9 Grain 50 Percent Whole Grain Half Sprouted Sourdough Chacon with Pepitas and Sunflower Seeds

9 Grain 50 Percent Whole Grain Half Sprouted Sourdough Chacon with Pepitas and Sunflower Seeds

Lucy formulated this bread as an entry for Bread Baking Day #83 here http://www.kochtopf.me/bbd-83-brot-spezialmehl-bread-special-flour where flours other than rye, red wheat and spelt were used.  In this case we added, Pima Club, emmer, einkorn, Buckwheat, oat and white wheat.

My wife decided to give this to a friend who is grieving for her passed brother so I am not sure that I will get a crumb shot or not depending on whether my wife says it is Ok to cut it in half for one?  Can you cut a gift in half and still call it a gift?  We decided to make the bread into a special Chacon as we usually do when someone passes – like the Chacon for Eric Hanner – or for a birth or other once in a lifetime event in the family.

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We decided to use a couple of the comb roll up shapes for last Friday’s bake as the basis for the design but using sunflower seeds for the inside along with a couple of smiley face ropes and a 2 balls with some pepitas sprinkled in the bottom of the basket for extra design emphasis design.  The fun part with Chacons is to come up with a nifty design that shows itself during the spring of baking.

Since half the flour was whole grain and half of that sprouted we were able to use our 3 stage retarded bran levain method using the bran from the whole and sprouted grains for the first two stages and the high extraction whole grain flour for the 3rd feeding.

The bran came out to a 18% average for the two siftings and the levain was 100% hydration and contained 10% pre- fermented flour total with 10 g of NMNF rye starter, retarded for 22 weeks, used as the seed.  Once the levain was built and had doubled after the 3rd feeding it was retarded for 12 hours.

When the levain came out of the fridge the next day, we stirred it down and left it to rise 25% as it warmed up and as we autolyzed the dough high extraction sprouted and high extraction non-sprouted flour along with the 50% King Arthur Bread flour that made up the remaining dough flour and the 2% Pink Himalayan Sea Salt sprinkled on top.  Hydration came in at a bit over 78%.

Once the salt was stirred in and the bran levain added, we did 40 slap and folds to get everything well mixed and the gluten development started.  This was followed by 2 sets of slap and folds of 5 laps each on 20 minute intervals and then by 3 sets of 4 stretch and folds on 30 minute intervals.

After a brief rest of 10 minutes we made the design shapes and placed them in the bottom of the oval shaped rise floured basket followed by the remaining dough shaped into squat oval to fit the basket.  The basket was immediately bagged in a well-used trash can liner and immediately retarded in a 37 F fridge for 12 hours.

When the dough came out of the cold the next morning it was clear that it was 100% proofed since it was spilling out of the top of the basket.  We immediately preheated the oven to 500 F with the Combo Cooker inside.  When at temperature we un-molded the Chacon onto parchment on a peel and placed it into the CC, quickly covering it and placing it on the bottom stone of the oven while turning the oven down to 425 F.

We steamed the bread for 18 minutes and then removed the lid for 8 minutes of convection baking at 425 F.  At that time, the bread was removed from the bottom of the CC and continued baking directly on the bottom stone for an additional 25 minutes until it was well browned and at 206 F.

This bread browned and sprang well enough and with the fridge proofing, it should have a nice open crumb for a 50% whole grain, half sprouted bread.  We will have to see if it can be sliced or not.