Shiso Miso Sourdough - Benny@TheFreshLoaf

In all honesty this bread wasn't planned until the day before I started my bake. I was planning on something else and then I stumbled across this thread from our very own Benny! 

Red Miso Furikake (Sesame seeds and Nori) sourdough

Since I've been experimenting with adding things into my bakes I immediately knew that this was going to be bumped to the front of the list. I made a few small changes like adding fresh shiso leaf instead of furikake and using a special kind of very dark red miso.

BREAD CALCULATIONS AND RECIPE HERE

First let's talk miso. These are the 3 I have in my house currently. In the upper right is a special white miso. It is sweet and creamy. In fact if I make soup using just that it almost tastes like a milk or cream based soup. Th largest container is a mixed miso which is delicious and has the rich umami flavor you think of when you think of what miso tastes like. The dark black miso in the upper left is called Hachou Miso. It is a pure red miso that is fermented for more than 3 years. It is from the Nagoya area of Japan and the oldest producer of this type of miso has been making it since 1337!  It is thick, and sticky, and pungent...and was my choice for this bread. When mixed with water you can see the dark color it produces. This is a flavor bomb for sure. I also decided to add fresh Shiso Leaf into the mix. Shiso is a great flavor that pairs well with miso and should add a slight freshness to the loaf. 

The dough itself was on the higher end of hydration and was quite sticky to work with. Gluten development wasn't a problem at all and the smell of miso and shiso were strong. Also the color of this dough. This is 10% rye and 90% bread flour. This is not a whole wheat bread!

Sensei's Report Card

Tasting Notes: And the result is gorgeous! The crumb is soft and creamy. The bread does carry the flavor of the miso. I've eaten it plain and as toast with some butter and it's tasty...but I walk away confused about how I would used it. It could be really really good as croutons for a salad. Sadly, the shiso was overpowered by the miso and I can not detect it at all. I think that Benny's inclusion of furikaki with sesame and nori would be better. The sesame would stand up to the strength of the miso. Even a sesame crust would be tasty. 

 Time/Effort: Three day process starting with a levain build on the morning and evening of day one, mixing and bulk on day 2, and finally baking on day 3. This is my normal sourdough schedule so It's not out of the ordinary for me. Dough is high hydration and can be sticky and difficult to work with if you haven't worked with breads over 80%

Would I make it again: Maybe. The bread is not bad and is very unique. However I have so many others that I would return to before this. So while it won't become a staple, it was a delicious experiment that if I do return to at some point will include sesame for sure.