Danni3ll3's blog

This is one of my very favourite breads. It is so creamy and delicious.

On another note, a couple of my breads in the last few weeks crashed and burned as far as I was concerned. The dough overproofed and started falling apart when I went to shape it. Both of these doughs had dried fruit in them but these are recipes that have been successful in the past so I became suspicious that my starter was going proteolytic. I’ve been very lackadaisical in feeding the starter in the fridge. I used to keep it very thick but for a while now, I’ve been tossing in left over levain from my baking instead of giving it a proper feeding. It tasted extremely acidic and was quite runny. 

I read up on proteolytic starters and I am trying to get it back into balance. I’ve been discarding 50 to 90% of the starter and feeding it a bit of wholegrain flour with the majority being unbleached flour. I’ve been doing mostly 1:2:2 feeds with one 1:5:5 feed at the beginning to try to get rid of a lot of the acid. I’ve been doing at least two feeds a day at room temperature, and feed as soon as I feel the starter peaked which is when it’s about triple in volume. As per Mini Oven in her posts, I’ve been tasting the starter and the acidity has definitely improved over the 6 days I’ve been doing this. The texture has improved as well as now I see gluten strands rather than just liquid cake like batter. I’ll continue for another week but I did use it for this bake to see where we are at. 

Finger crossed that this will help!

Recipe

Makes 3 loaves

Porridges: 

50 g large flake oats and 150 g water

50 g coarse milled Khorasan and ~200 g water

Dough: 

300 g fresh milled Khorasan (Kamut) flour (300 g Kamut berries)

700 g strong bakers unbleached flour

700 g water 

23 g pink Himalayan salt

30 g yogurt

250 g levain (procedure in recipe)

Whole grain and AP flour to feed levain 

Flaked khorasan and oats for topping

The afternoon before:

1. Take 2 g of refrigerated starter and feed it 4 g of filtered water and 4 g of any kind of wholegrain flour. Let sit at cool room temperature for the day. 

The night before:

1. Mill the Khorasan berries and place the required amount in a tub. 
2. Add the unbleached flour to the tub. Cover and reserve. 
3. Mill the khorasan berries for the porridge and set aside for the morning. 
4. If you wish, you can cook the porridges now and refrigerate overnight. Take them out of the fridge a couple of hours prior to mixing the levain with the dough.
5. Before bed, feed the levain 20 g of water and 20 g of wholegrain flour. Let that rise at cool room temperature for the night. 

Dough Making day:

1. In the morning, feed the levain 100 g of filtered water and 50 g of whole grain flour and 50 g of unbleached flour. Let rise in a warm place until doubled (about 5 hours).  Mine almost tripled during that time so maybe the work I did with the starter paid off. 
2. About 2 hours before the levain is ready, put 700 g filtered water in a stand mixer’s bowl and add the flours from the tub.  Mix on the lowest speed until all the flour has been hydrated. This takes a couple of minutes. Cover and autolyse for 2 hours at room temperature (73F).
3. Add the water to the rolled oats and cook on low, uncovered, until very thick and creamy. All the water should have been absorbed. Set aside to cool. 
4. Do the same with the coarse ground Khorasan and the water. I started with 100 g of water and found out fast that this needed to be watched closely. Mine started sticking after 15 minutes so I added about another 100 g of water. It took about 25 minutes to soften the khorasan. In the past, this has taken up to 45 minutes. Add to the oat porridge and let cool. 
5. After the autolyse, add the salt, the yogurt, the porridges, and the levain to the dough. Mix on the lowest speed for a minute to integrate everything, then mix on the next speed for 9 minutes.
6. Remove dough from bowl and place in a lightly oiled covered tub. Let rest in a warm spot to begin bulk fermentation. My warm spot is the oven with the door cracked open and the lights on. I get an ambient temperature of around 82F. 
7. Do 1 set of coil folds after 30 minutes and then 3 sets of coils folds at 45 minute intervals. Then let the dough rise by 30%. Total bulk was about 3 hours and 15 minutes. 
8. Tip the dough out on a bare counter, sprinkle the top with flour and divide into portions of ~775 g. Round out the portions into rounds with a dough scraper and let it rest 20 minutes on the counter. 
9. Do a final shape by flipping the rounds over on a lightly floured counter. Gently stretch the dough out into a circle. Pull and fold the third of the dough closest to you over the middle. Pull the right side and fold over the middle and do the same to the left. Fold the top end to the center patting out any cavities or big bubbles. Finally stretch the two top corners and fold over each other in the middle. Roll the bottom of the dough away from you until the seam is underneath the dough. Cup your hands around the dough and pull towards you, doing this on all sides of the dough to round it off. Finally spin the dough to make as tight boule as you can.
10. Sprinkle some large flake oats in the bannetons. If your bannetons are not well seasoned, sprinkle rice flour first, then the bran and the oats. Place the dough seam side up in the bannetons. Cover with plastic bowl covers or shower caps. Let rest for a few minutes on the counter and then put to bed in a cold (38F) fridge overnight.

Baking Day

1. The next morning, heat the oven to 475 F with the Dutch ovens inside for an hour.
2. Turn out the dough seam side down onto a cornmeal sprinkled counter. Score dough. Place rounds of parchment paper in the bottom of the pots, and carefully but quickly place the dough seam side down inside. 
3. Cover the pots and bake the loaves at 450 F for 25 minutes, remove the lids, and bake for another 22 minutes at 425 F. Internal temperature should be 205 F or more.

Well it looks like my suspicions were correct. These definitely got decent oven spring! I’m going to keep my starter on the counter for the next week and keep doing the discard and feed when at peak to ensure maximum strength and reduction of those proteolytic enzymes. 

This recipe is from Jon (Golgi70). I changed the quantities to make 3 loaves and added honey upon his suggestion as well as my usual bit of yogurt to tenderize the crust. Original recipe is here: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/35320/farmers-market-week-17-raisin-levain

I changed a few things in the method and those are noted. 

ETA: I probably should have left things alone when it came to bulk proofing. I over fermented them again. Lately, I’m really struggling when it comes to loaves with dried fruit in them. 

Rye levain: 6-8 hours

254 g freshly milled Rye Flour

254  filtered water

78 g Starter

Raisin Soak:

156 g  Raisins

156 g  hot water

1/2 tsp vanilla extract 

Dough:

780 g  Strong Bakers Unbleached Flour

98 g  Freshly Milled Red Fife Wheat

4 g Cinnamon

404 g  filtered water

50 g honey

30g whole milk yogurt 

23 g pink Himalayan Salt

Afternoon before:

1)Take 6 g of refrigerated starter and feed it 12 g each of filtered water and rye flour. 

Night before:

1)Feed the levain 24 g each filtered water and rye flour. 

2)Put the flours in a tub and set aside. 

Early on dough making day:

1)  Make the Rye levain and let sit in a warm spot for 6-8 hours. 

    - In the meantime, soak raisins with hot water and vanilla. Cover and let sit.

2)  One hour before the levain is ready, drain raisins and save the raisin water. 

3) When levain is ready, in a stand mixer’s bowl, add the levain, water, raisin water, dough flour, honey, yogurt, and cinnamon. Mix until combined. Let rest for one hour. 

4)  Add salt to bowl and mix on speed one to combine well (3 minutes)

     -Turn to speed 2 and continue mixing for 5 minutes.

     -Add raisins and mix on low until well dispersed, about 2 minutes. 

Note: After the first batch was climbing the hook, I added the raisins in with the salt, did 3 minutes on speed 1 and 5 minutes on speed 2. This seemed to help with the climbing dough issue. 

5)  Bulk ferment at room temperature (77F) for 4 hours with coil folds at 45 and 90 minutes. 

Note: After the first coil fold, the doughs felt cool and were stiffer than I liked so I popped it into the oven with the light on (~82F)to finish bulk. I also added 30 minutes to the bulk so the dough would reach 50% rise. In retrospect, this whole thing was a mistake. 

6)  Divide into 3 equal portions oh 760 g and preshape.  Let rest on the counter for 20 minutes.  (Dough felt off so I didn’t let it test very long on the counter). 

   -Then do a final shape, place into bannetons and into the fridge for the night. 

Baking day:

• Set the oven to 475F and heat the Dutch ovens for an hour. 

   - Bake straight from the fridge at 450 F covered for 25 minutes, then uncovered at 425 F for 22 minutes more.

 I need to get my act together when it comes to loaves with dried fruit in them. The dough just feels so heavy while doing the coils folds that I let it bulk for longer than I would normally. Any hints out there? Should the dough feel that heavy?

I was looking for something different and I stumbled on this recipe: https://bewitchingkitchen.com/2012/07/22/there-will-be-bread/ I had saffron sitting in a cupboard so this was a good opportunity to use some up. I expected my dough to be bright yellow like in the original recipe but that did not happen. I wonder if it was because I’ve had the saffron for a while. 

The one departure from my usual method is that I decided to score these loaves so final proof was done seam side up rather than my usual seam side down. 

Recipe. 

Makes 3 loaves

700 g strong bakers unbleached flour

200 g freshly milled Kamut flour

100 g freshly milled rye flour

3 large pinches of saffron

700 g water (divided)

2 tsp fennel seeds

22 g salt

30 g whole milk yogurt 

250 g levain (procedure in recipe)

Extra unbleached and wholegrain flour to feed levain 

The day before:

1. About 8 hours before bedtime, take 2 g of refrigerated starter and feed it 4 g of filtered water and 4 g of wholegrain rye flour. Let sit in a warm spot. 

The night before:

1. Mill the Kamut and Rye berries if using, on the finest setting of your mill or measure out commercial whole grain rye and whole grain wheat flour if you don’t mill your own.
2. Place the required amount of each freshly milled flour in a tub and add the unbleached flour to it. Cover and set aside.
3. Feed the levain 20 g of water and 20 g of wholegrain flour. Let it rise at room temperature for the night.

Dough making day:

1. Feed the levain 100 g of filtered water and 50 g of wholegrain flour as well as 50g of strong baker’s flour. Place in a warm spot. Let rise until doubled (about 4-5 hours).
2. In the meantime, boil some water and soak the saffron threads in it. Let cool. 
3. About two hours before the levain is ready, strain the saffron water into a stand mixer’s bowl and add enough filtered water to measure 700 grams. Add the flours, and mix on speed 1 until all the flour has been hydrated. Let this autolyse for a couple of hours.
4. Once the autolyse is done, add the salt, the yogurt, the fennel seeds, and the levain to the bowl. Mix on speed one for a minute to integrate everything, then mix on speed 2 for 9 minutes. 
5. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and place in a lightly oiled covered tub. Let rest 30 minutes in a warm spot (oven with light on).
6. Do 2 sets of coil folds at 30 minute intervals and then 2 other sets at 45 minute intervals, and then let the dough rise to about 40-50%. It should have irregular bubbles visible through the sides of the container and quite a few large bubbles on top as well. 
7. Tip the dough out on a bare counter, sprinkle the top with flour and divide into 3 equal portions. Round out the portions into rounds with a dough scraper and let rest 30 minutes on the counter.
8. Do a final shape by flouring the top of the rounds and flipping the rounds over on a lightly floured counter. Gently stretch the dough out into a circle. Pull and fold the third of the dough closest to you over the middle. Pull the right side and fold over the middle and do the same to the left. Fold the top end to the center patting out any cavities. Finally stretch the two top corners and fold over each other in the middle. Roll the bottom of the dough away from you until the seam is underneath the dough. Cup your hands around the dough and pull towards you, doing this on all sides of the dough to round it off. Finally spin the dough to make a nice tight boule. Let sit for a few seconds to deal the seam. 
9. Sprinkle a mix of rice and all purpose flour in the bannetons. Place the dough seam side up in the bannetons. Let rest for a few minutes on the counter and then put to bed in a cold (38F) fridge overnight. I try to keep this between 10 and 11 hours. 

Baking Day

1. The next morning, heat the oven to 475F with the Dutch ovens inside for 45 minutes to an hour. Turn out the dough seam side down onto a cornmeal sprinkled counter. Score your loaves. Place rounds of parchment paper in the bottom of the pots, and carefully but quickly place the dough seam side down inside.

2. Cover the pots and bake the loaves at 450 F for 25 minutes, remove the lids, and bake for another 22 minutes at 425 F. Internal temperature should be 205 F or more.

Not bad for a newbie scorer. 

Another savoury loaf, this time with a wild rice/exotic rice blend and dehydrated onions and a touch of honey. 

When I was mixing up the dough I noticed it was extremely soft. This was probably because I didn’t cook the rice the night before as per the recipe and that was probably a mistake as the rice ended up more hydrated than it should have. I added an extra 50 grams of flour to soak up some of the hydration. So word to the wise, make the rice the night before. 

Recipe 

Makes 3 loaves

700 g strong bakers unbleached flour + 50g

200 g fresh milled Spelt 

100 g fresh milled Selkirk wheat

85 g dry Lundberg Wild Blend Rice (~270 g cooked)

20 g dehydrated onions flakes

700 g water

30 g yogurt 

50 g honey

24 g salt

250 g of 3 stage 100% hydration levain (procedure below)

Wholegrain flour and unbleached flour to feed the levain

The afternoon before:

1. Take 2 g of refrigerated starter and feed it 18 g of filtered water and 18 g of wholegrain flour. Let sit at cool room temperature for the day. 

The night before:

1. I use homemilled flour so if you are doing the same, measure out the stated amount for each type of flour in berries or grain, and mill it on the finest setting of your home mill. If buying flour, get the freshest that you can and try to ensure that it is wholegrain. 

2. Place the required amounts of the wholegrain flours in a tub and add the unbleached flour to it. 

3. Cover and set aside.

4. Cook the rice in plenty of boiling water until tender. Drain, add the dehydrated onions, mix well, and refrigerate overnight.

5.  Feed the levain 20 g of water and 20 g of wholegrain flour. Let that rise at cool room temperature for the night. 

Dough making day:

1. When you get up, feed the levain 100 g of filtered water and 50 g each of strong baker’s flour and wholegrain four.  Let rise until doubled (about 5 hours). 

2. Take the rice  out of the fridge to warm up before being used in the dough.

3. About two hours before the levain is ready, using a stand mixer, mix the water with the flour, and mix on speed 1 until all the flour has been hydrated. Let this autolyse for a couple of hours. 

4. Once the autolyse is done and the levain is ready, add the salt, the yogurt, the honey, the rice mixture, and the levain to the bowl. Mix on speed one for a minute to integrate everything, then mix on speed 2 for 9 minutes.   

5. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and place in a lightly oiled covered tub. Let rest 30 minutes in a warm spot (oven with light on). 

6. Do 2 sets of coil folds at 30 minute intervals and then more 2 sets at 45 minute intervals, and then let the dough rise to about 30%. It should have irregular bubbles visible through the sides of the container and  bubbles on top as well. 

7. Tip the dough out on a bare counter, sprinkle the top with flour and divide into portions of ~800 g. Round out the portions into rounds with a dough scraper and let rest 30 minutes on the counter. 

8. Do a final shape by flouring the top of the rounds and flipping the rounds over on a lightly floured counter. Gently stretch the dough out into a circle. Pull and fold the third of the dough closest to you over the middle. Pull the right side and fold over the middle and do the same to the left. Fold the top end to the center patting out any cavities. Finally stretch the two top corners and fold over each other in the middle. Roll the bottom of the dough away from you until the seam is underneath the dough. Cup your hands around the dough and pull towards you, doing this on all sides of the dough to round it off. Finally spin the dough to make a nice tight boule.

9. Sprinkle a  mix of rice and all purpose flour in the bannetons. Place the dough seam side down in the bannetons. Let rest for a few minutes on the counter and then put to bed in a cold (38F) fridge overnight. 

Baking Day

1. The next morning, heat the oven to 475F with the Dutch ovens inside for 45 minutes to an hour. Turn out the dough seam side up onto a cornmeal sprinkled counter. Place rounds of parchment paper in the bottom of the pots, and carefully but quickly place the dough seam side up inside. 

2. Cover the pots and bake the loaves at 450 F for 25 minutes, remove the lids, and bake for another 22 minutes at 425 F. Internal temperature should be 205 F or more.

I ordered a whole pile of Buckwheat groat from Daybreak Mills so it was time to repeat this recipe to use some up. 

Recipe 

Makes 3 loaves 

Add-ins

150 g Buckwheat Groats, toasted

230 g boiling water

50 g Yogurt

55 g honey

 25 g pink Himalayan salt

Dough

700 g strong bakers unbleached flour

300 g freshly milled durum flour (or durum berries)

50 g toasted buckwheat groats, milled into flour

50 g freshly ground flax

720 g water g

250 g levain (procedure in recipe)

Extra wholegrain and AP flour to feed the Levain. 

The afternoon before:

1. Take 2 g of refrigerated starter and feed it 4 g of filtered water and 4 g of wholegrain flour. Let sit at cool room temperature for the day. 

The night the day before:

1. Toast 225 g of buckwheat groats in a dry frying pan or the oven until fragrant and golden. I did mine in the oven since I had a large quantity to do.

2. Weigh out 50 g of the toasted groats and mill that into flour. Place the buckwheat flour in a tub.

3. Reserve the remainder of the toasted buckwheat groats for the next day.

4. Mill the durum berries (if using berries) and place the necessary amount of this flour in the tub. 

5. Add the unbleached flour to it as well as the freshly ground flax. Cover and set aside. 

6. Before bed, feed the levain 20 g of water and 20 g of wholegrain flour. Let that rise at cool room temperature for the night.

Dough making day:

1. Early in the morning, feed the levain 100 g of filtered water and 50 g of wholegrain flour as well as 50 g of strong baker’s flour. Let rise until doubled (about 5-6 hours). 

2. A couple of hours before the levain is ready, in a stand mixer, mix the water with the flour, and mix on speed 1 until all the flour has been hydrated. Let this autolyse for a couple of hours. 

3. At the same time, soak the toasted groats in the boiling water.  Add the honey, salt and yogurt on top once it has cooled a bit. Cover and set aside.

4. After the autolyse, add the groat mixture and the levain to the bowl. 

5. Mix on the lowest speed for a minute to integrate everything, then mix on the next speed up for 9 minutes. 

6. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and place in a lightly oiled covered tub. Let rest 30 minutes in a warm spot (oven with light on). 

7. Do 2 sets of coil folds at 30 minute intervals and then 2 sets of coil folds at 45 minute intervals, and then let the dough rise to about 40%. It should have irregular bubbles visible through the sides of the container and bubbles on top as well. 

8. Tip the dough out on a bare counter, sprinkle the top with flour and divide into portions of ~850 g. Round out the portions into rounds with a dough scraper and let rest 30 minutes on the counter. 

9. Do a final shape by flipping the rounds over on a lightly floured counter. Gently stretch the dough out into a circle. Pull and fold the third of the dough closest to you over the middle. Pull the right side and fold over the middle and do the same to the left. Fold the top end to the center patting out any cavities. Finally stretch the two top corners and cross over each other in the middle. Roll the bottom of the dough away from you until the seam is underneath the dough. Cup your hands around the dough and pull towards you, doing this on all sides of the dough to round it off. Finally spin the dough to make a nice tight boule.

10. Sprinkle a  mix of rice flour and all purpose flour in the bannetons. Place the dough seam side down in the bannetons. Let rest for a few minutes on the counter and then put to bed in a cold (38F) fridge overnight. 

Baking Day

1. The next morning, heat the oven to 475F with the Dutch ovens inside for an hour. Turn out the dough seam side up onto a cornmeal sprinkled counter. Place rounds of parchment paper in the bottom of the pots, and carefully but quickly place the dough seam side up inside. 

2. Cover the pots and bake the loaves at 450 F for 25 minutes, remove the lids, and bake for another 22 minutes at 425 F. Internal temperature should be 205 F or more.

 Crumb is a bit tight but it tastes good and that’s what counts!

I have a lot of rye berries in stock and I haven’t used a lot of it lately. So a rustic light rye was in order for this weekend. My inspiration is from this site: https://heartbeetkitchen.com/rye-sourdough-bread-recipe/. I changed just about everything in the recipe method wise except for the proportions of ingredients (Note that I did add yogurt and upped the salt to 1.8%). Hopefully my loaves turn out as well as the original recipe. 

Recipe

Makes 3 loaves

737 g of filtered water

760 g strong baker’s unbleached flour

200 g freshly milled rye flour

112 g freshly milled Selkirk flour (whole grain wheat flour)

42 g honey

30 g whole milk yogurt (locally sourced)

22 g pink Himalayan salt

250 g levain (procedure in recipe)

Extra rye and unbleached flour

The day before:

1. About 8 hours before bedtime, take 2 g of refrigerated starter and feed it 4 g of filtered water and 4 g of wholegrain rye flour. Let sit in a warm spot. 

The night before:

1. Mill the Selkirk and Rye berries if using, on the finest setting of your mill or measure out commercial whole grain rye and whole grain wheat flour if you don’t mill your own.
2. Place the required amount of each freshly milled flour in a tub and add the unbleached flour to it. Cover and set aside.
3. Feed the levain 20 g of water and 20 g of wholegrain flour. Let it rise at room temperature for the night.

Dough making day:

1. Feed the levain 100 g of filtered water and 50 g of rye flour as well as 50g of strong baker’s flour. Place in a warm spot. Let rise until doubled (about 4-5 hours). The levain is a fairly stiff one due to the freshly milled rye flour even though it’s 100% hydration. 

2. About two hours before the levain is ready, using a stand mixer, mix the water with the flours, and mix on speed 1 until all the flour has been hydrated. Let this autolyse for a couple of hours.

3. Once the autolyse is done, add the salt, the yogurt, the honey and the levain to the bowl. Mix on speed one for a minute to integrate everything, then mix on speed 2 for 9 minutes. 

4. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and place in a lightly oiled covered tub. Let rest 30 minutes in a warm spot (oven with light on).

5. Do 2 sets of coil folds at 30 minute intervals and then 2 other sets at 45 minute intervals, and then let the dough rise to about 40-50%. It should have irregular bubbles visible through the sides of the container and quite a few large bubbles on top as well. 

6. Tip the dough out on a bare counter, sprinkle the top with flour and divide into portions of ~725 g. Round out the portions into rounds with a dough scraper and let rest 30 minutes on the counter. I was surprised that this dough was not sticky considering the amount of rye in it. 

7. Do a final shape by flouring the top of the rounds and flipping the rounds over on a lightly floured counter. Gently stretch the dough out into a circle. Pull and fold the third of the dough closest to you over the middle. Pull the right side and fold over the middle and do the same to the left. Fold the top end to the center patting out any cavities. Finally stretch the two top corners and fold over each other in the middle. Roll the bottom of the dough away from you until the seam is underneath the dough. Cup your hands around the dough and pull towards you, doing this on all sides of the dough to round it off. Finally spin the dough to make a nice tight boule. 

8. Sprinkle a mix of rice and all purpose flour in the bannetons. Place the dough seam side down in the bannetons. Let rest for a few minutes on the counter and then put to bed in a cold (38F) fridge overnight. I try to keep this between 10 and 11 hours. 

Baking Day

1. The next morning, heat the oven to 475F with the Dutch ovens inside for 45 minutes to an hour. Turn out the dough seam side up onto a cornmeal sprinkled counter. Place rounds of parchment paper in the bottom of the pots, and carefully but quickly place the dough seam side up inside.

2. Cover the pots and bake the loaves at 450 F for 25 minutes, remove the lids, and bake for another 22 minutes at 425 F. Internal temperature should be 205 F or more.

I’m quite happy with the look of these loaves. We will see what the crumb is like when we cut into one. 

These were a huge hit the last time I made these. However, I forgot that this dough is very loose. When doing a single set of coil folds, keep at it until the dough tightens up. For example, it took 4 rotations of 90 degrees each to get the dough to firm up on most sets of coil folds. 

I also did another coil fold just before dividing to give the dough a bit more structure. 

Recipe

Makes 3 loaves

Add ins:

150 g Sardo Olive Bruschetta, undrained 

100 g Sardo Sweet Pepper Bruschetta, undrained

Main dough:

700 g Strong Bakers Flour

200 g freshly milled Selkirk flour 

100 g freshly milled Spelt flour 

700 g filtered water

20 g pink Himalayan salt

250 g levain (procedure in recipe)

Extra wholegrain and unbleached flour for feeding the levain

The afternoon before:

1. Take 2 g of refrigerated starter and feed it 4 g of filtered water and 4 g of any kind of wholegrain flour. Let sit at cool room temperature for about 8 hours. 

The night before:

1. Mill the Selkirk wheat and Spelt berries and place the required amount in a tub. 

2. Add the unbleached flour to the tub. Cover and reserve. 

3. Feed the levain 20 g of water and 20 g of wholegrain flour. Let that rise at cool room temperature overnight. 

Dough Making day:

1. Feed the levain 100 g of filtered water and 50 g each of wholegrain and unbleached flour. Let rise in a warm spot until doubled (about 4 or 5 hours). 

2. Two hours before the levain is ready, put 700 g of filtered water in a stand mixer’s bowl and add the flours from the tub.  Mix on the lowest speed until all the flour has been hydrated. This takes a couple of minutes. Cover and autolyse for a couple of hours at room temperature (73F).

3. After the autolyse, add the Olive and Sweet Pepper Bruschettas, the salt, and the levain to the dough. 

4. Mix one speed one for a minute or so. Mix on the second speed for 9 minutes. 

5. Remove dough from bowl and place in a lightly oiled covered tub. Let rest 30 minutes in a warm spot to begin bulk fermentation. My warm spot is the oven with the door cracked open and the lights on. I get an ambient temperature of around 82F. 

6. Do 2 sets of coil folds at 30 minutes intervals and then 2 more sets of coils folds at 45 minute intervals. Then let the dough rise by 30%. This took another 45 minutes. 

7. When the dough is ready, give it a final gentle coil fold as this dough is very soft. Tip the dough out on a bare counter, sprinkle the top with flour and divide into portions of ~750 g. Round out the portions into rounds with a dough scraper and let it rest 20-30 minutes on the counter. 

8. Do a final shape by flipping the rounds over on a lightly floured counter. Gently stretch the dough out into a circle. Pull and fold the third of the dough closest to you over the middle. Pull the right side and fold over the middle and do the same to the left. Fold the top end to the center patting out any cavities or big bubbles. Finally stretch the two top corners and fold over each other in the middle. Roll the bottom of the dough away from you until the seam is underneath the dough. Cup your hands around the dough and pull towards you, doing this on all sides of the dough to round it off. Finally spin the dough to make as tight boule as you can.

9. Sprinkle a mix of rice  and all purpose or baker’s flour in the bannetons. Place the dough seam side down in the bannetons. Cover with plastic bowl covers or shower caps. Let rest for a few minutes on the counter and then put to bed in a cold (38F) fridge overnight. (Try to keep the final proof under 12 hours and preferably closer to 10. I overproofed these the last time when I let them go 13+ hours.)

Baking Day

1. The next morning, heat the oven to 475 F with the Dutch ovens inside for an hour.

2. Turn out the dough seam side up onto a cornmeal sprinkled counter. Place rounds of parchment paper in the bottom of the pots, and carefully but quickly place the dough seam side up inside. 

3. Cover the pots and bake the loaves at 450 F for 25 minutes, remove the lids, and bake for another 22 minutes at 425 F. Internal temperature should be 205 F or more.

Well like the last time I made these, these did not get the oven spring I expected. They are pretty flat. Maybe I need to drain the oil out before adding the olives and peppers to the dough. There won’t be a crumb shot unfortunately as these are all sold. 

I love sesame in bread. These make for very tasty bread.

Recipe

Makes 3 loaves 

Porridge

150 g rolled oats

300 g water

50 g honey

50 g butter

Add-ins

75 g raw Sesame seeds

75 g raw Sunflower seeds

Dough

600 g unbleached flour

200 g freshly milled Red Fife flour 

210 g freshly milled Spelt flour 

75 g flax, freshly ground

700 g water

25 g salt

250 g levain (procedure in recipe)

The afternoon before:

1. Mill the Red Fife and Spelt berries if using berries. Otherwise, use the freshest flours possible. Place the required amounts of flours in a tub. 

2. Add the unbleached flour to the tub. 

3. Grind the flax seeds in a bullet and add to the tub. Cover and set aside.

4. Take 2 g of refrigerated starter and feed it 4 g of filtered water and 4 g bran. Let rise in a warm place. 

The night before:

1. Add the water, the honey, and the buttet to the rolled oats and cook on low until the water is completely absorbed and the porridge is very thick. Put into the fridge for the night. This can be done in the morning if you wish.

2. Toast the sesame and sunflower seeds in a dry frying pan or in the oven at 350 F. They are done when lightly golden and fragrant. Reserve.

3. Before going to bed, feed the levain 20 g of water and 20 g high extraction flour. Let that rest in a warm spot overnight.

Dough Making day:

1. Early in the morning, feed the levain 100 g of filtered water and 50 g wholegrain flour and 50 g of unbleached flour and let rise 5-6 hours in a warm spot. 

2. Two hours or so before the levain is ready, put 700 g filtered water in a stand mixer’s bowl and add the flours from the tub.  Mix on the lowest speed until all the flour has been hydrated. This takes a couple of minutes. Autolyse for at least a couple of hours at room temperature. Take the porridge out of the fridge to bring to room temperature. 

3. Once the levain is ready, add the salt, the porridge, the toasted seeds, and the levain to the bowl. Mix on the lowest speed for a minute to integrate everything, then mix on the next speed for 9 minutes. 

4. Remove dough from bowl and place in a covered tub. Let rest 30 minutes in a warm spot. 

5. Do 2 sets of coil folds at 30 minute intervals, then 2 more sets at 45 minute intervals. Let the dough rise about 30%. Dough is sticky so keep your hands wet for the folds. 

6. Tip the dough out on a bare counter, sprinkle the top with flour and divide into portions of ~900g. Round out the portions into rounds with a dough scraper and I let it rest about a half hour on the counter. 

7. Do a final shape by flouring the rounds and flipping the rounds over on a lightly floured counter. Gently stretch the dough out into a circle. Pull and fold the third of the dough closest to you over the middle. Pull the right side and fold over the middle and do the same to the left. Fold the top end to the center patting out any cavities or big bubbles. Finally stretch the two top corners and fold over each other in the middle. Roll the bottom of the dough away from you until the seam is underneath the dough. Cup your hands around the dough and pull towards you, doing this on all sides of the dough to round it off. Finally spin the dough to make as tight boule as you can.

8. Sprinkle half rice/half AP flour in the bannetons. You can add oats flakes as well to decorate the loaves. Place the dough seam side down in the bannetons. Cover with plastic bowl cover or shower caps. Let rest for a few minutes on the counter and then put to bed in a cold (38F) fridge for 10-12 hours. 

Baking Day

1. The next morning, heat the oven to 475F with the Dutch ovens inside for 45 minutes to an hour. 

2. Take the diugh out of the fridge and turn the dough out seam side up onto a cornmeal sprinkled counter. Place rounds of parchment paper in the bottom of the pots, and carefully but quickly place the dough seam side up inside. 

3. Cover the pots and bake the loaves at 450 F for 25 minutes, remove the lids, and bake for another 22 minutes at 425 F. Internal temperature should be 205F or more. 

It was time to redo this one! I just changed some of the grains from the last time I made this and reduced the jalapeño amount because that’s what I had. I also couldn’t get fresh chives so freeze dried had to do. 

Recipe

Makes 3 loaves

Add-ins

55 - 100 g sliced pickled jalapeños (to taste)

250 g old cheddar cheese, cut into 1/4 inch cubes

3 g freeze dried chives or 24 g fresh chopped chives

Main Dough

100 g freshly milled Selkirk wheat flour 

100 g freshly milled rye flour 

100 g freshly milled Red Fife wheat flour 

775 g unbleached strong bakers flour

775 g filtered water + 25 g

20 g Himalayan pink salt

30 g local yogurt

250 g 100% hydration levain (procedure for this is in recipe)

Extra whole grain and unbleached flour to feed the levain

The day before:

1. About 8 hours before bedtime, take 2 g of refrigerated starter and feed it 4 g of filtered water and 4 g of wholegrain flour. Let sit in a warm spot. 

The night before:

1. Mill the grain on the finest setting of your mill or measure out commercial whole grain flour of the various grains if you don’t mill your own.
2. Place the required amount of each freshly milled flour in a tub and add the unbleached flour to it. Cover and set aside.
3. Cube the cheddar, add a tablespoon of flour and toss with your fingers to separate the chunks. Place in the fridge overnight.
4. Drain the jalapeños and chop them into smaller pieces. Mince the chives if using fresh, put with the jalapeños in a bowl, and refrigerate overnight.
5. Feed the levain 20 g of water and 20 g of wholegrain flour. Let that rise at room temperature for the night.

Dough making day:

1. Feed the levain 100 g of filtered water and 50 g of wholegrain flour as well as 50g of strong baker’s flour. Place in a warm spot. Let rise until doubled (about 5-6 hours). Take the cheese and the chives/jalapeños out of the fridge to warm up before being used in the dough. 

2. About two hours before the levain is ready, using a stand mixer, mix the water with the flours, and mix on speed 1 until all the flour has been hydrated. Let this autolyse for a couple of hours.

3. Once the autolyse is done, add the salt, the yogurt, and the levain to the bowl. Mix on speed one for a minute to integrate everything, then mix on speed 2 for 8 minutes. Put in the add-ins and extra water if needed, and  mix until well integrated. This takes 3-4 more minutes at least. 

I tried a bit of an experiment. For the last two batches, I dumped everything into the bowl and set the time for 10 minutes. I read that Hamelman said that it didn’t make a difference if one put the add-in at the beginning or near the end of the mixing. Surprisingly, it still needed time at the end to fully distribute and integrate the cheese. 

4. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and place in a lightly oiled covered tub. Let rest 30 minutes in a warm spot (oven with light on).

5. Do 2 sets of coil folds at 30 minute intervals and then 2 other sets at 45 minute intervals, and then let the dough rise to about 30%. It should have irregular bubbles visible through the sides of the container and bubbles on top as well. This took only another half hour after the last coil fold.

6. Tip the dough out on a bare counter, sprinkle the top with flour and divide into portions of ~835 g. Round out the portions into rounds with a dough scraper and let rest 30 minutes on the counter.

7. Do a final shape by flouring the top of the rounds and flipping the rounds over on a lightly floured counter. Gently stretch the dough out into a circle. Pull and fold the third of the dough closest to you over the middle. Pull the right side and fold over the middle and do the same to the left. Fold the top end to the center patting out any cavities. Finally stretch the two top corners and fold over each other in the middle. Roll the bottom of the dough away from you until the seam is underneath the dough. Cup your hands around the dough and pull towards you, doing this on all sides of the dough to round it off. Finally spin the dough to make a nice tight boule. Note that the cheese cubes like to pop out so I pulled them off the outside as much as possible and tucked them under the dough. In retrospect, that was a really good idea since it helped to minimize the sticking of the loaves to the sides of the pots.

8. Sprinkle a mix of rice and all purpose flour in the bannetons. Place the dough seam side down in the bannetons. Let rest for a few minutes on the counter and then put to bed in a cold (38F) fridge overnight.

Baking Day

1. The next morning, heat the oven to 475F with the Dutch ovens inside for 45 minutes to an hour. Turn out the dough seam side up onto a cornmeal sprinkled counter. Place rounds of parchment paper in the bottom of the pots, and carefully but quickly place the dough seam side up inside.

2. Cover the pots and bake the loaves at 450 F for 25 minutes, remove the lids, and bake for another 22 minutes at 425 F. Internal temperature should be 205 F or more.

Be aware that the loaves might stick to the sides of your pots due to the cheese. I ran a thin knife down the sides to break the stuck spots and with the parchment paper on the bottom, the loaves popped right out.

I have a stash of seeds in the fridge that need using up so I thought that Hamelman’s 5 grain levain would be perfect for this, plus it is so incredibly good! I kept the weight the same but went to town with the selection of seeds. I also changed the selection and quantity of flours. Because of all these changes, I’m not calling it 5 grain levain. ?

For some reason, I thought that Hamelman did a ferment-autolyse without the soaker so that’s what I did. When I went back to check, he puts everything in the bowl except for the salt. Oh well! ??‍♀️

Recipe 

Makes 3 large loaves

Soaker:

50 g cracked rye berries 

50 g cracked oat groats

50 g raw sunflower seeds

50 g old fashioned oats (large flake)

36 g millet seeds

36 g amaranth seeds

25 g black sesame seeds

25 g chia seeds 

50 g flax seeds (freshly ground)

7 g salt

448 g boiling water

Levain:

70 g twice refreshed starter (procedure in recipe)

275 g strong baker’s unbleached flour

345 g filtered water

Extra wholegrain flour to refresh the levain

Main Dough:

600 g strong baker’s unbleached flour

100 g freshly milled Selkirk flour

50 g freshly milled Rye flour

77 g freshly milled Durum flour

30 g plain yogurt from the local dairy

330 g filtered water

21 g Pink Himalayan salt

Extra 50-70 g water

Two nights before:

1. Before bed, take 5 g of your refrigerated starter and refresh it with 10 g of filtered water and 10 g of wholegrain flour, and let it rise overnight at cool room temperature.

The morning before:

1. Feed 30 g of filtered water and 30 g of wholegrain flour, to your levain and let rise throughout the day at cool room temperature.

The evening before:

1. Coarsely mill the rye berries and oat groats  to crack them. 
2. To this combo, add all the seeds aside from the flax. Toast in a 350 F oven or in a dry frying pan until lightly golden and fragrant.
3. Grind the flax seeds in a “Bullet” or coffee grinder and add to the toasted seeds.
4. Add the salt and the boiling water. Stir, cover and let cool overnight 
5. Measure out the flours for the main dough and place in a tub. Reserve.
6. Eleven hours before the the final mixing of the dough, add the 275 g of strong baker’s unbleached flour and the 345 g of water to the levain and keep covered at room temperature (74 F).

Dough making day:

1. Place the dough water in the bottom of a mixing bowl, add the yogurt and 620 g of the levain. Stir and add the reserved flours. Using a stand mixer, mix on the lowest speed until you have a shaggy dough with no dry flour. Let sit for one hour.
2. Add the soaker and mix on speed one for 3 minutes. If the dough start climbing the hook, add the extra water bit by bit until it smooths out. I made 4 batches and some needed 50 g, others needed more. 
3. Add the salt and mix on speed two for 4 minutes.
4. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and place in a tub. 
5. Let the dough rise for an hour in a warm spot, do a coil fold and then let rise another hour until double (I gave my dough an extra hour as it wasn’t moving very fast and it never did double. Maybe I should have let it go longer but I had other things to attend to). 
6. Pour the dough out onto a bare counter and divide into 3 loaves of about 900 g. (I differed from this. I made boules of 830 g and combined the leftover 210 g of the 4 batches into an extra loaf. I wasn’t sure that 900 g would fit my Dutch ovens during baking). 
7. Lightly flour the top of the portions and gently round into boules using a dough scraper. Let rest 30 minutes on the counter. 
8. Do a final shape by flouring the rounds and flipping the rounds over on a lightly floured counter. Gently stretch the dough out into a circle. Pull and fold the third of the dough closest to you over the middle. Pull the right side and fold over the middle and do the same to the left. Fold the top end to the center patting out any cavities. Finally stretch the two top corners and fold over each other in the middle. Roll the bottom of the dough away from you until the seam is underneath the dough. Use your hands and a bench knife to round it off. Finally spin the dough to make a nice right boule. This dough was quite sticky so I used more flour than usual during shaping. 
9. Sprinkle a mix of rice and AP flour in the bannetons. Place the dough seam side down in the bannetons, cover, let rest for a few minutes on the counter and then put to bed overnight in a cold (38F) fridge.

Baking

1. The next morning, heat the oven to 475 with the Dutch ovens inside for 45 minutes to an hour. Turn out the dough seam side up onto a cornmeal sprinkled counter. Place rounds of parchment paper in the bottom of the pots, and carefully place the dough seam side up inside. 
2. Cover the pots and bake the loaves at 475 F for 25 minutes, remove the lids, and bake for another 22 minutes. Internal temperature should be 205F or more.

Oven spring wasn’t what I’ve been getting lately but then again, there are a ton of seeds in this bread.