oops, that should read 1 1/2 cups buttermilk!


"hutchndi" > wrote in message
news:n3Jig.87997$IZ2.68681@dukeread07...
> OK, well I just had my first attempt at grinding my own flour and making
> whole wheat sourdough bread. With a recipe from BigJohn I was able to pull
> some tasty loaves that were not perfect (but not bricks either) from my
> oven. I just have a Family Grain Mill, by using some gift cards I had
> burning a hole in my pocket I only had to shell out $44.00 for it, and it
> actually does a pretty good job. I know there are those that say flour
> should be aged, but I like the idea of trying to get all the vitamins that
> supposedly start to break down in the first few weeks. Anyhoo, the recipe
> I followed is this, comments appreciated:
>
> 1 1/2 cups active starter (medium consistency fed with regular AP flour)
> 5 1/2 cups fresh ground flour (Montana Millings hard white wheat berries)
> 1 cup water
> 1/2 cup buttermilk
> 2 tsp salt
>
> I actually doubled this recipe four 4 loaves.
> I ground the flour the day before and kept it in the freezer, so it was
> pretty cold when I made my dough.
> Basically did the no-knead approach, stretch and folds right in the bowl.
> Mixing of ingredients thru bulk fermentation, shaping, forming and final
> rise: 6 hours
> Dough started out sticky and pretty gritty.
> Dough degassed twice during bulk rise, noticed it get smoother and a bit
> less sticky as hours passed.
> I think I might have benefited from a heat pad on the final rise, in the
> time I allotted as I was preheating the oven my boules rose very little
> and yet I had some overexpansion in the oven spring, the initial bulk
> rises were much more active.
>
> The flour I ground with my mill is pictured here, clockwise from top left
> for comparison: King Arthur All Purpose flour, Hodgson's Mill Whole Wheat
> Graham flour, and at the bottom is my own grind, (used unsifted).
>
> http://members.cox.net/hutchndi/fresh0.jpg
>
> The loaves I baked at a preheated 375 degrees on hot tiles with initial
> steam, a lower temp than I normally bake as I was nervous about the added
> buttermilk, I think next time I will try a bit higher though. Crust kind
> of reminded me of a bread baked with honey or some sweetener in it, the
> inner crumb came out really tender but with small holes like
> "wonderbread". Appearance of the gluten strands baked into the stretched
> slashes in the crust look like the gluten could have been developed more.
> Perhaps why in Lauren's Kitchen Bread book it is so stressed to knead (if
> by hand) a FULL 10 minutes for each loaf worth of dough, though BigJohn
> may have a better no-knead technique. Pictures are he
>
> http://members.cox.net/hutchndi/fresh1.jpg
>
> http://members.cox.net/hutchndi/fresh2.jpg
>
> Really tender and yummy, slightly sour. Loaves are a bit more than half
> the size of my usual 15% whole-wheat sourdough loaves using the same dough
> weight. I would like to open up those holes a bit and get a bit more rise.
> I don't notice much of a flavor difference with the buttermilk, but then
> these are my first fresh flour loaves, so I don't really know what effect
> it had.
>
>
> hutchndi
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