Pain au Levain 36 Hour Sourdough Horseshoe Miche

Following up on the success I had with the 36 hour Durum Semolina SD bread I made last week I wanted to try a Pain au Levain version and see if I could get similar results.

I have been waiting for the right bread to use my new square-shaped cake pan with a middle column.  Unfortunately this didn't really work the way I hoped and instead of a square loaf with a hole in the middle I ended up with a horseshoe-shaped loaf and a pretty big one at that!

Using this time intensive 36 hours plus technique I learned from TxFarmer's blog posts I have to say I was very happy with the final result. The dough was again nice and silky to work.  The crumb was nice and open with a nice crisp and dark crust.  The taste from the sprouted whole wheat in the levain along with the spelt in the final dough provided a nice earthy and nutty flavor to this bread.

Directions

Starter Build 1

30 grams Seed Starter (Mine is a 65% White AP starter)

22 grams Spouted Whole Wheat or Regular Whole Wheat Flour

38 grams French Style Flour (KAF or AP Flour)

60 grams Water at Room Temperature (80-90 degrees F.)

Mix ingredients in a bowl until thoroughly combined.  Cover the bowl and let it sit at room temperature for around 8 hours.  The starter should almost double when ready to proceed.    If your kitchen is warmer than mine which is usually about 70-72 degrees with my air-conditioning you can proceed sooner.

Starter Build 2

All Starter from Build #1:

100 grams French Style Flour

37 grams Sprouted Whole Wheat

100 grams Water at Room Temperature (80-90 degrees F.)

Mix ingredients in a bowl until thoroughly combined.  Cover the bowl and let it sit at room temperature for around  4 - 6 hours.  The starter should almost double when ready to proceed.    If your kitchen is warmer than mine which is usually about 70-72 degrees with my air-conditioning you can proceed sooner.

Main Dough Ingredients

300 grams  Starter  from above (note: you should have a small amount left over)

150 grams Whole Spelt Flour

700 grams French Style Flour (KAF)

20 grams Seas Salt or Table Salt

590 Ice Water

Procedure

Mix the flour and the ice water together in your mixer or by hand until it just starts to come together, maybe about 1 minute.  Put the dough in a slightly covered oiled bowl and put in the refrigerator for 12 hours.

The next day add your starter and salt to the dough and mix by hand until it is thoroughly mixed and evenly distributed.  Due to the high water content in the 100% hydration starter this dough is very easy to mix by hand and is very silky and smooth.

Bulk rise at room temperature for 2-3 hours until it grows around 1/3 in volume doing stretch and folds every half hour until it has developed the correct amount of strength.

Put the dough back into the refrigerator for around 20-24 hours.  I took it out about 20 hours later.

When you take the dough out of the refrigerator you want it to have almost doubled in volume.  Mine only rose about 1/3 in volume.  Let it rise at room temperature for around 2 hours or until the dough has doubled from the night before.

Next, divide the dough and shape as desired.  I made a battard and placed it in my square pan.

Cover the dough with a moist towel and let sit at room temperature for 1.5 to 2 hours.

Score as desired and prepare your oven for baking with steam.

Set your oven for 500 degrees F. at least 45 minutes before ready to bake.  When ready to bake place the loaves into your on  your oven stone with steam and lower the temperature immediately to 450 degrees.    When both loaves are golden brown and reached an internal temperature of 205 degrees F. you can remove them from the oven.

Let the loaves cool down for at least an 3 hours or so before eating as desired.

Be sure to visit my other blog at www.mookielovesbread.wordpress.com for all of my recipes.