This is a slightly altered version from Mr. Leader’s “[Local Breads][2]” recipe called “**pain au levain**” but with flax seeds. Coincidence or not, after preparing the preferment, I saw I was out of plain bread flour or high gluten flour! So I had to adapt the formula (or I could of course put the fermented piece back into the fridge but hey, what’s baking bread without a little bit of experimenting?)
**preferment**
1. 45gr ripe sourdough starter (90% white, I used high gluten flour, and the remaining stone-ground whole wheat flour), at 50% hydratation. Very stiff.
2. 50gr water
3. 85gr high gluten wheat flour (bread will also do)
4. 15gr stone-ground wholewheat flour
Make this 12 hours before you plan on mixing the final dough. I used more wholewheat flour than suggested (only 5 grams) and I like the result.
[<imgtitle="_MG_7214.JPG"src="https://lh3.ggpht.com/-5u-Kg_igtfk/UGXhkE2l39I/AAAAAAAAGl8/sGC5JquShDw/s150-c/_MG_7214.JPG"alt="_MG_7214.JPG"width="150"height="150"/>][3]<figcaptionclass="wp-caption-text">Make sure you create smaller points at the end of the bâtard!</figcaption></figure>
[<imgtitle="_MG_7217.JPG"src="https://lh4.ggpht.com/-0e2UqfWxjwg/UGXhl7cjzlI/AAAAAAAAGmE/6VMHFQgXZug/s150-c/_MG_7217.JPG"alt="_MG_7217.JPG"width="150"height="150"/>][4]<figcaptionclass="wp-caption-text">Out of the oven. I love those “ears”!</figcaption></figure><figurestyle="width: 150px"class="wp-caption alignleft">[<imgtitle="_MG_7223.JPG"src="https://lh6.ggpht.com/-IaM7VSS-vdc/UGXhpNA84bI/AAAAAAAAGmU/3PJoCaQ_qxM/s150-c/_MG_7223.JPG"alt="_MG_7223.JPG"width="150"height="150"/>][5]<figcaptionclass="wp-caption-text">Big holes, so spelt flour can also expand quickly…</figcaption></figure><figurestyle="width: 150px"class="wp-caption alignleft">[<imgtitle="_MG_7218.JPG"src="https://lh3.ggpht.com/-q6W39aek9ls/UGXhnp4PdPI/AAAAAAAAGmM/YSJKpxGce0M/s150-c/_MG_7218.JPG"alt="_MG_7218.JPG"width="150"height="150"/>][6]<figcaptionclass="wp-caption-text">Slicing at a shallow angle nets nice results.</figcaption></figure>
I did not divert from the baking instructions much – autolyse for about 30 minutes, kneaded using the french fold technique for a minute or 5-6 and folded once after 1 hour of bulk fermenting. The total fermentation time took up to 3 hours because the kitchen temperature was only 20°C and I wanted to make sure they were well risen. After shaping them into bâtards, proofed on the couche for 1,5 hour and baked at 250°C with steam (reduced the heat to 230°C after 10 minutes).
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I did not scale the salt and should have added a bit more but apart from that, the bread tasted amazing. We wolfed down a whole bâtard with a baked egg and some salad this evening. Lovely!
[3]: http://lh3.ggpht.com/-5u-Kg_igtfk/UGXhkE2l39I/AAAAAAAAGl8/sGC5JquShDw/s1024/_MG_7214.JPG "Make sure you create smaller points at the end of the bâtard"
