Basic Everyday Sprouted Multi-Grain Sourdough

It has been 3 weeks since we last baked a loaf of bread proving that IBBA (Insane Bread Baking Addiction) can be controlled to some degree – but I did bake some rolls 2 weeks ago -  for Christmas / Hanukkah.  We never did get around to baking fruitcake and panettone for the holidays either…..Lucy is getting pretty lazy if you ask me

We are out of bread completely after clearing put the freezer for the future son in law to take back to Colorado with the last of the smoked sausages and pulled pork.  So, we need everything.  White bread, whole grain bread, multi-grain bread, fruit and nut bread, All kinds of rye breads, rolls,  etc.

I am always amazed how much darker the bran levain is compared to the dough!

We are starting out new year with a basic 33% sprouted multi-grain sourdough bread.  The sprouted grains were composed of red and white wheat, Kamut and spelt.   The levain was a 2 stage sprouted bran one at 100% hydration and 13% pre-fermented flour.

The first 4 hour stage was all the bran from the sprouts.  Since the kitchen was 64 F it really didn’t do much of anything for 10 hours but we kept stirring it every 4 hours anyway.  At the 10 hour mark we got out the heating pad and cranked the levain up to 78 F and all was well – it doubled in 4 hours.  Just shows how important temperature is to all things trying to ferment.

We did a 30 minute autolyze with the pink Himalayan sea salt sprinkled on top.  Once the levain hot the mix the hydration was a tad over 78% sort of like a sprouted Forkish Country Brown loaf except the bulk of the flour was the cheapest, store brand, 10% protein, flour I got on sale at Albertson’s – 5# for 99 cents.

Since the AP was so weak, the mix started out pretty sloppy.  We did 50 slap and folds right off the bat to get everything mixed in an then did 2 sets of 8 slap and folds and 2 sets of 4 stretch and folds every 40 minutes with the dough resting on the heating pad, under a stainless bowl, in between manipulations to keep it warm.

At the 3.5 hour mark after mixing, we pre-shaped and then shaped the dough into a squat oval, it was still pretty sticky, and plopped it into a rice floured oval basket seam side down, Forkish style, hoping it wouldn’t stick.  After bagging it new trash can liner to start of the new year, we put it in the fridge for a 15 hour retard. 

It looked like it proofed pretty well in the cold so we decided to let it warm up on the counter as the oven heated up to 500 F with the combo cooker inside.  We then un-molded the bread, no slashing required and slid it into the combo cooker for 2 minutes of steam with the lid on turning the oven down to 460 F.

When the lid came off, we turned the oven down to 425 F convection this time and baked it for another 5 minutes before removing the bread from the bottom of the combo cooker to finish baking the bread on the bottom stone.  10 minutes later the bread was nice and brown and 208 F – ready for the cooling rack.

It had puffed itself up and blistered pretty well under the steam so we hope the crumb will be equally as nice when we slice it later today.  A good bread to start off the baking year.  The crumb was soft, open, moist and glossy.  This bread tastes grand and would make a fine everyday bread if we didn't make a new one every week!

Formula

13% pre-fermented sprouted bran and high extraction flour levain – 100% hydration – 65 g each flour and water

20% sprouted high extraction dough flour – 100 g

67% AP dough flour,  10% protein – 335 g

65 % water – 325 g

2 % PHS salt. – 10 g

I'm not sure how many Prickly Pear Margaritas we made over the Holidays...... but this was not the only one:-)