Miso Caramelized Chestnuts Sourdough

Although the daytime temperature is still above 25°C in HK, hawkers selling roasted chestnuts and sweet potatoes are starting to show up on the roadside. Of course I cannot miss out the opportunity to them in bread.

Miso Caramelized Chestnuts Sourdough

Dough flour (all freshly milled):

120g      40%       Sprouted white wheat flour

120g      40%       Whole white wheat flour

30g        10%       Whole toasted buckwheat flour

30g        10%       Whole toasted barley flour (I milled barley flakes)

For leaven:

9g         3%       Starter

18g        6%       Bran sifted out from dough flour

18g        6%       Water

For dough:

282g        94%       Dough flour excluding bran for leaven

182g     60.7%       Water

100g     33.3%       Whey

45g          15%       Leaven

9g              3%       Vital wheat gluten

5g          1.67%      Salt

For caramelized chestnuts:

35g      11.7%       Roasted chestnuts

10g      3.33%       White granulated sugar

5g        1.67%       Red miso paste

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304.5g     100%       Whole grain

304.5g     100%       Total hydration

Sift out the coarse bran from the dough flour, reserve 18g for leaven. Soak the rest, if any, in equal amount of whey taken from dough ingredients.

Make the caramelized chestnuts. Put a few tablespoons of water and the sugar into a small pot and bring to a boil. Turn the heat from high to medium when most water has evaporated. Dissolve the miso paste in 2-3 tablespoons of hot water then pour it into the pot after the sugar has transformed to cinnamon-brown. Stir the bubbling mixture vigorously while adding in the chestnuts. Continue to heat it until it thickens and produces a shiny coating on the chestnuts.

Combine all leaven ingredients and let sit until doubled, around 3 hours.

Roughly combine all dough ingredients except for the salt and leaven, autolyse for 20 minutes. Knead in the reserved ingredients than ferment for 15 minutes. Fold in the add-ins and ferment for 3 hours 15 minutes longer.

Preshape the dough then let it rest for 15 minutes. Shape the dough and put in into a banneton. Retard for 12 hours.

Preheat the oven at 250°C/482°F. Take the dough out of the fridge and let it warm up for 20 minutes at room temperature.

Score and spritz the dough then bake at 250°C/482°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 2 hours before slicing.

The dough behaved in a weird manner when I was trying to develop the gluten. It wasn’t really coming together so I got a bit nervous. The resulting bread does have a rather poor crumb structure but it could have been worse, so I feel like this was a victory already :)

The crumb is not as moist or chewy as my usual bread. It might be a result of the incorporation of buckwheat and barley or it was only one of the consequences of poor dough structure.

Despite the relatively disappointing crumb profile, the flavour is outstanding. Toasted buckwheat is strong and robust, which goes really well with the saltiness, sweetness and the slight bitterness of miso caramelized chestnuts.

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