TOASTED MILLET PORRIDGE SOURDOUGH

Steps:

• The toasted millet porridge can be made days ahead, or you can start the toast/soak when you begin to build your starter. Then at the porridge-boil stage, you can autolyse your flour.
• Porridge
• In a dry pan on medium heat, toast the 150g millet for 2-3 minutes, mixing and shifting it around. You should hear occasional popping and smell a nice aroma.
• Transfer the millet to a medium bowl and add 470 ml of water (2 cups). Cover and let sit 5 hours to overnight. When it has soaked sufficiently, you will be able to split a seed with your nail.
• Pour the contents of the bowl into a saucepan, and bring to a boil on your smallest burner. Cover the pan and lower the heat to simmer. Set a timer for 20 minutes. When the timer goes off, turn off the heat but leave the lid on for 10 additional minutes. Then fluff, cool and use.
• Bread
• The instructions in italics are for the Tartine method. However, you may also mix all the ingredients together at once (I still suggest one stretch and fold after 20-30 minutes, mostly to ensure ingredient incorporation) and then resume the instructions after the italics section.
• Mix the flours and water, holding back about 1/4 cup of water. Cover and allow the dough to autolyse for 1-4 hours.
• Add the starter to the dough by pinching and kneading until it is incorporated. Cover again and let rest for 20-30 minutes.
• Begin a series of four rounds of stretching and folding, 20-30 minutes between each round.
• Before the second stretch and fold, dissolve the salt in the reserved water. Add the salt water and the toasted millet porridge to the dough. Pinch, squeeze, and knead with two hands until it is well distributed into the dough.
• Cover and let the dough ferment for several more hours. Total fermentation time depends on room temperature, but will likely be 6-10 hours.
• When the dough has roughly doubled in size and there are some bubble on the surface, flour your countertop and scrape the dough out onto it.
• If you've made a double dough (i.e. not halved the recipe), cut the dough in half and pre-shape it into round or oval balls, depending on the type of baking vessel(s) you have.
• Cover the dough with plastic and let it rest for ~20 minutes.
• Prepare your proofing basket(s) by dusting them with flour or bran flakes.
• Shape your doughs into tight round or oval shapes, transfer them to the proofing baskets, and cover. You can also roll the tops of the doughs in millet before placing them in the banneton (millet-side down) to proof. I find the seeds too hard to chew, however, so I don't do this -- even though it looks attractive.
• Proof at room temperature for 1-2 hours, or in the refrigerator for 5-10 hours.
• Preheat your oven with the baking vessel(s) inside for 30 min at 500F.
• If you are doing 2 breads and only have one baking vessel, you can use the refrigerator to slow down the proof of one of the doughs, so that you bake the breads separately (different days, several hours apart, or in succession). If you bake one after the other, I suggest a 15 minute re-preheat of the baking vessel before bread #2.
• When the final proof and the preheating are complete, take the baking vessel from the oven. Gently flip the dough out of the basket and into the bottom of your baking vessel. Score the top of the dough. Cover and return the vessel to the oven.
• Bake at:
• 500F for 30 minutes lid on
• 450F for 10-15 minutes lid off
• When finished, the internal temp should be 205F or more.
• Remove the baking vessel from the oven and transfer the bread to a cooling rack.
• Let cool at least 1 hour before cutting. If you've chosen the higher hydration recipe variation, you may want to wait longer than 1 hour before cutting.