Oh my oh my… Prune less Flaxseed Ciabatta style loaf BBB-May

Kitchen of the Month in May is Cathy, Bread Experience, she gave us this wonderful, easy to make Ciabatti style Plum and Flaxseed loaves.

Those were baked in the last possible moment, plans a plenty but then my mind started wandering and there was no bread. Chased the soaker and the poolish to start and be ready overnight and baked next morning still in time for the deadline. And then there it was the pink screen of death on the desktop. Yes, I know it is supposed to be a white screen or a blue screen but in this house the sign of an ailing computer seems to be flashy hot pink. Fuchsia pink. Really! I recognize this from my old old laptop that started with the same thing a couple of years ago and it is now retired in the basement. (Seriously what does one do with dysfunctional computer equipment? Trash it? In the bin? Somehow that doesn’t feel right. In a couple of years we will be living on a heap of non-working electronic equipment with all kinds of information still stored but unable to retrieve… scary!)

Anyway, this one is pretending to work again so here I am. Yes there are tablets and smart phones in the house but I don’t feel comfortable writing longer pieces on it. I am a mammoth. I know that. Deep down.

Ah the bread. I really liked it, it was surprisingly fluffy and light, full of flaxseed, dearly missing the prunes. I wish I had thought of adding olives instead btw. I was confident I had prunes in the basement but they turned out to be just as old as the laptop that lives there…. Year 2012 it said on the package.. that I binned. Concept of first-in-first-out not well-executed in case of plums I guess.



Flaxseed (and no Prune) Ciabatti-Style Loaves
Flaxseed soaker:
48 grams flax seeds
72 grams water
Mix all ingredients until well incorporated, cover and set aside.
Let it sit for at least one hour.
Poolish:
125 grams bread flour
125 grams water
pinch of instant yeast
Mix all ingredients until well incorporated with D.D.T. of 70°F.
Allow to ferment 12 – 14 hours at room temperature (65 -70°F)

Final Dough:
300 grams unbleached all-purpose flour
50 grams coarsely milled whole wheat flour
25 grams coarsely milled whole rye flour
278 grams water
10 grams salt
84 grams prunes (I forgot to add those… yes…)
2 grams instant yeast
Mixing: Hand Mix

1. Mix together all the ingredients except the flax seeds, and plums.
2. Once everything is thoroughly incorporated, mix in flax soaker and dried plums.
3. Transfer the dough into an oiled container.

Dough Temperature: 76-78°F
First Fermentation: a total of 3 hours with 3 folds
45 minutes at room temperature; fold
45 minutes at room temperature; fold
45 minutes at room temperature; fold
Divide: Dough is not scaled. It is divided by measurement. Place loaves on a floured couche. I used a board to transfer the loaves from the couche to the baking stone. One of the loaves got (more) misshapen in the process. It actually ended up upside down.
Rest : 20 minutes at room temperature

Bake: Deck oven
450°F with 2 seconds of steam. Bake for 20 minutes. Vent an additional 10 minutes

The Bread Baking Babes (current dozen) are:

• Bake My Day - Karen
• blog from OUR kitchen - Elizabeth
• Bread Experience - Cathy
• Feeding my Enthusiasms - Pat/Elle
• girlichef - Heather
• Life's a Feast - Jamie
• Living in the Kitchen with Puppies - Natashya
• Lucullian Delights - Ilva
• My Diverse Kitchen - Aparna
• My Kitchen In Half Cups - Tanna
• Notitie Van Lien - Lien
• Thyme for Cooking - Katie (Bitchin’ Bread Baking Babe Bibliothécaire)

Would you like to be a Bread Baking Buddy?
Cathy over at Bread Experience is host kitchen this month and she would love for you to bake along with us. Please hop over to her site and look at the wonderful pictures she took, very helpful!

Here’s how:

Just make the ciabatta, then email your link (or email your photo and a bit about your experience if you don't have a blog) to: breadexperience (at) gmail (dot) com.  Submissions are due by May 29th.  Once you've posted, you'll receive a Buddy badge for baking along, then watch for a roundup of all of the BBBuddies posts a few days after the close of submissions.