Monday, October 25, 2010

Finally A Little Rain

Woke up to rain this morning...hooray! Since it is a rainy day I think some more baking experimentation is called for. There was a recipe for 'fienbrot' posted on The Fresh Loaf forums from a German baker that might be my answer in my search for the 'perfect' sourdough rye. Evidently, one of the secrets to getting the most out of rye(or any whole grain) when it comes to flavor is to soak it for 24 hours in a lightly salted water mixture. The salt retards fermentation but allows the natural enzymes in the flour to do their magic. I'm going to give it a whirl even though it is a two plus day process as is my process for my 'daily' sourdough which I bake every week. If this keeps up I will have bread dough in some stage of fermenting or soaking 24x7! Madam likes the bread but not my assortment of containers with various concoctions sitting about the kitchen nor the various bags of flour. Right now on the counter are whole wheat flour, whole rye flour, spelt flour, bread flour, semolina flour, and A/P flour. So I ma off to start two long process doughs. My Poilane style sourdough which uses a little rye an spelt in addition to bread flour and requires an overnight levain and the new recipe for fienbrot which has both a whole grain flour soaker and a levain. I might be a nice guy and pre weigh all my flours and at least put away the flour bags since I will have four bowls out on the counter. I can meet Madam half way.

BTW the semolina sourdough turned out brilliant and is definitely a keeper recipe.

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