Period bread #4

Well, it just ate my post.  Let's try this again...

The latest iteration of the period bread recreation is the same recipe as number 3, but bigger.

300 grams of stater - 100 grams of sourdough, 100 grams of stone-ground whole wheat flour and 100 grams of water, mixed well and allowed to sit on the counter overnight and then refrigerated.
560 grams of sifted stone-ground whole wheat flour
40 grams of stone-ground whole rye flour
340 grams of water
13 grams of salt
3 grams of yeast

Hydration level was 58.66 percent.

This recipe was also made with commercial whole wheat flour.  I was surprised to learn recently that commercial whole wheat flour is white flour with wheat bran added back in and wanted to see what the differences might be.

The flours and water were mixed, covered in the bowl and refrigerated until the next morning. 

 

Stone-Ground Whole Wheat

 

 

Commercial Whole Wheat

Notice the color differences and the fact that the commercial whole wheat looks dryer. 

The two pastes were then mixed with the starter, salt and yeast and allowed to sit in the refrigerator until that evening.  They then looked like this:

Stone-Ground Whole Wheat

 



 

Commercial Whole Wheat

 

The doughs, one at a time, were placed in a brotform basket and allowed to rise for another hour, while the oven,.set to 550 degrees, preheated with the cloche inside along with the baking steel. 

 

Stone-Ground Whole Wheat in Brotform Basket

 

Brotform Basket

 

Ceramic Cloche



 

Baking Steel

 

The baking steel conducts heat better than a pizza stone and gives better oven spring.  If you're interested, you can learn more at http://bakingsteel.com/.  I have no affiliation with them, I'm just a satisfied customer.

 

After they were both baked, this is what they looked like:

 

 

Stone-Ground

 

 

Commercial

 



 

 

It's hard to see in this shot, but the commercial one is taller and spread less than the stone-ground. 

 

After they cooled, the crumb looked like this:

 

 

Stone-Ground



 



 

Commercial

 

The tastes are very different.  The Stone-Ground loaf is nutty and sour at the same time, very tasty.  The Commercial loaf is more one dimensional, with mostly sour coming through.  It's still tasty, but they're very different. 

 

So here we have a tale of two loaves. 

 

Next up - Baking for a contest...