This is a really fun loaf to make! The contrast of the black charcoal really pops when mixed with a predominantly white loaf. The fact that it is such a high percentage of white flours means that not only will the marbling look incredibly cool but there is a good chance you'll end up with an impressive open crumb as well! Personally I don't find that the charcoal really adds any flavour, just a cool aesthetic. Supposedly it may provide some health benefits but I cannot speak on that. As you can tell from the photos this is not an ideal loaf for holding melting peanut butter or anything, but hey, this one is all about looks.
To create the marbled effect you will need to mix up two separate doughs and then laminate them together. One of them will be a plain mix (dough A), the other will have the charcoal added (dough B). I find that I get the best results if I go with 2/3 mixed as usual and then 1/3 mixed with the charcoal. If I use a 50:50 ratio the charcoal starts to takeover!
Ingredients (One Loaf)
Dough A
240g (90%) Anita's White Flour
27g (10%) Nunweilers Light Spelt Flour
208g (78%) Water
5.3g (2%) Salt
53g (20%) Levain
Dough B
120g (90%) Anita's White Flour
13g (10%) Nunweilers Light Spelt Flour
104g (78%) Water
2.6g (2%) Salt
26g (20%) Levain
1 Teaspoon of Activated Charcoal
Process
8:00am- Levain Build with 15g Starter, 45g warm water, 45g Flour blend (75% White, 25% Dark Rye).
12:00pm- In separate bowls, Autolyse both doughs (reserve a splash of water for adding with the salt).
1:00pm- Mix in the required Levain for each dough.
1:30pm- Mix in the required salt and remaining water for each dough.
2:00pm- Coil Fold doughs separately.
2:30pm- Coil Fold doughs separately.
3:00pm- Laminate both doughs together *See video below.
3:30pm- Coil Fold.
4:30pm- Coil Fold.
5:30pm- Coil Fold .
7:00pm- Shape and put into banneton. Cover dough with a plastic bag and place in the fridge overnight.
7:00am- Preheat Challenger Bread Pan to 500°F.
7:30am- Dump dough onto Pan, score the dough and bake at 450°F for 22 minutes with the lid on & 20 minutes with the lid off.
Notes:
The Hydration is up to you on this one, I find 78% works nicely for me. You can definitely go higher or lower depending on what you're comfortable with.
I use a jar charcoal powder, but in a pinch the capsules work fine too. It just means that you will need to pull each capsule apart (usually 10 or so).
It is pretty cool to mix the Levain into the charcoal dough because it really gives you a sense of how long it takes to incorporate. Before long the white levain will totally blend into the black dough.
You can mix up more than one loaf at a time but a single loaf is easy to control how well the marbling turns out. I mix up double batches all the time but it is a roll of the dice when you cut the dough in half, sometimes it works out just fine, other times there is an uneven distribution of colour.
When doing a single loaf I tend to skip the "pre-shape" and go directly to shaping. This is because the coil folds act as the pre-shape.
Your fermentation times may vary depending on a lot of different factors. Use these times for the folding and the duration of the Bulk Fermentation only as a guideline. What worked for me may need to be tweaked a little bit for your bake. For consistency during fermentation I almost always use my Brod & Taylor proofer
Such a great recipe and so much fun to make!
This is my all time favourite. Tried many other recipes but this is the best!