Multi-grain Sourdoughs. Cranberry/Pecan Sourdough 1-11-19
I continue to work with multi-grain sourdough breads using home-milled flours. Today, I baked two loaves. Both used the same dough, a mix of Central Milling ABC flour, whole Sirvinta wheat, Spelt and Rye. The Sirvinta whole wheat is the thirstiest I have ever encountered. For today's bake, I boosted the dough hydration to 85% with good results.
I mixed the doughs for each loaf separately and folded in 20% each dried cranberries and lightly toasted pecans in one of the doughs.
Photo Gallery
I'll confess: The Cranberry-Pecan loaf was first out of the oven, and I couldn't wait for it to cool completely before having a few slices for lunch with some delicious Emmental cheese. The crust was crunchy and the crumb was very moist and tender. The cranberries mostly contributed sweetness and chewy texture. They have less presence than the sour cherries and dried figs I have baked with before. All in all, a nice combination of flavors and textures.
The "regular" loaf had a lovely crackly crust and a more open crumb than achieved with lower hydration doughs. Just about perfect, to my taste.
You may note that I most often shape these breads as boules and bake in cast iron Dutch ovens. These loaves were shaped as bâtards and baked on a pizza stone with steam. When baking on a stone, I bake at a slightly lower temperature (465ºF versus 475ºF).
Happy baking!
David
Comments
Welp, I'm inspired! For a while, I've been thinking about baking a new sourdough with nuts and dried/soaked fruit. Yours look delicious, but paired with cheese, elevated to divine. Thanks for the post. If I do get around to making a new loaf, I'll be sure to share it here on TFL
Happy baking,
Zita
I can tell you that the following combinations have worked well for me: Walnuts and dried figs, pecans and dried sour cherries and now pecans and dried cranberries.
But I bet you could do great things with nuts and fruits local to you. Mango and coconut? Hmmm .... What would you choose to try?
Looking forward to your loaves!
Happy baking!
David
I am glad you tried the cranberry pecan combo as it is one of my favourites. Both have an amazing crumb! Well done!
If memory serves (and sometimes it does), you remarked you were waiting to see what I did with higher hydration multi-grain sourdoughs. Well, here it is. I'm quite happy with the result.
As I am sure you know, getting an open crumb with lots of chunky stuff in the dough is a challenge. The pecan-cranberry loaf crumb is lighter and more tender than it looks. I think letting fermentation go a bit longer; incorporating solids late (but not too late) in the bulk fermentation and very gentle dough handling during shaping all help.
Does your experience reveal any helpful techniques?
David
is key I think to a more open crumb. After that, getting the dough’s strength up through folds and extended fermentation really helps.
When mixing by hand, doing 3 sets of slaps and folds really made a difference in developing the gluten of my dough. Then I use folds every half hour until I see small to medium bubbles in the dough which takes usually 4 to 4.5 hours. After which the dough takes a trip to the fridge for a few hours to finish rising about 30%. Then I preshape, rest and shape before retarding overnight. I know I have been much happier with my crumb since implementing those techniques with my dough.
I don’t find that adding extras early or later really makes that much of a difference. I’ve tried both ways.
My last set of loaves were made using a mixer and I tried to keep the above principles and techniques in mind when making the dough and I got a crumb that I was really pleased with. Hopefully I can repeat that success this weekend.
that makes for a lovely looking and tasting crumb every time! Love figs and walnuts too. Never heard if Sirvinta wheat but I haven't heard of 99% of most stuff either:-) Both of these loaves turned out perfect inside and out. Now I have to go look up Sirvinta.
Happy baking David,
Beautiful loaves and nice photography. I like the second loaf with cracks on the crust and perfect crumb.
I prefer the plain loaf personally as I find that dried fruits mask the delicate flavor of the grains sometimes. Both loaves look great though :) I'm always impressed when I see evenly browned crust like this. I don't dare baking my bread too dark as it often results in burnt crust at the top even though the sides are still comparatively pale...
What a nice start to the new year!
Would love a nice slab of this toasted and drizzled with honey!!
Really nice loaves! I want to achieve this shaped loaf next.. did you use a form?
Both loaves were proofed in cotton-lined coiled reed baskets (brotformen).
David