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MissyErin

Pierre Nury's Rye 3
 

I was tired of drooling over Zolablue's pictures of Dan Leader's "Pierre Nury's Light Rye" and decided to try it for myself.  This bread is *amazing*.  I sent the second loaf home with friends of ours that came for dinner.  It was a really nice addition to the cheese plate - and every piece was gone in about 15 minutes - there were only 4 of us!

Two days ago I started a buttermilk bread from Laurel's that I finished yesterday.  That was the softest whole wheat sandwich bread I have ever made.  It is amazing!  So much flavor and so tender.  Probably will be our regular sandwich bread in the house.   

 buttermilk bread 1

The only changes that I made to Dan Leader's recipe were the following:

I didn't do the second rise before the retardation.  I did it after.  I couldn't stay up late enough waiting for it, so when I went to bed I threw it in the fridge.  Then took it out this morning and let it sit at room temp for hours... like 7 or 8.  Three hours to accomodate for the "before baking warm up" and another couple hours for the second rise that I didn't do last night.  I then shaped as directed and baked for the longer of the time range and the oven spring was tremendous!  The first loaf was not shaped nearly as nice as the second, but it was incredibly easy once I tried the first and figured out what he was describing us to do.  I'm finding that I'm departing more and more from the recipe's directions in order to fit my life.  I'm just trying to be less fanatic about the whole process.  Its refreshing :)

 

 buttermilk bread 2

 For Laurel's Buttermilk bread, I didn't follow the recipe exactly, in that I did an overnight retardation that she doesn't call for.  I let it rise twice and then threw it in the frigerator overnight (forgetting to punch it down before hand).  When I got up in the morning I took it out and halved it, and shaped them into loaf pans.  Then I put those in the fridge all day while at work, then baked them when I got home.  They are really beautiful loaves.  I gave one as a gift today to a girlfriend that went with me to a whole grain baking class.  We had a ton of fun and got to try some great foodie samples.  Those classes always re-enerigize my love for whole grains.

Pierre Nury's Rye

 As you can see above, the loaf on the right isn't nearly as nicely shaped as the other.  But, before our friends got to the house, I cut that one up to put on the cheese plate and no one knew it wasn't such a pretty loaf to start with.  Then I was able to send our friends home with the pretty one.  I can't emphasize how great the bread was.  It was good that we got it out of the house because we would've continued eating it.  *gasp!*

 

Pierre Nury's Rye 2

 

The crumb is so open.  I was so happy with this loaf!  It was so chewy and the crust was so, well, crusty!  Just perfection...

Pierre Nury's Rye 4

The perfect pairing with Kalamata olive spread, strawberry preserves, Stilton and Brie... and a few pecans for accent.  I think I could have this as my dinner every night.  Not just an appetizer... wow.  

Pierre Nury's Rye 5


 

Pierre Nury's Rye 6

Not so chatty tonight... tired... will bake more tomorrow.  Hubby is off to see family and packing some bread along as gifts.  :)

MissyErin's picture
MissyErin

main pain 3

 

Hello Everyone, and happy Tuesday!

I was in Cancun over the weekend and brought with me a few bread books to read, and was really hyped to get back into the kitchen as soon as I could.  It only (only! ha!) took two hours to get through customs and immigration.  Woe to regular international travelers! 

I decided to make the Pain au Levain (with flax seeds) out of Daniel Leader's Local Breads, and I also made a sourdough off of Susanfnp's blog (wildyeastblog.com) which is the one I've been messing around with lately. 

When I got home I refreshed my 100% starter (and is now actually a 100% - not the 170% that I was stupidly keeping it at, and barely rising!  Weight, not volume, silly!) and mixed up the 50% starter that I would need for the pain au levain.  Both rose quickly and beautiful placed on a heating pad on medium in my chilly kitchen (~65F) overnight.  I mixed up both batters this morning, and let them both ferment at room temp for about 4.5 hours while I was out.  This is where I really deviated from Daniel Leader's recipe... I didn't turn the bread until I got home, and then shaped the loaves about 15 minutes later.  Then I let them sit at room temp for about another 3 hours, slashed and baked at the prescribed temp, with steam in a baking sheet rather than a cast iron skillet (I have one that has been passed down and don't feel like rusting that one out, and I haven't yet been by the store to grab a fresh one).  

main pain

My makeshift couche!  Water bottles instead of kitchen towels... laundry had yet to be done!  :) 

 

 

pain 2

Wanted to practice my slashes... they look decent here but the straight line one just ballooned up!  

main pain 4

Yummy!!! 

 

main pain 5

 Looooving the crumb! And the texture was out of this world! 

main pain 7

main pain 8

I'm infatuated with the crumb!  The crust was really nice too.  I'm not sure that the flavor of it is my all time favorite, I think I'm just not used to the flavor of that much flax seed.  I use ground flax seed in the "broom bread" that I make from PR's WGB and that's only 1/3 cup... the flavor was much more pronounced.  My husband said that this was his favorite bread yet.  *pat on back*  I think I'll play around with a Kamut Pain au Levain next, of course after I try the Pierre Nury's Rye that I've been dreaming about since Zolablue had me mesmerized.

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Then I upped the oven heat to 475 for the sourdough.  It also had a 4.5hr room temp ferment, then folded, and then shaped about 15 min later.  Sat again at room temp for about 2 hours then into the fridge to retard for about 5 hours.  Went straight from fridge to slash to oven. 

The recipe I used was this:

(from Susanfnp's wildyeastblog.com, *verbatim*)

Norwich Sourdough
(adapted from Vermont Sourdough in Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman)

Yield: 2 kg (four or five small, or two large, loaves) ---- I did only one loaf.

Time:

    Mix/autolyse: 35 minutes
    First fermentation: 2.5 hours
    Divide, bench rest, and shape: 20 minutes
    Proof: 2.5 hours (or 1.5 hours, then retard for 2 – 16 hours)
    Bake: 35 minutes

Desired dough temperature: 76F 

Ingredients:

Method:

  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the flours, water, and starter on low speed until just combined, about one minute.
  2. Let the dough rest (autolyse) for 30 minutes.
  3. Add the salt and continue mixing on low or medium speed until the dough reaches a medium level of gluten development. This should only take about 3 or 4 minutes. 
  4. Transfer the dough to an oiled container (preferably a low, wide one so the dough can be folded without removing it from the container).
  5. Ferment at room temperature (72F – 76F) for 2.5 hours, with folds at 50 and 100 minutes. 
  6. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter. Divide it into 400g – 500g pieces. I usually make four 400g loaves and refrigerate the rest to use for pizza dough later. Preshape the dough pieces into light balls.
  7. Sprinkle the balls lightly with flour, cover loosely with plastic, and let rest for 15 minutes.
  8. Shape into batards and place seam-side-up in a floured couche or linen-lined bannetons.
  9. Slip the couche or bannetons into a large plastic bag or cover with plastic wrap and proof at room temperature for 2 – 2.5 hours. Alternatively, the loaves can be proofed for about 1.5 hours at room temperature, then refrigerated for 2 – 16 hours and baked directly out of the refrigerator; this will yield a tangier bread with a lovely, blistered crust.
  10. Meanwhile, preheat the oven, with baking stone, to 475F. You will also need steam during the initial phase of baking, so prepare for this now. 
  11. Turn the proofed loaves onto a semolina-sprinkled peel or parchment. Slash each one with two overlapping cuts that are almost parallel to the long axis of the batard.
  12. Once the loaves are in the oven, turn the heat down to 450F. For 400g loaves, bake for 12 minutes with steam, and another 15 – 18 minutes without steam. I leave the oven door cracked open a bit for the last 5 minutes of this time. The crust should be a deep brown. Then turn off the oven and leave the loaves in for 5 minutes longer, with the door ajar, to help them dry. Larger loaves will need to be baked longer.
  13. Cool on a wire rack. Don’t cut until the loaves are completely cool, if you can manage it!

 

sd 1

sd 2

 

I thought this had a nice crust to it... I'm still trying to get that "ledge"!  I really think I need to get a lame. 

 

sd 3

Sorry for the sideways picture!  I tried messing with it, but there isn't a way to resize this pic on this computer (these were all taken with camera phone)

See... this crumb looks great above... but below its not open at all. 

sd 4

 

*Much* happier with Pain au Levain than the sourdough today as far as appearance, but ***very*** happy with the taste of both.  

Can anyone give me some suggestions as to why the sourdough starts out with a nice (moderately) open crumb and then turns into more of a sandwich bread crumb? 

Also, has anyone else that has made a *primarily* flax loaf felt like it had a bit of an "unfamiliar" taste?  Maybe its just me... It was great, just different than what I was expecting.

~Melissa in Atlanta 

MissyErin's picture
MissyErin

i said those babies weren't pretty... I didn't realize that one looked like a caterpillar.  sigh... a face only a momma could love.

MissyErin's picture
MissyErin

Hello all...

New to this fabulous site, and instead of just sitting on the sidelines watching (while drooling) at everyone's gorgeous creations, I decided I would post all of my breads up too. I'll start by saying that I have been baking bread for a year now... focusing almost exclusively on whole grains (the full gamut) and my oh my were those first 20 serious house building bricks. Home depot actually contacted me... just kidding... Its been a fantastic learning process. It is so frustrating, though, to work for hours on something that turns out to be a total flop! But I'm thinking positive, right? So... I try to learn from these flops and keep refining and refining..

I have started to really get into sourdoughs, though, and created a starter from PR's crust and crumb (with the organic raisins) and its been great. Its just been mighty chilly in our house in Atlanta, and there has been lots of bubbles after feeding, but not more than a 40-50% rise, which is low for Betty the Barm, and I'd prefer not to think of her as developmentally delayed. Just more of a nuzzler, and she likes it warm! I have to say that the first set of loaves I made were beginners luck. They were perfection. My hubby thought he had woken up to a new wife, one with bakin' skillz. The next set I made were "eh.." and then I made a set of SD rolls to bring to a new years lunch. again... "eh..."

So I was on this site last night until 2am (where did the time go???) and I was so inspired... I started another batch early this morning and they came out of the oven about an hour ago. About a 6 hour cold ferment... after the two room temps at 2.5 hours. Today's SD was based on Susan's posting on her blog wildyeastblog.com and I have to say that they came out super tasty! They don't look nearly as pretty as hers (these are not pretty at all, in fact)... but I would love some criticism (constructive, please!) I used a steam pan and sprayed water every minute for the first 3 min, then at min 10 and 15.

bread 1bread 1

bread 2bread 2

 

bread 3bread 3

 

bread 4bread 4

 

My basic notes are -

1. I slashed all of the loaves, and I tried to make them deep, but they didn't come out with that "easy grip" ledge that I LOVE. Why? Did I need to go a lot deeper with the slash? I used a serrated wusthof knife.

2. Do I need to bake them a little longer to get that warm dark crust that I feel is lacking? I think that the bread would've been much tougher if I had kept the loaves in much longer.

3. I'm going to try to describe this.. the crumb texture seems "squeaky" or plasticy. I don't mean hard plastic, but I mean not like sandwich bread, not a silky smooth crumb. Does that make sense? Its even shiny... why is that. All the SD's I've had in the past have been softer and less "squeaky" or "shiny". This almost seemed more like ciabatta...

4. I need a canvas or couche of some sort.. because the loaves were definitely wider than I wanted and not as tall.

I'd love ANY tips you have!!

Thank you very much :)

 


Melissa

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