Red Miso Honey 30% Whole Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread
This past winter I figured out my miscalculation on the salt content of my miso when I realized that I based the salt on the dry weight of the beans when in fact I needed to account on the hydrated weight. This loaf achieves a nice mild yet distinct flavour of my homemade 1 year fermented red miso. To balance the flavour I have added a small amount of my friend’s wild flower honey from their beehives. Other than the addition of the honey, this is otherwise a lean bread since no fats were added. The bread is lovely and soft with a fairly open crumb for this type of bread. I did attempt to score it, but it was very very soft. The resulting bloom actually almost appears to have occurred naturally. I think the next time I will try this again and add some toasted sesame seed oil and see how that comes out.
Overall hydration about 82% when including the 18% water in honey
For 1 loaf in a 9x4x4” Pullman pan.
Build stiff levain, ferment at 74°F for 10 hours overnight.
Starter 6 g, water 23 g bread flour 39 g
Bread flour 262 g, Whole Wheat Flour 129 g, Water 304 g, all levain, hold back water 13 g, honey 26 g and Red Miso 54 g
In the morning, add miso and honey to the water and dissolve. Then add the levain and break down the levain as well as you can. Add both the flours and mix well until no dry bits are left. After 10 mins of rest start gluten development with slap and folds then gradually add the hold back water in several aliquots using Rubaud to fully incorporate the water well. Alternatively you can use your standmixer to develop the dough and do the bassinage. Bench letterfold, remove aliquot, then at 30 mins intervals do coil folds until good structure is achieved.
Once the dough has risen 40% then shape the dough into a batard and place in prepared pan.
Final proof the dough until it has reached 1 cm of the rim of the pan. pre-heat oven at 425°F and prepare for steam bake.
Once oven reaches 425ºF score top of dough and then brush with water. Transfer to oven and bake with steam for 25 mins. Vent the oven (remove steaming gear) rotate the pan and drop temperature to 350ºF. Bake for another 25-30 mins rotating as needed until browned. Remove from the pan and place directly on the rack baking for another 5-10 mins to firm up the crust.
Comments
Here are some photos of the crumb. I’m happy that these types of almost lean breads can turn out almost as well as my milk breads.
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So good looking, Bennie! Your methods are very tolerant of variations, and I love that. I notice that your stiff levain didn't include sugar. Why is that, and how do you think it affected the final loaf?
TomP
Thank you Tom. Since this wasn’t a milk bread and more along the lines of a typical sourdough hearth loaf but baked in a pan, I decided to use a stiff levain and allow some sour notes in the bread. I think the small amount of sour tang worked well with the miso and honey. I forgot to include the pH measurements I did. After mixing the pH was 5.31 and at the time of the bake the pH had only fallen to 4.22. With my starter now being fed only bread flour, the sour notes are reduced and the pH readings would suggest that as well. When I kept a 100% rye starter a bake with a composition like this would have reached a pH of around 3.9 with a similar or even smaller total rise.
Benny
I've seen pH readings much the same with lean sourdough doughs.
For the last several months I have maintained a starter at room temperature (73 - 77 deg F) that is 90% hydration, 90% bread flour, 10% whole wheat atta flour, 1% salt. I usually add a few grams of rye bran. I feed it 1:4.5:5 before going to bed. It usually ferments for 10 - 12 hours before it's fully developed and remains usable for hours after that. At that point it will have risen by a factor of 3 or 3.5. The starter stays in good condition even though I don't feed it until the next bedtime. So it's very tolerant of conditions and timing, a good thing in my book. I imagine your stiff levains are too.
The salt of course slows down the fermentation, which is good when I want to only feed it once a day. The salt does not interfere with the LAB as best I can tell. The little bit of rye bran slows it down too, and perhaps makes sure the LAB count stays up in case it should decide to take a vacation.
That is a very nice way to keep your starter. Great that you can keep it out and only feed it once per day. The 1% salt is less than what most use in their breads, so doesn’t have any significant effect on the microbes either LAB or yeast. My stiff sweet levains are also as you say very tolerant. Once at peak they will stay there for quite some time.
Your crumb is perfect and the flavor combo must taste fantastic.
Happy baking.
Ian
Thank you for your kind comments Ian.
Happy baking.
Benny
that looks amazing benny! I imagine the miso tasted really nice and interesting.
I know that sometimes soy flour is used as a dough conditioner - do you think that the soy content in the miso made the bread softer than it otherwise would have been?
Yes we enjoy almost anything with miso in it, the bread definitely had a nice mild miso flavour.
The miso may have had a mild effect on the softness of the bread. Similar to what you might get when you add other non gluten containing things such as mash potatoes.
Benny
Lovely loaf, Benny.
Richard
Thank you Richard, I hope you’ve been well and are still baking.
Benny