dabrownman's blog

Dough.Doc has done some moré experiments with bran as a soaker for the the liquid in the the levain to increase the sour in the final product.  He now has a base for no bran soaker used and one for using sugar in place of 1-2% fructose.

Gravy Bran Soaker

His other additional tests point to the idea that using more bran to water ratio in the soak is better as is soaking longer before using and also making the bran soaker at near boiling temperature for the water.

Lucy’s recent methods for spouted sourdough breads of 30-100% whole and sprouted flour have used the bran to feed a small amount of long retarded rye starter to make a 3 stage levain that is then retarded for 24 hours.

It always amazes me how much the acid in the levain bleaches out the flour color.

This week I was going to try to explain Lucy’s plan to save all of us from the Sun going naturally smoking hot  in 500,000 years and toasting us into wishing we were pop tarts instead of lazy.  But, things happen, and we are off on another totally different track.  Let’s face it 500,000 years is a ways off so we can concentrate on something else a little more pressing.... like human caused, global warming – even if it is totally fake or not.

The link to the WBD announcement is here – the 10th year

http://www.kochtopf.me/world-bread-day-2015-invitation-einladung

Sprouted rye and wheat.

This year we thought we would do a variation of Lucy’s Westphalian Sourdough Pumpernickel since it is our new favorite bread of all time that we would make if it was to be our last one - ever!

Lucy finally got around to making a sprouted white sourdough that doesn’t have any whole grains in it….if you overlook the 6 grams of whole rye in the rye sour starter.

  Lucy kept this one at 74% average extraction for the sprouted 5 grain portion and the Kamut and wheat at 82% extraction making for an overall extraction of 78% for half the flour.  The other half of the flour was LaFama AP.

The 25% extraction sprouted multi grain bran sifted from the 75% extraction sprouted flour.

The little green rosettes will make your muffins taste bettah and sprouted grains will make your breads taste bettah too!  Sprouting is way easier than making bread so it is perfect for Lucy and I to do for just about every bake ……and a great way to turn a 3 day sourdough bake into a 5 day one – also perfect for us retired folks looking for something to do.

2015

1/1/2015 - New Years Eve Pizza

1/2/2015 - 50 % Whole Grain Sprouted 8 Grain SD/YW with Japanese Black Rice & Seeds

1/9/2015 - 50 Percent Whole Sprouted 16 Grain SD with Lake Havasu Desert Magic IPA

Today was one of those days I will always remember.  Nearly right up there with getting married, the birth of The Baby and anything else I can remember.  I got to see my pizza dough being prepared and baked in a wood fired oven by a real pizza master - Niecco Capone of Pomo Pizzeria Napoletana.

Lucy was thinking ancient this weeks and was studying the oldest thing she could think of at the time – The Sun.  The Poor thing is middle age at 5 billion years old and has an appetite like nothing else around here.  It gobbles up 400-600 million tons of hydrogen a second to overheat our world but it will be doing the overheating thing much better in the future.

Some folks like flour tortillas some like corn tortillas. – picky, picky, picky!  I say make them both compromise so you only have to make one kind – half flour and half corn and cut your work in half.