- 1400g Matthews Cotswold Eight Grain flour
- 952g water – 68% hydration
- 24g salt
- 16g yeast
This is my first attempt making a double batch in my Ankarsrum mixer. I wanted to make two loaves so I could put one in the freezer four times when I haven’t been able to make fresh bread. I doubled the recipe I made a few weeks ago where I had baked the loaf with my bread cloche open in preparation for this attempt.
I had a late start, and I wasn’t able to autolyse the flour. With this flour containing grains, that would have been better, but I assumed that during bulk fermentation they would absorb enough water. The dough was slack when I took it out of the mixer, so I added a bit of flour as I did some folds and slap-and-folds.
I must say that the Ank is great with a double-batch of dough; I wouldn’t have been able to do this in my KitchenAid. It almost looks like it’s designed for this larger quantity.
I let it bulk ferment for about 40 minutes, then split the dough and put it in my pans. After another 40 minutes, I put the loaves in the oven, with a half dozen ice cubes. The resulting loaves have a bit less oven spring than I’ve had in the past with this flour, but smelled delicious coming out of the oven. The crust is crispy all around.
The bread is delicious, if a bit dense. Maybe slightly less hydration would make more oven spring? 68% is more than what the miller recommends.
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