Skull Rock Stout, Oats and White Cheddar Sourdough

I was looking for inspiration and came acrossAnthony Power’s Irish Stout, Oats and Cheddar Sourdough. Here is my version.

Soaker

175 g rolled oats

185 g Sleeping Giant Brewery Skull Rock Stout

Dough

800 g Strong Baker’s Unbleached flour

150 g freshly milled Selkirk flour

50 g freshly milled rye flour

540 g filtered water + 25 g

110 g Sleeping Giant Brewery Skull Rock Stout

24 g salt

30 g local yogurt

125 g old white cheddar, finely cubed

250 g levain (procedure in recipe)

Two mornings before:

1. Take 18 g of refrigerated starter and feed it 18 g of filtered water and 18 g of wholegrain flour. Let sit at cool room temperature for the day. 

The two nights before:

1. Feed the levain 36 g of water and 36 g of wholegrain flour. Let that rise at cool room temperature for the night. 

The morning before:

1. Feed the levain 72 g of filtered water and 72 g of strong baker’s flour and let rise until doubled (about 6 hours). 

2. Place into fridge until the next morning. 

The night before:

1. Mill the Selkirk and Rye berries if needed. If buying flour, get the freshest that you can and ensure that it is wholegrain. 

2. Place the required amounts of the wholegrain flours in a tub and add the unbleached flour to it. 

3. Cover and set aside.

4. Combine the soaker ingredients together in a heat proof bowl and cover. Let soak, covered, overnight in the fridge.

5. Cut up the cheese in small cubes and toss in flour to keep separated. Refrigerate. 

Dough making day:

1. In the morning, take the levain out of the fridge to warm up before being used in the dough.

2. Using a stand mixer, add the water and stout with the flours to the bowl, and mix on speed 1 until all the flour has been hydrated. Let this autolyse for a couple of hours. 

3. Once the autolyse is done, add the salt, the yogurt, and the levain to the bowl. Mix on speed one for a minute to integrate everything, then mix on speed 2 for 7 more minutes.  

4. Add the soaker, the extra water, and the cubed cheddar to the mixing bowl. Mix on speed 2 until it is evenly distributed. This takes two or three minutes.

5. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and place in a lightly oiled covered tub. Let rest 30 minutes in a warm spot (oven with light on). 

6. Do 2 sets of coil folds at 30 minute intervals and then more 2 sets at 45 minute intervals, and then let the dough rise to about 40%. At about 30%, I tipped out the dough to shape it and it felt rather heavy. I put it back into the tub to bulk for another half hour. It still felt rather solid but not quite as heavy. The amount of add-ins do not make for a light jiggly dough. 

7. Tip the dough out on a bare counter, sprinkle the top with flour and divide into portions of ~840g. Round out the portions into rounds with a dough scraper and let rest 30 minutes on the counter. 

8. Do a final shape by flouring the top of the rounds and flipping the rounds over on a lightly floured counter. Gently stretch the dough out into a circle. Pull and fold the third of the dough closest to you over the middle. Pull the right side and fold over the middle and do the same to the left. Fold the top end to the center patting out any cavities. Finally stretch the two top corners and fold over each other in the middle. Roll the bottom of the dough away from you until the seam is underneath the dough. Cup your hands around the dough and pull towards you, doing this on all sides of the dough to round it off. Finally spin the dough to make a nice tight boule.

9. Sprinkle a  mix of rice and all purpose flour in the bannetons. Sprinkle oat flakes on top of the flour mix, then place the dough seam side down. (As you can see, I forgot to do this). Let rest for a few minutes on the counter and then put to bed in a cold (38F) fridge overnight. 

Baking Day

1. The next morning, heat the oven to 475F with the Dutch ovens inside for 45 minutes to an hour. Turn out the dough seam side up onto a cornmeal sprinkled counter. Place rounds of parchment paper in the bottom of the pots, and carefully but quickly place the dough seam side up inside. 

2. Cover the pots and bake the loaves at 450 F for 25 minutes, remove the lids, and bake for another 22 minutes at 425 F. Internal temperature should be 205 F or more.

I am very glad I used parchment paper on the bottom of the pots. All the loaves stuck in one or more spots to the sides of the pot. I used a flexible bread knife to release the loaves in those spots. Do not bake these without parchment paper unless you want to be eating this bread right out of the pot. ?