First Porridge Bread - thanks Isand66

Not sure why I can only seem to load photos upside down - tried flipping 180 degrees but not different. Sorry!

Felt inspired to try a porridge bread last week after Isand66's post, with a few little tweaks to his cranberry, cherry and pecan sourdough porridge bread, to account for UK flour and what was in my cupboard. I scaled down to 60% to get a suitable amount of dough for my 2 smaller bannetons, so I could bake in my re-purposed Pampered Chef chicken baker that works as my bread dome, and ignored the fact that my started is 50% - as I reckoned that would help ameliorate the fact that UK flour absorbs less water. I did also reduce the water in the final dough a little, and substituted wheat bran for oat bran, spelt flakes for barley flakes and walnuts for pecans. I dusted the banters with a few more spelt flakes to ensure the dough released easily - but don't think that was really necessary. I quite like an oat topping however, so no problem there.

I usually do a cold final proof rather than a cold bulk ferment, so this was a bit different for me. Worked fine, but the other way round usually fits in better with my timings, as I usually bake first thing in the morning straight from the fridge, and will  probably try that next time, as well as being slightly braver with the hydration.

All in all very pleased with the result, and enjoyed doing something a bit different from my usual bakes.

Thanks Ian, for expanding my repertoire!

Gill