20210517 School of CLAS - 100% Whole-grain Cranberry Walnut Bread
To learn more about concentrated lactic acid sourdough (CLAS), please see here and here.
Cranberry walnut bread is my family's favorite dessert bread. I used to make it mainly with AP flour. I am excited to transform this delicious recipe into a tastier and healthier 100% whole-grain bread using freshly ground flour and more advanced CLAS techniques. Thanks to CLAS, this whole-grain bread is as soft as its AP cousin and does not have the unpleasant grassy taste generally associated with whole-wheat bread. Rum-soaked cranberries, toasted walnuts, fresh flour, and CLAS create a moist whole-grain bread with mellow, complex flavors that one finds irresistible.
As usual, it's super simple to make such delicious bread with CLAS.
P.S. To prevent unsightly pinhole crumbs caused by excessive hydration of whole wheat flour, you can test the flour's absorption capacity by autolyzing it under different hydration levels and observing gluten development. The hydration at which the dough starts to slack/tear is the bottom line for you to stop adding water to the dough.
Alternatively, if your dough contains more than whole wheat flour, you can still judge the maximum hydration of the dough during the mixing process without pre-testing (such as how I do it here).
Pre-dough
3% whole rye CLAS
97% fresh WW flour ground by Vitamix (Central Milling organic hard red spring wheat berries)
72% water P.S. (just enough water to hydrate the flour so that you can knead/mix easily)
0.2% dry yeast
dough temp 86F/30C-ish
86F/30C x 240 mins
Dough
pre-dough
8% water P.S. to reach your dough's maximum hydration (or slightly under)
1.6% salt
38% rum-soaked cranberries
38% toasted walnuts
Total dough weight ~1650g
P.S. Mix
Knead/mix to further develop/strengthen the pre-dough's gluten to ~ medium+ development before adding more water
Continue to mix and add more water gradually to maximize the dough's hydration
Bulk
86F/30C x 60 mins
Shape
Proof
86F/30C x 60-75 mins
Bake
425F x 10 mins w/ steam
375F x 50 mins w/o steam (P.S. adjust timing according to dough size)
Better lighting reveals the attractive purple hue of walnut bread. 
Comments
Love rum soaked raisins with walnuts Yippee, looks like a great loaf. Lovely crumb for 100% whole grain, must taste wonderful.
Benny
We can't stop eating it! The good thing is: It's whole grain--we don't fall into a food coma after eating it. And it is satisfying and keeps us full for a long time, perfect for dieting!
Yippee
Oh my goodness, Yippee. This looks dee-lish! . Are you using recently refreshed CLAS from the fridge or a fresh batch? My CLAS is in need of a refresh, so I plan on this being my next bake. Thanks so much for sharing this formula.
So, it's quite fresh. For your reference, I edited the post with notes of the process. I hope they are helpful.
Yippee
Yippee, thanks for the clarification as well as the addendum notes which are are most helpful. I'm planning on baking this on the weekend. I've referred to Rus' video on using CLAS with wholemeal flours.
Thank you Yippee for this very helpful comment on the water.
The 100% Whole Wheat Bread on YT
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viryDYWyya4)
has 65% overall hydration and the dough is very stiff compared to an airy dough.
I will add water to the "breaking point" on the next loaf.
The above original YT recipe says to just spray the top of the loaf and did not say to steam for the first part of bake (15 min).
I steamed it but am not sure if it made any difference.
The smell is wonderful though and different. Will still have to wait a few hours before tasting.
Dear Yippee,
In the original YT clas ww recipe for WW it gave 70 gr clas for total 700 gr flour. That is 10%.
In the above you use 3%. Is that better when you put most of the ww flour into the pre dough?
Thanks for all your help!
PS.
Now I understand the percentages!
If 70 gr of clas is used with 700gr total flour then the baker's percent for clas is 10%.
However, amount of rye flour in 70 gr clas = (10/29) x 70 gr clas = 24.1gr rye flour;
Therefore, the baker's percent for rye flour from clas is 24.1/700= 3.45%