When I began making bread a few years ago it was with a determination to bake nutritious and wholesome bread. What I did not fully understand or appreciate is the broad scope and variety, the many variables affecting the process, the simple and complex beauty of a well baked loaf of bread. And when I think of the countless varations of bread baked over thousands of years it is humbling to realize that each loaf I bake has very likely been baked before by someone else at another time. This was eloquently expressed in a blog comment by Andy (Syd-a) some years ago on TFL:
"I suppose the beauty in bread baking is often not the novelty but in the reproduction in as much a beautiful or faithful way to the old recipes and to add your own personal style to it. I did nothing new with my baking today, but have made some ok bread...but nothing that hasn't been done by greater bakers previously."
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/34207/bread-according-ezekiel-49#comment-262728
So, for today's bake, I too did nothing new but have made some ok bread... nothing that hasn't been done by greater bakers previously!
Turns out my idea for today's multigrain, multiseed sourdough bread has been done before by a bakery called Food for Life; they bake Ezekial Bread (versions of this previously baked/posted by others on TFL; I baked a loaf a few weeks ago to see what it was like; it was ok) and a multigrain Genesis Bread - my bread today is a similar combination of sprouted and fresh milled grains, much the same ingredients but a different approach, as Andy says, "....reproduction in as much a beautiful or faithful way to the old recipes and to add your own personal style to it"
I mixed and autolysed fresh milled, whole grain, organic rye, spelt, Marquis flour with organic white flour; then added sea salt and a young levain to start the bulk fermentation. After the first hour I added a porridge of cooked ground chia, millet, amaranth, quinoa, hemp, flax, sesame, cashews, almonds, basmati rice, steel cut oats, yellow corn, yellow peas, a soaker of coarse cracked pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, buckwheat and some mashed sprouted barley, oats, khorasan. I estimate the FDH at 80%. I cold proofed the loaves overnight and baked directly out of the fridge in pre-heated Creusets; covered 500 F for 25 minutes, 450 F for 10 minutes and uncovered 450 F for 20 minutes to finish. I like this bread - it is on my short, short list at the top.