Oatwheat Bread from Pete's Starter (PS #2) January 3, 2012

Ingredients:

17.75 oz of bubbling starter from batch made this morning, stirred down
2 c. whole wheat flour
1.5 c of finely ground old fashioned oats
about 2.5 c bread flour
1.5 c. buttermilk
about .5 c water (filtered)
about 4 T molasses
2 t salt

Method:

Mixed everything in the big stand mixer, adding enough bread flour to make a slightly wet dough.  Weighed a hefty 3.5 #!

Shaped one 2# loaf into "cigar" shape; the other into a 1.5 # boule; put them into their towel-lined, floured baskets, folding the towels on top of the loaves.  Preheated the dark blue roaster (medium size) and the 1 1/2 quart le creuset, both with their lids on, at 450 F for 50 minutes.  Tipped the breads into the pans, docked them with a straight edged razor, covered them, and baked for 30 minutes.  (I took the round loaf's temp at 25 min; not done.  At 30 minutes it was 202 F. ) 

Notes:
 * The starter was nicely doubled in a couple of hours, but I let it go for about 6 hours total.  No tangy smell.
 * Bread dough rose nicely- I let it go for about three hours.  Texture was beautiful.

I had to try it before going to bed (after fiddling with this blog template).  Beautiful crumb- texture was even, well-risen, crust nice and crunchy, tasted of molasses but not overly sweet; just an excellent loaf.  Delicious!!

Application for next loaf:

Pay attention to the ratio of starter to flour for main dough.  Looks like about one pound of starter for roughly 6 c. of flour.  However, maybe I should weigh the flour and try and keep the measurements more consistent.  I am not overly concerned; however, I'd say this ratio was perfect for this particular loaf.