Whole Wheat Sourdough Apple Walnut Oat Flax Bread
(90% hydration)
Bread:
- 1000g wholemeal (whole wheat) flour
- 900g water (800g + 100g)
- 25 g salt
Augmentations:
- 100g walnut pieces
- 100g flax seed + boiling water (optional)
- 250g steel cut oats + boiling water (whole groats may be substituted)
- 2 apples
Dusting:
- ~100g rice flour
- ~100g corn meal
Goal
We're creating a large meaty loaf. Starting point is an 80% hydration sourdough recipe. Given the wholemeal flour, I've bumped that up to 90%. Gluten formation is via stretch & fold. Water is split 800g in autolyse, 100g + salt added prior to levain, which I find makes salt distribute more evenly. This loaf has walnut, flax seed, steel cut oats, and apples added as what I call "augmentations". The walnuts give a buttery flavour and purple colouring, the oats meat, and the apples a surprisingly mild fruity addition.
Creating dough
Prepare your levain as per usual, 100g flour + 100g water for ~200g total.
If you're thinking ahead, you'll start drying your apples a day in advance. Or if you're thinking like me (my condolences), you'll slice two apples into eighths, remove seeds, and slice those into triangles, with peel intact. Place on parchment paper on a baking sheet in a convection oven at 90°C / 200°F for 6--12 hours, turning periodically to ensure even drying.
Crumble shelled walnut meats to preferred size. Set aside.
Measure out flax seed. If you prefer these soaked, soak in a bowl with boiling water, sufficient to cover to a depth of 2--4 cm (1--2 in). You may add the flax dry, and it's considerably less messy to work with if you do so. Drain via a strainer about 30 minutes prior to incorporation.
Measure out oats. Boil in 2x quantity of water, at least 45 minutes prior to incorporation. Drain via a strainer about 30 minutes prior to incorporation.
Prepare autolyse: Heat 800g water to ~45°C (~120°F). Add to 1000g flour in a large bowl. Mix with handle of a cooking spoon and/or hands until all flour is incorporated. Lumps are OK. Let stand at least 20 minutes (longer is fine), covered with towel or wrap. You may keep this in an oven set to proof if available (useful if your kitchen is cold).
Boil remaining 100g water and add 25g salt, stir until fully dissolved. Set aside.
When autolyse is completed: Pour in salt-water solution and integrate with dough. Then incorporate starter, about 180g or so. I squeeze this through my fingers repeatedly to thoroughly integrate levain into dough. I usually finish with a stretch/fold or two just to get things mixed.
We're starting the bulk ferment. For 3--6 cycles (until gluten development is to preference, windowpane test if you like), allow dough to rest 20+ minutes, then perform four stretch & folds, lifting dough up at one end, doubling it over, turning 90°, and repeating until you've rotated the dough one full revolution. Then cover and rest another 20 minutes or so, again in an oven set to "proof" if you prefer. I typically do 4 repeats.
Before beginning your final stretch & fold, start draining flax (if soaked) and oats.
To incorporate the augmentations, I find it's easiest to laminate and layer them in.
If you've soaked your flax seeds, they will be seriously goopy, and will retain quite a bit of water. I've tried various options of rinsing and draining these with little luck, adding the seeds dry may be preferable.
Lightly flour your working surface. Stretch dough flat and spread on surface. Spread oats, flax, walnuts, and apples in layers over dough. Fold top two corners in to about 1/2 the height of the dough. Fold top down, and roll dough toward you. Turn 90° and roll up from side. Let sit 20 minutes, then laminate again. Augmentations should now be well distributed and incorporated into dough. Let sit another 20 minutes.
Divide your dough. I make two evenly-sized loaves, adjust to your preference. Form and shape your loaves --- this is similar to the lamination process above, followed by a turn-and-tuck of the loaf. Invert and seal the bottom, then place seam-side down and let set ~10 minutes or so.
Prepare your bannetons / proofing baskets / bowls. (I use a pair of glass casserole bowls, about 2 litres / 2 quarts each.) Line with a tea towel, dust with rice flour.
Dust tops of loaves with rice flour, invert into banneton, dust bottoms with rice flour, fold towel over, and cover bannetons (casserole lid, plastic wrap, shower cap, etc.) Place in refrigerator for a cold retarded proof 12--48 hours.
Baking
Arrange your oven mitts, lamé, cooling racks, hot pad, parchment paper (if used), cornmeal (for dusting loaf bottom), and water spray bottle (if used) prior to baking.
Place Dutch oven on oven rack and a large metal pan with ~4-6 cm water on oven floor. Preheat oven to 260--290°C (500--550°F) ... essentially as hot as your oven will get without harming itself. Allow to preheat for ~45 minutes. You may use convection at this stage to heat everything evenly, but you'll want to turn off any blowers during the first stage of the bake.
I do not put the lid in the oven to pre-heat.
Remove proofed dough from refrigerator immediately before baking.
Remove Dutch oven from oven using your oven mitts. Warning: that puppy is hot.
Dust seam side (top of dough in banneton, this will be the bottom of the cooked loaf) with cornmeal. Invert banneton onto parchment paper. Score top of loaf. Transfer to Dutch oven. Spray top of lid with water (increases humidity, gives better oven spring), and place lid on top of Dutch oven. Return Dutch oven to the oven, again using your mitts.
If you'd enabled convection for pre-heat, disable it now.
(Convection fans tend to remove humidity from the oven, you want that humidity for a good oven spring a/k/a loaf rise, in the first stage of the bake.)
Initial bake is 20--25 minutes. You may spray water into the oven at ~5 and 10 minutes to boost humidity.
After initial bake phase, open oven, remove pan with water, take lid off Dutch oven, and turn oven temperature down to 230°C (450°F). Bake another 20--25 minutes to preferred darkness. (I generally advise longer/darker bakes.)
At end of bake, I prefer to leave bread in oven with heat off and door cracked open for another 20--25 minutes, which helps form crust. After oven treatment is complete, remove Dutch oven from oven, lift loaf from Dutch oven, dust off loose cornmeal at bottom, and cool on rack for 15--30 minutes prior to slicing.
Yield
1.6 kg (3.5 lb) loaf, approximately.
If I had it to do over
I think I'm going to go with not soaking the flax seed, as they're just too much of a mess. And prepping the apples a day in advance would have been better (I dried mine for ~4 hours). Overall results were still excellent, and I feel that I could easily have doubled the apples, as they're far more subtle than I'd anticipated.
This is probably best as an autumn bread, but I suspect it will find takers at any time of year.
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