20% Kamut Sourdough
I baked a sourdough loaf using Kamut for the first time. It wasn’t the easiest thing to find here in Toronto, but I recently came upon a new organic market that carries Kamut grown in Canada. The colour the whole grain flour is a lovely butter like yellow.
This is a 20% Kamut, 80% strong white flour. 9% pre-fermented flour.
Autolyse for 3 hours then added 100% hydration levain, salt 2% and more water to give a total hydration of 78% followed by Rubaud kneading to ensure that salt and levain are well mixed until smooth. Then over the course of 6 hours a stretch and fold, followed by lamination and then three sets of coil folds were done during the first 3 hours. Pre-shaping was done when the aliquot jar had risen 40%, followed by a short bench rest and then final shaping. The dough in banneton was left out at room temperature until the aliquot jar showed a 50% rise then cold retard was done in the fridge overnight and baked in the morning.
I’ve recently taking to brushing on water using a pastry brush that first use to brush off any excess rice flour from the time the dough spent in the banneton. I think I am getting a bit better blisters on the crust this way which I like. Anyone have any other suggestions for even bigger better blisters I’m all ears.
Comments
I really like how sunlight brings out the color of the crust, especially the bloom.
Thank you Dave. I’m not sure why I never photographed my bread on our balcony before.
Hey Benito,
Have you ever tried Grain Process Enterprises in Scarborough? They are a wholesaler that supplies restaurants and stores in the GTA and surrounding area. They have a cash and carry outlet store attached to their warehouse that sells to the public. Most of the products are 10kg or larger bags but the outlet store does sell smaller amounts. Good prices. I get all of my grain and flours from them (that's where I get Kamut kernels for grinding at home). Check them out.
Thanks so much for that information. No I’ve never heard of Grain Process Enterprises, I’ll check them out on the internet first. Good thing that they have an outlet store because living in a condo I don’t have space to store 10 kg bags.
Benny
I’ve recently taken to pre-shaping and shaping and I think it is having a negative effect on the crumb being tighter. Since I’m doing coil folds, they are acting essentially as pre-shaping so I think I’ll go back to just shaping unless the dough is feeling really loose.
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This looks like a gorgeous loaf! I love the double ears. I've also pretty much scrapped the pre-shape for my recent bakes, with very good results. I switch to gentle coil folds after completing 3 S&Fs, complete the final coil fold, wait 10 minutes, then tip out onto a floured surface, perform shaping, then into a banneton followed by a cold proof. So, my final coil fold is essentially a pre-shape, as you mentioned. This method seems to preserve a more consistent and open crumb, at least for me, as long as I am gentle enough with the last coil fold, tipping out and with shaping. You've inspired me to get some Kamut and give it a try!
As I think I outlined above my process generally speaking has been using lamination and coil folds since doing the CB with Kirsten last year. I have enjoyed her methods and have essentially applied them to all my breads. This bake I employed Rubaud instead of the slap and folds when adding the salt. Using Kirsten’s method’s I usually don’t pre-shape and now I can see why. This bread should have had a better crumb structure than it does, it is quite tight in places. I know the fermentation was adequate based on the final dough appearance and the 50% aliquot jar rise. So I can only think that it was the tight pre-shape. The only way to say for sure is to try another bake with most things the same without the pre-shape.
Next bake though, I’d like to increase the Kamut because I really couldn’t ascertain a flavour from it. I love the colour of the crust in the area of the fracture near the ears though!
Thanks for your kind comments Leigh.
Benny
You really turn out beautiful loaves Benny! Brushing the dough with water immediately prior to baking is a great idea - one that I’m going to try with my next loaf. I too love to see blisters on the crust. Cheers!
Thanks so much Sjadad. I’m still trying to perfect my methods and as a result sometimes things are quite the way I wish with the crumb. But even when they don’t turn out quite right, I learn from what I changed which is in the long run quite useful.
I got the idea of brushing the dough with water from Theresa of Northwest Sourdough’s YouTube videos. It can give you a good sheen to your crust and seems to help with blisters which I love to have.
Last night for dinner, I also made a Heirloom Tomato, Unripened Goat Cheese, Peach, Avocado and Herb salad with white wine shallot and chive vinaigrette. We enjoyed this with the fresh baked bread of course and it made for a lovely dinner with a local rose wine.
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Your crust and crumb look great on this bake. Definitely try upping the % of the Kamut. You can check my posts either on here or on my other blog for some of my bakes with Kamut. Between Kamut and Durum they are 2 of my favorite grains.
Not sure about the blisters since I usually don't worry about that. Doesn't make the bread taste any better ?.
Happy Baking!
Oh, that salad looks amazing.
Hi Ian, thanks for the compliments on my loaf and salad. I have recently been very happy with the crusts and outward appearance of my hearth breads, but I think I’m causing problems with the crumb being too tight by my adding a pre-shape. I’ll only know if that is the cause by seeing what happens when I eliminate the pre-shape.
I do want to try this bread again but with a higher percentage of Kamut. I certainly love the colour that the Kamut imparts, I can’t say that I can tell what distinctive flavour it has but 20% might be too low to be able to tell. The bread certainly tasted good with a good mild sour note.
I’ll have a look at your blog and see recipes you’ve done with Kamut, they might give me some inspiration.
Stay safe.
Benny
Benny, an easy and quick(er) way to get the taste of a new flour is to make a tortilla/chapati or a pita using it.
30 grams flour, 2% salt, 1 to 2% oil, 1/8 to 1/4 tsp baking powder to leaven, water to hydrate. mix, let sit 30 minutes, roll out to 8" (20 cm), cook on a stove-top pan or griddle (no oil), or in a toaster oven, until brown spots on both sides.
Or, use sourdough starter instead of baking powder to leaven.
What a great idea Dave, never would have thought of it, thanks so much.
We don't have nearly enough salads at home. I tend to cook something more substantial like stir fried veggies as dad doesn't consider salads "vegetables". They're a welcome addition to the dinner table but there'd always need to be another vegetable dish. Too much work for me.
My white bread usually has quite a lot of blisters if the dough was retarded. Since I use a lined basket, I can get away with using the minimum amount of dusting flour. There'd not be a bit of dry flour left after the retard, so perhaps your observation is valid. The dough is then heavily sprayed with water before baked.
I never pre-shape the dough anymore. Just don't find it necessary. Maybe yours didn't benefit from it as well. I don't know. The crumb still looks pretty nice anyway :)
I think if I either used less rice flour, or more completely brushed off the flour, then the brushing on of water would give me an even shinier and more blisters crust. I think I’ll stop pre-shaping unless the dough seems really lax.
Now the salad was really good. I accidentally bought the unripened goat cheese instead of the regular stuff. It was fine, but I like the regular creamy goat cheese more. The combination of super ripe peaches and heirloom tomatoes was really great. Then the creaminess of the avocado and goats cheese with the acidity of the vinaigrette really balanced everything out. We’ve been eating a lot of salads this summer to go along with all the bread I’ve been baking. In particular, the many baguettes I’ve been baking trying to improve my baguette baking. With the summer being so hot, the vegetables and fruit have been excellent so far.
Thanks as always for commenting on my post Elsie.
Kamut is not easy to buy other ten online here. But ut is one grain I love to try. For the taste but also because it contains lots of good stuff.
Thank you sir, other than the big holes from insufficient degassing during BF and shaping, I’m pretty happy with this bake. I will do it again with with 30% Kamut.
Hey Benny,
After seeing your post, I was inspired to bake with some Kamut and came up with this boule. It's 35% fresh ground Kamut sourdough with a dried cranberry/dark rum/orange zest/cardamom/vanilla soaker. I usually let my bread sit for a day for the flavour to develop before slicing. Not sure how to attach my formula spreadsheet but here is a link. 35% Kamut with Rum Soaked Dried Cranberries, Orange Zest and Cardamom (single boule) (Click on the 35% Kamut tab at the bottom to open the spreadsheet)
Cheers (from Avenue rd & Wilson!),
Tortoise
Hello Tortoise! Very nice bake, love the scoring and the colour you achieved in the crust. Post crumb photos if you have a chance. I love your additions to our loaf you made, they sound like they would be delicious. Glad I inspired you to bake this.
Yonge and Bloor.
Benny
Hey Benny,
Crumb shot, as promised. A bit of tighter crumb than yours. I used less hydration to get a tighter crumb structure to hold the fruit soak. It stillhas a lacy and custard crumb. Smells dee-lish. Toasted up a sice-very nice, indeed!
Cheers,
Tortosie
That is beautiful, I love that the crumb is even more yellow at the higher percentage of Kamut. Very successful bake Tortoise.