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I was pleasantly surprised by this loaf. This is a 40% whole einkorn loaf, hydration 70%, with some barley malt syrup mixed in and poppy seeds on the crust. All the einkorn is in the overnight levain. The high PFF makes this a fast bread to bake on the same day as mixing - I mixed it at 8:30 am, baked it at 12:30, and (don't frown) ate it at 2 pm with carrot lentil soup.

I wasn't expecting myself to develop strong feelings over this loaf (yes, intense relationship with bread), but I actually loved it. The slightly grassy flavour of einkorn paired with the deep, almost caramel notes of the malt syrup, further lifted by the nutty, almost seaweed-umami crunch of the poppy seed-studded crust ---- all that eaten fresh, even almost slightly warm, with butter.... .... .......

Figures for a 610g loaf:

Overnight einkorn levain: 24g starter, 135g whole einkorn flour, 115g water

Final dough: all of the levain, 203g white flour, 128g water, 10g barley malt syrup, 5g salt

Process

Levain took 11 hours to peak.

Mixed the dough together and did 4 mins of walk-and-stretch (my mobile version of SF lol). Rested and did actual SF thrice during 3-hr BF at room temp 23C. Shaped and proofed for another hour and baked at 220C for 33 mins.

Will need to try out another two or three types of loaves for a big bake coming up next weekend. The husband is organising a stag party and I'm keen to offer ten loaves. 

A friend recently asked if I could try making some semolina loaves. He missed them after his vacation in Italy and sent me references to the Matera bread.

After reading a couple of posts here, I ventured on my first loaf.

First loaf - Complete failure

I started off with what seemed to be a standard recipe. 500g semola rimacinata, 100g 70% hydration starter, 350g water, 1.5% salt.

BF took 7 hours without dough degradation but also without much gluten development. I did a final proof of about an hour and then shaped it before putting it into the oven.

There was very little rise in the oven. Crumb was dense. Most importantly: poor flavour. Bland and flat. Sour. No durum taste.

Verdict: Very disappointed. Decided to not cut any corners. Converted my wheat starter to a semolina starter.

Second loaf - Better flavour but flat 

Kept to the same recipe but used a semolina starter. Taste was better. Still too sour and overpowered the durum, I thought, but the dense crumb problem persisted.

Verdict: Still not right. Need to find a way to increase oven rise. Perhaps knead the dough more and stretch BF and final proof.

Third loaf - Even flatter

I extended BF to 8 hours and final proofing to almost 2 hours. The dough collapsed considerably during shaping, before going into the oven. As a result, the loaf was even flatter.

Verdict: Ready to throw in the towel. How can durum wheat be harder than spelt and rye? I've worked with it so much with pasta and lower % in standard loaves. Then I remembered: this is a new brand of semola rimacinata that I'm using. I remember that what I used previously was a just a little finer. Could this explain it? Ordered three bags.

Fourth loaf - Some volume, but sourness bugs me

 Dough felt so much better during mixing. Increased hydration slightly as this flour seemed to soak up much more. I went back to BF 7 hours and final proof 1 hour, this time using the newer, finer semola rimacinata. Dough felt so much better during BF - good strength. Final proof and shaping went well, and loaf doubled in the oven, major improvement.

Verdict: Achieved the volume I wanted. But I think the durum will come out better if I can reduce the sourness. Decided to increase the % of PFF.

Fifth loaf - Happy for now

Final recipe for now gives 76 % hydration and 17% PFF.

In numbers for a 1kg loaf: 454g semola rimacinata, 332g water, 206g 90% semola rimacinata starter, 8g salt.

The bizarre thing is that BF still took 6 hours despite the increase in PFF. Very pleased with the flavour profile now. This loaf baked for a total of 45 mins at 250/240/230/220 degrees with the decrease every ten mins. Think for my next loaf I might increase the bake by just a little more, though it was completely cooked. I think the crust can take a little more thickness!

Overall: Fun journey, and will be making this loaf as one of my standards.

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Invisible Cities: This ruled. Instantly a classic for me. So much there. Other than saying it's at least in someway about psychogeography, I'm not sure I can really say anything more.

Today's Bread: PDLarry's custard bun. Elements are there, but it needs another try, too much bursting and I definitely overproofed and underbaked them. The custard was delicious however.

Thinking about: Deterritorialisation and accumulated reproduction. Money capital here holds a special position as both completely deterritorialised without being reterritorialised, and as the undefined capital value. Would territories expand or multiply under accumulation? likely both?

I was jonesing for some rye bread and wanted it sooner rather than later, which ruled out taking time to refresh my starter and build a levain.  In leafing through The Rye Baker, I came across a Yogurt Rye bread that was leavened with yeast and thought "That looks interesting."  It's also a bread that I haven't made previously.  So I made it.

The basic template is a 50/50 mix of rye and whole wheat flours.  The book calls for the rye fraction to be half light rye and half dark rye.  I used freshly milled whole rye flour, reasoning that it would be a fairly effective substitute.  The bread also features sunflower seeds, which are almost always a good thing in a whole-grain bread.

Since it's a straight dough process, the steps were pretty simple.  Get everything mixed together and kneaded (I used my KitchenAid mixer), bulk ferment, shape, final ferment, and bake. 

The crumb, while firm, is moist and reasonably tender.  It's also not nearly as tight as one might expect with the flours involved.  The wheat and rye flavors harmonize wonderfully.  I've had it toasted, in sandwiches, and as an accompaniment for soup; it performs admirably in all roles.

Paul

Touki Bouki: Varying from horrifying, beautiful, confusing, funny, and back to beautiful, this demands a rewatch, very powerful images

Nazi Literature in the Americas: Bolano sets up a perfect ending to the novel. The final chapter is a gut punch so unexpected and shocking that it recontextualises the rest of the book; no longer are the frightful entries merely abstract and historical encyclopedia entries but rather real personnages, real events, real suffering.

Thinking about: the "double market" the US benefited from WW2 and reconstruction. First production was increased to meet demand in Europe for weapons, then the surplus value accumulated from this could be forwarded into reconstruction. Double accumulation occurred from what an involved continental party could at best only experience as simple reproduction. (?) There has to be a better term for this after (presumably) so much has been written about this.

 Today's Bread: Simple baguette, 75% hydration, better than yesterday

A while back I had made this Hamelman "Farmer's Bread" with yogurt, per his directions, and found it boring. But after a friend dropped off some home-made Quark cheese this week, I decided to give it another go since he mentioned he was recreating a quark bread from his days in germany. And it's really good!  A nice pain-au-levain type taste in only 4 hours start to finish.

Quark is a simple german farmer's cheese. My friend made it by adding a little commercial buttermilk to heated milk, letting it sit for 16 hours at 22°-30°C / 72°-86°F (cooler than for yogurt), then separating out the whey by hanging it in cheesecloth for awhile.  The process is quite similar to paneer, but with some fermentation first. The resulting soft cheese is a bit like cream cheese, a bit like yogurt, a bit like sour cream, a bit like cottage cheese. I recognized its flavor from Russian and Ashkenazi deserts like blintzes.

I adapted the recipe for Hamelman's "Farmer's Bread" from second edition. The flavor of the bread reminded me of a sourdough pain au levain--but with the moisture of dairy, a very subtle sour odor, and nice taste from the quark. But in only 4 hours start to finish. A keeper.  Next time I might double the Quark.

Quark Bread 

• Water (initial), 269g, 70%+
• Quark, 27g, 7%  
• Sugar 1t, 5g, 1.2%
• Salt, 1 1/4t, 8g, 2%
• All purpose, 338g, 88%
• Whole Rye flour, 46g, 12%
• Instant yeast, 1.28g, 1/2t, 1% 

Put first four ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add the quark to the water along with the sugar and salt, and mix it in well.  Then add in the flours and yeast and mix to incorporate the ingredients.

The dough will be quite sticky, so use wet hands to do the folds within the bowl, which will gradually add more hydration above the initial 70%.

Bulk ferment 3 hours. During that time: stretch and fold it after 20m, and then at 40m point, and then at the 1 hour, and the 2 hour points (78F room temp). It may take longer in a cooler room. Desired dough temperature 75F.

Shape as a boule on a well floured surface, place seam side up in a well floured baneton, and final ferment 1 hour at 75-78F.

Bake at 450F, under a bowl for first 15m. About 35-40m total.  You want this bread to get a full rich brown crust.  

This is a follow-up to Precaud's interesting post on enhancing oatiness. And my, what a journey. I love my oats, and have lots of experience making them for granola, incorporating a portion into my bread and so forth, but at a high percentage, oats do very funny things. 

So I made three oat breads this weekend, all with the same ratios of 5:4:1 for oat: white bread flour: red whole wheat. Apart from the first bread being made with SD and the other two made with IDY, the most significant change was the hydration.

The idea was to do what I have always done for my granola, albeit at a higher hydration. I found that soaking the oats for a couple of hours before baking them really brought out their oatiness (aside: I started doing it to make them more digestible for family members, but in the meantime found out that this was a great method to also make granola clusters!!!)

For this bread, the method is as follows: The night before baking, I soak the oats in milk, some lemon juice and a sprinkle of rye flour, and leave overnight in the fridge. The next day, I mix the soaked oats with the white and wholegrain flours, water and yeast. Note: I use normal cooking oats, not quick-cooking or steel-cut.

First loaf

For the first loaf I decided to apportion some of the bread flour and all the whole wheat flour to a levain. I went with a conservative 100% hydration of the oats (so equal weight oats and milk). The next day, all the oats had soaked up the milk and were not mushy at all. I mixed up the dough, levain and added enough water to make a dough that felt like 80% hydration. BF and final proof took 8 hours.

Results: Very tasty, but sourness overpowers oatiness. Dough got drier and drier during BF, which told me that the oats could have soaked up more water overnight. Pleasant loaf, but could definitely be more moist.

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Second loaf

Decided to increase hydration of soaked oats to 130%. Mixed in instant dry yeast to dough the next day. Added water to go beyond what I'm comfortable dealing with in a loaf, anticipating dough becoming drier like previous attempt. I was not comfortable, indeed. But dough ended up being where I wanted it to be, and bread turned out extremely well. Oatiness comes through much better now. But I wondered if the rise would be even better with increased hydration?

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Third loaf

Encouraged, I decided to increased the hydration of the soaked oats to 150%. I think this version is the one I'm most happy about (the picture right at the top of the post). Here are the figures to make a 600g loaf :

Oak soaker: 150g normal cooking oats, 225g room temp or cold milk, squeeze of lemon juice, 1 tbsp of rye flour

If possible, leave this at about 22-25 degrees for 3 hours before refrigerating it overnight. If not, just dump it into the fridge. The next day, all the oats would have soaked up the milk - there should be no milk left in the container. Add to the oats: 120g bread flour, 30g wholewheat flour, 1g instant dry yeast, 4g salt, 10ml agave syrup (optional), about 65g water.

Note: We do end up with the ratio of dry:wet ingredients being 1:1. (I'm cautious about calling this 100% hydration because most of the liquid was used as a soaker.)

When first mixed, the dough is unruly and hopeless.

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But after 3 hours, it gets better.

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BF took 8 hours and final proof took 2 hours. I baked it for 25 mins at 220C and 15 mins at 205C.

Too late here now to take a crumb shot, but essentially the same as the second loaf - moist, not crumbly at all, good bite with oats texture.

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The real winner of this loaf is the crust - it is insanely delicious, like eating a granola crumb. I really have never achieved anything like this before. I will certainly be baking more of this bread in future.

Some notes:

1. It's a horribly wet dough to be confronted with. I simply used a spatula to fold the batter-dough upon itself, a couple of times over the first 4 hours of BF. Obviously there's no kneading whatsoever. I suppose it could work with a mixer but I don't have one.

2. I think my oats probably reach maximum hydration overnight in the fridge at about 120%, so it is possible to apportion more liquid content to be added to the final dough the next day, instead of soaking the oats in more liquid overnight. I do this simply to break down the oats a little more, and to be hyper sure that the oats have soaked up enough such that they don't start drying out my dough. If you prefer your oats to have a firm bite, I advise sticking with an overnight hydration of not more than 120%, then adding more water to the final dough.

3. I think the wholewheat does contribute a distinct flavour and bite to the loaf. I like it, but if you want even more oatiness, that would be something to completely omit. I would incorporate spelt, emmer or einkorn instead. In fact I will try that soon.

4. There is barely any rise during BF. I shaped it when it started smelling really good and yeasty, and the surface of the dough had some tension. Again, no real idea when to bake it. The bread looks and tastes good, so the timings kind of worked. Don't know what would have happened if I waited longer, but I was hungry!!!

5. I think replacing the agave syrup with oat malt, and further coating the bread with oats will bring the oatiness to the next level. 

And finally, a shot of my granola to bring an end to this oaty post:

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I had a bread party in the office a few days ago and brought three breads:

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The 60% spelt-emmer was the unanimous winner, which struck me by surprise. It was flavourful, complex, but I had assumed a little "heavy" for people who were not so much into wholegrain. The bread was based on the 30/30 levain/autolyse method I used for the spelt bread experiment conducted a few days ago, which I will now describe.

My father-in-law recently read that our Olympic marathon winner consumes only spelt bread, that everything else gives him a bad stomach while running. He asked me to make some wholegrain spelt breads for him to try, but to keep the % around 50 so that my mother-in-law, too, could eat (too much fibre is a problem).

I made two 60% wholegrain spelt loaves. One had all 60% pre-fermented using a double-build levain. The other had 30% pre-fermented using a single-build levain, and the other 30% autolysed for 12 hours in the fridge. 

This is the one made with the double-build levain:

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And this one is the 30/30:

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As predicted the double-build levain loaf was more sour and had a significantly more complex flavour profile (my sister-in-law cut a slice thinking it was the family's everyday wholewheat bread from the bakery and commented "wow what is this bread??"). It was also harder to shape, and as you can tell, had a somewhat weaker structure due to the overall longer fermentation duration of the spelt. Both loaves were around 72% hydration and very fun to make. 

Moving forward, I might play around pairing spelt with other ancient grains and see how the flavour profile changes. I find spelt such a complementary grain, and such fun to work with.

And finally we needed a birthday cake last weekend, and I was given the prompt "chocolate" and "marzipan". Not feeling particularly inspired, I therefore made a chocolate marzipan cake. Such fun rolling out the marzipan and making the dinosaurs. The cake is a basic dark chocolate fudge cake.

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So there we have it. Final weekend of leisurely baking before the teaching semester starts next week. Might work on an oat bread.

Sourdough Bread with Spelt and T85 Flours

David M. Snyder

September, 2024

While I am very happy with the multigrain sourdough bread I have been making in recent years, I am still interested in trying new flour mixes. In this instance, I have been wanting to use some Central Milling T85 flour I ordered, prompted by Maurizio Leo’s fondness for this flour and inspired by his “Rustico” sourdough bread recipe in “The Perfect Loaf.”

Note: The whole grain wheat and spelt flours are milled in a Mockmill 100 mill set at its finest setting. The flour is milled immediately before mixing.

1. Dissolve the starter in the water. Add the flours and mix thoroughly.

2. Transfer to a clean container, cover and ferment until ripe. If you don't use it immediately, it can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Procedures

1. Mix the flours with the water to a shaggy mass.

2. Cover and let sit at room temperature for 45-120 minutes. (Autolyse)

3. Sprinkle the salt over the dough surface and add the levain in 4 to 6 portions.

4. Mix thoroughly. (I start by folding in the salt and levain with a silicon spatula. Then, I use the method Forkish specifies – squeezing the dough between my fingers alternating with stretch and folds in the bowl. I wear a food service grade glove and dip my working hand frequently in water.)

5. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled, clean bowl large enough to accommodate doubling in volume. Cover well.

6. Ferment at 80ºF for 3 – 3.5 hours with stretch and folds in the bowl at 30 and 60 minutes, then a stretch and letter fold on the board at 1:45-2:00 hours. The dough should have nearly doubled in volume and be quite puffy.

7. Transfer the dough to a well-floured board. 

8. Divide the dough as desired and pre-shape in rounds. Cover with a cloth and let rest for 20-30 minutes.

9. Shape as boules or bâtards and place in floured bannetons. Place these in food-grade plastic bags sealed with ties and let proof for 30-60 minutes at room temperature. Refrigerate 8 hours or up to 36 hours at 40ºF.

10. The next day, pre-heat oven. Let the loaves sit at room temperature while the oven pre-heats. You can bake on a baking stone with steam for the first part of the bake, or in Dutch ovens, as you prefer. The oven temperature and length of the bake will depend on which of these methods you choose and on the weight and shape of your loaves, as well as on how dark you prefer your crust. When done, the loaves should sound hollow when thumped on their bottoms. The internal temperature should be at least 205ºF.

11. Let the loves cool completely on a rack for 1-2 hours before slicing.

Today, the breads baked in Cast Iron Dutch ovens at 475ºF for 30 minutes covered, then 15 minutes un-covered at 460ºF.

When first tasted, the crust was crunchy. The crumb was moist and moderately chewy. The flavor had some sweetness and nuttiness but a rather pronounced lactic acid-type sourness. I like it.

I would like to try this formula for sandwich rolls. I think it would be really good.

Happy baking!

David

With all of the discussion around biga on thefreshloaf lately, I thought I'd owe it to myself to faithfully make Abel's 90% biga bread which has become one of those famous recipes here. This time I tried to make it exactly as per the recipe. In the last month I've tried Rene's idea of a 50% biga with sourdough, and I've also tried a similar idea of a long 24 hour fermented biga made with sourdough at 90% biga.

For me, the promise of the biga method is the extra smell and flavour from the biga, and maybe also that dough handling is better because you seem to be granted an extra special window of time where fermentation has advanced quite a bit, but gluten development has been minimal or at least fundamentally different enough that you can still develop a strong gluten. That is, provided you are working from 'strands' of 'just mixed enough' biga!

One of the things that has kept me away from Abel's method was the requirement for keeping the biga at 14-16°C, especially since I don't have a wine cellar or own a wine fridge. However, I seem to have figured out a good enough method here - I used my proofer switched off, which is essentially a polystyrene box, to which I added an additional bowl with 2 ice bricks and ice to keep things cool.

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