Germés pain au levain rustique avec les graines de lin

We had this left over white starter that we converted from the 3 rd day toss of the rye starter we made for last Friday’s rye SD bread bake and needed a recipe to use a bit of it up.  Lucy came through with a sprouted 5 grain recipe that included 50% whole grains and some cracked flax seeds. 

Breads similar to this one make up our ‘sort of standard’ everyday sandwich bread when we aren’t eating some other kind.  Flax seeds have all kinds of health benefits but they are usually not accessible to the human body because their shell is so hard and fibrous.  Cracking them makes this problem moot.

Half the grains are whole and half of them were sprouted making this a very healthy and nutritious bread that is full of vitamins and minerals.  We sifted out the hard bits and fed them first to the levain, as per our usual routine, but only had time to retard the finished levain for 2 hours

The levain was about 75% larger than our normal summer amount coming it at near 18% pre-fermented flour.  As the levain warmed up on the counter, we autolyzed the dough flour and potato water with the salt sprinkled on top.  The final hydration was a bit over 80% - very low for a bread of this type for us. 

Once the levain hit the mix, we did 3 sets of slap and folds of 30 slaps and 3 sets of 10 slaps al on 20 minute intervals.  The cracked flax went in at the beginning of the first 10 slap set and were through incorporated by the end of the third.  One the gluten development was done we placed the dough in an oiled bowl, covered it with plastic and put it in the fridge for an 18 hour retard in the fridge.

Once the dough came out of the fridge, we let it warm up for an hour before pre-shaping and then final shaping using a new design for a chacon that we picked up off the Italian shaping video posted on TFL earlier this week.  Once it was bagged and proofed, we chucked it into a 450 F preheated Combo Cooker.

After 18 minutes the lid came off and we turned the oven down to 425 F convection.  After 5 minutes of dry heat we removed the bread from the CC and placed it on the bottom stone to finish baking and to make sure the bottom didn’t over bake.   

It did bloom and spring well with the design coming though nicely.  It also browned up but didn’t blister all that much.  Nothing like a chacon to make a bread extra special for the holiday.

We will have to see how the crumb came out one the chacon cools and we slice it for lunch.  This bread came out very soft and moist....and seedy in a nice way.  Just as delicious as it is healthy and hearty.  It will make a fine sandwich bread  for some of that pulled pork which will go great with Pumpkin Eggnog Cupcakes.

Have a salad with that fine smoked pork butt.