91st bake. 05/07/2022. SOTSOT, IDY, SD.
May 7th, 2022. 91st bake.
500 grams of flour, 425 grams water, and 9 grams salt was hand mixed and left to soak for 1 hour.
I used scales to weigh the above, but did not take note of weight of each type of flour.
I wasn't sure how much water would be needed, so I started with 375 grams, then added 25, mixed, and then added 25 more, and that felt right.
I used up the last of my home-milled hard red wheat, and just eyeballed the rest -- Bob's Red Mill WW stone-ground red, Golden Temple red bag durum, Swad brand (gritty) semolina, and some Gold Medal bread flour. But total, to this point, was 500 g flour.
3/4 tsp instant dry yeast, and for good dispersal, this was first mixed in with 2 tbsp Gold Medal bread flour and 2 tbsp Golden Temple red bag durum. This flour was not counted in the 500 grams above.
1 tbsp toasted-ground bread spice. (Spice was toasted, then ground. Measure was taken after grinding. Pre-toasting volume ratio: 1 part anise, 1 part fennel, 2 parts whole caraway, 4 parts whole coriander.)
1 tsp whole caraway seeds.
Mixed/kneaded by hand.
1 tbsp 3 day old 100% hydration starter from fridge.
1 tbsp 6 day old 100% hydration starter from fridge.
(Water and flour in starters was not counted in above measurements.)
Mixed/kneaded by hand.
A drizzle of olive oil to keep dough mass from sticking to bowl.
Bulk ferment from 2:46 pm to 5:57 pm, with some hand kneading in between.
5:57 pm, start oven pre-heat to 475 F, and fold/shape dough, and put in lined and dusted banneton.
Used a pre-heated Lodge 3.2 qt cast iron combo cooker.
6:43 pm, bake 425 F, covered, 15 min.
6:58 pm, bake 400 F, uncovered, 15 min.
7:13 pm, bake 375 F, uncovered, 15 min.
7:28 pm, done. Internal temp. 205.something.
Paper plate is 9" in diameter.
At 9:23 pm, loaf weighed 855 grams.
Comments
The crumb is soft and fluffy. Not "shredable", but light and airy with good spring- back, even though the alveoli are small.
Taste is not as good as my previous all sourdough and fermented overnight loaves.
The crumb has a somewhat marbled color, making me think I didn't mix the flours well enough, or didn't mix in the starter and spices well enough. Mixing was all done by hand and some by spatula.
The hydration and ratios of the various flours worked well for texture.
Looks delicious! Looks like a great oven spring, and I like that nice even crumb. No drip throughs with jam or honey in the morning. ;-)
With the bread spice, assume you're roasting the seeds and then grinding? Sounds like a great blend (although I haven't tried anise yet. Love fennel and coriander.)
What were you shooting for with the two starters at different ages?
Using a little bit of both starters was just to cut down on discard. The starters are fed every six days, and stirred every two.
Their cycles are offset by 3 days. So I am doing a feed once every 3 days, and doing a stir the other 2 days.
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Yes, I toast the whole seeds in a fry pan, then grind. The ground mixture loses aromatic potency in a few weeks, so I'm going to make smaller batches, or else grind smaller portions of a toasted batch.
I got the original ratio (formula) from Hanseata: (by volume) 1 part fennel, 1 part caraway, 2 parts coriander. (The coriander is larger and less dense than the other two.)
Then I decided to add anise, and since it is close to fennel, I split the fennel into 1/2 fennel and 1/2 anise: .5 anise, .5 fennel, 1 caraway, 2 coriander. Then unitizing/normalizing: 1, 1, 2, 4.
I have some fenugreek (methi or hulba), but haven't figured out what to do with it yet.
I also have some hickory-smoked rock salt from The Spice Lab, that I just love for soups/stews. I got it years ago at Tues Morning, 17 oz wt, for $4; original price $10. It seems very moist, so I am not sure how to compensate in measuring it. But I need to try it with WW bread before I run out. That woody campfire aroma/taste is great for a rustic type meal. I'm goiing to guess 2.5% baker's percent instead of 2%, as WW can handle a higher salt level anyway.
The marbled crumb looks really nice, you should just have said you did it on purpose Dave.
Benny