wow

so, i've been wanting to push the boundaries of my final fermentation time, which is the period of time that bread develops its flavor, where the crumb structure and texture is determined, and how the crust develops. the final fermentation for this boule was 20 hours, and i have to say, the crust and crumb of this loaf was pretty, well, wow.

here's what: if you start feeding your starter twice a day starting today (saturday), you can have this bread for christmas day. that's what i'mmunna do. i'll make one for my friend jen too (yes, you can just double the formula). together we'll rip off pieces of it and dip it in our christmas soup. after our hot chocolate. and presents.

here's a snapshot of your schedule in case you do want to make it: 1) feed the starter twice on saturday, 2) then twice on sunday - like 8am and 3pm, 3) then start the levain on sunday night like 11pm or midnight, just before bed (be sure you feed the starter again after you rob it for your levain. yes, it's fine if you feed your starter 3x in a day. and yes, it's fine to feed your starter spaced apart by, oh, i don't know, 6, 7, 8 hours. if you have a good strong starter, it will be fine, i do it all the time, it makes her good and robust and ready for action) 4) start the dough on monday morning, like 7am or 8am, even 9am, but you will have to determine the best time by the health of the levain 5) and bake the bread tuesday morning, after a full 20 hours of fermentation.

oh, hey, a note on shaping. when forming your dough into a boule, be sure to get it as round as possible, because when it's resting in its hammock, it is going to retain the shape that you shaped it in. that means, if you left it knobby or misshapen, that's how the bread will bake up. when i shaped this loaf, i remember thinking that i should give it a couple more twists to round it out. there was a little 'point' on one side of it, and i used it as an opportunity to see if it would round out in the bowl. one would think, right?

alas, it will not, so, if you want a perfectly round boule, 1) make sure that you don't over-hydrate your dough 2) be sure that fermentation is complete from levain through final fermentation 3) be sure to take care when shaping the boule. it's not that i mind a little funkiness to the shape of my bread, after all, it is rustic. i just thought you might want to know. little tweaks in this experiment, yeah?

so, this just about uses up all of my BRM light spelt. i wanted to do a post about it because there it is, on the supermarket shelf, it is its own product, and perhaps you were passing it by all these long months thinking 'what is 'light' vs. white vs. whole? how will it behave? should i try it?'

light spelt is a cross between whole and white spelt. bob sifts out enough bran to lighten the flour (personally, himself, just kidding. is there even a real bob? or is he like aunt jamima? a mere mascot to make us personally connect with his flour? yeah, too much time on these here hands...) so you get to eat a 'white' bread that won't make you feel so guilty. not that i feel guilty about eating white flour. what's the point in that? guilt is overrated. just drop it and you'll be fine.

back to bob and his flour. verdict? i personally appreciate the flour. flavor: when i took my first bite, i literally said 'wow'. the crust: was earth shattering, the crumb: was perfectly gelatinized. so there's that. and here's this.

city bread, in light spelt

THE NIGHT BEFORE DOUGH DAY

make your levain:

37g starter
111g dark rye flour, i used BRM
111g h2o

mix this together to make a paste and ferment. mine took 7 hours 15 minutes.

DOUGH DAY

make the dough:

259g levain
367g h2o
275g BRM light spelt flour
275g KA bread flour
12g sea salt

mix together the levain, the flours and water until it reaches a shaggy mass. autolyse for 1 full hour. after autolyse, squish the salt into the dough with your hands.

begin the bulk fermentation. for the first two hours of the bulk fermentation, you will perform a series of turns every half hour at room temp. for the last two hours, pop the dough in the fridge and allow it to ferment, untouched.

after the bulk fermentation is complete, turn the dough out onto a counter dusted with brown rice flour, gather it up into a loose round and let it rest for 10 minutes. after it has rested, shape it into a boule, focusing on getting it as round as possible if you wish. But don't go too crazy. you don't want to compact the dough after it has developed such lovely gases or risk tearing the 'skin'.

pop this into a bowl lined with a linen that has been dusted with brown rice flour, pop in the fridge and ferment for 20 hours.

BAKE DAY

one hour before you bake, preheat the oven to 550 degrees. make sure your stone and both halves of the combo cooker are in there too.

after a FULL HOUR (i'm serious), unearth the dough onto a peel lined with a piece of parchment, score the dough in some lovely pattern, then slide it into the shallow half of the combo cooker.

pop on the top half and turn the oven down to 475 degrees. steam for 30 minutes.

after the steam, remove the top half of the combo cooker using an oven mitt to avoid a nasty steam burn.

turn the oven down to 450 degrees and bake until the richest marron.

to the staff of life!

this post has been exhibited on Susan's wild yeast blog. thank you susan, for giving us a platform to share our bread!

JUST A LITTLE MORE

the classic

so, tell me what you think of this. bacon. gruyere. leeks. in a bread. holy cow, right? because if you put this combination on/into anything, it's bound to be good. i'd been wanting to do this bread for a while now, but before i get into the specifics of the thing, i have to talk about a few emails that i've received lately about starters.

the classic, in spelt

it's a daunting thing starting a new sourdough starter. i know firsthand because, well, my own challenge is what compelled me to start this whole experiment to begin with. my own starter has indeed evolved over time. it began as a 100% hydration 50/50 whole wheat/all purpose starter and ended up a 90.5% hydration 100% organic dark rye starter (you can use your 100% hydration starter for your all of the formulae on my blog).

my starter is 60g total: 20g of starter, 19g of h2o, 21g of dark rye (either bob's red mill or to your health sprouted rye). i like my starter a tad on the stiff side, and the extra couple of grams of flour gets it right around where i like it.

recently, one of my readers sent me pictures of his starter. he was fretting over the density of it (his was right at 100%, and he was convinced that it would not ferment properly). he figured that it needed more water. here's the thing, there are stiff starters (75% hydration), more liquid starters (my friend Joe uses a 125% hydration starter), our (more or less) 100% hydration starter and all hydrations in between. it's really up to you to decide what strikes your fancy what sort of starter you want to use, and whatever the case, you can 1) adapt the formula you are following to work with whatever hydration your starter happens to be 2) easily change the hydration of your starter if you want to adjust the starter to the formula instead by doing a little planning. just begin feeding it more or less water/flour to arrive at the called for hydration a couple of days prior to bake, and you are good to go. a stiff starter WILL ferment, if you don't believe it, i have photographed the progression of my rather stiff starter starting before feeding and the hours ensuing:

just before feeding

the above photo is my starter first thing in the morning, just before feeding. the bottom two pictures are photos taken moments after feeding. i have included top and side shots for you. as you can see, it is rather stiff.

just after feeding, top and side views

now listen up, because this is important, i want everyone to see that i do not get that dramatic rise and fall that we all talk about. it just sort of puffs up, not dramatic, right? ahhh, but if you notice when i flip the jar over to have a look-see in the bottom you will find evidence of some gorgeous fermentation. now that's impressive. and yes, throughout the day i flip over my little jar because it always makes me smile. little joys...

 1 hour after feeding

2 1/2 hours after feeding

6 hours after feeding

so, dear reader, if you think that a stiff starter will not ferment, i think the photos above prove otherwise, so forge on! not only will it ferment, but it will make fantastic bread...



onward.

listen, i know i'm no iconoclast when it comes to my bread, in fact, i think my baking may be a little mundane. i get on kicks, see, and i run with a certain flour because i'm digging it, and i'm not ready to forge ahead with another flour because i'm also thrifty. if i have 10 pounds of rye, you all are going to see a lot of rye. this is also why i don't post weekly (i think i do every 2 weeks at this point), because you all would end up seeing the same bread over and over again. i try only to post if i have something new to show you, or else, why bother. just know that i am over here baking regularly.

so, this classic uses spelt. not white or whole like i have been using, but this 'light' spelt that seems unique to bob's red mill. i've been futzing around with it lately, so you are going to see two variations in the upcoming weeks, this one today, and one more. i have some flour to use up before i move on to something new.

i began with a moderately hydrated dough. if i added too much water in the start, all of the olive oil and liquid from my additional ingredients would have pushed it over the hydration edge. it was pretty easy to work with, this dough, despite the hefty additions.  i have a habit of loading up my bread with goodies because what i don't like is some 'bready' thing that's distinctly separate from the inclusion of whatever it is that i add, in this case, leeks etcetera. my vision with this: you bite into it, see, and get a balanced mouthful of this chewy crust with a bit of bacon, cheese, and leek. which brings us to our...

verdict: this bread turned out to be AMAZING! full gelatinization and a shattery/brittle crust was realized, and i don't even have to tell you what the classic combination of leeks, bacon, and gruyere tastes like. i think you already know. but here's the thing, the crumb was so UBER TENDER that it pretty much melted in my mouth, and i am so glad that now i get to share this with all of you!

and without further blather, here are the fabulous details of our classic. please write and let me know how yours turned out for you!

THE EVENING BEFORE THE BAKE

make your levain:

40g 90.5%, 100% brm dark rye starter (you can use your 100% hydration starter for this)
80g brm dark rye flour
80g h2o

12 hour levain

mix together the above ingredients, and when fully amalgamated, allow it to ferment. mine fermented for 12 hours overnight. it does not have to ferment this long.

THE DAY BEFORE THE BAKE

when the levain has come to fruition, create the dough:

200g levain
250g brm light spelt flour
250g ka bread flour
325g h2o
260g leeks (weighed uncooked)
340g thick cut, applewood smoked bacon (weighed uncooked)
140g cave aged gruyere cheese (don't get the cheap stuff)
12g good fruity olive oil, plus an additional TB for the leeks (see below)
8g kosher salt (one reader asked if he could use fine sea salt... of course you can!)

ready for autolyse

combine the levain, flour and water until you reach a shaggy mass, allow it to autolyse for a full hour. while this bit of magic is taking place, prepare the following:

slice the bacon into flags and brown over medium heat. remove from heat. with a slotted spoon, remove bacon from pan and drain on paper towels. pop in the fridge to cool.

pour the bacon fat from the pan and deglaze with 1/2 cup of water, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom. slice the leeks into flags, rinse and add to the pan with 1 TB of olive oil. sweat these down till soft, then spread out on a plate and cool in the fridge.

cut the gruyere into cubes. set aside.

back to our dough. after autolyse, squish the salt and olive oil into the dough with your fingers until thoroughly amalgamated. the four-hour bulk fermentation begins.

for the first two hours of the bulk fermentation, perform a series of turns every half hour, and at the first turn add the bacon, cheese and leeks...

after the first turn, the ingredients thoroughly enrobed by the dough.

sort of fold the dough over the ingredients to envelop them, then turn the dough twice more. complete the remaining 3 series of turns over the next hour and a half, ensuring full dispersal of the ingredients, and pressing any escaping cubes of cheese or bits of bacon deeply into the dough with your finger.

after the two hours of turns, pop the dough into the fridge to finish its ferment for its final two hours. notice the picture below how i managed to keep all the goodies in the dough after the turns.

after turns, the goodies still hidden in the dough.

when the bulk fermentation is complete, turn the dough out onto a counter that has been dusted with organic brown rice flour and form into a loose round. allow the dough to rest for 15 minutes before shaping it into a boule.

after 4-hour bulk fermentation

dough, just turned out, dough just loosely shaped/tucked, dough resting

after it has rested 15 minutes, shape into a boule, then pop it into a linen lined bowl that has been dusted with rice flour. pop into the fridge and ferment for 17 hours.

rested dough with rainbow, shaped into a boule, ready for final fermentation in its linen-lined bowl

THE DAY OF THE BAKE

preheat the oven outfitted with a combo cooker and a baking stone to 550 degrees for a full hour. after this hour, unearth the dough onto a peel, being sure that a piece of parchment has been placed over the mouth of the bowl for easy sliding; score, then slide it into the shallow end of the combo cooker. for this bread, i chose a 'bulls-eye' score.

fully proofed, naked as a jaybird, bulls-eye scoring, into the combo it goes...

cover with the fat end, turn the oven down to 475 degrees and steam the loaf for 30 minutes. after 30 minutes of steam, remove the lid of the combo cooker and jump for joy because it's awesome (and so are you).

steamed

slide it back into the oven and turn it down to 450 degrees for 15 minutes, then rotate the pan and turn the oven down to 400 to finish baking, mine took another 15 minutes, for a total of one hour, and i did take the temp of this bread. it came out to 210 degrees. i generally do take the temp of bread that's stuffed with a lot of goodies, just to be sure it's fully baked. I know 400 degrees sounds low, but the cheese will brown the crust quickly, and that bread, as dense as it is with all of those humectant things that we added will need to bake for the full hour.

please wait at least 1 1/2 hours before slicing into this bread. it really needs time to rest so that it will completely stop baking (bread actually keeps baking for a bit when it's just pulled out of the oven), and the moisture has time to properly distribute throughout the bread. this will enhance the texture of the crumb. as well, when you slice it, a good way to store it so that that sliced end does not get hard is to store it cut side down on the counter. then, throughout the day you can take whacks from it without having to slice off a brittle bit from the cut end first. see the photo above.

to the staff of life!

THE SUPERFLUOUS SHOTS

this bread was classic enough to send over to wild yeast's yeast spotting for appraisal.