50% wholegrain baguette repeat with sourwort
This is basically a repeat of last week's loaf with 50% wholegrain but with about 30% of the water replaced with sourwort. If your goal of getting an open crumb with sourwort then I would say you might be disappointed. As shown, the crumb is more and less the same with and without sourwort. Fortunately, that is not the reason I like sourwort, I was after it for some additional aromas and flavors and I think it did deliver which obviously not showable here. This is my first official baguette bake with sourwort so it is possible I still have not unlocked its potential. Regardless, I am happy with using sourwort and will continue to use it since it will be a SD starter replacement for me to get my bread some mild sourness.
Here is the link that I baked last week without sourwort:
50% wholegrain baguette with 25% red fife 25% WW 50% bread | The Fresh Loaf
Here is the link about making sourwort also called FLAS:
How I make 'sourwort' | The Fresh Loaf
Comments
Love to see these kinds of experiments.
How does the flavour, texture and crust compare with/without?
The biga preferment I use usually had a very good nutty sweet grain favor but the sourwort made it richer with a tad of yogurt like mild sweet and sour, which I like. Surprisingly, the sourwort tastes very sour, a tingling type of sour as best I can describe, but that sourness seems to be very mild in the bread. Thanks.
Ming, your baguette looks smashing.
Would be very interested to see the results diverging 'a bit' (or more) from your original formula:-
(i) use unboiled sourwort (as you get it after souring) and substitute 40% of your usual recipe water.
(ii) reduce whole wheat to 25% or less
(iii) Abort biga alltogether and use 0.8% instant dry yeast instead.
(iv) Reduce fermentation times to: bulk=90min/proof=60min (that is for DDT=28C|82-83F)
(v) Laminate dough 30min into bulk. 'Gluten gymnastics' they call it not in vain.
(vi) Maybe move into a new house (sorry, I hope you can take the joke!)From what I see in your last photo your biga is quite stiff, probably in the range of 45-50% hydration as it should be.
From my experience using a stiff biga like this, I had trouble incorporating it into the main dough after it has spent many hours in a cold enviroment.
Could you please shed your lights on how you manage this?
Is it a matter of putting in some elbow grease or what?
Haha, I use a machine to mix it. Most of doughs start with a biga preferment nowadays, as I like the aroma and flavor that I get out of it. Bigas are very popular in the pizza making community and of course in Italy, but I don't think many bread bakers use this semi dry preferment. A recommended hydration for a biga is usually in the 40-50% range but I keep mine at 50% to make the math easily to handle in my head. Sorry Savvas to disappoint you with this bake but rest assured I will have many more bakes to come with using sourwort.
Haha Savvas, good suggestions, actually I was planning on trying out all of these suggestions anyway including moving into a new house :). I was actually looking around for a new house but then a huge demand came with prices shot up with very few inventories to choose from so I had to shelf that idea for now. Hopefully, once interest rates go up, things will settle down more normally so I can resume shopping for a new place, of course with a higher financing cost.
For this bake I did not use a boiled sourwort but I was planning to repeat the same bake with a boiled solution.
As for doing a lamination, I am a big fan of it, but my doughs usually don't need it because they pass a windowpane with flying colors.
I think there is some crumb openness improvement to be had with using sourwort, it just happens that my baguettes are already have a fairly wild looking crumb, so it is less noticable. I have had a more open crumb than this before (without sourwort of course) but I only get it like 2 out of 10 bakes so it is very elusive to get that awesome looking open crumb, especially with a higher percentage of wholegrain flour.
Great seeing these types of experiments with your baguettes Ming.
Benny
Thanks Benny for chiming in. I hate broken straps :):):)!!!
Hey now, I have a fondness for broken straps! They are like The Hulk revealing his self when he gets angry and busts out of his suit. Yours look good for so much whole grain. I happen to prefer the guilty pleasure of white flour batons. To each their own.
Don
Hello Don, Good to hear from you. I have seen some of your baguettes, and I am a big fan of them. I have baked a lot of wholegrain (not 100% of course) breads lately so I might be tempted to go back to baking some white breads for a while just for a change. Thanks for chiming in my friend.