Bread Log 6: Sonnenblumenbrot

BAM!  Pictures right off the bat . . . this way you know what you are reading about, plus it makes my link more appealing when I link this to other sites ;).

I opted for the German name for a little flair.  Literally it means sunflower bread, and that ain't an understatement.  Between the toasted sunflower seeds in the dough, and those used to coat the loaves there is just shy of half a pound of them in this formula.  As per Hamelman's recommendation I toasted the sunflower seeds before they were incorporated into the dough, to bring out the nuttiness in their flavor.  Similar to the hazelnuts from last time, it was a simple process of spreading them out on a sheet pan and letting them warm themselves in the oven for a few minutes.
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Apart from the seeds the formula features two more additions not yet featured here on the blog.  The first is Rye Chops . . . or it would have been if I had been able to find them.  Believe me when I say I did my damnedest to track some down.  Poor Whit got drug to about 5 different co-ops and grocery stores last night in their pursuit.  Ultimately I was forced to use a substitution. Before I get to what I used, here is a brief little aside to help you all understand why I used it and a few terms I'll be bandying about for this as well as future posts.

After grains such as rye are hulled what you are left with is the rye berry (or whole rye), comprising endosperm, germ and bran.  If that whole rye is put under rollers and coarsely cracked it is appropriately called cracked rye. As near as I've been able to tell rye chops are what results from the whole rye being cut more finely into pieces (as in steel cut oats), though it is possible it has been par-cooked.  And if it is par cooked with pressure and rolled out you flaked or rolled rye. The more the grain has been cut, or flattened the faster it will be able to be cooked, which is why you can use a cold water hydration with rolled rye and rye chops, but must boil cracked rye and rye berries.

Because rye has a distinct flavor I wanted to use that grain.  The closest ingredient I was able to find was rye berries.  I soaked them over night in water, and this morning I boiled them for around an hour.  Here are some shots of the process.
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Here are the unsoaked/boiled rye berries
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Here they are again, post boiling
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This is a picture of the fully cooked rye berries beside their raw counterparts.
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As that last picture makes clear, the rye berries absorbed a great deal of the water.  So much so that I was forced to reduce the volume I added to the mix by 25%.  To help approximate the texture the finer rye chops would have added to the bread I pulsed the berries the food processor before incorporating them.

The second new addition with this formula is the use of malt syrup, which I was able to buy at a local home brew store called Northern Brewer.
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It's a sweet syrup created from malted barley, and while Hamelman makes it clear that in its absence honey can be substituted, it has such a distinct flavor I wanted to use it if I could.

For the mix I decided to add the toasted sunny seeds, as well as the rye berries at the start of the mix rather than as an addition at the end.  This was a change for me.  At the bakery we always added additions such as grain mixtures at the end after the gluten in the dough had been fully developed.  Adding the grains earlier, can slow down that development as the sharp grains can puncture and tear the gluten network.  However, adding them early allows you to see how they affect the overall hydration of the dough before the final steps of the mix process.  Which in turn, affords you the ability to correct the hydration of the dough more easily.  Both ways have their merits.

For today, since I was unsure how much (if any) the rye berries would add to the doughs hydration, I wanted to get them in the mix as soon as possible.  So I opted for the latter method.  It was definitely a change of pace, there was a lot more volume in the mix bowl than I am used to, and the grains created additional friction during the mix which resulted in a higher final temp than I had desired, which had an effect on the bulk fermentation and bench proof times.

You may have noticed from the initial picture, that the outside of the bread is also covered with sunflower seeds.  In order to achieve that effect your roll the freshly shaped dough on a damp towel then again on a bed of seeds.
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Here was my terribly fancy set up
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and here are the loaves proofing after being coated.  Notice I didn't cover the side facing up.  This is because that side will eventually be on a pizza stone, and as much as I like toasted sunflower seeds, charred sunflower seeds are a wee less desireable.
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Lastly here are some pictures of the individual loaves as well as a nice shot of the crumb, courtesy of Whit.

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Here are the details from the bake:
Room Temp:  73.6
Water Temp: 73.4
Flour Temp:  71.1
Preferment Temp: 74.1
Final Temp: 81.3 (target 75)
Autolyse: 20 min
Mix: 3 minutes on speed 2, followed by cut on bench, followed by 1 minutes on speed 2 + 1.5 minutes on speed 3
Bulk Fermentation: 1.5 hours (shortened from 2 due to high temp) with one fold at 30 minutes and one at 60
Bench Proof: shape, 10 minute rest, shape, 60 minute bench proof with the latter two loaves spending ~35 minutes each in the fridge to retard development
Bake: ~15 minutes @ 460 degrees followed by ~15 at 425
Steam: New Steamer used pre-load and for ~30 seconds post load

This will be the last post for a few weeks, as we are packing up to move across town, and it will take a while to get settled in the new place. Rest assured they will continue.

Thanks for reading!

Vino