Einkorn Red Fife Sourdough No. 4
This has quickly become our home’s favourite sourdough. There is something special about the Einkorn with the Red Fife. There is a hint of cinnamon flavour from this bread, which doesn’t contain any cinnamon, and a sweetness to the crust which is wonderful and that we love.
I’ve been using the aliquot jar lately and it is helping me more accurately determine the degree of fermentation. Last week I fermented to 40% rise before pre-shaping and shaping. Then I left the shaped dough in the banneton until the aliquot jar showed 50% rise. This week I ended bulk fermentation at 50% and pre-shaped, then shaped and then put the dough immediately into the fridge because by the time the dough was placed into the banneton, it had risen an additional 5% to 55%.
This bake was the same 20% Einkorn, 9% Red Fife which was all in the levain and strong bread flour. It had the same hydration of 82% and 9% pre-fermented flour. There was a 3 hour autolyse. Salt was the usual 2% and added with water 30 mins after the mix. Bulk fermentation lasted 4 hours and 15 minutes at 80ºF. Structure and gluten were built with a combination of 100 slap and folds done after salt was added, one stretch and fold, one lamination then three coil folds. After 50% rise, I pre-shaped the dough allowing it to bench rest for 10-15 mins then did final shaping and then into banneton and the fridge at 2ºC for 21 hours of cold retard.
Baked as usual in a dutch oven preheated in a 500ºF oven, when the dough was loaded into the dutch oven the temperature dropped to 450ºF with the lid on for 20 minutes. Then the bread was removed from the dutch oven and continued to bake now at 420ºF until good colour was achieved, this took more than 20 minutes turning the bread to get even colour.
My score was more off Centre than usual and it is interesting to observe how that affected the shape of the resulting loaf compared with the last one. The long cold retard along with brushing water on the dough seemed to contribute to even better blisters than the previous bakes.
Comments
So the crumb is slightly more open than the previous bake which had a 40% rise when bulk fermentation was ended. what do you think?
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I think the crumb is fantastic and that crust is absolutely mouth watering!
Thank you very much, I’m pretty happy with my fourth bake of this recipe, the sweet spot is likely this 50% rise during bulk fermentation so this is how I’d make it again in the future.
It looks better than the last one to me. I now like to push the bulk further to maximize the crumb size. Often the dough feels noticeably puffy when shaped. To prevent over-proofing, it's sent to the freezer for an hour before the cold retard. Working pretty well for me so far.
Red Fife and einkorn are two indeed delicious grains. I think the cinnamon note comes from Red Fife and einkorn intensifies the sweetness. Just guessing. Love the leafy scores too :)
Thanks Elsie. I’ve often considered throwing it into the freezer to try to stop bulk fermentation faster and that is a great idea if you’ve pushed bulk fermentation farther and don’t want to go too far.
I guess I have the flavour contributions backwards, so the red fife is more cinnamon. The Einkorn definitely gives the sweetness, there is something about this bread’s crust that is so delicious, my first sourdough with such a sweet crust really. I love eating the heels of this bread, more crust because it is so sweet.
Beni, I love the dark color of this loaf. Where can i get Einkorn flour? or is that from the Red Fife? online sources for these seem to be very expensive. Does Einkorn and Red fife have a very distinct taste?
Thanks James. The colour is from both the red fife and the Einkorn. I am told that if I were to bake a 100% Einkorn that it would have a orangey colour to it, while the Red Fife is more the typical colour of whole wheat. The Red Fife is a whole wheat flavoured contribution with cinnamon hints. I haven’t made a 100% Einkorn yet so I’m not sure of its flavour on its own. However it does something that makes this crust so sweet that I haven’t had with any other of my sourdough breads before.
I’m in Toronto and a natural foods store did have Einkorn and I bought some during the early days of the pandemic. They haven’t had new stock in some time. Breadtopia usually carries Einkorn and sells it on the internet, but like many places it is currently out of stock.
Benny
beautiful bake
Thank you, very kind of you to say.
Stay safe.
Benny
Another roaring success! Beautiful bake!
Thanks so much, its probably boring for most people here, but I have taken to repeating a recipe several times. I find I learn a bit more each time I repeat it. Hopefully my baking in the long run will benefit from it. I have a 20% Kamut sourdough in bulk fermentation now, never worked with this grain before. Your most recent bake was a major success as well, amazing lacy crumb which is my absolute favourite crumb which I haven’t been able to achieve lately. Really great baking on your part.
Benny
I think it makes sense to repeat the same recipe several times. That way you can alter individual variables to see the effect on the final loaf. Plus, we all have our favorites, so why not make them often?!