I started the sponge first. I mixed half the flour and yeast with all the water and honey. I beat it really well, to the smooth consistency of a thick pancake batter. Until now, I have then blanketed that with the remaining flour, a bit of milk powder, and the remaining yeast. I would let it ferment, as below, and then add in the oil/butter and salt when I was ready to begin the bake rising cycles.
Peter Reinhart doesn't use the blanket, so I tried it his way this time. Covered the bowl and let it ferment for four hours. It almost filled the bowl, with lots of big bubbles in it. I put it in the fridge overnight.
Around 2 p.m. Monday I mixed a biga. It was a bit of work, doing the math. Both books use different quantities. His is for a ciabatta, but I don't have a baking stone yet so I'm not doing that. RLB (The Bread Bible, Ruth Levy Beranbaum, 2003, WW Norton Publisher) just tells me the percentages. So I had to break it all down, then I used Reinhart's instructions which were more convenient to follow.
A biga is a small dough, using proper flour and water mixtures to get a dough. It has more flexibility in using it; it can be used after 12 hours or within three days. It is then cut up into big chunks and added to the rest of the bread recipe. After I mixed it I put it in a bowl and let it rise at room temperature for 4 hours. I put it in the balcony, but the cats (ChuChu, the little dickens) didn't molest it.
The reason for using either of these is to develop flavor. This is where my experiments get interesting. Which of the flour samples I'm working will yield the 'nicest' flavor. The sponge or biga is the way to draw out that flavor.
The sponge mixture has been completed and is going through its first rise. I measured out the flour, yeast, milk powder and salt and mixed it well. Then I cut the butter into the flour using a wooden spoon. Last, I poured the bubbly sponge into the bowl and started mixing. I was a bit concerned, because I held back about 20 grams on the water. The sponge mix seemed wet enough without it. Now I was worried it would be too dry.
I mixed the wet and dry mix together in the bowl with a wooden spoon, then switched to my hand in order to get the butter worked in fully. The instructions call for putting it out on the floured board to knead for five minutes, but I did it in the bowl. It was pretty sticky, but not really wet.
Since I'm using bran and germ, I was anxious not to overwork it. I had taken a one-day class in whole grains at King Arthur's Bakery in Vermont. The instructor said the key to getting a good rise out of a whole grain dough is by working it minimally. The more you work it, the more the rough bran cuts the gluten strands that are essential to height.
I waited only ten minutes. Had it been a wetter dough, I would have rested it twenty minutes before dumping the dough on the board for the first knead. I did more squeezing and patting then folding and twisting, kneading it less than five minutes. It rested while I washed out the bowl and greased it. Then, using the bench scraper to help lift it, I put the dough into the greased bowl. I flipped the dough once, covered the bowl with saran wrap, and put it in a covered storage tub (cat-proofed). It should take 1 1/2 to 2 hours to fill the bowl
Again, I felt that the volume was larger than what I remember when using the local flour.
RLB says the weight at this stage should be 1258 gms. My dough weighs 1191. I suspect the difference is in the bran and wheat germ, which is lighter than flour.
The biga is in a plastic jar with lid, in the fridge. It has expanded and fills the container now. As I have only one large glass bowl, it will wait until the other dough gets into the baking pan. Then I'll start the second loaf. Argh! and I'll have to do the math again.
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