We loved the Kamut flavour in the last loaf I baked last week but wanted a stronger flavour from the Kamut. This week I decided to inch up they percentage of Kamut to 30%. Still being unsure about going higher because I wasn’t sure how thirsty Kamut is and what effect on the gluten it would have. I increased the hydration to 78% with the assumption that more whole Kamut would make the dough thirstier. I still think that the Kamut adds a lot of extensibility to the dough and doesn’t seem that thirsty compared to other whole grains. I’d love to know what other more experienced bakers of Kamut think.
For convenience, I recently have been experimenting with overnight levain builds since I’ve been doing that for the baguettes and now also with overnight modified autolyse. Based on Trevor Wilson and Chad Robertson if I’m not mistaken, if doing an overnight autolyse do it cold and add salt. The idea being the salt and cold will slow the effects of the amylase enzymes, (saltolyse is what I’ve been calling it). I’ve been pleased with doing the overnight because it means that I can bulk ferment in the morning and then do final shaping in the early afternoon instead of in the evening and then have a longer cold retard overnight period which should enhance the flavour of the bread as well as improve the blisters in the crust. This time I didn’t brush water on the crust because I wanted to see if the longer cold retard would give me good blisters without that step. I’m not sure if it did or not, you tell me.
Another thing I changed is the degree of bulk fermentation. Last week I bulked to a 50% rise in the aliquot jar and I thought that the crumb was a bit tight and wanted to see if pushing the bulk would open it up more. This week I bulk fermented to a 60% rise and shaped then and gave it a short 15 minutes bench rest before putting it into the fridge for 18 hours. During the time it took to shape and bench rest the aliquot jar showed a 65% rise. I’m hoping that the crumb will be more open when I slice the loaf later.
I made a couple of videos the first showing my shaping and the second my scoring. My scoring wasn’t perfect as it took three goes to get the centre score deep enough. It would have been better to be only one cut to score but I wasn’t aggressive enough with my first go, I usually do better.
The crumb is better than my 20% Kamut. I now think that the stitching I did at the end of shaping for the bottom of the dough while in the banneton may have been unnecessary and caused some tightening of the crumb.
Beautiful looking loaf. Did you get the additional flavor that you were looking for from the higher percentage of Kamut? I enjoyed your shaping and scoring videos. Thanks for making them.
There is a bit more flavour, but I’m coming to the conclusion that Kamut is pretty mild compared to some other flours. I think I might need to really increase the amount of Kamut in the future. Thanks for your comments on my bread.
Thank you very much, I was pretty happy with I took the lid off the dutch oven, that is always the moment of truth for those of us using a dutch oven. We have no idea what lurks under the lid, and then either the sweet smell off success of the pain of defeat.
Benny, that’s a gorgeous loaf of bread, and I love those hash marks on the sides; thanks for the vid…I’ll try doing that sometime. Btw, I’m reading through that purple sweet potato sd bread recipe and baked two different purple sweet potatoes in foil today, so I am prepping!
Benny, I feel exactly the same way when I take the lid off my covered clay baker, which is the only item I use to bake my breads. Until I take the lid off and see the loaf for the first time, I have NO idea of the success or failure of that bake.
