Cooking Cheap

Time to try something different. As normal, I’m fooling with two or three things at once. The original recipe is for twice the size I like to make so I’m making a 1lb loaf and its roughly 50% whole wheat bread and 50% white bread flour. I’m also trying another technique and using a whole wheat starter (more on that).

I made a back up clone of my starter a month ago, put it in the fridge and maybe I fed it once. It eventually developed a small hootch layer on the top, that’s normal. I was going to throw out the clone when I decided on a whim to feed it whole wheat just to see what would happens. I stirred up the starter, and I removed (toss away) about half of it (say a 1/2C) add 1/2C whole wheat flour and about half of that in water mixed it all up and left on the counter and some hours later it was bubbly. The next day, I added 1/2C whole wheat and water to the consistency I want and as one would predict it got foamy some hours later. Then I let it sit on the counter for two days (I know — you’re not supposed to do that – feed it or fridge it). It had a hootch layer today and was very liquid like pancake batter. I was thinking of just throwing the whole thing out.

I also picked up a book at the library today, “The Village Baker” by Joe Ortiz and there was a recipe that called for just such a whole wheat creation (sort of) and using a multiple stage technique I’d read about before but hadn’t tried. As I said, I working towards a 1lb loaf.

I dumped about 3/8 C whole wheat bread flour from the freezer on the counter — no mixing bowl, another new experience. I let it warm up a bit and made a well in the flour. ! added 1TBL of my starter batter, and about 2.5 Tbl of water and mixed with two fingers until it was a soft dough. a bit sticky but able to support itself. The amount of starter and water of course depends on how wet the starter is and the amount of flour. My measurements are approximate. I think I know what it’s supposed feel like. That is called the first “refreshment”. As was written, it is about the size of a tangerine. I put it a small bowl, loosely covered with plastic wrap and left it on the counter. It’s supposed to stay there for many hours until something happens (I’m guessing overnight) and then I do a second refreshment and then mix up the dough for it’s 3rd refreshment (aka first rise for the rest of us)

I should note that the “well” method of mixing has less clean up than the hand mixing in a bowl or stand mixer and it’s kind of all artisan and very so “Oh look at me!”. And clean up is easy. did I mention that?

[Starter Side Notes]

I took out half of the starter and tossed it away, This is after the 1Tbl used above, that was for baking purposes, now I ‘m taking care of the starter. Two different things. I left maybe a half cup in the jar. I added 1/2 C whole wheat and and maybe 3 Tbl of water. Thick, very thick, Allmost like the first preferment. but wetter. For what ever reason whole wheat gets more watery than white when fed the same amount of flour and water. Such is my observation. I may learn differently.

Many hours later, the jar of starter had eaten its new feeded and frothed so I put it in the fridge.

[End Starter Notes, Back to bread making]

The stuff in the bowl in called a “levain” (but that term gets used freely for lots of things). It’s been 10 hours and its alive and working but with low proofing temperatures, and the ratio of starter to levain, it’ll be many hours more, The book says the interior will have lots of bubbles. That wouldn’t make sense to most of us, but I know what it means and it’s not there yet. It has a very pleasant odor but I’ve been sniffing sourdough for a few months so it’s relative. It smells like white bread thats being baked – very nice indead. Whole wheat is different though and I’m not confident in handling it.

Second Refreshment (the next day):

It was about 4:00PM when I did the second refreshment on the counter. This time it was
a little messier to mix but no big deal to clean up. 3/8C whole wheat flour, 1/4 cup white flour, 1/4 C levain from the first refreshment (just about all of it) and 1/4C water.

I do have my doubts about this method and the starter I used. These could be very long rise times and wouldn’t match well with my schedule and I remember that putting a rye&whole wheat in the fridge resulted in an over proof but maybe that was the rye or something else I did wrong on that loaf.

Duh! — I just moved it to the warm spot which should help.

9:00 PM. The levain has nearly doubled and it could fall back on its self soon. It is just a small tub of sourdough starter now. The odor is not particularly sour or yeasty or even strong like you get with white sourdough starter that’s active. I removed it from the warm spot,. It could be too warm.

Should I let it go for a few more hours as the recipe suggests and then do the third refreshment (mix the final dough) and do the first rise overnight? I risk over proofing while I sleep. Or I mix soon, go through the first rise and then a retard (nap in the fridge) and I risk over over proofing in the fridge. Duh? There’s less risk of an over proof with the fridge. If it needs more time tomorrow that will be tomorrow’s problem.

11:00PM.

Time to make a dough. The levain is most definitely fully active. 1Tbl of starter can make 1 cup of starter. That’s not really surprising. It’s sort of fun but no magic has occurred yet. Magic or skill would produce a loaf of whole wheat bread I like.

In a bowl, with a wooden spoon, I mixed all the levain with 3/4C warm water, until it wasn’t too lumpy. I got bored. In another bowl I mixed 1C of white bread flour and 3/4 C of whole wheat, that’s even more boring but it seemed like a good idea. It didn’t take long. I measured out 1/2 C of white flour for bench work. I stirred them together in the bowl of wet and I started and then kneaded it. It was not nearly as wet (soft) a dough as I was expecting and most of the 1/2 cup of bench flour was unused. That surprised me. I’ve screwed up or whole wheat is just different. I chose to believe in different. Halfway through the kneading I added 1.5 tsp salt or close to that.

The dough was not sticky and easy to knead so I kneaded it a lot until I could see and feel the gluten forming/ Then kneaded it some more. All by hand. I put the dough in an oiled bowl, covered it with plastic wrap and put it in the warm spot in the bathroom cabinet.

It’s been an hour and I can tell it will only need a hour or two more to get to a the point where I can fridge it. 956 grams and the bowl wieghs 408 which is somewhere between a pound and a pound and half. (1.20834lb but who’s counting?)

3:00AM . Oops. It’s one happy happy dough. The recipe is no help now. Thats kind of how things are. I may turn out crap or I might turn out the best thing since Moses found the mountain top. I put it in the fridge in the rising bowl. I’ll shape it and do the final rise tomorrow.

[Bake day]

It took a lot of hours for the final proof from fridge to oven ready. Something like 5 hours, it was just starting to tear (over proof) on the bottom. It didn’t deflate much getting it out of the homemade bannetton but there wasn’t much oven spring either. I didn’t glaze it and I didn’t put a pan of water in the oven so its not as pretty as it could have been. I preheated the oven and stone to 450F and baked at 400F for 25-30 minutes.

It actually looks like a decent loaf of bread, not huge holes but enough and good texture. It’s the best looking whole wheat loaf I’ve made. It even looks like one of the pictures in the book. I’ve proven to myself that the three stage refreshment technique does work but I didn’t doubt that it wouldn’t work. It’s not bad tasting bread but it’s not all that great either. That could be because I’m not a huge fan of whole wheat or the starter is too young or I under or over fermented or or or. I think it’s because I don’t appreciate whole wheat bread.

The three stage refreshment doesn’t fit my baking schedule, at least not at this point in my baking life. A colander lined with a floured cotton kitchen towel does work as a banneton, the loaf can be inverted and placed on a peel without collapsing (if you knead it enough to get the gluten really working) It was a worthy experiment but neither the bread or the whole wheat starter I made are worth keeping.