MultiGrain Sourdough

This is the recipe I use for our daily bread.

The mother comes from Dr John, an old friend, who says it is from the California Gold Rush. I have no reason to doubt him.

I start by making a biga the night before. You start with 90g unbleached flour:

 add 90 water:

 and 90g "fed" starter:

This is what my fed starter looks like. It could be a little more vigorous, but you bake with the starter you have, not the starter you want.

While the scale says "182" there are really 270 g worth of stuff in there.

 Mix it so it forms a loose and shaggy biga.

and let it sit overnight.

The next morning, take 540 g (or ml, take your pick) of water and heat it up in the microwave for about 3 minutes

Add it to 100g Bob's Read Mill 7 Grain Hot Cereal:

1/4 c butter and 1/4 cup sweetener. I usually use Steen's Can Syrup.

Go for a walk while it sits.

Your biga should look something like this in the morning:

Then take 220 g whole wheat flour (I use King Arthur's)

and 440 g bread flour (same)

and mix it in with your hot cereal.

It will be another shaggy dough. Let it autolyses for an hour or two:

and get your seeds ready. I use sunflower and pumpkin:

This is post autolyse:

add 1 Tablespoon of salt:

Now the bigs is looking great!

Add it after the salt:

Mix it up.

Add the seeds

 Mix them up, too.

Now you're ready for the first rise (first proof)

I knead it by hand to make sure it feels right.

then add oil to the mixing bowl, which doubles as my proofing bowl. (I know. Lazy baker.)

Here it is, ready to proof.

Two hours later.

Following Brother Mark's suggestion, I now use Crisco to grease my pans:

This is a good looking boule!

and almost 2 kg. About what I like:

I use wheat germ to cover the loaves. I used to use corn meal, but I like the texture of wheat germ better.

Cover, and second proof.

about five hours later:

Boil some water for humidity. (We don't have enough humidity in Houston)

The bread looks pretty good. Six hours for the second proof.

 Boiling water in the small bread pan:

Get ready for an egg wash and seeding the top

One egg and about 1 T of water

Whip it up

Paint the top of the loaves. You can see the egg wash on the right loaf, but not the left one.

Add sesame seeds

poppy seeds

Pumpkin seeds (pepitas)

and sunflower seeds.

Boiling water in the pan

Everything goes in the oven

I pre-heated to 500, drop it to 350 when you put the loaves in:

Bake for 42 minutes

Beautiful

Take it out when golden brown

That is the backside

Looks good.

 Both look great.

And we have eight breakfasts ready to go.

100% sourdough!