Three days off in a row... a luxury after months of none or one at a time, you can imagine how much I was looking forward to them. We are just two at home, so bread gets baked, cooled, sliced and frozen, then used as needed. I looked in the freezer a week ago only to find it was nearly empty of bread. Good news for these hands!
This will necessarily be brief, but I wanted to post yesterday's loaf, Spelt Sprouted Wheat Date Walnut. I've been in the office more than home lately, so this one got only the attention I could provide when I could provide it, but turned out well despite the inattention. Ingredients included:
Sprouted wheat grains - about 2/3 c.
250 g Whole Spelt
350 g BF
60 g Wheat Germ
500 g Water
150 g Starter (@100%)
12 g Salt
2 Tbsp Walnut Oil
Walnut pieces, toasted - 2 handfuls
Dates, chopped - 2 handfuls
It had been a long while since I made a mainly-white bread, and after seeing so many handsome loaves posted in recent weeks by our talented members, I felt it was a good time. A particular post by myrtleskitchen highlighted her experience baking Pierre Nury's Light Rye. The recipe predated my affiliation here, so I searched and found the formula posted by zolablue, along with her notes and thoughts. It sounded like just the kind of bread I was looking to make, light, airy, flavorful, white, but not entirely white, ciabbata-like
This bake incorporated a variety of odds and ends, along with some basics, and yielded a sandwich/toast bread loaded with flavor and texture, but soft enough for sandwiches. Based on a 3-2-1 formula, it went sort of like this (I say sort of, for the first few dry ingredients were weighed as they were combined, but the scale was set to ounces) No wonder the numbers looked way off! So, here is as close as I can get:
200g Spelt, Coarse Polenta and Oat Bran (combined weight, roughly similar quantities)
100g WW
150g BF
300g Water
150g SD starter
9g Salt
I've been wanting to use quinoa again and it came to the top of the list this week. But what to combine with it? I find it is fairly neutral in flavor, at least the white kind I have is, but it does add a little texture, just hard to identify what. Alas, if it's in the kitchen and neither an implement or a cleaner, it's fair game to go into bread. So, the quinoa plus... sundried tomatoes and herbs, oregano and basil, and a little black pepper just because.
Okay, so I started with the brown rice, which is so good in bread... and of course added polenta, with its homestyle goodness, and a 50/50 blend of WW (Red Fife from Grist & Toll in Pasadena) and BF... then wanted a little something more to really establish a theme, and found some shallots that were begging to be included, and added some poppy seeds for color and a bit more texture. And this is what happened.
Did not intend to bake this weekend, but decided that since I had no plans for outings, that I may as well take advantage of the convenience of being home. A couple of months ago, I tried baking tahini bread that sounded yummy. And it was, but the sesame flavor was mild, and my preference was for more. So, that's where I went, and adapted the 3-2-1 basic formula and the result is SD Sprouted Wheat Sesame Bread.
Method included a 30 minute autolyse of:
I've been following everyone's posts and successes, but life in the fast lane has kept me busy (and away or in the office). I've baked, but less frequently and the freezer was finally sighing with relief. But a (promised) rainy weekend was perfect for catching up. Saturday's bake was a Seeded Multigrain (Hard) Cider Loaf, with Rye, WW, Whole Spelt, BF and KAF's Harvest Grains.
So, my shiny new brotforms (Thanks, Ian, for the lead to Lucky Clover Trading) were calling out, "Use us!" And I had been thinking to use some steel cut oats for something soft and hearty... and maybe adding a bonus of cranberries and walnuts. I started with Wooden Spoon's Steel Cut Oat Sourdough formula and made a few modifications that included increasing the WW to 25%, using AP at 25% (running low on BF) and, of course, adding fruit and toasted nuts.
