This is my second attempt at both barley flour and sprouted white wheat flour. I’ve wanted to retry working with barley flour since my failed first try. After Ian posted his Guinness Rye Barley Wild Rice Bread, I decided that I’d be brave and incorporate barley into my bread again.
30/30 Freshly Milled Barley/Sprouted White Wheat Sourdough
Dough flour:
90g 30% Freshly milled pearl barley flour (since I can’t get whole)
90g 30% Freshly milled sprouted white wheat flour
120g 40% Whole red wheat flour
For leaven:
13g 4% Starter
13g 4% Bran shifted out from dough flour
13g 4% Whey
For dough:
287g 96% Dough flour excluding bran for leaven
280g 93% Whey
39g 13% Leaven
10g 3% Vital Wheat Gluten
6g 2% Salt
____________
216.5g 71% Whole grain
299.5g 98% Total hydration
Shift out the coarse bran from the dough flour, reserve 13g for leaven. Mix the rest back into the dough flour or soak them in equal amount of whey taken from dough ingredients for a minimum of 4 hours.
Combine all leaven ingredients and let sit until doubled, about 7 hours.
Roughly combine all dough ingredients and let ferment overnight for 12 hours. At the 10 hour point, the dough didn’t rise much so I let it ferment for 2 more hours. The dough still felt very firm even after that but I took it out of the bowl anyway. Immediately I freaked out as the gluten was very poorly developed and the strands were very short and kept breaking. I calmed down and stretched and folded it for a couple of times. The dough became slightly more elastic but it’s still nothing close to other dough I’ve worked with before. Therefore, I stretched and folded it again after letting it rest for 20 minutes. It was allowed to rest for another 20 minutes before the third set of stretch and fold followed by a 30 minute rest. The dough was shaped after the last set of stretch and fold (so 4 in total) and let rise in the proofing basket. At the same time, the oven was preheated at 250°C/480°.
The dough didn’t really rise after 40 minutes so I decided to wait for longer. Nevertheless, the dough still felt firm after 75 minutes which was very unusual as the dough is normally 80% proofed after 30 minutes at this very warm temperature. I scored the dough anyway and bake at 250°C/480°F with steam for 15 minutes then without steam for 20 minutes more until the internal temperature reaches a minimum of 205°F. Let cool for at least 3 hours before slicing.
There was little oven spring but to my surprise, the dough rose upward rather than spread out. The bread is flatter than most of my other bread but at least it looks like a loaf of bread rather than a pancake brick. The bread actually came out much better than I expected. When I cut it open, I know the bread was very over-proofed though it felt very firm before entering into the oven. However, the crumb is not that close and dense when considering the firmness of the dough. The crust didn’t brown very well but it is thin and crisp.
Huge holes: an obvious sign of over-proofing
Despite the closeness of the crumb, the bread is very moist and still kind of light. The taste is exceptional for bread this plain (any bread tastes better with nuts or cheese in my opinion). I kept it very simple as I really want to taste the barley and sprouted white wheat. This has really paid off as the nuttiness and freshness of the grains really shine.
I’m not sure exactly what contributed to the performance of this bread so any comments regarding it are welcome!
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whey. Whey from the process of making hard cheese is sweet whey and comes in at about 5.6 pH. But whey taken from yogurt making is acid whey and is below 5.1 pH and depending on how the curds were separated from the whey can be as low as 4.2-4.5.
I used to have the same problem with the crumb when I used whey for the liquid in bread. The crumb was sort of gummy and broken down even though baked to 205 F. With the SD and the whey it is just too much acid. Once the pH starts to get too low, the LAB shut down but the yeast is not affected as much so you get a rise but the crumb comes out weird.
High amounts of whey is better used in yeast breads and in lesser amounts in SD ones. I wanted to use up my Yogurt whey in the worst way though. It is perfect for baked goods that aren't supposed to rise much or need acid to activate the baking soda - think crackers, pancakes or as a replacement for skin milk or even buttermilk in recipes. For SD bread it is best to keep the amount to 20% of the liquid.
Happy baking Elsie.
Thanks for the detailed explanation. I've been using yogurt whey for all my sourdough bread for a while already and it doesn't seems to cause the problem above. The resulting loaf is usually sweeter and gets a better browned crust when whey is used. I may have misled you with the photos. The crumb isn't gummy actually and the bread doesn't taste under-baked. The main thing it that the gluten wasn't developed and the dough didn't rise.
In fact I have a few theories for it.
First, the barley flour is low in gluten so it hindered dough gluten development. Maybe it would be better to autolyse the barley flour separately from the rest of the dough and mix it back in after the main dough is fully fermented?
Second, I dried the sprouted wheat at too high a temperature that the enzymes were denatured. This is less likely the reason though as the oven temperature was kept below 150°F at all times.
Third, perhaps the barley was the major issue but the sprouted flour, which has lower gluten content as well, exacerbate the problem?
Forth, the grains got too hot during the grinding process in the coffee grinder so the enzymes were denatured. Though I put the grains into the freezer before grinding, the resulting flour did get slightly warm (nothing crazy hot).
Which one do you think is more likely to be the case? Or do you have other theories for that?
Thanks again for the help!
I tried making one loaf with plain water yesterday after reading your comment. It was fully fermented in just half the time it usually takes for other bread! There were huge bubbles all over the dough surface (I only managed to get tiny bubbles in ALL my past bakes! I mistakenly believed it was because of the high % of whole grain.). It should have come out perfect if I had not drop the slashed dough onto the floor thus deflating it...
I'm fully persuaded that the whey was very likely the main cause for the issue. Perhaps this bake was more severely affected since sprouted grains are more prone to acidic condition.
How stupid I was for not believing you right at the beginning! You're always right. Thanks so much for helping me sort this problem out! I'll limit whey to 20% of the liquid in my future bakes. I'm confident they're turn out better as long as I don't drop them onto the floor!
Happy baking to Lucy!
and Mega Millions in the same week.....well it still cold happen....maybe ....if Lucy can pick the right numbers for once. The reason I knew this one is because the same thing happened to me. Once I cut back the whey the bread crumb structure improved dramatically like yours did. That is how we learn about manipulating bread recipes and techniques and what happens when changes are made. Doing is the way to finding out what the heck is really going on. There is no substitute.
Things happen faster when sprouted grains are used. Sprouting makes the seeds start to grow and, when they start to grow, more amylase enzymes are produced - so more starch protein bonds are broken faster and more sugar is available for the wee beasties to eat. This is why autolyse times can be shortened or eliminated. for sprouted grains On the flip side, sprouting also causes more protease enzymes to also be produced and they break the protein bonds that form gluten in the dough. It is a balancing act of enzyme control. It just means that ferment and proof will be faster and if you don't watch the dough closely then the crumb structure can be adversely affected - likity split.
One thing to remember using sprouted grains is that the fridge is really your friend. Enzyme activity doubles ever 18 F increase in temperature. So you can really slow things down if necessary by putting the dough in the fridge. This is especially good to know for rye breads of all kinds. Since too much amylase enzyme will break down the dough structure of rye breads, you can retard them and slow things down if you you are called away unexpectedly. Acid also slows down enzyme activity which is why rye breads are sourdough.
Happy baking
The whey probably gave rise to an acidic medium that denatured or slowed the activities of amylase. It thus reduced the sugar available to the yeast and lactic acid bacteria and slowed fermentation.
I actually noticed that the dough was expelling water from the side even though it was not over-hydrated. I suspected that it's due to the hydrolysis reaction of protein that releases water molecules. Here's my theory: The range of pH most protease works best seems to be lower than that of amylase. So the lower pH would promote the activity of protease produced by the sprouted flour and thus break down the gluten molecules to their primary structure. That is why I was unable to properly develop the gluten in the dough even after a series of stretch and fold.
Can I conclude that the sprouted grains increased the production of both amylase and protease, yet the low pH of whey resulted in the low amylase activity and high protease activity resulting so there were slow fermentation but rapid gluten breakdown?