This week I finally got smart and mixed together 500 grams each of King Arthur All Purpose Flour and their White Whole Wheat Flour and put it in an empty container to use for refreshing my starter. That simple and now obvious act seems to have saved me several minutes a day when refreshing my starter. The time consuming part of that process is scooping out the discard starter and getting it into the wastebasket without making a mess.
This week I am making another variation based on Tartine Country Sourdough. This has become my favorite bread to make. The change this week is to substitute whole rye flour for half of the whole wheat flour. I want to see if that small amount of rye flour has an impact on the taste of the bread. I am hoping for some added complexity to the flavor.
The Formula
| Ingredient | Amount | Bakers % |
| The Leaven | ||
| Starter | 10 g | 10% |
| Water | 100 g | 100% |
| 50-50 Flour Mix | 100 g | 100% |
| The Dough | ||
| Starter | 200 g | 20% |
| Water | 750 g | 75% |
| Total Flour | 1000 g | 100% |
| Bread Flour | 900 g | 90% |
| White Whole Wheat Flour | 50 g | 5% |
| Whole Rye Flour | 50 g | 5% |
| Salt | 20 g | 2% |
My Process
- The night before mixing the dough add the 100% hydration starter to a bowl with the water and mix thoroughly. Add the flour mix to the bowl and stir until completely incorporated and somewhat smooth. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and leave on counter overnight, about 12 hours.
- The next morning weigh out 700 grams of water and put in the dough mixing bowl. Weigh the remaining 50 grams of water and reserve. Weigh out the remaining ingredients, except the leaven. Experience has shown me that I will lose 10 grams between what sticks to the dough scraper and the bowl.
- Mix the three flours together to get them blended as uniformly as possible.
- Add the leaven to the mixing bowl with the water and stir with the danish dough whisk until uniformly distributed in the water.
- Slowly add a scoop of the mixed flours to the mixing bowl using the dough whisk to incorporate the flours before adding the next scoop of flour. Continue adding and mixing until all the flour is in the bowl. Continue mixing until no more dry flour is in the mixing bowl.
- Cover the bowl with a towel and let rest on the counter 40 to 50 minutes.
- Add the salt and the remaining 50 g of water to the bowl. Squeeze the dough though the fingers to work the salt and water into the dough. It will get further incorporated during subsequent stretch and folds.
- Cover the bowl with a towel and let rest on counter 30 minutes.
- Stretch and fold the dough and try to incorporate any remaining water. Transfer the dough to the fermentation container and cover.
- Stretch and fold fold the dough an additional 3 or 4 times on 30 minute intervals. Cover dough in between. Check the dough strength before the third stretch and fold with a windowpane test. Continue until a good strong dough is developed. I ended up stretching and folding this batch a total of 6 times at which point I was finding some large bubbles so I stopped there.
- When desired dough strength is achieved, cover and let dough continue to bulk ferment. Total time should be roughly 6 hours. That is how long for my starter to reach its full height at room temperature. The dough changes in feel from dense an sticky to soft and less sticky when fermentation is done.
- Dump the dough out onto a work surface and divide into two equal pieces. Close up the cut area on each piece. Pick the smoothest side of each and lightly dust with bread flour. Invert each piece of dough and preshape each piece into a ball. Invert on work surface and let rest 20 minutes.
- In turn, tighten up each ball of dough. Place seam side up in cloth lined bannetons that have been dusted with a mix of rye and rice flour. Lightly dust seam side of loaves.
- Place in plastic bags and place in fridge to proof overnight.
- The next morning, place the dutch oven with the lid slightly ajar into the oven and preheat to 500F for 1 hour.
- Remove the first loaf from the fridge. Invert loaf from banneton on to parchment paper that has been lightly dusted with rice flour. Brush excess flour from surface of loaf, if desired. Slash loaf with lame or serrated knife.
- Using the parchment paper transfer the dough to the dutch oven and cover making sure the parchment is completely inside the dutch oven. Reduce oven temperature to 450F.
- Bake for 20 minutes covered the remove the cover and bake for an additional 20 to 25 minutes. Remove bread from dutch oven to rack to cool. Wait at least 1 hour before slicing.
- Return the dutch oven to the oven and increase the oven temperature to 500F and preheat for 15 minutes.
- Repeat steps 16, 17 and 18 for the second loaf.
This loaf is delicious but I don’t think it was any better that the original version with just the white whole wheat flour. I have not been disappointed anytime I have made this bread in any of the variants I’ve made. It always comes out with a great crust, a tender moist crumb and large open structure. I like the fact that it gets baked straight from the fridge as that makes it easier to slash. And it still gets amazing oven spring straight from the fridge. The flavor is great whether eaten fresh the day it is baked or toasted the next day.