Mike Avery's Cranberry Chocolate Loaf / 100% WW Sourdough

The Chocolate Cranberry loaf was my first 100% sourdough loaf. I won't say too much about it here, because I posted questions about it in another forum. Here is a link to that conversation.

This loaf was made using my yeasted starter. My wild starter still isn't ready yet, although today's observation (day 6) shows that it increased by about 50% - the most so far!

Today I'm trying Mike's 100% WW Sandwich Bread. It looked pretty basic, and I'd like a basic recipe to use every week to hone my skills on.

My dough is in its first rise right now. It's been sitting, oiled and covered, in a sunny window (cool kitchen) for 1 1/2 hrs. It still hasn't doubled yet. This is the same starter I used yesterday in the Chocolate loaf, and it has been fed twice since then, and I waited until it doubled before stirring it down and measuring it.

The recipe calls for finely milled WW. Here in Greenock, I think I only have 1 option for WW. I need to check at the store again. As of now, I'm using the store brand Strong 100% Stoneground WW. The bran flakes are huge - the same size as in the bag of wheat bran that I bought. I have been reading that the gluten in coarsely-ground flour is not 'available' resulting in shorter gluten strands. This might also account for the hard time I had in kneading. I ended up adding just over 1C of additional flour (oh - I doubled the recipe) and it was still quite sticky.

I'm defining sticky like this - wet enough to leave strings of dough attached to my hands, will clean the countertop, but if I leave it sit long enough to clean my hands off, I have to use a scraper to pick up the ball again.

So... if the gluten is shorter, the dough is stickier, wetter, heavier, harder to rise? Hmm... we'll have to see. With the Chocolate loaf, it didn't quite double on the first rising, bit it 'nearly' doubled on the second rise, and then I got very nice oven spring. The conditions were the same - sunny windowsill. But, the chocolate loaf was made with white flour (WW starter) and this bread is 100% WW - much heavier bread. I did get it to pass the windowpane test finally (it took almost 30 min. of kneading).

More comments will be posted as the day's baking progresses.

AFTER FIRST RISING:

After 2 hours, i decided that the dough had nearly doubled. I punched it down gently, turned it over, and reshaped the ball 'inside out'. The dough is somewhat stiffer after the 2 hour rest, and didn't stick to me - yea! As I stretched the dough (the side that was the bottom) the dough did not tear, but made very small (1/8-1/4") blisters on the surface. The dough is very smooth, other than that.

AFTER SECOND RISING:

The dough nearly doubled again - after about 1.25 hrs. I punched it down, divided it in half (double batch) and made 2 loafs. It was still too sticky to put on the counter without a dusting of flour. I spread the dough out - almost using Mike's 'teasing' technique, like for stretch and fold. I rolled the dough up, brushing flour off and pinching the seam as I went. I sealed the ends, turned them under, and placed them into 2 greaed and floured PC stoneware bread pans (I can't get Baker's Joy here) The pans are about 1/2 full of dough - I don't think they'll rise above the surface...

AFTER FINAL RISE:

I was right - they only filled the pans about 3/4 of the way.  I did get them to slash nicely - one long slash down the middle.  Baked for 45 min at 350, then upped the temp to 400 for the last 10 to get them brown(I had the pans too low in the oven).   Because I had greased AND floured my pans, they popped out nicely.  I took them out when the temp was at 205. 

The bread was, again, too moist.  But not as bad as last time.  They were completely risen inside - no thick spots, or pockets of dough.  The flavor is nice - just a bit sour. But that might be because of the extra moisture.  You can't taste the honey (I didn't really want to) so it's a nice any-time bread.  I will definately use this bread next time, and compare notes - using more flour until I'm happy with the texture.  Also, since a double batch wasn't enough for my 2 loaf pans, I think I will make a 3x batch next time.  That makes 1.5 batch in each pan.  I think that would just about do it.