Quadruple Seeded Country Sourdough
Although my last two bakes of the 100% whole red fife were delicious, they didn’t turn out as well technically as I would have liked. In an attempt to regain some confidence, I am returning to my country sourdough formula which has been reliable. In retrospect, this being the third time I have baked with this new batch of whole red fife flour, I suspect this is a very fresh bag as it isn’t absorbing water the same as when I have used this flour from this mill in the past. It usually takes me some time to get through a bag of red fife so it probably dries out over time. In the morning after the overnight saltolyse, the dough had a sheen that appears wetter than I am used to seeing. And when handling the dough, it is definitely wetter than it should be. I’ll have to try the 100% red fife again and just really drop the hydration as it is acting like a freshly milled flour I think.
Poppyseeds, sesame seeds, petitas and sunflower seeds totally weight 100 g ~20%
Build levain and mix dough with salt for a saltolyse (could holdback 20 g water) in the evening for overnight builds. Ferment at 74ºF so the levain will be at peak in about 8-9 hours or so.
In the morning, add peaked levain to the dough with holdback water if used using Rubaud mixing to incorporate. Start of bulk @ 80ºF.
Slap and fold until full gluten development (I did 500). Rest 30 mins.
Bench Letterfold fold, rest 30 mins. Set up aliquot jar.
Lamination adding mixture of seeds - sesame, poppy, pumpkin and sunflower seeds. Rest 30 mins.
Do a series of coil folds every 30 mins or so watching dough and doing the coil folds when the dough has relaxed. Stop coil folds when dough is holding shape well.
Shape when aliquot jar reaches 60% (5.5 hours for me) and place shaped dough in banneton. Allow a further RT rise until aliquot jar shows 95% rise and then start cold retard in fridge overnight.
The following day (20 hours later) preheat oven 500ºF with dutch oven inside. After one hour remove dough from banneton, brush off excess rice flour and score. Brush on water and then place dough in dutch oven and place lid on DO. Bake 450ºF for 20 mins. Drop temperature to 420ºF and continue to bake for 10 mins. Remove bread from dutch oven and bake directly on rack for another 15 mins rotating halfway through.
Comments
I have no doubt the inside will be as beautiful as the outside. I hope it restores some faith in yourself!
I feel a bit better now thanks mdw. I just got back from a flour sourcing walk around downtown Toronto and just bought 1 kg of what they describe as a stoneground hard whole wheat flour. I may use that with some whole red fife or maybe just on its own as a 100% whole grain bake next week, unless I find something on my list I feel like baking better.
Benny
Very nice looking loaf Benny. Nice deep color and the crust looks good and crispy. Glad to hear you may have answered some of the questions you had with the Red Fife.
After lamination, did you do anything other than coil folds to incorporate the seeds into the dough? Also, what is your combined seed percentage in terms of the total flour? Just wondering how much inclusion you have while still holding what looks like great loaf shape and gluten structure.
Thank you Troy. I add the seeds essentially in thirds during lamination.
After they are added then the coil folds are primarily for structure but I guess inclusions get further distributed during coils as well.
Benny
Got it. Thank you!
That’s awesome for one loaf! I’ll have to give laminating a shot again when I’m making a single loaf.
By the way, your final product is amazing! Gorgeous colour on that crust and great oven spring!
Thank you Danni! I really enjoy laminating dough even when I’m not adding inclusions. It’s a great opportunity to see what the gluten development is like.
Benny
Hey, you can't just leave people hanging like this. Where's the crumbshot?
LoL! He does it to us every week. ;-)
It’ll be sliced at dinner time, I like to ensure that it is fully cooled, sorry guys.
Benny
19635257-B348-4A0F-BC22-764F8FB85CCC.jpeg
Here are photos of the crumb. More importantly the bread tastes great. I love the flavour of all the toasted seeds.
I could still push the final proof a bit further, this reached about 95% in the aliquot jar but this dough was strong enough to go to 100% which I’ll aim for next time to open it up a bit more. That being said, 20% inclusions is a bit of extra weight to raise.
39F6B0B0-5333-42A3-95AC-B7A2D1E50872.jpeg
249AB925-5AA8-4906-AEA5-63B0EACE6E98.jpeg
14E15B71-2D60-4C90-B666-41A9E30D83F9.jpeg
86827175-42A4-4154-98B3-5C2A324EBBE9.jpeg
Looks wonderful. It seems like there are two distinct sides on the left and right, would that be a result of the shaping?
I think that you’re seeing the distribution of the poppyseeds. I had the seeds all mixed together unevenly I guess in a bowl. So when I added them during lamination they weren’t all distributed evenly.
Ah, I see that now. Your love for seeds has piqued my interest, I may try some soon.
Looks great!
Thank you jl.
Nice loaf. It looks like the fermentation was spot on. I see poppy, flax and sesame. Whats the 4th one? Hemp?
I am not sure if I got a better batch of flour or because more water was added to the dough, perhaps the alignment of the stars but I have been getting the lacy/honeycomb crumb lately as well. At least my definition of it but via a different route with less intensive kneading but using the 10 minute pause when it starts to tear or unknit.
Beautiful bake as always thanks for sharing
Don
Thank you Don as always. There appear to be many routes to the same results, no surprise with sourdough. I may have to try again using less intensive kneading, Kristen certainly doens’t use intensive mixing yet she can get lacy crumb.
The four seeds are sesame, poppy, pumpkin and sunflower all toasted.
Benny
I’m glad it tastes as good as it looks!
Thanks again, yes it turned out quite well. I’m going to try to open up the crumb just a touch more, but I’m getting a more even lacy crumb that I’m aiming for.
Beautiful loaf! Seeded breads are some of my favorite. And glad you able to get back onto more solid baking ground. Experiments can be fun, but recipes that produce consistent results are so satisfying.
Yes I can only take so many “failures” before I need a good bake. A seeded bread is always so delicious.
Benny