60% whole grain bake
Hello Everyone,
This is a short writing about a 60% whole grain loaf baked this morning. The whole grain was a mix of stone ground whole wheat and organic rye, which was let to autolyse with all salt while the levain was building (~8 hours). The hydration during autolyse was about 67% (water to whole grain flour ratio), while the loaf hydration was 75%. I bulk fermented at room temperature (~ 27C) for 4 hours, and then shoved it in the fridge for another 12 hours of bulk cold fermentation. In the morning, I took the dough out of the fridge, shaped and proofed for 50 min at room temperature, and then baked from a cold oven start and cold pot.
I am quite OK with the resulting crumb and crust. My whole wheat flour is quite course, so you can see bits in the crumb. A good autolyse is needed to avoid problems with the gluten network formation. This was a small loaf containing 300 gr total flour (180 gr whole grain), 8.3% fermented flour, 75% hydration, and a dash of honey.
Comments
Beautiful work. The crumb shows your skill.
Thanks Filo
I have not been baking for some time, but have followed up TFL postings almost regularly. Business travel is not giving me much opportunity to bake.
Nice bread Pul.. I bet it tastes as good as it looks.. and don't be shy, add more honey! :) frank!
Thanks Frank,
I will follow your advice and add more splashes of honey next time. The taste has improved the next day.
Did I read your correctly? Cold pot and cold oven? Do you have a super-fast-heating oven?
Keep on baking,
Carole
Yes Carole, it is a mini oven which takes about 25 minutes to heat up to 230C. If I cold start baking, it takes 50 min to finish the process and I don't even bother to remove the pot lid. It's been working fine for me.
I may work up the nerve to give that a shot -- someitime :-)
Several people already experienced with this way of baking. There is not a big difference, especially if you bake out of the fridge. You may double down your loaves for the sake of trying.