Multigrain(Breakfast Cereal) Sourdough

Don't be mislead by the less than sterling pictures today, this turned out to be one of my better looking loaves when viewed in person. It also tastes very good as well.

This is the second loaf in my series of what can be called my 360g loaves. I had been baking loaves with 400g total flour and decided to cut down on the total flour by 10% to see if the loaves would be easier to shape on a consistent basis. I also had suspicions that the overall weight was causing my loaves to flatten out between knocking them out of the brotform and the beginning of the oven spring period. My conclusion from yesterday's bake is that I was putting too much dough into the brotform, limiting the expansion of the dough. I'm not totally comfortable with the wording of that explanation but it seems to be a line of thought worth pursuing. A 360g loaf has a volume of dough after proofing that is really close to the volume of a 400g loaf. I haven't measured this with precision so I won't seek the Nobel Prize for that work.

The multi grain aspect of this loaf derives from the use of a 9 grain cereal mix equalling 22% of the flour by weight. The cereal was soaked in water for two hours.

Starter
170 g at 82% hydration, using KAF AP

Soaker
80 g 9 grain cereal
56 g water

Main Dough
270g bread flour
90 g stoneground whole wheat
245 g water at 90F
All of starter
All of soaker
9 g kosher salt

 The recent rains have made a great deal of difference to the health of the plants and grasses in the yard. It also seems that they've been a boon to the insects in the yard as well. The forecast calls for another 2+" of rain starting tomorrow afternoon. These rains aren't monsoon rains coming up from the US Southwest but after a period of drought, I can't discriminate against their origin.

Next year's garden may be a little different. I obtained a copy of  "Straw Bale Gardening" from the library. Not only does it make sense, it looks like it would lend itself to my garden very easily. If I can find the straw next spring, I may plant half the usual garden in straw bales to see how well it works out. If it can make gardening easier and more productive, then I'm for it.

Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.     .