The Imsil bread has been my, and my flatmates, daily bread for a while now. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good bread but I think it can be improved a little. I usually bake bread once a week. Some of the breads I keep for eating fresh in the next days bust most of it goes into the freezer for the remainder of the week. I noticed that thawed Imsil breads become somewhat stale after 2 days. Therefore, I increased the hydration to 73% and also increased the percentage of whole grain with 5%, the keeping-quality has increased quite a bit!
Recipe
Hydration: 73% Pre-fermented flour: 17,5% Total time: 24 – 28hrs
Overall formula (for 8 breads of ~ 500gr)
Ingredient
Weight
Percentage
Wheat flour
1718 gr
75%
Whole grain wheat flour
573 gr
25%
Water
1672gr
73%
Salt
37gr
1,6%
Total
4000 gr
174,6%
Pre-ferment
Make the following pre-ferment with 100 hydration and let it ferment for 8 hours at ~ 24°C/76F or overnight at a slightly lower room temperature (~ 20°C/68F). Make sure to cover it so it doesn’t lose any water by evaporation.
Ingredient
Weight
Percentage
Wheat flour
380 gr
100%
Water
380 gr
100%
Mature sourdough culture
76gr
10%
Total
836 gr
210%
Making the final dough
If you are happy with your pre-ferment you can make the final dough. Aim for a temperature of the final dough of ~ 24°C. Mix the following ingredients and mix by hand until all the flour has incorporated the water. This step is called autolysis, a few minutes should suffice.
Ingredient
Weight
Wheat flour
1318 gr
While grain wheat flour
573gr
Water
1272ml
Total
4291gr
After 30 minutes, add the salt (37 gr) and sourdough (800gr) and knead for about 10 mins by hand,
The next step is the bulk fermentation. For this bread it takes about 2½ hours, stretch and fold the dough every 30 mins.
After the bulk fermentation, divide in the dough in 8 pieces of 500gr and pre-shape them for a round loaf.
After a 10 min bench rest, shape them as a round loaf and give them a tiny bit of a rectangular shape. The latter you can accomplish by instead of pulling and rotating 90°, rotating 180°. But only in the very last seconds of the shaping.
Place the shaped dough in bakers linen and transfer to fridge for final fermentation. My fridge is about 5,5°C and 12hrs is fine. If yours is warmer, a shorter fermentation might be better, and vice versa, if yours is cooler you can leave it longer.
Preheat the oven to 250°C/486F.
Transfer to baking sheets and score them with a single stroke.
Lower the temperature of the oven to 220°C/432F and bake for about 35 mins with steam. Let the steam escape after 25 mins.
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