30% Rye Seeded Onion Sourdough with Dark Malt Beer
This year's CSA organic grain share has arrived and it was a good harvest despite pandemic and incredible summer heat and wildfire challenges. I received several bags of organic rye, a bag of Canadian Marquis heirloom wheat and a bag of Manitoba wheat, a cultivar of Marquis. Marquis was first developed as a cross between Red Fife, Canada's oldest wheat variety and a variety from India called Hard Red Calcutta; it combines the best traits of both parent lines and by the early 1900's was grown on over 20 million acres, about 85%of the wheat acreage in North America. Many other new varieties of wheat have been bred in Canada over the past hundred years but the heritage of every one can be traced back to crosses made with Marquis. It's always a treat, a privilege, to receive such high quality organic grain; the connection with the local farm where it is grown and the heritage of the wheat makes me grateful for every loaf of bread.
My first bake with this year's harvest, bread for the farmers - a 30% Rye Seeded Onion Sourdough with Dark Malt Beer - 40% fresh milled sifted Marquis flour; 30% fresh milled sifted rye flour; 30% organic all purpose flour; 22% levain; 2% sea salt; 67% filtered water; 15% dark malt beer; 15% caramelized onions; 10% mix toasted black and white sesame seeds and poppy seeds; 3.5 hour bulk ferment with 4 sets of stretch/folds, then shaped and into the fridge for an overnight cold proof. Baked in pre-heated covered pots, 500 F for 21 minutes, 450 F for 10 minutes and finished out of the pots on a baking stone, 450F for 19 minutes.
Comments
Rye, dark beer, caramelized onion.... sounds amazing. And fresh-milled specialty flours.
Interesting.... must be quite active with all that fresh rye... hence the cold proof I suppose.
What do you do with the bran you sift out?
Looking forward to the crumb shot and tasting notes!
Thanks for your comments Happycat. Yes, the fresh milled rye is like rocket fuel and when paired with the dark beer things were pretty active...had to keep a close watch during the bulk fermentation, even at a cool 20 C room temperature the dough rose quickly. As for the cold proof, that is just the way I like to do things with all my sourdough breads, I think the slow cold fermentation adds flavour no matter what mix of flours. I keep the sifted bran for feeding my starter an occasional treat and dusting the bannetons and coating the sides/bottoms of my loaves. And sorry, no crumb shot or tasting notes for these loaves - they were baked for the farmers that shared their grain harvest with me!
I wish I could do that for the people at Daybreak Mills in Saskatchewan but they are just a tad too far. I just got my yearly shipment of grain as well. I was scraping the bottoms of my tubs. 😂
David, great history lesson and wonderful loaf of bread you baked. It has been quite some time since I've seen you post.
By the way, my home made miso turned out great. I started using it after 365 days of room temperature fermentation. I had no issues with mold whatsoever. Thanks again for suggesting I try making it myself, it tastes great.
Benny
Hi Benny, I haven't been posting much but thought I would for this bake, a note of gratitude for this year's harvest. With the pandemic, climate issues, turmoil in the world systems it is a privilege to have this grain. The area where it is grown is surrounded by fertile land, rivers, forests and mountains but was still subject to the intense heat dome event of this past summer, wildfires and pandemic caused infrastructure issues (the combine and harvester the farm uses are relics, parts are not even made for them anymore so they have become really good at work around solutions using whatever they can find; even contemporary parts for their other equipment were hard to come by, delays in shipping etc). Anyway, all that to say, the current state of things has given me pause to think more about being grateful - for the farmers' diligence, hard work, perseverance to grow this grain; for having enough to eat, relative comfort, health....all that stuff. And yes, that includes homemade miso too! Glad your batch turned out, hope you have another batch started for next year....I was going to open mine up last month after a year but it smells so good I am going to leave it for another year, see if I can get some nicely aged miso! Take care of yourself, stay safe.
Amother one that I need to bookmark and make. Glad to see you posting again!
Hi Danni, glad to hear from you, nice to see you're still baking and posting beautiful breads! I think you would like this bread. Onion and rye go well together but I think the addition of the dark beer will make it a special sandwich rye! It reminds me of the onion breads Ian often posts. Hope all is well with you and the family as another winter approaches, stay well!
P.S. Did you get your home pottery/kiln set up ok?
My studio building is up but it has no doors or windows yet. I’m waiting for the electrician to wire it up and hopefully it won’t be long before the windows get here and can be installed. Then it’s insulation, dry wall, tongue and groove red pine ceiling and sheet vinyl flooring. After that I still need hubby to build me a table and counter before it’s fully functional. I have the wheel but the kiln is still on order although right now, I have no room for it so delaying it is just fine. Thanks for asking!
So nice to see you posting. This one is right up my alley and similar to one I’ve made in the past. As you mentioned in your comment above I do have a penchant for this combo of flavors and I have no doubt this version is excellent. My friend has gotten into home beer brewing and I promised him I would make a bread using it. This combo will certainly work😋. Hats off to you celebrating the local farmers. I’ve been buying some grain from Barton Spring Mill which has some fantastic varieties and I’ve been very pleased with the outcomes.
Best regards,
Ian
Nice to hear from you Ian, hope all is well with you and your family. Yes, I was certainly thinking of you when I made this bread...your go to ingredients, onion and rye (no porridge though!) and with some of your friend's home brew beer I look forward to seeing what you come up with. Stay well.
David