Sept 14 - a fun challenge (thanks, Leslieruf!)

A couple of weeks back, leslieruf posted another gorgeous bake http://www.thefreshloaf.com/comment/387329#comment-387329 , and in the conversation about it issued a challenge for a one-day bake – to see whether “good” flavour could be built that quickly. 

 Obviously, “good” flavour is a matter of opinion.  My personal preference is for a very strong sour (far more than most folks like), and I most often use a variety of whole grains to give a lot of depth to the flavour (so it’s not just sour).   My husband, on the other hand, prefers a sweeter note from the leaven.  I wasn’t too sure about my ability to build my preference in flavour so quickly, and I didn’t want our “daily bread” to be less flavourful than usual, so I decided to try the challenge with a couple of roll formulas that I had used before, and then do more “usual” porridge bread for our “daily”.

 The original roll recipes were for an oat khorasan (kamut) mix for my husband (see original blog here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/52425/catching-myself-oat-kamut-rolls-july-7), and a rye pumpkin roll for me (see original blog here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/52515/aug-4-rolls-can-be-baked-while-crutches). 

 The main changes on the oat khorasan rolls were to use my oat starter to create the oat levain (instead of the durum starter used the first time), and to change the timing so that the levain and poolish were both mixed at 7:00 a.m., and then were mixed in to the main dough around 12:30 p.m. --- and were in the oven by 3:30 p.m. (talk about quick!).

 I decided to change up the flours and hydration a bit on the pumpkin rye rolls (they were nasty to work with even after a cold retard with the original formula), and came up with this:

It worked out that I had chosen a good time for this experiment, since our temps were finally down to a reasonable 22 deg C. and there even was some humidity. Unfortunately, I ended up starting to not feel well as the last rolls went in to the oven.  The best-of-all-husbands stepped in to take them out of the oven, get them cooled over the evening, and then split and wrapped them and got them in to the freezer…  well – except for the 4 of the oat khorasan ones that he had for dinner!

 He unfortunately didn’t take any pics for me (all I have is one that I thought of at the last minute when I was making sandwiches a couple of days later):

I still had a couple of each roll recipe in the freezer from the original versions that I had baked, so we were able to compare the flavours directly.  We found no difference in the overall flavour, or texture (actually, slightly improved on the pumpkin rye, likely from a more suitable hydration), and I found it quite nice to not have to find refrigerator space for a change!  I was pleasantly surprised that there was still enough sour from the quick levain build to be tasted even with all of the other flavours in the pumpkin rye rolls, since I was positive that my usual 3-stage build with a cold retard of the levain and of the dough would be needed to build enough sour to be noticed.  It’s sometimes quite nice to prove yourself wrong!

 Thanks so much for the “challenge”, Leslie – we both enjoyed the results!