Mayhem's off on job training today. We quickly worked out that he can take the train most of the way home so that's a win. Morning traffic is a grind.
I don't want to get depressed all over my Wordpress, today, but I also have very few ideas as to what I'm doing over there today. I'll probably end up talking about what I'm doing to try to finish my enormous and epic WIP.
My alternative thought for Wordpress is a letter of apology to Greta Thunberg. BUT the internet in general and her in particular do not need my bloody self-blame issues out there in the open. I don't think I should do that.
The world does not need that noise.
I'd rather be helpful. I'd rather spread joy. I'd rather share the good things.
Speaking of good things: I started on my latest batch of Chia Bread at about 6AM yesterday, and wasn't finished until 11:30PM [I really wanted it done in one day]
Should have got up when I first woke up, at 2:30 AM.
Anyway. The findings:
- Soaking 170g of chia seeds in 800g of water for four hours results in a jelly-like substance that's difficult to work with
- Moving all the flour into a DEEP well in the bowl helped immensely
- So too did moving the flour into the chia mix with the large bowl scraper
- The motion's a lot similar to the stretch and fold for the dough, though the blade of the scraper is chopping the chia mix into chunks
- There's a point in which that stops giving any reasonable result and you just have to work it all together with your (clean) hands
- Which is one FUCK of an upper body workout
- The dough does not start to behave until after the levan is mixed in
- Dividing the two doughs by weight might have been the right idea, but I might want two scales in future. Swapping back and forth was a trial.
- The breads came out a little undercooked. It may have been the "ice cube trick"1 or it may be the chia eating some of the sugars in the flour
Next time:
- I'll halve the chia [85g chia/915g flour] and use 780g of water to see how it behaves
- I'll maintain the baking process as it is to narrow down cause and effect.
More fine-tuning is in my future, but controlling the variables is all part of the science.
Onwards to the offerings.
Putting an ice cube into the dutch oven for the "rise" part of the bake to put humidity into the container. ↩
[Shown here, two loaves on a black cooling rack on a black cooktop. One is in front of the other. The foremost loaf is golden-brown and smaller than the hindmost loaf, which is slightly burned on top]
[Shown here: one large "cob" style loaf with huge splits in its floured surface. Some little seeds are visible in the splits. It rests on some parchment paper]