bmeilinger's blog

This bread is a riff on Josey Baker's "Dark Mountain Rye" - I omit some of the seeds he uses (sesame), and incorporated lots of sprouted rye in its place. It is incredibly popular at the Cafe I bake for. Shoutout to JB for the inspiration and letting me hang out and get my hands on the dough while I was in San Francisco.

Keep in mind that that formula below is for 2 9x4.5" loaves.

As you can see, this is a very well hydrated loaf, with total water coming in at 114%. The process goes like this: make leaven with regular sourdough starter, rye flour, and water. I use 25/280/265 or so. Scale up or down as needed. The leaven ferments for 12 hours, and the final dough is retarded in the refrigerator for about 16. The "soaker" is just the mix of the sprouted rye, seeds, cornmeal, and water. This sits along with the leaven to allow all the water to be soaked in, particularly by the flax. 

Loaves are divided at about 1.1kg each, dusted with cornmeal, proofed until slightly risen and cracks can be seen in the cornmeal coating (1-4 hours). To score, I push into the loaf quickly with a plastic dough scraper at 5 places to give a diagonal pattern and prevent flying roof. The loaves are then baked at 450 for a half hour, rotated, and finished at 400 for about another hour. The loaves are done when they pull slightly from the pans and are colored to your preference. I like mine quite dark. The flavor of these is deep rye with a good amount of sweetness from the sprouted grain. After fighting through the dark, crisp crust, your reward is an intensely moist crumb with bursts of sweet, crunch, seed, and malt.

Here is a picture of a bunch of loaves baked for the lunch service. 

Happy baking,

Bradley

Long-winded title, I know, but I wanted to capture most of the bread in one go. This bread is almost identical to one created by WoodenSpoon a while back, and it has taken me until now to attempt to recreate it. I had goat milk from a friend that needed to be used, some extra cultured butter in the freezer, and I felt it was fitting to try it out!

Again, for those unfamiliar with my posts, ASBF is Artisan Sifted Bread Flour from Lonesome Stone Milling here in WI. The leaven was 20g normal starter, 100g goat milk, and 100g ASBF. The percentage for the leaven is listed by total/flour. So the total flour in the dough is, indeed, 100%.

I was up late by accident after coming home from a friend's party, when inspiration struck and I mixed the leaven, pulled the butter out of the freezer, and went to sleep.

I followed WoodenSpoon's procedure almost exactly, reducing everything by a bit because I was limited by butter available. I had 330g; I scaled back and just used appropriate ratios. After the retardation, the bread took longer than expected to proof properly, but it made up for it in spades with oven spring and gorgeous browning.

I brushed the loaf with a maple-egg wash, and baked at 400 for 20 minutes, rotated the pan, and baked at 380 for the remaining time, about 30 more minutes. The flavor is so, so good. A little dense from the T85-style flour, but incredibly buttery, rich, and pillowy. 

Thanks to WoodenSpoon for the inspiration!

This was sort of a last minute, random idea loaf that turned out really, really well!  Gotta love fermentation...

The formula:

Used a small percent of whole grain rye flour for the flavour.  Added in grated, cooked beet and sprouted rye berries after autolyse.  Added water, too; probably another 100g or so, bringing hydration to around 85%.  This time I felt that the dough was perfectly hydrated, if a bit sticky.  Shaping was relatively easy and smooth.

The timeline:

Due to the lack of original plan, the leaven was just stater that I fed in the morning, something like 60/120/120 starter, flour, water.  Carried through a relatively long bulk rise, about 4 hours, with about 6 turns.  As usual, retarded around 40 degrees overnight.  Baked in the Lodge: 510 for 20 minutes, covered; 450 for 32 minutes, uncovered.  Dough stuck a bit to the cloth in the bowl, but both loaves retained their shape incredibly well and "stood up" in the cooker.  Great volume.  Was curious how the beet color would fare over the bake, as it "looked like a joke" in its raw state, according to my roommate.  I have to agree.  Fun bake for sure, glad I figured it out despite the last minute decision.

Here are some pictures:

Was incredibly pleased with the crumb of this one.  Pretty much exactly what I strive for: open but not too open, moist but not gummy, soft but sturdy.  Flavor was great, but not notably unique.  The beets and sprouted rye may have added a bit of flavor, but did more for the bread in terms of aesthetics.  I like the slight red-pink hue and flecks of deeper color.  

Happy baking,

Bradley,

IG/Twitter: @bmeilinger

And I thought the potato porridge was creamy.  

I got rolled oats from Lonesome Stone Milling (where I get my flour), and soaked them in water for about a day and a half, changing the water once.  After this brief fermentation, the oats started to smell just faintly sweet.  I cooked them at a simmer for about 20 minutes, seasoned with salt to taste, pulled them from the heat, and let them sit from the morning until adding them in after autolyse.  

The formula:

Again, for clarity: ASBF is a local flour: Artisan Sifted Bread Flour (Lonesome Stone Milling, Madison, WI).  Similar to T85, or so I am told.  GBC is Giusto's Baker's Choice, a white flour with around 11% protein, from California.  Started with about 75% hydration, then added up to (guessing), around 90%.  The oat porridge was quite wet, and I may have added a touch more than the dough could truly handle at that point.  As a result, the dough was a bit too wet for my liking, but I managed to shape it to some degree and retard the dough in the refrigerator, just as I did for the potato porridge.  The timeline was almost identical to last time; the only exception was a much later morning bake. 

The timeline:

Preferment is sourdough leaven/levain, mixed at about 100% hydration (sometimes a bit higher).  For this, I used about 40g of ripe starter to 120g each of ASBF and room-temperature water.  Retardation was done in refrigerator, right around 40 degrees Fahrenheit.  Bake was in Lodge combo cooker, 500 for ~20 minutes, sealed; 450 for ~34 minutes, opened.  Here is a picture of the crust, via IG.  The crumb was surprisingly tight, but ultra-creamy.  Actually tasted like cheese and butter, which was a revelation.  Excited that I have this porridge method in my arsenal!  

IMG_0291.JPG

Happy baking,

Bradley,

IG/Twitter: @bmeilinger

Hey bakers,

This is my first post, so allow me to introduce myself a bit.  Or skip to the bread.

I'm an environmental science student at UW Madison, long lurking here on TFL; finally decided to post a loaf.  I spent last semester baking for a student-volunteer cafe (Slow Food UW, our university's branch of the international organization), and I am continuing that role this semester.  I bake levain bread for about 250 people for our a la carte lunch service each Wednesday.  I learned most of what I know from Tartine No. 3, experimentation, staging, and some e-mail mentoring via Dave Muller of Outerlands Cafe in San Francisco.  

I was fortunate enough to spend much of my winter break in San Francisco, where I staged in the kitchen at Bar Tartine and behind the counter a bit at The Mill.  I got my hands on the dough of both.  I ate more than my fair share of crazy good bread, not to mention pastries (pain au chocolat!) and a handful of incredible dinners at BT at the end of service.  I ate at Outerlands and shook Dave's hand, and I was also able to meet some amazing chefs and bakers, including Josey Baker, Cortney Burns and Nick Balla.  I've been back in Madison for a week now, and the baking bug is biting hard!

A few days ago I made a bread in the Tartine No. 3 porridge style, using cooked, grated potato as the porridge.    

The formula:

ASBF is a local flour: Artisan Sifted Bread Flour (Lonesome Stone Milling, Madison, WI).  Similar to T85, or so I am told.  GBC is Giusto's Baker's Choice, a white flour with around 11% protein, from California.  The potatoes (Russet) were boiled until the skins split, then cooled, peeled, and grated on a coarse box grater.  The hydration only started at 70; I added extra after the autolyse, for a total somewhere right around 85% overall hydration.

The timeline:

Preferment is sourdough leaven/levain, mixed at about 100% hydration (sometimes a bit higher).  For this, I use about 20g of ripe starter to 100g each of ASBF and room-temperature water.  Retardation is done in refrigerator, right around 40 degrees Fahrenheit.  Bake is in Lodge combo cooker, 500 for ~20 minutes, sealed; 450 for ~34 minutes, opened.  

I really like this bread and will continue to make it.  The crust is relatively thin and crisp, and the crumb is intensely creamy and moist.  My first real success with a porridge style.  

Happy baking,

Bradley,

IG/Twitter: @bmeilinger