Cracked Wheat Sourdough

I like the touch of sweetness that cracked wheat adds to a good loaf. My experience with it has been that it needs to soak for at least an hour and more time is even better. If you have the opportunity, four hours will do nicely. In this loaf, 44 grams seemed appropriate but when it came to the finished product, the cracked wheat seemed hardly visible. Because Casa De PG is kept at a cool 68F during most of the working day and 63F at night, a small 1/8 tsp of IDY was added to the main dough to assist in the fermentation and proofing. That was just enough to work and not so much that it affected the flavor.

Soaker
44 g cracked wheat
33 g water

Starter
120 g at 100% hydration with 10 g wheat bran used during the build

First Dough Soak                                     

49 g White Whole Wheat Flour
51 g Bread Flour
All of soaker
All of starter
220g water at 83F

This step is meant to give the WWW
time to soak up some water and help
loosen up the starter for mixing when
the remaining bread flour and IDY
are added after 20 minutes. I've been letting the roughly mixed dough rest while I wash some the dishes and put away the ingredients that are no longer needed. Once the dishes are done, I mist the dough using a spray bottle and sprinkle the salt

over the dough.

Main Dough

230 g bread flour
8 g kosher salt
1/8 tsp instant dry yeast

After the salt has been mixed in, a quick knead and the dough goes into an oiled bowl or Cambro container. That's not how the bread books do it, they almost always have fewer steps. However, the extra time I take hasn't seemed to hurt the flavor of my breads so I'll indulge in those eccentricities until I read about something better and faster.

I've seen most of the daffodils and surprise lilies start to emerge from the ground already along with a few of the peony plantings showing up for work. The grass in the yard is still mostly brown which I like to attribute to the dry weather and temperatures rather than a dead lawn.

The usual suspects among the birds are still here. The juncos haven't left as of yet but will be soon. A red tailed hawk happened to perch on the top of the chain link fence, about 20 ft away from my window, on the north side of the property recently. I watched for a few minutes while it scoped out the area and enjoyed every minute.

Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.