07/04/07

Walnut Levain Bread

I started a fresh culture  using organic wheat-berries on Saturday and it was rather vigorous since I did not put it into the refrigerator. Throughout the entire culturing period, I have been leaving it out in my kitchen in balmy Singapore weather. I compensated by feeding a couple of times a day so it was very well fed. My wife complained of the smell only on the first 2 days and after that it was smelling like a healthy starter. I inoculated a starter the night before and refreshed it again yesterday morning. By evening, when I returned home, it was all frothy with a pleasant sour smell.

I mixed it into my regular recipe for Levain Bread, hydration was at 75% with 2oz each of whole-wheat and rye. I wanted to finished up the remnants of walnut and these were toasted at 150C for 10mins. After mixing, the dough was autolysed for an hour while I ate dinner. For the rest of the evening, I stretched and folded twice and the dough went into the fridge for a long cool retard fermentation. In the morning, it was doubled in size. I gave it another stretch and fold before going to work. It went back to the fridge and by the time I returned at 7pm, it was doubled again. I shaped them and proved them for an hour. They were then slashed and baked for 30min at 210C.

The aroma was very good as these have been fermented in the fridge for about 18hours. It was still to hot to cut so I'll have to wait a little later to see check the crumb.