Pane a lievitazione lenta - Slow Bread for World Bread Day 9th edition

World Bread Day 2014

la ricetta in italiano qui

Two is better than one: today is World Food Day and also World Bread Day.
Zorra has invited foodbloggers from all around the world to participate with a good fragrant bread.
You have time till midnight tonight to bake a bread and join the company, info and rules here, and some idea in the archives here.
You can follow the World Bread Day Live on  Facebook and Pinterest, and use #wbd2014 on social.

This year I wanted to honor our daily bread with a special dough I am trying to improve at every step.
It is not a particular good-looking bread, but it is very fragrant and tasty, as I have given all my attention to the flours, experimenting with different combinations and mixtures, and used liquid sourdough.

I went for a mixture of fine and less refined flours, in order to enjoy a richer taste, almost old-fashioned and vintage, for sure more digestible, nutritious and healthy.

As it is a high hydrated bread, the help of a mixer is almost essential (I hope so much that this year Santa will be more generous than usual an bring me a more efficient kneader, isn't she lovely?), a couple of stops during processing will help the dough to keep cool and absorb better the water, and ease the gluten work.

For convenience timing, I would suggest to make the dough in the evening, let rise overnight, shape into loaves in the morning, let rise until doubled and bake at lunchtime.

Ingredients for 3 loaves of bread:

200 g Miracle
200 g Multigrain
200 g Spelt
200 g Senatore Cappelli durum semolina
200 g Fiber
(wholemeal with toasted wheat germ)
150 g liquid sourdough
750/800 g water
10 g barley malt
20 g salt

Sift the flours and mix well in the bowl of the mixer.
Begin to knead at low speed, combining almost all the water (keep aside 50-80 g), malt and sourdough.
When all ingredients are amalgamated stop kneading for about 10 minutes.
Then go ahead , always at low speed, for 10 minutes, adding a little water when the previous has been well absorbed.
Stop the mixer for 5 minutes, then continue to knead until all the water has gone.
It can happen sometimes that you are unable to use all of the water, it depends on absorbing power of different flours: in this case, better to stop adding water rather than have a too sticky and unmanageable dough.
Then add the salt and knead until well blended.
At this point the mixture, very soft, will be homogeneous and on the hook.
Transfer to a floured work surface, pull it slightly and fold in three (envelope) for a couple of times (as shown in the video). Put in a bowl, cover and let rise in warm place first at least an hour, at about 26/28° (you can gently heat the oven and then turn it off), and then overnight in the fridge (if you knead late in the evening and shape early the morning you can leave the dough at room temperature in a cool room).

The next morning, remove the bowl from the refrigerator and let the dough return at room temperature for at least an hour.
Divide the dough into three equal parts and shape into three loaves, trying not to deflate the dough too much (see video).

Place each loaf in a clean kitchen cloth dusted with flour and let stand at room temperature until doubled (from 3 to 6 hours). For your convenience, you can put the loaves to rise in cloth or floured parchment paper (I prefer to use semolina flour) into plum-cake molds. Otherwise, follow the video.
Turn then each loaf on a baking tray lined with parchment paper as shown in the video. If you like, you can practice incisions on top with a very sharp razor blade.
Bake at 200° for about 40 minutes for 500-600 g loaves.

Happy World Bread Day!