A quick roundup

I didn't have time to post detailed entries on my latest bread attempts, but here's a quick roundup and some photos of what I've made in the last week:

1. Sunflower Seed Rye

This was a 30% rye recipe/formula that I learned at the artisan bread course I took last fall.  The 70% hydration dough uses my sourdough starter built up with rye flour the night before, and some white flour added the next day along with some toasted sunflower seeds. 

It's mixed for 8 minutes total in the mixer, then the sunflower seeds are added by hand, and then it sits for 2 hours with one stretch & fold in between before loaves are formed.

As an experiment I added a little whole wheat flour in the final dough.  The whole wheat was at an awkward teenaged stage (a few days since milling), but because it was only added on the day of baking, and comprised a small percentage of the flours, I hoped it wouldn't wreak too much havoc in the dough. 

The bread was baked on parchment paper on a baking stone in the oven, with a steam pan underneath.  The sides split during baking but it was otherwise great.  Not sure if the splitting was due to overproofing the loaves at the final stage, the whole wheat flour, the position of the loaves in the oven, or something else.  I've not had that happen before.

2. Sourdough English Muffins

Also this past week I made more sourdough english muffins from this recipe, using the called-for whole wheat flour this time.  I made them a little thicker than my previous attempt, making 9 muffins from the batch, and found they took a long time to bake, about a half hour on the 275F griddle.  They didn't have as many holes as last time.  I think I added a little too much flour during kneading.

3. Good ol' hamburger buns

And finally, I used my recipe for multigrain sourdough to make some hamburger buns:

Not much to say about them other than the 2 loaf recipe made 16 good-sized buns.  I think they're a little sweet for hamburger buns but my family loves them.