Multigrain sourdough with seeds
Well, Passover is over, and leavened bread is back, with the vengeance. :-) Today's creation: sourdough multi-grain bread with seeds. I wish Internet had the ability to transmit the emotion which crunchy crust elicits while one tastes a slice with good salted Irish butter.
I started with same sourdough recipe I blogged before, which works well for me. The only modifications were: I upped the percentage of whole wheat flour a bit, and also added about 1/2% of water because I figured that all the seeds would need it. The seeds included chia, which I understand likes absorbing water, so I could probably easily go with the whole extra 1% of water. I'll try it next time.
For the seeds mix I used some arbitrary amounts of pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, flax, chia, white sesame, and rolled oats. I toasted everything lightly on a dry pan, and let them cool completely before adding into the dough after fermentolyse phase, together with salt. The total amount of seeds weighed after toasting was 88g.
I also sprinkled some oats inside the banneton before I put the dough inside, and a bit more along the sides of the dough ball, between it and the walls of the banneton. The advantage turned out to be dual: I got oats stuck to the surface of my bread and baking perfectly crunchy, which is what I wanted. Those same oats also kept the dough completely from sticking to the form, so it practically fell out on its own while I was inverting the form on the cooking sheet.
Levain (100% hydration) - 50g starter, 50g warm water, 50g KA WW flour, mixed in the morning and put in warm place.
Water - 315g
Flour - 400g Wegmans AP unbleached (I didn't have any BF on hand) + 50g KA WW
Salt - 10g
Flour total 450+75 (from levain) =525g
Water total 315+75 (from levain) =390g
Baker's math:
AP flour - 81%
WW flour - 19%
Water - 74%
Salt - 1.9%
Various seeds - 1.7%
Comments
This one has to be tasty. Chia seeds can soak up more than 4 times ther weight in water which is what i usually add to the seeds and let it soak that water up before adding it to the bread so it doesn't steal water from the dough. This one is a keeper. Well done and
Happy baking
Thank you! So, thr water that chia seeds absorb doesn't get counted into the recipe, right?
The chia seeds; once soaked, will turn into a gel like flax seeds do. They will hold onto their water and not effect the dough being made from a hydration point of view but will effect the baking. The water in the seeds is vaporized and is forced out of them into the dough making for more gas to to be trapped and a more open, soft, nmoist crumb results. That is the same theory for a gruel or porridge bread.
Are you saying that flax seeds can/should be soaked too ahead of time? I didn't know that. In that case, I assume there's no need too toast them before, like I did with pumpkin and sunflower seeds?
Also, with porridge - do you suggest that the oats are soaked and then just mixed into the bread, instead of being added in a dry (actually slightly toasted) form? And should that be rolled oats, steel-cut oats, or it doesn't really matter?
About Flax, I use it all the time when I do my seeded sourdough and yes, the night b/f mixing dough I soak my flax in water. 2-3x water to flax (By weight).
hester
Yeah, this is fantastic. Could I feature it on the homepage for a bit?
Thank YOU for this wonderful site!
I've also sprinkled rolled oats into my baskets. Adds an extra, pleasing visual dimension to the loaves as demonstrated by your sourdough. All in all, a beautiful bake---crust and crumb, superb.
Cheers and happy baking,
Mr. Zita
Having just finished up some pita bread that was practically white with only 33% whole wheat, I think my next bake is going to feature whole grains and seeds. Thanks for the inspiration!
Paul
My personal inspiration and ideas come from all the great posts on this site - and pictures too!
Very well done.. !!
It turned out very hearty too, like the kinds of breads he had in Ireland, probably because of extra whole wheat flour, oats, and all the grains. We liked this bread a lot, and I am sure I'll be making it again.
That is a truly well done bake - the crust, the crumb, the photography --- and glad to hear that the taste was just as outstanding!
You absolutely have earned the front page with this one, especially with what you worked through to get to this point.
Well done!
I love that loaf!
Wow, that looks so tasty and crunchy, and the crumb is just perfect! Pretty crust too. :) I make a many-seed straight dough, but you've inspired me to do a sourdough now.
Glad I could help someone with additional inspiration. :-) G-d knows, I need some now - a post about recent disaster is coming soon. :-)
It looks so nice that I would love to taste it! The crumb looks really great and has quite even porosity.
Happy baking, Joze
and nice photography, too!
Yippee
And with regards to photography, despite all of my love for DSLRs, I continue to get amazed by the high quality of photos produced by latest high-end smartphones, combined with default enhancements that the Photos app on Windows 10 performs.
for food shots. A good cell phone cam will suffice, I agree.
Hi Cooper! Congratulations on making the front page. That must be a very rewarding feeling. I wanted to let you know that I had good success with your recipe, and really like the bread a lot. I hardly made any changes, except I left the chia seeds out because I didn't have any. Thank you for the post, and thanks for the recipe. marybeth
Thank you Marybeth, this is wonderful! A beautiful loaf, and I love the ear! Hopefully it tasted great too!
Long time lurker... Was looking for something to bake this weekend and saw this on the front page, so went for a double recipe. I used sesame, quinoa, sunflower and flax seeds. Soaked the flax seeds in 25g of extra water from your formula. Very good loaf that I would make again... Was also feeling inspired by Marybeth's ear as you can see :)
Thanks teajay, I am glad my posts help someone! They look like wonderful loaves, and the crumb and the ear look very good to my unprofessional eye. Did you bake them in a Dutch oven? Just curious.
Yes, I did... I use a couple 5qt lodge dutch ovens. I do have a FGM wood oven as well, but I find the results in a dutch oven so good for the amount of effort :)
Flax seeds can't be digested unless they are ground...they're too well sealed for our digestive system, and just go out the other end! ;) You can grind them to your coarse/fine preference using a coffee grinder or food processor (after which all those gorgeous micronutrients will last about a week or two in the fridge). A little effort, but well worth it, IMO, for all that nutrition! I usually just keep a mason jar of it in my fridge for baking, sprinkling on breakfast, etc.
Of course, I'm on this page b/c.... Your loaf looks gorgeous, can't wait to try it! :)
(I wonder, do you make bread one byte at a time? :-) ) I have read that about flax seeds too, but thought that soaking them in water first and then getting them baked in the dough would start breaking them down somewhat. Is that not the case? We do grind them for salads etc. so I can certainly do the same when baking.
Sorry my answer to your question is so late but the answer is yes. The composition of flax seed changes when they are heated. And of course, this results in less nutrition from flax but when you add them to the bread you are adding them for flavor. But cooking them, or roasting them turns the outer coat crispy and they are very digestible.
When I add stuff like seeds, sesame, etc. I usually roast them slightly in a frying pan, so it's good to know that I can do the same with flax seeds and not bother with putting them through food processor.
Does anyone know what flour and method should be used to produce a fine soft crumb bread? i followed exactly a lot of recipes but all turned out dense. I do not know what went wrong.
That looks awesome! I'm late to the party I know. I was looking for a seed % starting point so thanks!
.
Hi Cooper,
I'm new to this forum and thanks for sharing your recipe, looks great!
I was looking at your baker's percentage and am abit puzzled as to how much levain I would need for this? Or is it the 150g (75+75 Flour and water)?
Thanks
- 50g of starter at 100% hydration
- 50g of water
- 50g of flour
So, overall 150g of levain, still at 100% hydration. I have tried using more levain a couple of times in the past - up to 300g - but every time the bread did not turn out well. It was too sticky while being handled, and appeared to be over-proofing. So, I guess there could be too much of a good thing. :-)
What is the method you used to create the bread?
I'm quite the beginner to sourdough breads, but I would love to try this and have a go.
what you mean by "method". I used the same recipe for sourdough bread that I used before (please find my other blog post for that), and the variations are described in this post. If you have specific questions - please do ask!
And I saw you were asking about 50g KA WW - that is a shorthand for 50 grams of King Arthur (it's a four brand in the US) whole wheat flour. Other abbreviations you may encounter are: AP (all-purpose flour), S&F (stretch and fold), BF (bulk ferment, i.e. letting the dough proof in one large piece, before being subdivided).
Happy baking!
Yeah by method I meant the how to...
Found your other blogs "finally a sourdough I can share" thank you...
Oh and thanx a big ole bunch for explaining the abbreviations now things make a lot more sense lol.
Stig
Hello! So I came across this thread and saw a comment on how soaked flaxseed/Chia seed can help push that crumb just a bit more...turns out NOT! I've tried this out and both times my dough has started tearing during the bulk. My flour formula has Whole wheat, spelt and APF with smaller percentages of rice flour, buckwheat and finger millet. I introduce the seeds at lamination. This my regular formula that I have been using to create pretty decent bread so far Am I doing something incorrectly or does this addition somehow accelerate the ferment? HELP!
so can't comment on that part of the recipe. You said that's what you typically use, and it works for you, so I guess it's fine. The addition of any whole grain flours and any whole drains will tear the gluten strings, and the dough will be not as stretchable as without them. Some seeds also absorb lots of water (like chia), which will make the dough feel like it's lower in hydration.
I add everything now (except for salt) right at the beginning, during the first mixing. I also began adding some steel-cut oats and cut red hard winter wheat (found both in bulk at Whole Foods), but those I first mix with boiling water 1:1 by weight and let stand for about 30 min, until pretty much all water is absorbed.
I decided to omit the soaked flaxeed and chia ....and stick to my original combination/process of seed addition and dough. It happened yet again...I have a feeling I might be over working the dough in the stand mixer. Cause that is the only other thing thats new. I used to do this all by hand previously. The weird thing is that when I stop the mixer, the dough is at a partial window pane...all fine and after rest when I come back to the dough it starts disintegrating which is what I find weird :/ This happened earlier too, I was able to laminate the dough quite nicely before adding the seeds....post rest is where the trouble begins
I use a Kitchen Aid stand mixer (I know that many use it as well). The highest speed on that you should use for the dough is 2. For recipes with lots of seeds, I mix for 7-8 min at most, stopping once or twice to scrape off the sides of the bowl. For recipes with just flour, I rarely more than 5 min.
Hi Igor.
Just baked my first sourdough bread.Used 50/50 WW and unbleached flour(should have known better).It's delish.
But was hard to stretch(WW probably to blame),little rise,didn't open.
Your bread looks absolutely amazing!It's my next attempt.
How do you bake it? Temp,dutch oven?time?
Do you have recipe for a whole grain bread some place?
Intrigued by the bread, will practice to get the one like yours.
Thanks
Taya, I am glad you liked my bread. If you look at my previous posts here https://www.thefreshloaf.com/user/cooper you will find the base recipe I used, as well as subsequent iterations on it. WW definitely changes the way the dough behaves, especially if you use 50% of it. I rarely go above 25-30%, unless I am making [mostly] rye bread. Whole grains contain those sharp pieces, which cut into gluten strands, so the dough doesn't rise nearly as much as plain white. The taste, however, makes up for it, in my opinion.
My suggestion would be to bake a few regular white loaves, even if you don't like white bread and have to give it away. :) This way you get a feel for how your flour behaves in your environment, since everyone's kitchen/oven are different. Then do the same with 20% WW (or 15% rye, if you like the taste), so you can see how the dough handling and baking changes with different flours. Another thing that helps a lot is cold retard. Even just an overnight in the fridge (and you can easily go with up to 3-4 days of cold retard) seems to improve oven spring. Lastly, I found this great group on FB (if you are into that, of course), with ton of useful advice and recipes: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SourdoughBreadBaking
Good luck!
Thank you!
I get it!
New to the site, so was not sure I did post a question, so did it one more time.
I'll keep baking!
Your bread is an inspiration!
Hello Igor
Baked my first bread yesterday,turned out OK, but hope for "more better".
Your bread looks amazing!
How do you bake it?Dutch oven?Temp?
Do you have a recipe for sourdough with more WW?
Thanks
Here's the basic recipe and process I use when I bake my loaves. I usually deviate a bit, depending on the mix of flour, kitchen temperature, etc. but the basic process is the same. Please take a look at this post https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/51489/finally-sourdough-i-can-share and this one https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/51490/couple-iterations-previous-post.
I do "open bake" (no Dutch oven), but I do cover my loaves for the first 20-25 min to keep the steam in and help with oven spring. I usually bake pretty hot, around 460F-475F. As far as the recipe, I simply take my usual recipe, and then replace up to 20-25% with WW, or sometimes with rye. Keep in mind that WW will create less of a gluten structure, and less of a rise in the finished loaf, and it's normal. Rye is even more so, and rye makes the dough pretty sticky, so if you use it, start with low %, and keep your hands wet when handling the dough.
Hello Igor,
I baked your lovely bread today and it was one of my very best, especially in terms of flavor. I followed the recipe almost exactly except for a different combination of seeds. The rise was pretty good but not as good as my regular white loaves. I think I will try scoring the loaf differently next time. Definitely using this recipe as one of my regular bakes!
Thanks so much for sharing this inspiring recipe.
Sincerely,
Camille
I received so much support and good advice from the members of this site, so I am happy to share back.