumb shot.    The crumb came out very soft but resilient  The crust was very thin and it went soft as it cooled.  The taste we fantastic. Tangy and sour - and the whole sprouted grains really came through.  Perhaps the holes could have been larger but we always go for taste instead anyway.

Lucy says not to forget the salad