Sprouted 4 Grain Sourdough - 50% Whole Grain with Pecans and Cranberries
The No Muss Mo Fuss rye starter is getting up there in age. This week it was stored 14 weeks and smelled very sour. Lucy decided to try out some new things just for fun and because she is just that way. There is nothing she hates more than doing the same thing over and over. Once is enough for her most always and she has no fear. She does seem to do a lot more different things than most that way.
Instead of our normal 3 stage build of 2.3.a d3 hours for the summer she decided to toss all the builds into one and just stir the mix at the 2 and 5 hour marks. It didn’t seem to matter to the levain and it doubled 3 hours after the 2nd stirring. Lucy wants to make a horror movie about a vigorous SD starter that takes over the world titled ‘The 2nd Stirring’ but that project is on hold for the moment mainly due to a lack of sanity and willingness to waste more time than usual.
The starter was fed the 25% extraction of the 4 sprouted whole grains that was 40% wheat, 40% Kamut, 10% rye and 10% spelt which is an unusual mix for us with equal amounts of the sprouted whole grains the norm. Since there wasn’t any bread flour or un-sprouted whole grains in this mix, we decided o cut the hydration a bit to compensate. We were less than 79% and normally for dough that has 50% whole grains we would be around 82.5%.
We retard the built levain for 24 hours and, while it warmed up on the counter, we autolysed the dough flour and water for an hour with the salt sprinkled on top so we wouldn’t forget it. You don’t have to autolyse AP flour or sprouted 75% extraction flour as long as whole grain flour so an hour seems enough.
We did 3 sets of slap and folds of 30 slaps each and 2 sets of slap and folds of 4 slaps each. All manipulations were done on 30 minute intervals except the last 2 which were done on 45 minute intervals. This is new procedure that we have started to use for long bulk retarded dough – in this case 21 hours at 36 F. The re-hydrated cranberries, with the juice squeezed out, and the pecan pieces were added on the 4 th set of slaps.
The dough went into the fridge immediately after the 5th set of slap and folds with no counter bulk ferment. Too hot here for a bulk ferment at 88 F. The dough had easily doubled during the retard. Once the dough came out of fridge we immediately pre-shaped it into a boule and let it on the counter for an hour to warm up. The we shaped it into a squat oval, placed it in a rice floured basket and let it proof for 45 minutes.
We upended the dough onto parchment on a peel, slashed it and placing it on the bottom stone covered with a MagnaWare turkey roaster bottom used as a cloche for 20 minutes of steam at 450 F. Once the lid came off we turned the oven down to 425 F convection and let it brown up well over the next 12 minutes.
The bread sprang and bloomed well enough, but we will have to wait on the inside looks until lunch time. The bread turned out soft and moist on the inside with no large holes. Still it was airy enough and the taste was complex, fruity and a bit nuts. This makes for a fine SD bread that really doesn't need much else to make a hearty, healthy meal. Today's lunch was just the perfect backdrop for this bread. Yummy!
SD Levain Build | Build 1 | % |
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14 Week Retarded Rye Starter | 10 | 1.92% |
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25 % Extraction Sprouted 4 Grain | 52 | 10.00% |
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Water | 58 | 11.15% |
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Total | 120 | 23.08% |
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Levain Totals |
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25% Extraction Sprouted 4 Grain | 57 | 10.96% |
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Water | 63 | 12.12% |
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Levain Totals | 120 | 23.08% |
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Levain Hydration | 110.53% |
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Prefermented Flour | 10.96% |
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Dough Flour |
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Winco AP | 260 | 50.00% |
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75% Extraction Sprouted 4 Grain | 203 | 39.04% |
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Total Dough Flour | 463 | 89.04% |
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Salt | 10 | 1.92% |
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Water | 350 | 67.31% |
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Total Flour w/ Starter | 520 |
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Water | 401 |
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Cranberries | 80 | 15.38% | Dry Wt. |
hopped Pecans | 80 | 15.38% |
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Hydration with Starter | 78.94% |
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Total Weight | 1,128 |
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Whole Sprouted Grain | 50.00% |
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Sprouted 4 grain is 100 g each of Kamut and |
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red winter wheat and 25g each of rye and spelt |
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The single stage 25% extraction sprouted |
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levain was stirred at the 2 and 5 hour mark |
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Lucy loves to sun herself in the 108 F heat but I love the monsoon sunsets
Comments
And a bit soft, due to the AP flour? Looks terrific and would be exceedingly welcome as a gift. Enjoy your sunsets.
toast too. The AP does make the crumb softer than it would be with bread flour - less chewy. You are right, this one and the last one, olive and fig, would make some fine mini loaves for the Holidays. Glad you like this one amd happy baking
Very impressive. You are the man.
it Tommy - it is a very tasty bread.
Happy baking
Love this one! Pecans and cranberries; what's not to love. Great crust and moist crumb make Lucy a happy girl :)
happy baking from Lucy's favorite NY doggies and kittens.
thick for a sunset. We are behind this year for monsoon rain but the humidity didn't hurt this bake any. It turned out very nice. You would like this one Ian since it has one your favorite nuts in there. Lucy is feeling better and she sends her best to her East Coast Furry Friends
Happy bakind Ian
Looks great, dabrownman.
You are much bolder than I am: I can hardly bring myself to bake when it is over 80 here. I can't even imagine firing up the oven in that kind of heat!
May I feature this on the homepage for a bit?
you would only have bread half the year:-) I do take the toaster oven outside and bake on the patio in the summer if the loaf is small enough, Glad you liked it Floyd.
Lucy and I are honored ...feature away and
happy baking
Well done and hello, DA!
It's takes some real fortitude for you and Lucy to get up and bake in this humid weather.
You hit home on this one! I've been doing a little baking and fig jam making and trying to keep the kitchen cool.
Nut and fruit, especially cranberry and pecan sourdough loaves are among our very favorites!
Mike liked the cran and walnut bread we had the other day, at one of our favorite restaurants. So as hot as it's been, I dug out and livened up my sourdough, cleaned out the last of my whole organic dried cranberries and pecans. Like you we favor the pecans over walnuts.
I needed to clean out baking goodies in the freezer. I was also thinking maybe you were cleaning out some of those seasonal fruits and nuts or it turned out delicious, well worth the hot oven : )...I threw in some 9 grain flour with BF.. and here you used AP and get a lovely rise and crumb. Now you and Lucy have given me more confidence and next time I'll try the AP. in my heavier breads.
Lucy does look so confident out there sunning herself and I do hope she's been feeling better!
I'm not near as energetic as you and Lucy when it comes to baking in the heat. I've reduced most of my cooking now to using my new cool in every sense, 'Instant Pot' electric auto pressure cooker (I have loved pressure cooking since I was 18)over 50 years, I now own several, but this is my first automatic one. DA, if you haven't checked out the new automatic electric pressure cookers, you might like to. Sure makes a difference in hot weather cooking. I even made fantastic easy marmalade in it.
I wish I had one of your salads. Wow, your bread looks so delicious a top your salad. How about those sunset's.
Sylvia
from you again. I have combined your Steaming method with David Snyder's lava rocks - one pan each and call it Mega Steam! This bread benefited from it for sure. I should be baking with the mini toaster oven outside, like usual in the summer,but the loaves of late have been too big for it - so iI have to scale back ....hich means iIwon't get rid of so many odds and ends from here and there in Lucy's Pantry"-)
We have gotten into a rut around here baking with sprouted grains - ever since I got the dehydrator as a gift for Christmas. I love the gadgets almost as much as you do! The bake schedule is one loaf a week on Friday rotating from dark to light then 2 kinds of fruit, seeds and nut bread. That way we have some of each in the freezer at all times but not 100 loaves of them.. Cranberry and walnut SD is one of my favorites and one of the breads they bake at my favorite bakery in AZ - Mediterra Bakery in Coolidge AZ - they supply Whole Foods here with about 6 of their breads.
I use LaFama AP from Mexico, It has 11.2% protein and only costs $1.49 for a #5 bag when on sale in the local Hispanic market. It make the best flour tortillas and seems to work well enough for bread.when mixed with a decent amount of sprouted whole grains.
I have always wanted a pressure cooker to make all kinds of things and shorten the cooking time down. I'm going to ask for and automatic one for this Christmas....fingers crossed - I know i would use it every week to make something.
Lucy is feeling better.and seems to be back to her old self. It was her expensive dry dog food formulated for seniors that was the problem . She loves Alpo T-bone and Bacon prime cuts and any other Alpo canned food........ no more problems. Here is an extra salad just for you and I envy your WFO for making pizza especially - maybe some day.
Glad you liked the bread Sylvia and happy baking
This beauty looks like the twin brother of last week's olive and fig bake. Both lovely to look at and almost identical. And, I'm sure lovely to eat as well. A difference is that last week's bake featured a set of ribs on the grill, replaced this week by a set of ribs still connected to something that looks suspiciously like a furry dog!
with various stuff in them We had ribs again last weekend with sausages and chicken thighs. Didn't get any pictures though since the daughter was home, we were very hungry and it was getting late:-) Lucy likes to sun herself on the grass in the back yard until her brain is fried, which explains a lot of what goes on around here.
Glad you liked the recent bakes. They all turned out well enough to eat and were tasty too. Can't wait to see your next batch.
Happy baking Alan
I love the way your breads always bloom and spring - this one is no exception. That crust must be delicious!
And Lucy looks very happy and proud of this week's endeavor!
well if they don't over proof,shaped in the fridge while Lucy sleeps - which is most of the time! Lately I've been bulk fermenting, then shaping and baking after a short counter proof - because they were over proofing shaped :-) The last few week;s bakes have ll been tasty but I do have a fondness for cranberry and pecan bread - a classic.sourdough!
Glad you liked it too. This week Lucy said we are doing a whitish multi seed bread. Another favorite.
Happy baking Cher
. . . to put pecans in bread never mind cranberries. Another amazing dabrownman/Lucy combo. It must taste great and looks amazing Congratulations on the cover coach!!! Other than a marginal pulla the other day, I have had a string of disasters. Oh well some were edible . . .
Happy baking! Ski
Ski. Sorry t hear about your failures.. I still have visions of your beautiful Forkish flowers baked seam side up! You have to get some decent bread for that smoked meat, I've got some left over smoked ribs that I would like to turn into the filling for some tamales if i ever get around to it,
Your luck with the baking will soon turn around.
Happpy baking Ski
Your SD loaf has it all, it looks amazing, I will try it out myself. thanks for such a detailed post!
We like to craft the posts so that others can have an easier time to make the bread - these breads tend to be a bit more complicated than some others, It is a tasty one and worth the time to market,
Happy Naking
On the front page. Being so busy I've only just clicked on it. Looks absolutely delicious.
we did a string of batards for practice. Because our bread was over proofing during the long cold retard if shaped. This way, with a bulk retard, we can shape it and watch it more closely. This one was a bit under proofed but close enough. it tasted fantastic.
Happy baking Abe
Hi, DA,
May I call you DA since we’ve just met? I’m new to The Fresh Loaf and a novice baker. The photo of your amazing cranberry pecan loaf on the front page got me started reading through a number of your posts. I’ve read through some of them several times to try and understand what you were doing, so many of the techniques are completely new to me. I knew I had a lot to learn but I just found out how much! Your love of baking and the pleasure you get from it shines through in the beautiful photos and in your writing.
However, I don’t want to get ahead of myself, so I will continue to work on basic techniques. But there are still a number of things that you do that I think would be helpful to a beginner.
I’m most interested in whole grain sourdough breads. I’m very lucky to live close to a farm that raises organic red and white wheat, 2 kinds of spelt, emmer, and rye – einkorn next year. I received a Victorio grain mill as a birthday present this year, so I’ve been milling my own flour. I have only 1 whole wheat starter which works well, at least I think it does. I’m only baking for myself, so I usually bake 1 loaf every other week.
I was intrigued to read that you sieve your flour and add the bran bits into your starter. Because I don’t bake frequently, I usually feed my starter 3 or 4 times in the day before baking to get it up to speed and mill my flour at the same time. Do I add the bran bits to the starter as I feed it or when I’m doing what I think is called the levain build for the specific recipe? Do I add the bran in addition to the flour or instead of? Do you add all the bran you’ve removed or only a portion? Your explanation of how it works, softening the scratchy bits, makes a lot of sense
Any other words of wisdom for a beginner would be most appreciated. Probably too much for one posting.
Many thanks for your generosity in sharing your creativity with us!
Wendy
I keep a stiff (66% hydration) whole rye starter fed with home milled rye - it is maintained this way No Muss No Fuss Starter . For this week's bake it has bee stored in the fridge for 20 weeks with no maintenance what so ever.
I took 10 g of it to make the levain for today's bake which is a 10 sprouted graon bread using 50% whole grains that were sprouted, dehydrated and milled at home. The whole milled grains weighted 255 g after milling and the sifted hard bits weighed 55 g - or a 21.5% extraction. These hard bits are where most of the minerals and enzymes reside plus the hard bits themselves are still 20% starch - the raw food that the enzymes break down into sugars the LAB and yeast will feed on.
I fed the 10 g of starter the hard bits over (3) 4 hour stages (3 stage levain build) where each feeding was double the previous one: 10, 20 and 40 g = 70 g of hard bits.... and I only had 55 g so I had to use 15g of the 78.5% extraction flour for the last feeding.
The reasoning is simple enough. The water, a solvent that softens, enzymes and acid of the SD culture all work to break down these hard bits into ones that end up being much softer and less likely to break down the gluten strands making for a more open crumb..
Normally once the levain has doubled after the 3rd feeding, i would retard it in the fridge for 24-48 hours to extend the time and for softening to happen and to promote a more sour levain. In this case, i was running an experiment to see if I could make a even more potent levain yeast wise by stirring the built levain down and seeing if it would double again in 4 hours and then using it directly in the autolyse with no retard. No worries - it doubled again easily.
I try to size the levain so it ends up using 10% -15% of the total flour (10% -15% pre-fermented flour depending on if it is summer or winter), using all the hard bits first and sizing the overall loaf weight to use all the hard bits in the levain .
You are so blessed to have access to all of those grains.right next door on the farm - I had to sent a crazy amount at Whole Foods for the einkorn and emmer needed for this week's bake.
The one thing we all have in common is that we all started out baking the same way - totally inexperienced and ignorant. But doing over time takes both away and the next thing you know you are making some great SD bread that you like, exactly the way you want it! Everything you need or want to know about bread you can learn right here on TFL for other Fresh Lofians .
Welcome and happy SD baking.
Your reply is so full of wonderful information – THANK YOU!! I was especially interested to read that you do your levain build starting with a tiny amount with 3 feedings 4 hours apart. I’ve come to the same schedule on my own. All the other feeding schedules that I’ve read seemed so wasteful to me, so I’ve been experimenting. It’s great to have it confirmed! The use of the sieved bits to feed the starter is a revelation. Your description is perfect! My only question is, do you keep the 66% hydration throughout the levain build or do you raise it to what you plan to use for the overall bread?
It's probably heresy to say it, but I don't like my bread too sour, so I'm glad to read that the starter works as well without a long retard.
I baked a basic whole grain loaf yesterday (a mix of all the ones I mentioned) using the slap and fold technique that I saw for the first time in your post. I checked out some of the links on the website and poked around on Youtube. I really liked the technique, it was so much fun I was afraid I would overdevelop the dough. I’ve been kneading in a stand mixer and I find that I missed the hands on. I was a little terrified at how soft the dough was without adding additional flour. It rose quite well in bulk fermentation and the rise in the banneton, but it oozed out of the banneton onto the parchment paper before going into the clay pot I bake in, so I was convinced that it was going to be a dud. When I uncovered the pot after 15 minutes I was astonished at the oven spring! And it continued to rise over the next 20 minutes. When I finally cut it open after cooling I discovered some quite respectable-sized holes and a wonderful moist crumb. Another lesson. Can't wait to bake my next loaf, I may have to give some of this one away so I have an excuse to bake sooner!
and, much more rarely to the hydration of the dough. LAB and yeast love the wet and having both at peak performance level when hitting the mix is one of my other rules. No sense using a weak kneed sister when it comes to my book, but other just take a liquid starter right out of the fridge and toss it in with good results - my experience is that it is less consistent and flavorful.
Years ago now, a Fresh Lofian, Eric Hanner, may he rest in peace, said you need to use slap and folds. It changes my bread baking forever and I am grateful.
I',pretty sure it is impossible to over knead any dough using slap and folds n- so no worries thee and nearly impossible to do so using a mixer at home. I find myself using less manual gluten development though(slap and folds) I used to do 3 sets of 8 minutes then 1 and 1 minute - 10 -20 minutes apart. that would be a total of 350 slap adn folds over the first hour and then switch to stretch and folds for the next hour,
Now I do 90 slap and folds over an hour and half and then 16 slap and folds over the next hour and a half. and high hydration is no stranger around here either. But I find using less dough manipulation and more time including a long cold retard makes for a much more open and soft crumb structure,
You are hooked now and there is no hope for you:-)
In the No Muss No Fuss starter post I show some charts at the bottom of how to build 3 stage levains of various sizes from it.
You might also like this post.
Lucy’s Favorite Methods To Make Healthy and Beautiful Bread
Happy SD baking
Oops, just found your response. More great info! And, yes, I am hooked and there is absolutely no hope! Lucy's Favorites is terrific, so good to see it all in one place.
I'm breaking rule number #1 - never make a recipe for the first time to take to a party. As I write this, I'm giving your pecan cranberry bread recipe a try to take to a birthday lunch tomorrow. Wish me luck!
and i'm sure your friends will like it.
Happy baking Wendy
Well, that was the best loaf that I’ve made so far! Yippee! Good oven spring and open, incredibly moist, springy, delicious crumb. But there are still a couple issues that I hope you can help me with. A little background first: I used 260g King Arthur organic AP flour, the rest was freshly milled 100g spelt (50g each of 2 kinds), 100g wheat (50g each red & white), 25g rye, 25g emmer. Instead of cranberries and pecans, I used what I had on hand – pears, walnuts, & figs 160g total. The finest setting on my Victorio Grain Mill produces flour that is coarser than commercial flour.
I sieved the milled flour and used 52 g bran/58g water to feed my starter in 2 feedings, half each time. Retarded in fridge for only 9.5 hours. Although it looked quite active, it wasn’t doubling and seemed stalled. I thought the problem was that it was SO stiff - I could hear the poor yeasts grunting and groaning trying to lift it. The gas bubbles, some quite large, were actually squashed flat! I decided to add 15 g of flour and 22 g of water from the recipe to loosen it up and that seemed to work and got it chugging.
I followed your slap and fold schedule exactly. Even after the 3rd set, the dough seemed very slack and oozy. Oddly, it seemed to tighten up just a little after I added the pears/walnuts/figs.
The bread had to be ready by 11:00 AM the next morning and I was afraid to refrigerate it immediately after the last slap and fold, so I let it rise at room temperature until it was about 50% of doubled before refrigerating it for 12 hours. I let it finish doubling in the morning, then pre-shaped it. Still quite loose. I knew it was too loose to put directly into a banneton, so I lined it with a towel. There’s no way that it could be turned out onto parchment and put on a baking stone, so I tipped it directly into my clay baking pot.
So, 1) why did the levain get so stiff and did I do the right thing by adding flour and water, and 2) why is my dough so slack? This has been a frequent problem for me. My cheapo phone takes lousy photos, but maybe this will provide some clues?
Even though the hydration is high for the levain but the levain isn't made with normal flour - it is made with the hardest bits of the whole flour so it will be stif. If you look a the picture of the levain sitting on the autoltyse you can see how stiff it really is. Adding extra water and flour didn't hurt any.
I thonk part of your slackness is the amount of low gluten whole grains you used with the spelt and rye being the majority where mine were high gluten whole wheat and durum with just a bit of rye and spelt, Durum and wheat really suck up the water where especially spelt doesn't like it wet.
You also let the dough double on the counter before shaping it so it got warm. Better to shape it cold, without it doubling so the dough stays cooler and doesn't spread as much. You only want it to proof 50% after shaping anyway.
You will get the hang of various flours as you use them and gain experience with how each takes water and develops gluten It just takes time.
I'm glad your variation turned out so well and was was the best one to date! We love this bread.
Happy baking
Aha! Yup, I didn't have any kamut, so I swapped it for spelt. Didn't know that kamut was a durum wheat. I loved this so much that I'll definitely try it again when I have the time follow your timeline closely and do the cold shaping. I'm still a little obsessed with using my local grains as much as possible, so if I want to continue to use spelt, should I decrease the hydration a bit?
My photo cut and paste obviously didn't work. I searched the website and found some instructions which I'll attempt. My computer photo skills are minimal. I think this worked. You can see how wet the dough was from the amount of rice flour that stuck to it!
I so appreciate your patience in replying to all my questions. In just this one string my baking skills have made a major leap forward. Dabrownman, you are a treasure! Thank you!
I don't think that i would change a thing hydration wise. I prefer a bit less rice flour but my baskets are so well seasoned i hardly put any in them and shake most of it out and nothing sticks. So like the white contrast. For a while, I was making weird flour designs on the bread before slashing by throwing a fine mist of flour on the top one time like you were dusting the work surface with flour for pastry making.
Your friends had to be pleased with this bread even if it only half as good as it looked.
Very well done indeed.
Thanks for the encouraging words!
I know what you mean about flour designs on the crust. There's a magnificent looking round bread in Maggie Glezer's Artisan Bakers Across America that was first dipped in something quite coarse like cornmeal or polenta meal, can't remember which, and then slashed in a continuous spiral from the center outward. It was a thing of beauty. If I can ever control the ooze-factor, I'll give it a try with your flour dusting technique - the cornmeal looked like it might be a little too crunchy.
Jewish Corn Rye Sourdough , a batard, is rolled on a wet / damp towel then into corn meal and then slashed and baked. A lovely crust results. It is usually the only corn in the mix but I cheat a little and put 5% in the dough too since I love the flavor corn adds to bread.
Happy baking
dabrownman: Wow. Looks so great. Like the photo of Lucy and the sunset, too. It is interesting what you said about the rye smelling bad. I find that when I leave my mixed starter (AP/WW/Rye) alone in the UK, it can be a bit dark and smelly. One time, I had mold. The white starters seem to do much better when neglected a few months. I have asked my nieces to go over and throw some flour and water in there from time to time to prevent this problem.
Congrats again on a fab loaf. Best, Phyllis
sour smelling starter but it didn't smell bad. this weeks bake it was 21 weeks old and even better smelling when it came to a powerful sour:-) this was the last of it though and the hard bits that form on top went into the bin. I think a whole rye starter gets mire acidic and mold just can't handle it. Even though Lucy doesn't get a bath that often she gets one more often than me but we keep the kitchen clean enough to keep most molds at bay and being so dry here helps too, In Dear Old Blighty, it would be impossible to keep the mold at bay.
Poor Lucy got all of her beautiful hair cut off at the Pup Bubble and Squeak Salon so..... she looks like a sculpted, naked, German Hairless now. You can tell what great shape she is in at 11 years old with all the hair gone - she reminds me of me....when I was young..... actually had a shape ,,,,with long hair though:-)
You would like this bread Phyllis. it has become one of favorites - not that the rest of them aren't too!
Happy Baking