November 23, 2015 - 6:36am
Sunday Multi Grain Sourdough
Hey Everyone,
Thought I'd share another weekend bake with you guys, I decided to go with a multi-grain sourdough after my pain au bacon the other week. This one had a 40% soaker made of corn meal, millet, cracked wheat, and cracked barley! Definitely a little denser than I'd like (I was hoping for a more domed top but it stayed pretty flat and didn't have the ears/grigne I would've liked) but I'm still very pleased with the flavor. Let me know what you guys think!
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wet or a bit over proofed or both. These are tough breads to get just right. I used to always get them too wet and over proof them every time it seemed and got flattish loaves too. For a 40% soaker that crumb is pretty soft and open. The bold bake has to be tasty. This one would make some fine sandwiches for sure. If it tastes great then the bread was a total success in my mind since you can't eat the beauty looks and besides they have little flavor! Well done and happy baking
Happy baking
I think that overproofed is a good guess, it was a more experimental time schedule for the proofing on this bake. I was going off a base Forkish recipe (the 12-15hr bulk ferments and ~4hr proofs have worked nicely for me) but I wanted to see if I could stretch the proofing time to closer to 7 hrs. After shaping I put the banneton and loaf in a plastic trash bag and put it in my basement (~50F). I suppose I could've just sucked it up and woke up at 430 to bake it but an extra 3 hours of sleep sounded nice. Do you think that 41F in the fridge would've been a better bet? I was thinking that would make the final proof too long and I would've needed to wait till closer to a 12hr proof to bake the loaf off.
I do final proof of 12 hours at 36 F in the winter no worries. I pay bo attention to Forkish times because they are all way off and way too long for me in AZ ....except in the dead of winter when the kitchen gets down to 68 F and more closely matches his kitchen temps.
I would try it at 41 F in the fridge and see if can go the 7 hours though. You can tell by looking at it when it comes out. When mine over-proofs, shaped in the fridge,i just reshape it and let it proof again on the counter. The crumb ism't affected to badly - the spring and bloom are much better though. Usually if i'm using the fridge for a retard i just bulk it and then shape the next morning after it warms up for an hour or two and let it proof on the counter.
Thats a cool idea, reshaping if you end up with an overproofed loaf. I'll have to remember that for next time! Next time I do this loaf I'll probably start it at a different time (Mix and bulk overnight instead of during the day) so I can do an afternoon bake without worrying about timing.
Not sure if you can diagnose it without pictures, but when I originally got to the loaf after proofing it was kinda flat in the banneton even though it had risen nicely (kinda puddly if that makes sense). It was an exceptionally slack dough even with 4 folds, do you think this had something to do with the combo of spelt flour with flour and corn meal in the soaker? Or would that just be indicative of overproofing? Originally the shaping was tight and it held it's form in the banneton. It did something similar between the bulk ferment and shaping, more-so than my levain doughs usually do.
at all. Rye isnlt very god at all either so if that was in the mix then even worse. Spelt is also very fast compared to wheat breads and it doesn't like to be too wet either. So for fermenting, proofing - low gluten, fast working and a wet dough are a real difficult combination.....and every easy to over ferment and over proof - sounds like what happened to your dough losing shape in the basket and sort of puddling.
With this combination, once it goes over the edge, reshaping and proofing may not work as a fix like it would for other grains. You might want to mix up some more bread flour, water and salt add it to the mix, say 15-20% of the original flour, do some slap and folds to get the gluten back in better shape and then proof again. Lots of ways to save a dough that is over proofed if it hasn't gone way too far and turned to goo - depending on what is in the mix originally.
Awesome, thank you for the advice! Now that I'm beginning to toy around with other flours it's good to know I have some people with answers :D
Looks excellent, I would be pleased with a loaf that pretty! Well done
Dabrownman is such a good mentor. I'm just a good eater. I bet it was delicious - crumb looks good to me and ingredients sound delicious! Love Dabrownman's advice on patching up the proof.