May 19, 2022 - 3:01am
Cracked Grain Sourdough Bread
An accumulation of small amounts of various leftover grains motivated this bake, a cracked grain sourdough bread. I had some rye berries, hard red wheat, spelt, barley and whole oats, 175 g total - coarse cracked and then soaked in 70 g hot water for two hours. The bread was made with 200g fresh milled whole wheat, sifted flour, 800g all purpose flour, 20g sea salt, 220g starter and 750g water. The FDH was about 82% after mixing in the cracked grains soaker. I cold proofed the loaves overnight in the fridge, 11 hours. I am very happy with the taste and texture, lots of flavour and a soft, chewy crumb.
Share
Comments
These loaves look wonderful David, I love the glistening crumb.
Benny
Thanks Benny. Hope you're staying well, have you got any miso fermenting?
Yes David, in fact my first batch of miso which I let ferment for 1 year is now almost gone. I have two batches of miso now fermenting. I’ve now also made amazake and sour amazake and shio koji. I’m considering making some shoyu koji as well. I’m quite amazed at the power of koji rice and the things it can do to make your food better. Thanks for making that suggestion to make my own miso, it has opened a new area of fermentation for me.
Benny
The crumb tells the story, and this looks delicious! Worth the effort.
Thanks SueVT
Sometimes these "odds and sods" loaves give the best results of all......
Lance
Yes, there comes a time when the pantry needs a good clean up, it's always a nice reward when the "mixed bag" turns out well! Thanks.
Beautiful loaves, inside and out! The inclusions sound really nice and I'm sure gave a nice chewiness to the bread. Thanks for posting your method...I would have initially guessed that cracked grains would take longer than 2 hours to soak, so that's good to know (I usually use whole soaked berries and they take a while). Did you mix the grains in with the initial dough or did you laminate them in?
Hi Naturaleigh, thanks for your comments...I cracked the grains with my mill such that they were like a coarse cornmeal, the hot water soaker was intended only to soften them enough they wouldn't break a tooth! Soaking whole berries is a good thing too - I like to soak them just long enough to start sprouting and add them whole or slightly crushed. I did nothing special to mix the soaker, just waited for the dough to develop some strength and mixed it in.
The loaves look and sound great! Love the range of colors in the bloom for the loaf on the right.
I like the different colours on a loaf of sourdough too. Thanks for noticing that, bread is a tactile, visual, sensory experience from start to finish!
David,
Those are incredible looking loaves! Unreal amount of oven spring, ear, crumb, and the overall color of it all. It's just beautiful.
Thanks pnguyen!
Always nice to see a post from you and you certainly didn’t disappoint. Great crumb and I’m sure flavor to boot.
Best,
Ian
Hi Ian,
You must have sensed the oats I put in this one! I am grateful for your posts and helpful comments over the years concerning all things oat porridge....it's a wonderful addition to any bread. Hope all is well with you and your family, good to hear from you!
P.S. Garden photos?
I’ve been so busy trying to get the gardens up to speed I haven’t had much time to post much. My program I use for my formulas BreadStorm is no longer supported by the creator and only works on my old Mac which is painful to use. Benny was kind enough to share his spreadsheet with me so I have to start playing around with it. We added a new garden bed in the backyard after having one of my favorite trees cut down. Will post some photos soon. Thanks for asking.
Best,
Ian