hreik's blog

Experiment: new flour and new cooker

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So... one of my cloches had thru and thru cracks in the top and bottom... so had to toss it.  Got a 3.2 qt combo cooker and decided to try one loaf with  my new cooker and new sprouted wheat.  I chose an iteration of Maurizio's Sprouted wheat loaf here:

https://www.theperfectloaf.com/sprouted-grain-sourdough-bread/

I used no AP flour, only my bread flour and also used 20% kamut.

That touch of rye

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I've been enamored of Kamut and recently I've been making a bread w 25% Kamut ( sometimes with just whole grain, sometimes with 1/2 Whole grain and 1/2 White Kamut).  I've liked the crisp crust and the lovely rise. The flavor hasn't been quite as full as I like even when I was using just whole grain. Recently I added just 5% rye and it hit the sweet spot for me.  Nice oven spring, crisp crust and a lot of flavor.  I find that Kamut really needs a lot of time to rise properly and often I need to adjust around it's quirks.   But totally worth it.

 

Took me four years to get grigne on all 4 loaves

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My biggest challenge is scoring my loaves.  I never ever get all 4 small (500gm) loaves scored properly.  I remember reading  that a guy who worked full time in a bakery said it took him a full year to get the scoring right.  Today for once (in 4 years) I got all 4 right.  Crumb shot to follow (after dinner... lol)... Apologies for this small brag... Next time I'll be back at 50 or 75%... today I"m happy

hester

100% whole wheat ~100% hydration

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So.... I've been struggling with trying to let lift and good crumb from whole wheat.  I like 100% for it's health benefits. This is my third try and will post crumb shot later.

Formula (give or take)

250 gm whole wheat (sifted)

175 gm water

4 gm salt 

Autolyse above for several hours.  While doing that I fed my whole wheat starter and poured 60 gm of boiled water on the remaining 40 gm of the bran from sifting.

 

Final dough

autolysed dough (429 gm)

levain 48 gm

bran / water mix 100 gm

 

Homemade Bread Day 2016

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My simple favorite: Norwich SD made w T65 and Rye (~10%).  Spontaneous compliments from my hubby, son and future daughter in law.

NSD w T 65 and rye 11/18/2016

 

Danish Rugbrot

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So Finally I did a Danish Rugbrot.  I got the recipe on line and altered it only a little bit.  It is loaded with: rye berries, cracked rye, wheat berries, bulgur wheat, flax seed and sunflower seeds.  No commercial yeast at all. And no coloring.

Four Grain Three flour bread

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My iteration of Hamelnan's Sourdough seed.

I used 3 flours (AP, Rye, and Golden buffalo) and four grains (soaked cracked rye , toasted sesame seeds, toasted sunflower seeds and soaked flax).

It is delicious filled w protein and nuttiness and all kinds of goodness.

Oven door breaks in middle of my bake

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But I salvaged my loaves. 

Durum flour 60%, AP 15%, Golden Buffalo 25%. AP was the levain overnight.  Only other addition was salt and a tad of honey.

Made in loaf pans for a change of pace.  Glad I did that b/c of the oven disaster 20 minutes into the bake.  Top got a little dark b/c I had to leave them in the oven w the door open at high temp.  Taste is great. Fresh and toasted both.

 

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Pain Au Levain w Whole Wheat

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My guru Abe, suggested I post this here.  I am new to sour dough but am hooked after just 4 bakes. I followed Hamelman's recipe, though with a much higher hydration %age (though he does say, "adjust the hydration"). 

Made 2 loaves: one the same day as mix, the 2nd after overnight in the fridge.  I should've refrigerated #2 right away, but we went out to dinner and I left it out a bit before over-nighting it and it over-proofed a bit. Was easier to score tho. Pics below. The nice topshot is of the 2nd loaf, the first pics of the same day bake.

Thanks to Abe, I've made my first SD loaf

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Abe has helped me so much over the last 10 days.  When I thought my starter was failing he helped me patiently to wait, feed, wait and then held my hand to help me create Forkish's Overnight Country Brown.

I am deeply indebted to him for giving me the confidence to forge ahead and for being by my side (despite a distance of 3400 miles between us)  for my first SD loaf.