I was quite pleased with my previous
effort at baking bread. Especially with getting past my own fear of
trying something new or different. And I am getting withdrawal
symptoms!
So the decision went to making a
sourdough loaf with sunflower and pumpkin seeds. I consulted my copy
of Classic
Sourdoughs, Revised by Ed and Jane Wood for ideas. The normal
recipe requires all-purpose or white bread flour, but I opted for one
cup of rye which I used for the starter, then added two cups of brown
bread flour to this. Some salt followed, along with the ¼ cup each
of sunflower and pumpkin seeds. I used the seeds raw, as per the
recipe. I made bread, using sweetcorn before, which was edible but not really
something you want to do often. The taste does not warrant the
effort. Better to make a corn loaf with some maize flour added, then
use the sweetcorn as an addition.
In this case I think that I am on
relatively safe ground, having a recipe for a loaf with sunflower
seeds. I have also seen other recipes on the internet using the same
mix of seeds that I am using. There seems to be a division of
thinking about whether to roast the seeds before using or not. I
sucked a thumb and decided to go the raw way. Simply because I feel
lazy today.
The starter was made by decanting some
of the first wash mix of my sourdough, then adding a cup full of rye
flour. This was left on the work top for six hours. Once it started
smelling like a live sourdough and developed some extra body, I mixed
the dough.
On the topic of washing, it is
something I do to the sourdough every time I use it. Take it out of
the refrigerator and let it thaw. Then add normal tap water to the
top of the container. Stir the mix to get proper dilution, then
decant 80% of the contents. I used some of this for the starter, the
rest went down the drain. This gets rid of 80% of the acid and the
populatiomn. But the gene pool is intact, so the sourdough grows back
merrily in the less acid habitat that you just created. The 20% of
the sourdough that is left gets fed with some rye flour and a little
additional water, then sits and develops a new population, after
which it goes back in the refrigerator to lie dormant until my next
baking exercise.
Back to the loaf. The starter basically
got the same treatment, except the starter got more rye. I need a
large population to leaven the loaf. I also added two dessert spoons
of brown sugar to the starter. Hopefully this will make a difference
to the end result, where the seeds may not be overly sweet.
The loaves were baked at a temperature
of 180ºC/350ºF
for 40 minutes. Remember I have a fan in the oven and get a more even
temperature gradient. If your oven does not have a fan, up the
temperature by 15-20 degrees. I had the usual little pan of boiling
water in the bottom of the oven to generate some steam.
The
last rise of the loaves in the pans did not look to good but I
persevered. As expected, the loaves did not rise much in the oven
(very little oven spring.) I was very worried by now, wondering what
had gone wrong.
The
loaves came out the oven promptly after forty minutes. The longer
baking time was to allow for the thicker dough. The loaves sounded
nice and hollow to the knock and had a very crisp and firm crust.
After
another twenty minutes' worth of cooling and developing the crust, I
cut the first loaf. My fears were immediately allayed. The crumb had
nice uneven fermentation holes and was nice and elastic with a slight
moisture. The fermentation holes were also large enough for me to
feel more positive about my effort. I was very worried that the dough
had collapsed. This dough was mixed specifically a bit soft and
moist. This experiment is a success, but with a lesson or two
learned. I think to use a bit more fine flour (white bread flour).
This lot had very little fine flour and I suspect that this gave rise
to leakage of the fermentation gases. Also, the dough may have been a
bit on the moist side, rather like dough for a baguette. This may not
work well with a coarser mix of flour.
Other
than the above, there are now regrets. The bread came out exactly to
the taste and form that I intended, except for the rising.
And
the seeds in the crumb makes for a wonderful taste experience. I
shall do this again!
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