Rye Porridge Bread (70% White Flour)

My first try of Tartine Double Fermented Rye Porridge Bread from Chad Robertson's Tartine Book No.3, with increased leaven (30%) and walnut oil. I changed the ratio of the flours to 70% bread/AP flour and 30% high-extraction flour. 

I pre-fermented cracked rye berries overnight, soaking them in the water and 1/2 tsp leaven, then cooked them in the next morning, to make rye porridge. I cooked rye porridge longer than it was supposed to, to evaporate the extra moisture as much as possible while keeping it moist enough. The rye porridge tasted good itself, just with a small amount of salt.

I cooked rye porridge longer than suggested, so the moisture in the porridge could evaporate as much as possible without drying out. I added the cooked rye porridge at the end of the final mix, 10 minutes after I finished to mix the leaven and the salt. 

Mixing rye porridge thoroughly into the dough was hard, and it took a while to mix them evenly. I felt that I gave the dough a lot of kneading at this point, so I reduced the amount of stretching and folding during the bulk rise from 6 to 4 times. 

Bulk rise was 4.5 hours at 77F until the dough rose to 20%. I folded 4 times in every 25 minutes during the initial hours of bulk rise, and let the dough untouched for the rest of the hours.

Final rise was 6.5 hours overnight at 38F in the fridge. 

I baked the loaf with the lid for 20 minutes at 500F, then reduced the heat and baked at 450F for 10 more minutes, then 25 more minutes at 450F without the lid. 

The oven spring was great, perhaps since it contained 70% while flour (the original recipe called for 50% white flour).

I waited to slice the loaf for 24 hours after baking, since some bakers recommended that online. The crust was very thin and crisp, and the crumb was moist, soft and fluffy with nice open holes, not gummy or dense at all.

It was almost impossible to find the presence of rye porridge in the crumb (or a hint of walnut oil), since all the flavors and textures were nicely melded into one soft crumb. But rye flavor from the porridge was certainly there, although it was not too overwhelming. Rye porridge consisted 1/3 of the loaf, well hidden in the white-bread-like soft airy crumb. The texture of the crumb was amazing, so soft and moist.

I had a toasted slice with a little bit of butter on it. The contrast between the thin crisp crust and the soft moist crumb was really nice, different from any other kind of breads I ever had before. It was like a soft/moist easy-to-digetst sandwich bread fully packed with complex flavors of the whole grains. Chad Robertson certainly created an ideal bread that incorporated both great advantages of the texture of white bread and the taste/flavor of whole grain bread into one amazing loaf.

Smoked Sprouted Rye Bread with Walnuts

My fourth attempt of Smoked Sprouted Rye Bread from Chad Robertson's Tartine Book No.3 with increased leaven (30%). This time, instead of adding 100g smoked sprouted rye berries, I added 70g toasted walnut pieces and 60g smoked sprouted rye berries at the end of final mix. I changed the white flour ratio from 50% to 60% this time. 

It was a really cold day, so I used a handmade proof box for the bulk rise, so the environmental temperature was kept around 80-81F. The dough rose only 15-20%. 

For the final rise, I put the shaped loaf in the refrigerator (38F) for 10.5 hours, and left it at room temperature (72F) for 1.5 hours. 

Oven spring was pretty good, with nice open crumbs with large air holes. The proof box seemed to work well to develop the dough, and the long cold fermentation for final rise worked well, too. Both the texture and the flavor were the best among all the breads I ever baked, with the sweet and nutty complex flavors from the smoked sprouted rye berries and toasted walnuts. 

Also, I accidentally added a small amount of high-gluten flour to the dough and forgot to add wheat germ. I wonder if that affected the dough to create the better open crumbs this time. Anyway, I am very happy with the result (although it took a long time for the whole process due to the cold weather).

Smoked Sprouted Rye Bread

My third try of Smoked Sprouted Rye Bread from Chad Robertson's Tartine Book No.3. This time, I increased the amount of leaven to 30% from 15% (of original recipe), to see how it affected the dough. It worked great, resulting in much higher oven spring. 

I love the natural sweetness and the complex rich flavors of whole grain breads, but most of them I had before were rather dense with coarse texture, and hard to digest. The breads Chad Robertson aimed at in his Tartine Book No.3 were the ideal solution to these issues associated with typical whole grain breads. By incorporating sprouted berries or pre-cooked whole grains as porridge into the dough, just like adding nuts or seeds, you can add the same (or even more) nutritions and flavors of whole grain flours to the dough without ruining the great benefits of white country loaf, such as nice crisp crust and soft open crumbs. To me, this was a genius idea! You can make a bread that has a better texture than a dense coarse whole grain bread, but as tasty and nutritious as those traditional whole grain breads (and much easier to digest). 

Sprouted rye berries are rich in food enzymes and natural vitamins, much more nutritious than whole grains. Also, they are much easier to digest since sprouted grains are more like vegetables than grains, according to Chad Robertson in his book Tartine Book No. 3.

4 days before making the bread, I soaked whole rye berries in the water with a pinch of sea salt for 6 hours, then rinsed and strained them, kept them in a glass bowl with a plastic wrap cover with small holes. I repeated rinsing and straining for the next 3 days until the berries started to sprout. The rye berries got softer once they sprouted, and 65g rye berries ended to be 120g after sprouting.

For smoking, I made a simple smoking device with a Lodge cast-iron pot and a lid covered with aluminum foil, placing a stainless steamer basket inside, which I leaned from a Japanese website. This is an easy way to smoke in a home kitchen. 

Instead of using wood chips for smoking, I used 3 tbsp Darjeeling tea leaves and 1 tbsp brown sugar. Black tea leaves give a similar smoky flavor as using wood chips, and brown sugar helps to add a dark color. I learned this method from a Japanese website, too. I smoked them for 14 minutes in a tightly covered cast-iron pan, until the sprouted rye berries obtained a light smoky flavor. 

* I recommend to open the room windows while smoking, so the smoke will not linger in the house too long. The smoky flavor of Darjeeling tea leaves was not so strong as normal wood chips (and I love tea flavors), so I liked this way.  

After cooling down the smoked sprouted rye berries, I mixed them into the dough at the last stage of final mix (10 minutes after mixing salt and leaven into the dough), just like mixing walnuts or sesame seeds, before bulk rise started. 

Bulk rise was (     ) hours at (    )F at room temperature, until the dough rose to 20-30%. Initial dough temperature was (   )F, ended at (   )F. 

I also tried a longer time for the final rise, for 4 hours in the refrigerator at 41F. This time, I took longer time for final rise (5 hours 50 minutes in the refrigerator), so the crumbs structures were better and softer with well developed gluten. 

I used a kitchen scissors to score the loaf, as suggested in Tartine book.

The increased leaven seemed to help to develop the dough, which resulted in better oven spring.

The crumbs were very soft and moist even after 15 hours. There was almost no smoky flavor left, but when I toasted a slice, it smelled really good with a hint of lingering smokiness. 




The taste of the bread was *amazing* … there were this complicated mixture of flavors in every bite, all perfectly balanced. Putting a little butter on a toasted slice tasted like a heaven (the crust was ideally light and crunchy, too). This could be one of the best breads I ever baked (and ate), both in taste and texture.  

Comparison: Amount of Leaven (15% vs. 30%)

The loaf with increased leaven had a better oven spring, while the loaf with 15% leaven had a moderate spring.

There was not so significant difference in taste from my previous loaf (with less leaven), but the crumb was somewhat softer, and the overall taste was slightly milder than my previous loaf (which had more intense flavor/taste). This loaf will be good for sandwich. I will also try to reduce the total amount of flours from 500g to 400g next time, with the same baker's percentage, considering the additional amount of leaven. I liked the nutty flavor of the rye flakes, which I used for coating the loaf for the first time. 

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IMPROVED RECIPE (WITH 30% LEAVEN)

LEAVEN

20g   starter
100g    50/50 flour (whole wheat/AP flour)
80g   water

DOUGH

80g Bread flour
170g Organic AP flour
100g High-Extraction wheat flour (85%)
100g KF whole wheat flour
50g Organic whole rye flour
20g Wheat germ
400g Water
150g Leaven
12.5g Salt
125g Sprouted rye berries, smoked

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BAKER'S PERCENTAGE

50% Bread/AP flour  
20% High-Extraction wheat flour
20% Whole wheat flour
10% Whole rye flour
4% Wheat germ
80% Water
30% Leaven
2.5% Salt

25% Sprouted rye berries

Tartine Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

I tried Tartine whole wheat sourdough bread again. The recipe was adapted from Chad Robertson's 'White-Wheat Blend' in Tartine Book No. 3 and Maurizio's '90% Whole Grain Sourdough' recipe in foodtravelthought blog.

I had been struggling with baking this bread from Tartine Book No. 3 and had hit the wall a while ago, but this Maurizio's modified recipe was totally eye-opening and helped me a lot to break through the wall. 

To make high-extraction flour, I sifted Community Grains 100% Whole Grain Hard Red Winter Wheat Flour to get rid of 30% bran out of it. But I miscalculated the weight of bran to remove, so it was actually 83% high-extraction flour instead of 70-75% one which Chad Robertson suggested in Tartine Book No. 3. To adjust the balance between whole grains and white flour, I added extra 10% bread flour to the flour mixture (with just a wild guess), so the total ratio of bread flour was 20%.   

I used some of the bran to coat the shaped loaf, so the final loaf must contained more whole grain ratio, but it was hard to figure out how much percentage of whole grain ended up in the loaf actually - perhaps somewhere around 65-70%. It would require very complicated calculation. My solution this time was from a pretty rough estimate. I should take more time to calculate the ratio precisely next time. 

The oven spring was not so dramatic, but the inside crumbs have nice holes which I had never been successful with before. I used an oval basket for proofing the loaf, but somehow it ended up to be a round-shaped when baked. 

The crumb was surprisingly soft for a loaf with high-percentage of whole grains.

This is highly recommended recipe for anyone who has been struggling with the original Robertson's recipe. I am very happy with the result.

Tartine Country Bread

I baked Tartine sourdough country bread, with the recipe and instructions from Chad Robertson's Tartine Bread'. For the first time, I think I finally got the hang of how the dough should feel when the bulk fermentation is done. It is airily and fluffy, soft but not sticky or dull. It feels like handling a delicate plumpy balloon filled with air. In order to bring the dough to this desirable condition, it seems to be crucial to keep the dough temperature around 77F-80F (ideally in a proofing box) during the entire bulk fermentation process. 

The oven spring was great, and I am very happy with the result this time. The bulk fermentation time was 3.5 hours, and the final proof time was 1 hour and 40 minutes at 79F in a bread proofing box. (Room temperature was 67F.) Perhaps the dough was a little bit under-fermented (it has risen only 15% or so), so I will take a little longer time for the bulk fermentation next time. 

The pizza stone seemed to work very well to prevent the bottom of the loaf from being burnt too much.

Ken Forkish's Field Blend #2 with Walnuts (2)

How salt affects the loaf?

Final shaping: boule vs. batard

Final rise time

Oven temperature: starts at 500F > 475F

When to slice the loaf?