European Peasant Bread - Take 2

This is a repeat of Trevor’s European Peasant Bread (with the substitution of Kamut instead of wholewheat) while implementing Dabrownman’s suggestions: “I would do three different things with the levain build.  I would first get the starter amount up to 15 g from 10g.  Then get all the bran into the first feeding of the levain all 35g so it is in the acid the max amount of time and go to a 2 stage levain build with the first stage being 4 hours and the 2nd stage 8 hours.  Then I would use the high extraction flour from the whole grain for the 2nd stage of the levain rather than the unbleached white flour.“ My levain builds were longer than suggested but I did follow the rest. 

Recipe:

 Makes 3 loaves

150 g freshly milled spelt

150 g freshly milled rye

150 g freshly milled Kamut flour

820 g unbleached flour

50 g freshly ground flax

850 g filtered water

23 g Himalayan pink salt

30 g local yogurt

280 g 100% hydration levain (procedure for this is in recipe)

 Two nights before:

1. Mill the kamut, spelt and rye separately using whole grain berries and sift out the bran to feed the levain. Weigh the bran and set aside. Mine ended up weighing 35 g. Weigh out 105 g of the rye and save for the levain. Put the remainder of the rye and the sifted kamut and spelt in a bowl. Add the unbleached flour and the freshly ground flax. Reserve.

The morning before:

1. After refreshing my starter 2 or 3 times, I took 15 g of starter and added all of the bran with 35 g of water. I let it sit at room temp for about 12 hours.

The night before:

1. Feed the levain the reserved rye flour and 105 g of water. Let rise overnight. It should have more than doubled by the morning. I wasn’t ready for it in the morning, so I just stirred it down and let it rise again.

Main dough:

1. Autolyse the flour/flax mix and the water for about 4 hours. Sprinkle the pink salt on top for the autolyse. This can definitely be shorter but I had a Pilates class in the middle and some errands to run so it stretched out to four hours.
2. Add the yogurt and the levain and mix well. I did 100 in bucket folds to make sure everything was well integrated and gluten development was well on its way. The dough tightens up and you can’t really do a stretch but you can fold the dough over itself going around the bucket. The dough smooths out nicely and you can see all of the bran from the levain evenly dispersed throughout the dough. Cover and place the dough in a warm spot to rise
3. Do sets of stretches and folds about 45 minutes apart for the entire span of bulk fermentation. It came out to 4 sets. Bulk fermentation took 4 and half hours and the dough rose about 30-40%. There were lots of bubbles around the edges of the container and the dough felt very billowy.
4. Lightly flour the top of the dough in the bowl/bucket and dump out onto a bare counter. Lightly flour the top of the dough again and divide into 3 equal portions of about 790 g.  Pre-round the dough with a scraper. I must say that I think Trevor would be proud of me this time. I managed to round those loaves with minimal flour and minimal sticking! ?
5. Let rest for 40 minutes and then do the final shape. I used the same shaping technique that I used for my last bake. Flour the top of the boule, flip it over, pull out the top corners and stick them to the center of the dough. Do the same for the two bottom corners. Then take the points that were formed and overlap them in the middle, going all the way around. Flip the boule over and spin it like a top until you have a nice tight shape. Place in rice floured bannetons, cover and put to bed in the fridge for the night. 
6. The next morning, heat the oven to 475F with the dutch ovens inside for at least 45 minutes. Place rounds of parchment paper in the bottom of the pots and gently place the dough seam side up inside. I first turn out the dough on a counter sprinkled with cornmeal and then pick it up by my fingertips to put in the pots. Touch wood, I haven’t burned myself yet, using this method. I will though one day! ?
7. Cover the pots and bake the loaves at 450 F for 25 minutes, remove the lids, do a little dance because the loaves look great, drop the temperature to 425F and bake for another 22 minutes.

Once again, I got great oven spring. It is amazing how much a loaf springs up when there are no add-ins in it and only 35% whole grains.