First Levain Based Sourdough and a Harvest Grain Cheat

Applying what I learned when I went back to basics, I mixed up a total levain based sourdough.  Of course during the rising period I had my doubts and although I have a multitude of patience being married to Mr. A.D.D., I get impatient watching the dough rise!  

I had started with a very small build in the morning of 10 gr each rye and bread flour, 4 gr whole wheat and 20 gr. water.  That night I mixed with 100 gr each of my wheat sour, rye sour, WW flour and water and let it ferment and boy did it do well overnight.  Of course this made twice what I needed for the final dough but about that later.

Next morning I mixed up 200 gr of the levain with 800 gr bread flour, 150 gr rye, 50 gr whole wheat and 700 gr water folds every 30 minutes for the first two hours and then left it all day in the microwave reheating my glass of water every few hours to keep the inside nice and warm.  I'm still learning the % method and this of course contains more than the 100% with the levain but that's ok....I'm getting it.

That night (actually last night), it had slowly doubled in volume and I dumped it out and started gently shaping.  The dough was really wet and I wasn't sure I was doing it right but I let it bench rest and then shaped it again...still really wobbly and jello like...I really had my doubts this was going to work.  Put the shaped pieces into floured bannetons...and I mean really heavily floured.   I got rice flour and mixed it with bread flour...I don't know about you...but my kitchen has a permanent light dusting of flour over everything these days!

Put the baskets in the fridge in plastic bags last night and hoped for the best.  They really didn't look that much bigger this morning but reacted nicely to a poke.  Dumped them in my preheated dutch ovens and lo and behoild, I have some nice looking loaves.....signature t-Rex slash included.

Last night, affter I had stashed these loaves in the fridge, I still had the other half of the levain left over and trying to be frugal...besides hubby wouldn't let me toss it....I decided to try another "formula."  

This time I pulled out my bag of KA Harvest Grains mixed in 100 gr of that with my levain and water mixture let it sit for a few minutes and then along with the various flours ( I won't bore you with the details but I did calculate all of the ingredients this time...hopefully correctly....and to assure I would have success, added 3gr. of yeast.  And success it was...I had to stay up to midnight last night baking it and hubby just had to have a piece before going to bed but I ended up with 2 nice loaves...one I forgot to slash but it didn't burst and is nicely rounded.

 So the point of this post is the say...yup...I think I'm getting it....oh and....anyone need a loaf of bread!!! LOL!

And if you've read this far, I just want to say a few more things....equipment....its a slippery slope and I keep adding to my arsenal.  We joined Restaurant Depot and I have to say....wow....what a difference in price!  Luckily I have an upright freezer to store my extra flour.  I got bowl scrapers and these cute little 1 liter plastic containers for holding my sours.  Rodney Rye on the left is extremely vigorous...he was at the half line yesterday.

I've been complaining to the hubby about my minor burns and the need for a pair of oven gloves.  What sweetheart...he went to Home Depot yesterday and found me a pair of welding gloves!!!  

Thanks for reading!

Wendy