44th bake. 04/26/2021. 100% stone ground WW durum.

First loaf-bread bake with Patel's house brand 100% WW stone ground durum. For a picture of the bag, see here: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/comment/469299#comment-469299

It was $7.99 for a 20-pound bag, $.40/pound.  Ingredient list is just "durum whole wheat."  No enrichments.

I've done tortillas, pizza crust (didn't let it autolyse/soak enough), and noodles, but this was the first loaf bread with this flour.

I learned from using the Sher Fiber Wala (from Brar Mills) 100% whole grain roller-milled flour, that WW durum takes a while to absorb the water -- and now even more so with the grittier stone ground flour.

Patel brand stone ground WW durum is not as gritty as semolina. Semolina has bigger particle sizes than this: and semolina is only about .8% ash, whereas whole grain durum is about 1.6% ash.

So I planned a long autolyse/soak, with salt, but no yeast/levain. It ended up being 4 hours and 50 minutes before I added instant dry yeast. This was at room temp, about 72 F.

I started out with 520 grams of the stone-ground WW durum, 2% salt, and 70% water.

After 2 hours I slowly added more water, 2% at a time, kneaded it in, until I got to 88% hydration.

I could still feel some mild grittiness, so more autolyse could have worked.

Then I added the 1/4 tsp instant dry yeast, folded it in, and added 1% more water for a total of 89%.

Bulk ferment (first rise)  was about 3.5 hours. I did a few stretch and folds. 

At some point during bulk ferment, the grittiness was gone.

I folded it and put it in a lined and dusted 8" inner-diameter banneton for final proof.

Final proof was about 1 hour, sitting a few inches above the stove-top while oven preheated. Noticeable dough expansion.

Preheated oven and Lodge 3.2 qt combo cooker to 465 F.

Oiled deep pot part of combo cooker and sprinkled in some semolina.

Put a round piece of parchment paper over the dough in the banneton. Inverted the Lodge pot over the banneton and filpped them both over. Then removed banneton.

Scored dough with a bare razor blade.

Baked covered at 450 F for 10 minutes.

Baked covered at 425 F for 10 minutes.

Baked covered at 400 F for 10 minutes.

Uncovered. Only mild oven spring and expansion of the score. Crust was already kind of dark.

Baked uncovered at 400 F for 10 minutes.

Internal temp 209.5 F.  Thump sound on underside was good.  Heft indicated if was not overly dense.

-- 

You can tell from the look of the crust that the dough was wet.  I let it cool one hour, before putting in a sealed plastic bag. 

By the next morning, the crust had softened up beautifully.  There is a slightly sweet burnt taste to the crust. And the crumb is kind of bland tasting, but is very soft.

This is a wonderful dipping bread, or to flavor with toppings. 

I'll have to think what kind of bread spices or flavoring to make the crumb taste better next time, or whether to leave it bland, or to mix with other flour.

This should be a good pizza crust flour if you have time for a long autolyse/soak.

--