After seeing Renee’s and Lin’s achievements with crumble bigas, I wished to attempt them once more. I used to be particularly within the one which used each a biga and a poolish, between them together with all of the flour.

I made a decision to work with essentially the most tough flour I’ve, a stone-ground entire wheat pastry flour made by Snavely’s Mill. They solely promote wholesale; a neighborhood low cost grocery purchased some 50 lb luggage and broke them down into 4-lb sacks, which is how I obtained mine.  The flour has a great style in baked items however being a pastry flour is admittedly powerful to make an honest loaf from.  I’ve discovered that a mixture of half the WW and half King Arthur bread flour works higher and tastes good, however nonetheless does not make for nice breads. I believed this flour ought to make for a great stress take a look at for a crumble biga.

I made a decision to make use of all of the WW flour within the biga and all of the white flour within the poolish.  The poolish could be at 100% hydration and the biga at 45%, as Renee and Lin have steered.  After all, 45% won’t be one of the best worth for this explicit WW, however we’ve to start out someplace. I could not make all of the hydrations work out with precisely equal quantities of the 2 flours, and the WW ended up being about 58% of the entire.

Goal flour: 300g
goal hydration: 68%

Biga
——
– 175g – WW pastry stone-ground sifted #30 display
–  79g – water
–   0.25 – tsp yeast

Poolish
——–
– 125g – bread flour
– 125g – water
–   0.25 tsp – yeast

Add salt at ultimate combine.
Total hydration: (79 + 125)/(175 + 125) = 68%

From my notes:

Making the crumble biga: I poured all 79g of water right into a glass baking dish and sprinkled the yeast over it.  Then I added 79g of the WW flour and stirred it in gently with a small spatula. At this level the combo was fairly moist, after all. Then I added the remainder of the flour and began to work it in with out working it an excessive amount of (since one aim is to get minimal gluten improvement). I ended up working the dough gently by hand, very like working butter into the flour for biscuits. This labored effectively and didn’t get my fingers very lined with dough.   I took an image of the crumbled biga at this level.

Right here I made a radical change from what everybody has steered:

I put each preferments right into a proofer at 80°F. I fermented the poolish for five hours, It appeared properly lively, with many bubbles. I eliminated it to the counter.  I stored the biga at 80°F for a complete of 6 hours; I could not actually detect any exercise. Here’s a image of the biga at this level,

Then I mixed the 2 preferments.

The biga was very dry, and subsequent time I might spray it with water in the beginning of fermentation. Combining and getting the lumps out was arduous.  I repeatedly squeezed the dough via my hand and finally obtained the 2 elements pretty easy however nonetheless not fully uniform. I waited 1 1/2 hours then kneaded them within the bowl. After kneading the dough appeared slightly moist, considerably sticky, and never very sturdy nor elastic. 

After half an hour, I did a shear-lamination model stretching session.  After one other 1/2 hour, S&Fs within the bowel.  At this level the dough appeared dry, cheesy not sticky, and was sturdy and elastic.  It felt like a extra typical dough after 3 – 4 S&F periods. After one other 30 – 40 minutes the dough had risen practically double and I formed it right into a log. Proofed free-standing for ~ 1 hour.  It was too late to bake so I put the loaf lined with plastic wrap into the fridge for in a single day.

The baking schedule was devised to maintain the floor of the loaf comparatively cool so long as doable; the loaf being chilly from the fridge would assist; I suspected that the WW pastry flour would not help a lot oven spring. So the plan was to preheat the oven to a decrease temperature than ordinary after which to boil the baking metal to provide it extra warmth.

9 hours later I preheated the oven to ~410°F.  Then I broiled the baking metal for six – 7 minutes and turned the temperature setting all the way down to 300°F. I took the loaf out of the fridge simply earlier than broiling the metal and stored it lined, Slashed, and baked with steam for 13 minutes then reset temperature to 410°F. The loaf was completed in solely 25 minutes with the inside temperature 207°F, the crust arduous to a faucet, and the colour a medium shade of yellow-brown. The underside was lighter in coloration, suggesting that I might have broiled the metal longer.

The completed loaf had risen however not sufficient to open the scores very a lot.  It felt on the dense facet to heft. The crumb was not very open however not likely dense both. The crumb had a delicate mouth really feel.  The flavour was very mellow with a nice richness and a touch of just about an EEVO-like taste regardless that no oil had been used.

I sliced the loaf when it was nonetheless heat and that exhibits up within the picture of the crumb. The bread was delicate and mellow with a mildly wealthy taste. The crust was skinny with slightly crunch.  Total, an appropriate however not nice loaf. Maybe it is a good because it will get with this flour.

By comparability, here’s a crumb shot of a yeasted loaf I made with the identical flour, the place I used 90% WW, 10% masa harina, and added an egg for extra construction: