Two-Stage Fermented-Porridge Loaf

I’ve recently been making a bunch of rye breads from Stanley Ginsberg’s The Rye Baker. I’ve been loving the technical depth to the recipes, where there are multiple stages of preferment, scalds, soakers, and sometimes you do fun things like combine a preferment with a scald and let it rise a second time before making the final dough. I recently thought to myself, why not bring this back to the world of wheat and apply some of these techniques to a country loaf-style bread? And so this recipe was born.

This recipe starts with a levain and an oat porridge. Then, once the levain has risen, we combine it with the porridge for a second rise. My goal in prefermenting the porridge was two-fold: first to add more depth of flavor, and second to really boost the levain and give it lots of leavening power. Did it actually make a difference? I’d have to make this loaf a bunch more times and have more side-by-side comparisons to really say. But I really liked the resulting loaf nevertheless!

Totals

• 60% bread flour (I used KABF)
• 30% T85 flour (I used cairnspring mills trailblazer)
• 10% whole wheat (I home-milled some hard red spring wheat berries)
• 94% water
• 7% rolled oats
• 2.5% salt
• 0.5% sourdough culture
• 10% of the flour and all the oats are prefermented 

Levain

• 5% whole wheat
• 5% water
• 0.5% sourdough culture

Combine and let double, about six to eight hours.

Porridge

• 7% rolled oats
• 14% water

Mix in a saucepan, heat over medium high heat stirring constantly. Once it fully gelatinizes and reaches at least 160F, take off the heat and let cool to room temperature.

Levain-Porridge

• Levain
• Porridge
• 5% whole wheat
• 5% water

Break up the porridge into little pieces and then combine everything, mixing well. Let rise to 1.75x in size, about four to six hours.

Final Dough

• Levain-porridge
• 60% bread flour
• 30% T85 flour
• 70% water
• 2.5% salt

Mix the salt into the water. Mix the levain-porridge into the salt water. Add in the flours and mix just until no dry flour is left.

Rest the dough for 30 minutes.

Do three sets of stretch and folds evenly spaced over an hour.

Laminate the dough and then fold it back onto itself to build extra strength.

Bulk ferment until 1.5x in size, about three hours.

Preshape and rest for 20 minutes.

Shape and place in a banneton.

Cold proof overnight, twelve to eighteen hours.

Bake at 440F with steam for 30 minutes and then without steam for 20 to 25 minutes, until beautifully deep golden brown. I used a challenger-style bread pan but you could of course use a Dutch oven or baking stone.

Let cool completely before slicing in. I waited till the next day and then refreshed the loaf with a quick rinse under the tap and reheat in the oven. Very good!

IMG_0218.jpeg

IMG_0225.jpeg