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I recently baked the Vermont Whole Wheat Oatmeal Honey Bread by King Arthur. It was a delicious flop. It tore horribly during kneading even with lots of resting time. I subbed oat flour for the rolled oats, so I essentially lowered the gluten and possibly the water as well. It also didn't call for an autolyse for the whole wheat portion. I had previously used Floyd's Honey Whole Wheat on here and didn't have those issues.

How can I increase tge sourness in my bread?

Today's Bake

Rouge de Bourdeaux & White Whole Wheat Sourdough

Based on: Tartine - Book No. 3 by Chad Robertson - White-Wheat Blend (Ode to Bourdon)

I've become interested in milling my own flour but before I took the plunge I purchased some Rouge de Bourdeaux freshly ground flour from Barton Spring Mill (https://bartonspringsmill.com/products/copy-of-rouge-de-bordeaux) to check it out.

I did not bring my starter with me to Florida.  Instead, I have decided that I would bake using preferments using tiny amounts of IDY.  Today I baked a loaf using a biga.  The main reason I chose a biga is that I want milk to be the main hydrating liquid for this bread rather than water, it is a milk bread after all.  I didn’t do a good job accounting for the humidity of Fort Lauderdale and the formula I wrote up ended up with a dough that was too wet.  I gradually added little bits of flour until it wasn’t so wet.

Got a sourdough starter up and living about 3 weeks ago. That had some challenges. The biggest being when my wife didn't realize it was happy inside the oven and she turned the oven to 400 deg. Needless to say my new little starter and the plastic container it was living in did not fair well.

Tried baking my first loaf using a 85% hydration dough. That was a little too much to handle for a 1st try. Took a step back and went with a 72% hydration dough, Maurizio's beginner sourdough. I cooked this in a clay cloche. I think it turned out pretty well.

It’s been a while since I posted my successes with flaking grain. I got new oat groats from Breadtopia and wanted to do a very short tutorial. I have an older Marga Marcato hand crank with aluminum rollers. The steel rollers are not available and the price of this one has gone up. There are other flakers available and the Mock Mill folks have an electric one. 

This is my take on a Finnish bread.  I've changed it up quite a bit from the original, so I'm not sure I should even call it that anymore.  For the most part, the ingredients are true to the recipe.  However, this uses a 2-stage pre-ferment, a yeast water for leavening, and a mash.  The original is a straight dough yeasted recipe.

After I posted my first sourdough Mazanec and Vanocka, I heard from many European bakers on IG who love these breads and they said that they eat them year round that’s how much they are loved.  We leave for Florida in a couple of days, unless we are delayed by the newly forming tropical storm, so I needed to bake another Christmas present, this time for the staff of our building.  With the feedback from the first bake, I decided to make some adjustments to Maurizio Leo’s recipe.