PANEMetCIRCENSES's blog

The recipe and method used to make the bread in this post is identical to this one with one extra addition. 14g (4% baker’s percentage) of wheat bran flakes are soaked in water, kept in the fridge overnight and strained before added to the preferment along with the coarse part of the ww flour and two starters, sourdough & sourwort.

Photos from this attempt:

Verdict

Mmmm om nom nom, this is serious whole wheat stuff. Suprisingly airy and soft crumb despite the large amount of bran in there. You can certainly feel and taste this fiber bomb exploding in the mouth. A thick slice slathered with butter will keep you full for many hours during the day. Ambrosial.

 Savvas

This boule was made from 100% whole wheat flour using dual sourdough/lactic starter.

Whole wheat flour:    ‘Caputo Integrale’ with germ and bran (13% protein)

Sourdough starter:     Whole rye, 80% hydration, 18C, refresh rate 50% once daily, phase 60%

Lactic starter:              Sourwort Made Easy

Vital wheat gluten:    ‘vwg’ 80% protein (optional but helps)

Total Flour in recipe (350g)

326g whole wheat

10g   whole rye from sourdough starter

14g   vwg

Total Liquid in recipe (280g)

222g water

8g     water from sourdough starter

50g   sourwort freshly made

Procedure

1. The whole wheat flour is divided into two parts by sifting it with a #50 mesh. One part -call it fine- that passes through the mesh (bolted) and another -call it coarse- that doesn’t, roughly 7:1 by weight.

2. The coarse part was mixed together with both starters and left to ferment inside Brod&Taylor proofer set at 28C for 2hrs (the longer the tangier).

3. Then all ingredients sans salt were kneaded together for ~3min using stand mixer. Salt (7g) was added 30min later. Bulk fermentation at 26-28C lasted 3hrs with lamination and couple of stretches inside the basin. The shaped loaf was retarded overnight in banneton covered with plastic bag.

4. Ten minutes before scoring I transferred the covered banneton into the freezer (-18C). This short shock makes scoring easier allowing cleaner cuts to be made with no adverse effect to the dough.

Taste

Heavy, strong wheat notes as expected from the 100% whole wheat flour used. Flavorful, slightly sweet with gentle sour after taste. Soft and airy crumb, ambrosial.

Savvas

In this short post I describe how I prepare sourwort (lactic starter) nowadays for bread making with emphasis given to starter freshness and simplicity of technique.

Only a small quantity is prepared at a time just enough for a single bake (no propagation, no fridge storage, no additives). Made and used fresh each time ensures greater control over starter behavior, robustness and overall microflora liveness.

Equipment requirements include a means of keeping the starter warm while fermenting and a small size French press coffee maker.

Procedure

 30g of cracked rye malt is washed with excess water (like we do with rice) several times letting it soak say 10min in between rinses. I do this inside the French press carafe using the plunger with its built-in filter mesh to squeeze the grains and pour away cloudy water.

A double plastic membrane is cut and opened up flat from a common food bag like shown in the photos below:

Then I pour 100g warm water (40-45C) over the strained grains plus small amount of acv (1/8tsp), stir and slowly but firmly squeeze the membrane down the cylindrical carafe with the plunger until it just touches the water surface. This ensures minimal exposure to air closely recreating anaerobic conditions during fermentation.

The coffee maker is put inside a Brod&Taylor proofer set at 28C and left in peace to ferment and sour for 24-48hrs. Freshly made sourwort is percolated as with coffee and used straight into the bread recipe (the rest is discarded).

Notes

1. Setting proofer temp to 28C is a fair compromise between lacto-fermentation and bread dough proofing so that both can run in parallel not competing with each other for proofer time. I always keep a portion of malt grains fermenting in my proofer 24/7.

2. Weights of ingredients mentioned above reflect my usual baking needs only and can be freely scaled up (most likely) or down.

3. Reaching and holding pedantically exact temperature levels shouldn’t be an issue. Just keep the fermenting starter warm, any temps between 30-40C is fine.

4. Since a relatively small amount of starter is fermenting at any time, one need not worry about temperature gradients inside the fermentable and heating counter strategies (top, bottom, radial, bathing etc). The starter readily acquires and holds uniform temperature due to its small volume anyways.

Keep fermenting, Savvas

Latest gluten nebula discovery by JWST in my kitchen  :-D

A new member’s here to join the ‘lyse’ family. Autolyse, fermentolyse, saltolyse and now sourlyse. All recipe’s flour, water and sourwort (up to 30% baker’s percentage) roughly incorporated  together and left in the fridge (4C) for 18-24hours. The acidity of sourwort and cold environment guarantee there’ll be very small chance of any unwanted spontaneous activity to occur. The sourlysed dough is then left at ambient temp for 3-4hours to warm up and standard steps followed till bake.

Result is a fully hydrated and extremely supple dough with well-formed gluten that makes kneading completely unnecessary. Custardy open crumb with increased sourness and aromas.

These are photos of a couple of bakes using this technique leavened by a small amount of stiff rye starter (3% prefermented flour) and hydration about 80-85%.

This bake was made by combining two starters together namely spontaneous sourdough (type I) and sourwort (natural  type II) in search of a more unique and complete taste profile along with good bread appearance.

The motive behind this test was based on the particulars of each one of the two ferments that I keep which possess very different but complimentary characteristics.

Sourwort, basically the hydrous outcome of natural anaerobic lacto-fermentation of malted grains at a temperature range close to 40C. These conditions discourage spontaneous yeast development and at the same time encourage native lactic acid bacteria to activate and produce mainly lactic acid and various other fermentation by-products that contribute to taste, dough development and subsequent yeast (wild and/or commercial) function.

Sourdough and because of the way I maintain it, lies at the other end of the spectrum. It is put to ferment at 18C aerobically, has a relatively stiff consistency encouraging the growth of yeast with robust leavening power and acetic taste.

You can tell immediately the difference between the two ferments by tasting them raw. One tastes more dairy the other more vinegary. Both aromatic each in its own sense. Here are some more in depth details of the two ferments used in this bake:

Sourwort

500g water ; 150g cracked spelt malt ; 1tsp a.c.vinegar 5°

Fermented anaerobically near 40C for 24hours. Then strained and letting its temperature fall gradually over the next 12-18 hours or so before transferring  it to the fridge (I’ ve tried 10 days old sourwort straight from the fridge with success). I have noticed that by letting its temperature fall slowly until it reaches 18-20C it enhances its characteristics, probably by allowing other temperature specific bacteria species to be activated and contribute overall.

Sourdough

This is a spontaneous type I sourdough starter, maintained by feeding it once a day with organic whole rye flour, inoculation rate 50%, hydration 75% and fermenting temp 18C. Maybe once a day I would give it a good stir either because I use part of it to bake with or deliberately to promote aerobic conditions.

To sum up, by combining these two different natural starters the final dough contains fermentation products and by-products produced/collected over a very wide temperature range, all the way from 40C down to 4C when final dough is retarded for nearly 20 hours to proof. And it is exactly this wide temperature range that engages a broader microbial species number to get involved which in turn (I hope) will grant bread superior and more unique taste as compared to traditional methods using single preferments. And as far as structure is concerned, sourwort (apart from other factors) certainly contributes positively  to openness/airiness/fluffiness of the crumb as it has been shown elsewhere.

The bread in the photos was made using these ingredient percentages:

304g RobinHood AllPurpose flour (p=13.2%)

16g Prefermented rye flour (sourdough 5%)

Overall hydration 75% ; sourwort 10% ; salt 2%

Plus soaked and strained bran flakes 4%

The Method

Involved a 3 hour extended autolyse of all the unfermented portion of flour with 65% hydration at 28-30C followed by mixing in the rest of the ingredients. Bulk 04:30 at 28-30C with lamination and folds (when needed) during the first 3 hours. Shaped and retarded (4C) in banneton for ~20 hours. Baked in DO as usual.

Taste

Well this is the most difficult part for me since English is not my first language but I’ll try. The taste came out as hypothesized having complexity and a variety of nuances from the stiff rye starter, presence of the lactic liquid and long autolyse. The characteristic spelt malt taste shows through in a pleasant way (makes it taste bready). Gentle sour after taste with a tad of sweetness. Definitely unique. These preliminary results encourage me to try it again, maybe with different flours, increased hydration for a more holey crumb, rye malt sourwort and what else pops in mind. Till next time…..

The rye sourdough type I

 Spelt Malt Sourwort. Nothing much to see really, just liquid.