This is a 45% wholegrain (rye, khorasan, einkorn) loaf, around 72% hydration, with 90% of the flour prefermented in a two-stage biga over 20 hours.
The first stage consisted of 220g of the wholegrain flours mixed loosely with 100g of water and 10g of 70% hydration starter. The result is a crumbly mix, something that resemble apple crumble mix. I left this to ferment for 10 hours.
I then added in 220g of white bread flour and a further 100g of water to the biga, again cutting into the biga as if I'm cutting into shortcrust dough. I left this to ferment for another 10 hours.
The next day, I hydrated the biga with 160g of lukewarm water for 15 mins - this gets rids of lumps in the final mix. I then mixed in 60g of bread flour and left this to bulk ferment, with 2 folds, for about 2.5 hours. Shaped and left to proof for an hour, then baked covered for 25 mins and uncovered 20 mins at 220 degrees.
A really, really nice crumb with lots of depth. Just a good touch of sourness.
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This looks fantastic and I can almost taste how delicious it must be. So what are the little juicy nuggets popping out of the crumb?
Cranberries, my fav. For a long time I paired them with walnuts, but hazelnuts have now risen up the ranks. Toasted some of this bread today for lunch - still good, keeps well.
What a great looking loaf Lin. Incredible that 90% of the flour was prefermented in 2 stages. Another great bake.
Benny
An innovative technique, Lin, with a good looking result. The first stage flour must have been very well fermented!
Lance
I usually don't add bread flour into the biga because it can result in lumps. So on the spur of the moment I thought I would break up the biga fermentation and add white into the mix halfway, just to see what would happen. It worked very well - no lumps whatsoever. Benefit of doing 90% biga is that the bread can be baked very soon after the final dough comes together, without sacrificing flavour.
Just yesterday I was making your rice bread, and was thinking to myself that it's a neat baking trick to add the yeast in two stages.
And today I'm reading about you doing something "similar-ish" with a biga. Lovely outcome and lovely techniques!
-Jon
To learn that you're still making the rice bread! Feels good to know that the recipe worked out well for you too.
I love these top-up methods. Just quite like the fun of stacking things up and controlling flavour/crumb that way. Maybe you'll try this double stage biga at some point too?
Kind of you to say. The biga really allows me to pre-ferment as much as I want without worrying about degradation. Really an excellent method.
woo hoo, Lin. Well played. The ol' double biga gambit! Enjoy! (to borrow a phrase from Davey1) -- Rob
Great to see you running with the 'crumble biga' Lin! Love the experimentation. I made my most reliable and replicable 50% crumble biga 70% white spelt loaf with 6% flaxseed about 10 days ago and it came out as well as always, but never taken the technique forward like you.
I like this split process biga. I just made a rimacinata loaf where I used both 25% PFF and a raisin-based yeast water together, so can see the benefits of double levening approaches.
That sounds really good Rene, and I'm sure spelt benefits from the crumble biga a great deal. Just bought a bag of spelt myself and looking forward to more experimentation.
Indeed, I quite like double and tiered leavening approaches, it just feels like firing from all fronts!!