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I've had more than my fair share of experimental failures lately! This is the curse of being an experimental baker. My failures of late have included, amongst others and going through my baking notes, a 90% biga with raisin yeast water that took too long to rise, a sourdough made with a cool and stiff preferment, and a sourdough made at warm temperatures with a very very low inoculation. Some bakes have had whacky hydrations too...

So, I needed to bag a win, and going through my baking notes again I realized that I don't actually have a base-line bread recipe to return to anymore. For this bread I decided to play it safe, keep the hydration down, give it a normal duration ferment with an amount of levain in the conventional range. And, at the same time keep an interesting flour base starting with the idea of about 76% bread flour, 16% wholewheat and 8% rye which I picked up from Trevor J Wilson. Since my bread flour here is a weakish 11.5% protein I did supplement with some vital wheat gluten and introduced malt as well because I like what it brings to both flavour and dough handling. And it has been a while too since I've done a true autolyse, lately I've been adding the levain upfront into the water for the final dough, but I'm still somewhat on the fence whether that is better than a true autolyse. For this bake I brought the autolyse back.

These breads were then made with a two hour autolyse with no salt. Then the autolysed dough, the salt, and 'only' 15% levain were mixed all together using the dough hook only for 2 minutes, just to mix the ingredients which is easier than by hand. I then gave it only 30 slap and folds, which I prefer to machine sometimes, so here I've got a combination of both machine and hand mix.

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Then a small amount of water was bassinged in, a couple of coil folds during the earlier part of bulk and a longish bulk until pre-shaping of 5 hours, followed by another 2 hour 15 minute rest of bannetons in proofer before going into the fridge overnight and baking the next day.

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Although I didn't do anything wild with making these breads I was fairly experimental with the seed toppings. The one loaf had golden linseeds, whereas the other has white sesame, chia and basil (subja) which brought in a savoury flavour.

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It was nice to enjoy bread with a soft open crumb again! And, when next I deviate into the experimental wilderness, I'll remember this bake as a point to return to for making breads that I love.

-Jon

Oct

I adapted this from my porridge bread formula but used a small % of starter and soaked the grains overnight instead of cooking them as a porridge. I used fresh milled and sifted Butler’s Gold WW and Danko Rye with some KAF bread flour.

The Harvest Grain mix from KAF consists of Whole Oat Groats, Rye Flakes, Wheat Flakes, Sunflower Seeds, Sesame Seeds, Flaxseed, Poppy Seeds, and Hulled Millet.

I included all the boiled water in the soaker as part of the overall hydration at 93%.

I was too tired to wait for the bulk to hit 30% so I shaped at 25% and let the shaped dough sit in my proofer at 80F the next day for 1.5 hours.

I was very pleased with how this turned out. The crumb was nice and open and the fermentation was spot on. The flavor was excellent with the added Harvest Grain mix.

Formula

Levain Directions 

Mix all the levain ingredients together for about 1 minute and cover with plastic wrap.

Let it sit at room temperature for around 6-7 hours or until the starter has almost doubled. I used my proofer set at 76 degrees so it took around 5 hours for me. Either use in the main dough immediately or refrigerate for up to 1 day before using.

Scald Directions

Measure the grains mix and pour the boiling water over them to cover. Soak for a couple of hours until they are soft. Drain any remaining water.

 Main Dough Procedure

Note: I use an Ankarsrum Mixer so my order of mixing is slightly different than if using a Kitchenaid or other mixer. Add all your liquid to your mixing bowl except 50-80 grams. Add all your flour to the bowl and mix on low for a minute until it forms a shaggy mass. Cover the mixing bowl and let it rest for 20 – 30 minutes.   Next add the levain, salt, Harvest Grain soaker, maple syrup and remaining water as needed and mix on medium low (about speed 3) for 12- 24 minutes. 

Remove the dough from your bowl and place it in a lightly oiled bowl and do several stretch and folds.  Make sure the dough is as flat as possible in your bowl/container and measure the dough in millimeters and take the temperature of the dough as well. Based on the chart from www.thesourdoughjourney.com, determine what % rise you need and make a note. If you have a proofer decide what temperature you want to set it at and what rise you are aiming for. If the dough is fully developed you don’t need to do any stretch and folds, but if it’s not, do several sets 15-20 minutes apart.

Once the dough reaches the desired bulk rise, pre-shape and let rest for 15-20 minutes. (Note: I only let the dough go to 25% before shaping and let the final proof finish after the overnight rise in the refrigerator in my proofer set to 80F for 1.5 hours). Finish shaping place in your banneton, bowl or on your sheet pan and cover it so it is pretty airtight. You will then place it in your refrigerator so you don’t want the dough to get a crust on it. I usually don’t leave the dough in the refrigerator for more than 12 hours because of all the fresh milled flours but it is possible to go longer.

When you are ready to bake, an hour beforehand pre-heat your oven to 540 F and prepare for steam. I have a heavy-duty baking pan on the bottom rack of my oven with 1 baking stone above the pan and one on the top shelf.  I pour 1 cup of boiling water into the pan right after I place the dough in the oven.  Remove your dough from the refrigerator and score immediately.

After 1 minute lower the temperature to 450 degrees.  Bake for around 35-45 minutes or until the breads are nice and brown and have an internal temperature of around 200-210 F. 

Take the bread(s) out of the oven when done and let them cool on a baker’s rack for as long as you can resist. 

We will be visiting friends tomorrow, and I wanted to bring a loaf of bread. We also ran out of bread, don’t know how that happens 😂, so decided to bake two loaves. I rarely bake more than one loaf. Since one of my Pullman pans is in Fort Lauderdale, I prepared the dough and after bulk fermentation divided it, shaped the one loaf, and cold retarded the other dough overnight to bake today. This worked out quite well.

I don’t think I’ve ever made an oatmeal porridge loaf with 20% oatmeal. I wanted to see how this would turn out. I prepared the oatmeal as I would a tangzhong, and it worked well this way with great oven spring despite the amount of oatmeal. Other than shaping differences, I don’t think there are any discernible differences between the two loaves. However, I haven’t yet tried the second loaf since that will be going to our friends tomorrow.

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For two 9x4x4” Pullman pan loaves 

Ingredients for 1 loaf

Tangzhong

Rolled Oats 82 g

Milk 163 g

Stiff Sweet Levain

Starter 21 g

Brown sugar 21 g

Water 27 g

WW flour 61

Final Dough

All tangzhong

All stiff sweet levain

1 lg egg 52 g

Milk 151 g

Salt 5.6 g

Sugar 18 g

WW flour 266 g

Butter 52 g

Instructions

Levain

Mix the levain ingredients in a jar or pyrex container with space for at least 300% growth. 

Press down with your knuckles or silicone spatula to create a uniform surface and to push out air.

At a temperature of 76-78ºF, it typically takes up to 10-12 hours for this sweet stiff levain to be at peak.  For my starter I typically see 3-3.5 times increase in size at peak.  The levain will smell sweet with only a mild tang.

Tangzhong 

In a sauce pan set on medium heat, stir the milk and rolled oats. Then cook for several minutes until well thickened, stirring regularly with a spoon or heat-resistant spatula. Let cool in the pan or, for faster results, in a new bowl.  Theoretically it should reach 65ºC (149ºF) but I don’t find I need to measure the temperature as the tangzhong gelatinizes at this temperature.  You can prepare this the night before and refrigerate it, ensure that it is covered to prevent it from drying out.

If you plan on using a stand mixer to mix this dough, set up a Bain Marie and use your stand mixer’s bowl to prepare the tangzhong.

Dough

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the milk (consider holding back 10 g of milk and adding later if this is the first time you’re making this), egg, tangzhong, salt, sugar and levain.  Mix and then break up the levain into many smaller pieces.  Next add the flours.  I like to use my spatula to mix until there aren’t many dry areas.  Allow the flour to hydrate (fermentolyse) for 20-30 minutes.  Mix on low speed and then medium speed until moderate gluten development this may take 5-10 mins.  You may want to scrape the sides of the bowl during the first 5 minutes of mixing.  Next add room temperature butter one pat at a time.  The dough may come apart, be patient, continue to mix until it comes together before adding in more butter.  You will want to check gluten development by windowpane during this time and stop mixing when you get a good windowpane.  You should be able to pull a good windowpane, not quite as good as a white flour because the bran will interrupt the windowpane somewhat. 

To develop by hand, melt the butter and add it with the wet ingredients.  

On the counter, shape the dough into a tight ball, cover in the bowl and ferment for 4-6 hours at 82ºF ending bulk fermentation once the dough has risen 30-40%.

You can next place the dough into the fridge to chill the dough for about 1.5 hours, this makes rolling the dough easier to shape.  Remember, if you do so the final proof will take longer.  Alternatively, you can do a cold retard in the fridge overnight, however, you may find that this increases the tang in your bread.

Prepare your pans by greasing them with butter or line with parchment paper.  

Lightly oil the top of the dough. Scrape the dough out onto a clean counter top and divide it into four. I like to weigh them to have equal sized lobes. Shape each tightly into a boule, allow to rest 5 mins. Using an oiled rolling pin roll each ball out and then letterfold. Turn 90* and using a rolling pin roll each out to at least 8”. Letterfold again from the sides so you have a long narrow dough. Then using a rolling pin, roll flatter but keeping the dough relatively narrow.  The reason to do this extra letterfold is that the shorter fatter rolls when placed in the pan will not touch the sides of the pan.  This allows the swirled ends to rise during final proof, this is only done for appearance sake and is not necessary.  Next roll each into a tight roll with some tension. Arrange the rolls of dough inside your lined pan alternating the direction of the swirls. This should allow a greater rise during proof and in the oven.

Cover and let proof for  4-6 hours at a warm temperature.  I proof at 82°F.  You will need longer than 4-6 hours if you chilled your dough for shaping. I proof until the top of the dough comes to within 1 cm of the top edge of the pan.  At this point the dough should have risen 130-140% in total from the start of bulk fermentation.

Preheat the oven to 350F and brush the dough with the egg-milk wash.  Just prior to baking brush with the egg-milk wash again.

Bake the loaves for 50 minutes or until the internal temperature is at least 190ºF, rotating as needed to get even browning. Shield your loaf if it gets brown early in the baking process. After 50 mins remove the bread from the pan and bake a further 10 mins by placing the loaf directly in the oven on the rack with the oven turned down to 325ºF.

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My index of bakes.

The formula for this bread is from the second edition of Hamelman's Bread.  It's a 50/50 white/whole wheat bread with a multigrain soaker.  It is leavened with both a sourdough levain and a yeast kicker in the final dough.  The multigrain soaker composition is entirely up to the baker.  In this version, I used flaxseed meal, whole millet, and a blend that includes sunflower seeds and flaked wheat, barley, rye, and oats.

The levain and the soaker were set up before I went to bed.  Since nights are getting frosty here in northern MIchigan, the levain was stashed in the B&T proofer at 75F.  It was 11:00 a.m. the next day before I could start the final dough, so the levain was nice and bubbly. 

All of the ingredients were placed in the bowl of my KItchenAid mixer.  Hamelman's recommended mixing and kneading times resulted in a fairly firm, though not dry, dough. The dough went back into the proofer for bulk fermentation, which proceeded very nearly as described in the book.

Since it just two of us (and a lot of days just one of us) who eat the bread, I elected to shape three medium-size loaves, rather than the two large loaves mentioned in book.  The shaped loaves were placed on a lined sheet pan for the final fermentation.  Happily, the dishwasher was running, which meant that the countertop immediately above the dishwasher was nice and warm; so that's where I placed the sheet pan with the loaves. 

When the loaves had nearly doubled in volume, they were slashed and placed in the preheated oven.  I added boiling water to the steam tray and closed the oven door.  The loaves expanded very well in the humid heat, forming prominent ears.  Hamelman notes that the oven temperature can be lowered if the bread browns too rapidly.  I didn't and the breads is, to use Hamelman's own words, boldly baked.  At least that's what I told my wife when she said it was burnt.  It wasn't, as you can see here:

I've made a note for myself to add some more water the next time I make the bread.  It rose well and had a good oven spring but the crumb would have been more open if the dough was looser. 

The bread tastes wonderful, as is typically the case with Hamelman's breads.  The crumb is firm and moist.  The crust is crisp, with a bit of crunch at the ears.  Lots of wheaty, nutty, roasty flavors to enjoy.

Paul