Seedy, Sprouted, Bran Levain, 11 Grain Sourdough with Toadies and Figs
Most of us realize how tiny and insignificant we are in the scheme of things until it comes to our passions and emotions. Then all hell breaks loose and we instantly want to become the center of the Universe. I am always telling my young daughter to keep her head even when everyone else is losing theirs. On humans this sometimes works...... but for Lucy …...not so much.
When it comes to bread recipes, she really is out of her mind most of the time. Keeping her paws on the ground takes real effort on my part, as opposed to most of the stuff I can’t be bothered to do. She really is nuts but she didn’t put any of them in this bread for some reason……. even though the rest of her pantry seems to have made an appearance.
The Toadies had steel cut oats, quinoa, millet, buckwheat groats, poppy, flax sesame and hemp seeds. The weight of the Toadies was 125 g. But toasting them wasn’t enough for Lucy Poo. The Toadies were then made into a porridge that was included on the first of 3 sets of stretch and folds with some pepitas and sunflower seeds – talk about seedy!
We added 250 g of water and brought the browned Toadies to a simmer for 5 minutes before turning off the heat covering them and letting them sit until cool. The Adriatic and Mission figs were chopped into 3 pieces and incorporated during the 2nd set of stretch and folds.
It ended up a bit over proofed.
Half the flour was bread flour from the bins at Winco so I don’t know what miller could claim it. The other 50% were home milled whole grains made up of: rye, spelt, red and white hard wheat, emmer, einkorn, barley, oat and buckwheat. Half of the whole grains were also sprouted at home so 25% of the mix, ended up being sprouted grains.
The hard bits were sifted out from the sprouted and whole grains at a 24% extraction rate and used to build a 2 stage levain. 10 g of 25 week old NMNF rye starter and the bran was used for the first stage and a mix high extraction whole and sprouted flour used for the 2nd stage. The levain was 100% hydration using 15% pre-fermented flour.
The levain was stirred after 4 hours and it doubled at the 10 hour mark - 2 hours after the 2nd feeding. The levain was then retarded for 12 hours. Once the levain came out of the fridge to warm up the next day we stirred it down before warm up. We autolysed the dough flour and water for 1 hour with the salt sprinkled on top. Hydration including the levain is 75% but does not include the porridge. The levain rose 25% before it was stirred into the autolyse.
The first set of slap and folds was 30 slaps to get everything incorporated. Then 2 more sets of 8 slaps each were done to help the gluten along before the 3 sets of 4 stretch and folds were done to get the Toady porridge and figs incorporated. All the dough manipulations were done on 20 minute intervals. We used to do many more slap and folds but have cut them way back since they just aren’t needed..... and I am nearly as lazy as Lucy.
We left the dough rest before doing the pre-shape and final shape into a squat oval and placing it into a rice floured basket. The basket was bagged in a new trash can liner for a change and left on the counter for 40 minutes before retarding it for 18 hours. Since it didn’t quite proof in the fridge, we let it warm up on the counter for 2 hours before preheating the oven to 500 F. By that time it was a bit over proofed :-)
Once the oven was at temperature, we installed the Mega Steam and let the stones catch up to the oven temperature for an additional 15 minutes. The dough was un-molded onto parchment on a peel, slashed twice and loaded on the bottom stone for 18 minutes of steam at 450 F. Once the steam came out, the temperature was turned down to 425 F convection and the bread continued to bake until it hit 207 F in the center.
Here is the Mad Formulator doing what she does best!
t spread more than it sprang and bloomed but it did brown up boldly. The spreading had to be Lucy's fault with her porridge fetish. Can’t wait to see what it looks like on the inside. It sure smelled seedy and figgy as it baked.It didn't end up as open as we thought it would be but it is OK for a 50% whole grain bread with a ton of stuff in it. The best part is th chewy bold crust and the seedy taste with a bit o sour coming through - delicious! Had 4 slices of toast for breakfast this morning - no butter required and the sweet figs made jam unnecessary too.
Formula
15% pre fermented bran 2 stage levain
50% Bread Flour
25% Whole grain Flour
25% Sprouted flour
25% Toadies dry weight with 50% water for the porridge
10% each Pepitas and Sunflower Seeds
20% Figs
75% water including levain but not including Toady porridge
Don't forget that salad
Comments
Another epic bake. Please explain the stirring of the levain.
I added the towel method x2 for my last bake, taking the towel pans out after 15 minutes. I didn't see steam emanating from them, though, and I'm not sure they did anything. Interestingly, I get pretty decent oven spring (and very good crust) with 2 lava rock pans in a Blue Star gas oven. The steam dissipates very quickly in a gas stove, of course, so when I hear about 18 minutes of steam, I wonder what different effect that would have on my bread.
using 10 g of starter and 10 g of F&W forn the forst feeding and then, since it is summer, add 20 g each F&W 3 hours later and then 3 hours after than I would add 40 g each F&F making 150 g of levain total. The mx bets stirred every 3 hours. In this case I had 48 g of sprouted and whole grain bran sifted put from the milling and did a 2 stage levain build using all 48 g of bran with an equal amount of water for the first feeding. Since this was more than my usual 2 feedings of bran I stirred the mix at the 3 hour mark so that the wee beasties could mire easily get at the food they need. When it doubled after the 2nd feeding I put it in the fridge but if I had stirred it down it would have doubled again in 2 hours on the counter. There is plenty of food in the mix if the wee beasties can get at it fir several doublings - even though ost of the mix is bran..
I always stir the levain down when it comes out of the fridge the next day for 2 reasons. To give the wee beasties access to more food and to measure a 25 % rise, about an hour before adding the levain to the autolyse of the same length.
I no longer do Sylvia's steam with towels. I ran a test not long ago comparing Sylvia's steam and lava rock Mega steam and the Mega steam won hands down putting out twice the steam as the towels. More stream means better bread. Just like a top and bottom stone leads to better crust. People always ask how I get such wonderful crusts and these are the two reasons..... along with a sufficiently long 500 F pre-heat.
If I had a gas oven, I would bake in a DO or use a cloche for sure and not waste my time with other steaming methods that can never work as well.
Glad you liked the bread, Sorry I won't make it to SF next week to meet you though.
Happy baking
are the words that come to mind when seeing your ingredients but I'm sure this bread will turn out airy and moist like all your other breads. It's so funny how you speak of your "assistant", it just cracks me up. I'm curious about the use of porridge, I've only done it once when making Stu's millet bread. What benefits does it bring to the loaf? How do you compare it to soakers?
Can't wait to see the crumb...
Happy baking DBM!
P.S. Did you get a new camera? Most of the pictures are with great clarity and rich tone, which makes me wonder...
a kind and all I have to keep my bread baking safe and simple if a bit boring :-) We really packed this one with all kinds of goodies so it won't look like a normal 50% whole grain bread on the inside. Lucy calls this one nearly fully locked and loaded since it doesn't have nuts in it but I like heavy duty better. With the proof We got I expect the crumb to be our usual too - but you never know.
Karin is going to be very upset with me since this also had 25 g of ground hemp seeds in the Toadies too and I forgot to include them or even mention them - I will have to fix it quick!
I think a scald just has boiling water poured over it and a porridge has to be simmered for 20 minutes, So this is half of both since it was only simmered 5 minutes. A scald never get stuff soft enough and a porridge get is too mushy in my book.
No new camera. It works better when I clean the lens before shooting and when it isn't cloudy outside so the light is better as it comes through the kitchen window.
Hope the crumb comes out as nice as the crust...
Happy baking Yippee!
Your pics are ALWAYS so beautiful ! I check your posts just so I can see your garden and sunsets in AZ and whatever else you choose to share. I can't make any of your breads as I haven't got any of the choice ingredients that you always seem to have ...but...I love to look anyway. Happy Baking !! c
How do you post your pics..one by one...exactly what do you do ???? please share...thank you c
Then a box pops up. at the very end of the first line is a little square tab that you click. Then another box pops up but wait. Eventually on the gray bar across the box will appear at a tab that says upload [ click that tab. Another box will pop up and you click on the choose file tab. Little thumbnail pictures of your pictures on your computer will pop up. Click on the one you want to upload and then click on the open tab at the bottom. Then click on the bottom button that says upload. When the picture appears then click the insert file button at the top of the page and then finally click on the insert button at the bottom of the box.
I told you a dungeon master, who hates us very much, made this system up to kill us all.......
Glad you like our crazy breads and posts. Moonson will soon be here and the sky will be ablaze again!
Happy baking Trail
I want to see the crumb! It looks different from your "usual" breads. I can't imagine how tasty and fragrant this is. Breads like this can never be found anywhere, only at home if you have crazy ingredients and minds!
I really love this one and every shot captures the mouth watering quality of each especially the figs, I wonder when will I ever try them.
Happy baking uncle!
dates to cranberries and cranberries to raisins and I can't remember the last time I used apricots in bread but I do like them. Fresh apricots just came in season at Sprouts so it is time for apricot jam!
Lucy went a little wild with this one but you are right right. The only way to taste this bread is to make it at home. Half the fun is making bread that you can't get any other way. Lucy figures if you can buy it isn't quite 'Artisan' enough for any self respecting Baking Apprentice 2nd Class to mess with! But she does like messing with me for some reason:-)
I'm glad you like this one Job and happy clay pot baking !
goodies. Looks really really good!
As a recent convert, i love the addition of figs :)
The crumb looks great to me, with all those add ins i think its beautiful.
I'm curious as to why you said you don't need as many slap and folds anymore?
One other question, you said the dough looked over proofed to you. Do you just eye ball it? Or do you use the poke test? I tend to bake straight from the fridge and i'm not sure if the poke test works on cold dough?
Salad looks good as always, is that blue cheese in this one?
Ru
makes some kind o toast!
I used to do 8 minutes of slap and folds right off the bat at 35 slaps per minute and then did 2 sets if 2 minutes for a total of 350 slaps. Now I do about 46 of them over 3 sets. Lately I've been using ,more bread flour instead of AP too. More working of the dough makes for a denser crumb and all you really need for gluten is time and water. I would have made this bread at 78-80% hydration using AP flour and mire working of the dough but now am at 75% with bread flour and less work, It all works depending on what you are trying to accomplish.
I find the poke test to be pretty much worthless. By the time it says that it is ready for the oven it is over proofed and cold dough really throws it off and a bunch of add ins do too. I have just gotten used to looking at the dough before and after proof in the basket. A bread like this need to go in the oven at 85% proof and I can tell ny looking that this one was at 100% and I probably should have started the oven an hour after it came out of the fridge instead of 2 hours.
Since I'm not going for big holes in white bread it isn't all that critical for me but I don't want it to collapse either:-)
We love blue cheese on salad. Yippee got me to go out of my normal conservative salad shell for last nights salad that had Romano cheese, cantaloupe and blueberries in it on top if everything else. What is the world coming to?
Glad you liked the post 007 and happy baking
I'll remember not over work my dough.
I bought myself some whole meal flour so I'm planning a 40% wholewheat SD for this weekend. The plan is to make a 100% whole wheat for my mom one day.
What a creative salad! Can't really go wrong with fruit and cheese :)
Happy baking to you too!
I am (obviously) less inclined to incorporate so many and such diverse ingredients in my bread, but I admire your freewheeling approach ... on general principles.
I'm joining the crowd waiting for the crumb photo!
David
Curb didn't come out as open as i thought it would - at least as well as it proofed. Lots of weird stuff in there getting in the way of hole formation. I love the taste of the Toasted Toadies. It has to be the hemp. Glad you like the bread David. Since you can't make the meet up in SF either, I don't feel so bad about missing it myself. Lucy really wanted to go.
Happy baking David.
Nothing wrong with that crumb at all! It's plenty open in my book and as you like to say "You can't eat the holes" :).
This one had to taste fantastic with all of those goodies packed inside.
Looks like Lucy was exhausted after all that hard work deciding which ingredient to add and when!
Happy Baking and a shout out to Lucy from her East coast fur-balls!
16 hours a day now that she has turned 12. She was just as exhausted at 6 when I was walking her 4 miles a day! I just limp a lot more now and can hardly walk at all:-(
This one tasty bread and like all breads that follow rule #1, this one tastes even better toasted. It also followed rule #2 - it is much more sour on day 2 so it is good the figs are in thereto tame it a bit.
Glad you liked the bread Ian. Will need some white bred next week for sure. Lucy sends her nicest bark to the M&L and the 5 furry ones,
Happy baking Ian.
just as expected! You've raised the bar for multi-multi-multi grain breads! I love that lavender hue in your breads, very, very charming. What happened to Lucy's silky hair? Are you too busy enjoying your bread and not giving her the attention she deserves? :-):-)
Thank you for sharing, and Happy Baking, DBM!
home from the salon. The lady there says she just loves to be brushed, even flopping over on her back paws in the air wanting her belly brushed and she does;lt even have any hair there. . But when one of us tries to do it she is a fierce biting, scratching machine that will not that brush touch her any where. So the silky goes away in a few days..... Lucy never lacks attention though - it just isn't possible. Now she is begging me to make lunch and she doesn't even get a lunch but she knows there is chicken, sausage and shrimp etouffee left over calling her name:-)
The came out very soft and moist on the inside and it dies taste pretty decent for a bread mixed up with all kinds of competing flavors. Glad you liked it Yippee and happy baking
This one looks like a meal all on it's own. I had read that eating whole grains will cause you to feel full faster, resulting in having to eat less food, and then eventually, excess weight loss. The theory was not confirmed by me until I started baking my own bread, but now I'm a believer! As for excess weight loss, that hasn't been a complete success, as I don't always choose the healthy breads to bake! That being said, at least I have not gained, and with all the bread that gets consumed around here, that is a big accomplishment. Anyway, really a nice bread, and that salad doesn't look bad either! marybeth
portion control and exercise. Being a diabetic I limit myself to 1 half slice of bread of any kind at a time. But, now that I'm older, I forget I'm diabetic so having a healthy, hearty bread is a must:-) It helps to eat the salad first and use very small plates:-)
I had lost 70 pounds but have gained about 25 back so it is time to start walking a few miles a day......in the summer heat.
Glad you like the bread and happy baking
dabrownman: Love seedy breads, and this was the seediest! Ian had inspired me to do the porridge breads before, but you have taken it to another level. This must have tasted so good. When it was baked, it did not seem over-proofed.... My problem is that I can't eat the bread at all! I ignored my wheat intolerance for years, but it caught up with me. I love to bake the bread, but can't eat it. My husband has more than he can ever consume and family and friends get a steady diet... I make some gluten-free breads, but they just don't stack up to the breads we all love to bake. Good luck with your exercise in the heat--don't overdo it! We did our mile walk to the firehouse to vote today with the primaries on in California. It wasn't too hot this afternoon; I suspect that you've got us beat on heat today. I agree on salad...I love it with blue cheese...just picked up some gorgonzola today. Congrats on another super bake. Best, Phyllis
breadwith a porridge that will suit you to a tee using YW for the levain and some hocus pocus for the dough structure.with just pinch of SD just so we can say - Look! SD bread doesn't bother me at all:-) No reason it can't taste great either. So is it gluten, wheat or both that get in your way. I will get Lucy working on it right away.
I'm coming out to LA, actually Venice on Thursday to spend some time with Michael Wilson of English Pannetone Fame, get some sun on the beach and maybe have some fish tacos with tequila shooters and beer chasers:-)
I'm glad you liked the bread. It is very tasty and has everything but nuts in it because the bakers apprentice is pretty nutty already.
Good Lick with the GF and happy baking for all of it Phyllis
dabrownman: I have tried making gluten-free sourdough (I made gluten-free starter) and it is always disappointing. The sweetbread, like banana nut, the strawberry donuts, work very well. The kind of bread we like to make, not so much. I found one recipe that was promising, and I am still tinkering. I have to add a little yeast to the sourdough mix to get the lift....will try again. My husband says I should give up, but I won't!
Have fun in Venice. Very cool place. Love fish tacos! I haven't made pannetone, but I did a traditional Italian Easter bread that was similar and SO good. Have a wonderful trip. Best, Phyllis
That's a bread and a half... I think Lucy must have beamed over while I was sleeping and raided my baking cupboard as well LOL... Still, that loaf must have made some pretty spectacular toast :-)
Have you tried running some baby powder or corn starch through Lucy's coat? They both amount to the same thing, but one smells much nicer than the other. It'll help keep her coat soft and silky - no need for a brush, just tip some onto your hands and work it through her coat. If Lucy doesn't like brushes, there are always things like grooming mitts or a zoom groom. The girls are shedding like the clappers at the moment - I swear I could knit several cats from what I've combed out of their coats...
I always love your salads too. :-) Have you ever tried baby spinach, sliced mango, crayfish and balsamic vinaigrette dressing? It's lush, I swear... :-D