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Today's bake used a small inoculation a long, slow bulk ferment.  I wanted to see what kind of flavor I could build with my new starter and a little blueberry yeast water in a dough that was over 90% AP/Bread flour.  I added just a little bit of whole grain for flavor and color.  Wanted to get a crumb color that was a pale blonde. 

Makes 1 loaf

247g AP Flour

169g Bread Flour

11g Whole Wheat Flour

11g Semola Rimicinata Flour

6g Rye Flour

6g Barley Flour

225g Water

68g Blueberry Yeast Water

9g Sea Salt

This is a Halloween candy corn themed coconut chocolate babka, as suggested by my husband. No candy corn was used in this recipe (I'm not a fan). I couldn't resist giving this a try. I think he may have been in the mood for some chocolatey goodness, and he kept nudging me along with ideas. 

Hi, I just made this and it was delicious. Worth trying if you haven't yet.

Just a really pleasant flavour that permeates the loaf, along with a very light, soft, fluffy crumb. Sourdough flavour was very mild, if any.

The dough, which includes both yeast and levain, was quite active, rising at least 80% or so by the end of bulk. It expanded quite a lot while proofing too. 

Pumpernickel Yudane

I decided to try a pumpernickel yudane sourdough baguette.

I got my shipment of grain from Daybreak Mills. It was time to reorder as I was literally at the bottom of my storage buckets. I chose to make this so the grains could be the star. 

Recipe:

 Makes 3 loaves

125 g spelt flour (125 g Spelt berries)

125 g rye flour  (125 g rye berries)

125 g Kamut flour (125 g Kamut berries)

820 g Strong Bakers unbleached flour

50 g freshly ground flax (50 g flax seeds)

865 g filtered water + 25 g

24 g Himalayan pink salt

30 g local yogurt

You've been there.  Nibbled on cold french fries but they were "ok, but could be better" you tell yourself.  Then they end up in the trash or soup but not really outstanding shriveled up and cold. No? Wait. What happens if they get chopped up and tossed into roll dough?  Ha!  I did it.  And with cheese on top!

This year's CSA organic grain share has arrived and it was a good harvest despite pandemic and incredible summer heat and wildfire challenges.  I received several bags of organic rye, a bag of Canadian Marquis heirloom wheat and a bag of Manitoba wheat, a cultivar of Marquis. Marquis was first developed as a cross between Red Fife, Canada's oldest wheat variety and a variety from India called Hard Red Calcutta; it combines the best traits of both parent lines and by the early 1900's was grown on over 20 million acres, about 85%of the wheat acreage in North America.

I am new to this forum and am excited. I have many questions.

Starter: I used T85 flour for my starter and maintain it using a 1:1:1 ratio. Now, I have not been tracking the rises nor quantifying it. I have just been feeding the starter everyday at the same time for the past month. Starting out, how much should my starter rise before replenishing it? Is consistency key here or handled day to day? My environment doesn't change too often. 

Bake: my bakes have been frustrating because they come out looking dense. I'm not sure how to fix this issue. 

To learn more about concentrated lactic acid sourdough (CLAS), please see here and here. 

Traditionally, to make paper-thin bread (khobz marquq), Lebanese bakers thinly stretch the dough on a bread pillow and cook it on a heated convex metal disc (saj). I have neither device, so I rolled the dough out as thin as possible and baked it in the oven.

Although, really, I think it would be better named “Apple Chopped Bread”.  One could almost treat it as a pull-apart bread but it toasts up so nicely that I prefer to slice it.  As its appearance suggests, flavor matters more than beauty for this bread.