Multigrain and the Bitch: HotHotHot

We've used poolish for our baguettes, and wondered about sourdough.  We did a lot of research/homework and finally made our own starter with rye flour, water, and white flour.  It took about 5 days of "feeding the bitch" on a regular schedule and crossing our fingers.  Tip: put into a cooler / chillybin with a bottle of hot water and seal to get the right temperature for the yeasts and bugs to work.

When it finally showed itself to be a viable sourdough starter, we fed it, then stuck it in the fridge as a retarder so we wouldn't have to keep feeding the bitch quite so often!

We used the sourdough for our levain:

The night before you need it, mix some starter in a bunch of water, then whisk with flour.
Cover and put in a warm draft-free spot till it's bubbly and kind of scary looking.

Add the levain to water and flour, and let rest for 30 minutes.
It's a hydrating the flour step, called "autolyse" ... a yuh.

Add some salt, and beat for a few minutes to incorporate.

Also the night before, create the "soaker" -- a mix of seeds and grains in water.
Her: cracked flax, sesame, sunflower, live oat groats, spelt.

This will take a while because the seeds, once soaked, will be slippery and kind of slimy.
Work it into the dough -- and then once it's mixed together, knead it till it's smooth.
Brian added about a cup more flour because though it made a nice dough, it just
wasn't coming together like ti should.  That happens; the amount even changes from
day to day.

Knead by folding and smacking the dough, and making sure you make
quarter turn each stroke.

We weighed the dough -- it came in at 7 lbs!  Since we planned to
make four loaves, they lumps were weighed to
be 1.75 lbs apiece -- bouncing big loaves!

These cut lumps were stretched and rolled into boules, covered and allowed to rest
for two hours total.  About halfway through, they were folded and pat down
then rolled into boules again and covered and left to rise.

Since the home oven is not deep enough to make baguettes, these were formed into
batards -- thicker, stubbier, but basically the same shape and total weight.
Except the standard baguettes are 12 oz and ours were 38 oz.
We raised them on a professional linen couche because it was cheaper than making
one or converting our cotton towels to couche-duty.  And the dough doesn't
stick on the linen as badly as on cotton.

When the batards are risen, they are slashed to allow for controlled expansion of
the dough so that it won't tear the loaf.  Think "stretch marks" ... and when
done properly, they open up and one edge makes an "ear" -- prettier than
any stretch mark!  We baked these on terracotta oven tiles, or a rough clay
baking slab -- both work equally well.

Once when he was baking bread for a surgeon's family, the doctor admired his kneading and
the strength of Brian's arms.  "You would have made a fine orthopedic surgeon --
I'll bet you could set bones just like kneading dough!"
Note that we cool them  upside down, and we don't cut them for at least 20 minutes,
or the insides won't have any texture or real flavor.

We continue to work on the texture, but this was damned good!  It also made
wonderful french toast several mornings hence.