Smoked Chipotle Onion and Parmesan Sourdough

It’s been a while since some strong-flavoured bread came out from my oven. I decided it’s the time for the comeback of my most-loved bread type.

Smoked Chipotle Onion and Parmesan Sourdough

Dough flour (all freshly milled):

120g     40%       Whole white wheat flour

90g       30%       Whole spelt flour

60g       20%       Whole red wheat flour

30g       10%       Sprouted spelt flour

For leaven:

5g         1.7%       Starter

20g       6.7%       Bran sifted out from dough flour

20g       6.7%       Water

For dough:

280g   93.3%       Dough flour excluding bran for leaven

208g   70.6%       Water

52g     17.3%       Whey

45g       15%        Leaven

9g           3%        Vital Wheat Gluten

6g           2%        Dark barley malt powder

5g        1.7%        Salt

1/4 tsp      -%       Smoked chipotle chili powder

1/2 tsp      -%       Dried thyme

Add-ins:

15g         5%       Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

15g         5%       Dehydrated onions

For crust:

3g          1%       Poppy seeds

___________

302.5g      100%       Whole grain

282.5g     93.4%       Total hydration

Sift out the coarse bran from the dough flour, reserve 20g for leaven. Soak the rest (I got 14g) in equal amount of whey taken from dough ingredients.

Combine all leaven ingredients and let sit until doubled, about 5 hours.

Rehydrate the onion in enough hot water. Set aside until needed.

Roughly combine all dough ingredients except for the salt, leaven and soaked bran, autolyse for 15 minutes. Knead in the reserved ingredients and ferment for 30 minutes. Fold in the add-ins then ferment for 1.5 hours longer.

Preshape the dough then let it rest for 15 minutes. Shape the dough and put in into a banneton. Leave to proof for 20 minutes before retarding for 20 hours.

Preheat the oven at 230°C/446°F. Remove the dough from the fridge to warm up at room temperature for 40 minutes. Spray the dough with water and sprinkle the poppy seeds onto its surface.

Score the dough and bake at 230°C/446°F with steam for 15 minutes then without steam for 25 minutes more or until the internal temperature reaches a minimum of 208°F. Let cool for at least 3 hours before slicing.

There was decent oven spring and the crust even blistered a little. It’s not common for me to a lot of blisters so I was pretty excited about it. However, I obviously have to work harder on my scorings…

Rye is the typical grain to go with onion and cheese. As I happened to have none on hand at the moment, the amount of dark barley malt powder used was doubled as compared to my usual 1% addition. Not only did it give a darker-colour-bread, but also enhanced the flavour profile by contributing some bitterness and toastiness. 

The onion-cheese-smoked-chipotle combo works so well. This bread smelled terrific while baking! Waiting for it to cool long enough before slicing was a arduous task. The spelt imparted some sweetness, adding to the complexity of this bread.

_____________

Whole spelt sourdough naan, spice stuffed okra, and mushroom and soya chunk in tomato cashew curry

Corn and black bean enchiladas with onion and pineapple salsa 

Shimeji mushroom, pea and egg tofu saute with oyster sauce