The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.
dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

 

I've been thinking about baking a sourdough nut bread for some weeks. They are so nice plain and with cheese. With lots of family expected for several days around Thanksgiving, I'll want a variety of breads I can take out of the freezer to serve with meals and for snacks. I like to serve sourdough nut breads with hors d'oeuvres.

I thought over the breads with nuts I've made before but decided to try something new: a French-style (not too sour) Pain au Levain with hazelnuts and currants.

I based the bread on Hamelman's Pain au Levain from “Bread.” I added about 25% nuts and currants to the dough at the end of mixing and followed Hamelman's procedure for bulk fermentation, proofing and baking.

 

Levain build

Wt.

Baker's %

KAF AP flour

4.6 oz

93.50%

Medium rye flour

0.3 oz

6.50%

Water

3 oz

60.00%

Mature (stiff) starter

1 oz

20.00%

Total

8.9 oz

 

 

Final dough

Wt.

KAF AP flour

1 lb, 9.8 oz

Medium rye flour

1.3 oz

Water

1 lb, 1.8 oz

Salt

0.6 oz

Levain

7.9 oz

Roasted hazelnuts

4 oz

Zante currants

4 oz

Total

3 lb, 13.4 oz

Procedure

  1. Mix the final levain build 12 hours before the final mix. Cover the bowl and let it ferment at room temperature (about 70ºF).

  2. Mix all the ingredients except the salt and levain to a shaggy mass. Cover and let rest (autolyse) for 20-60 minutes.

  3. Sprinkle the salt over the dough and distribute chunks of the levain over the dough. If using a stand mixer, mix with the paddle at Speed 1 for 1-2 minutes to incorporate the added ingredients and then with the dough hook for about 6 minutes at Speed 2. There should be moderate gluten development. Add the hazelnuts and currants and mix for another 2 minutes or so at low speed. Desired dough temperature is 76ºF.

  4. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured board and knead briefly to evenly distribute the nuts and currants. Then round it up and place it in a lightly oiled bowl and cover tightly.

  5. Bulk ferment for 2 ½ hours with two folds at 50 minute intervals.

  6. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and preshape as rounds or logs. Let the pieces rest for 20 minutes.

  7. Shape each piece as a boule or bâtard and place en couche or in a banneton. Cover with plastic or a towel.

  8. Proof the loaves for 2 to 2 ½ hours.

  9. Preheat the oven to 500ºF with a baking stone and steaming apparatus in place 45 to 60 minutes before baking.

  10. When proofed, transfer the loaves to a peel, score them and transfer them to the baking stone.

  11. Turn the oven down to 440ºF and bake with steam for 15 minutes, then in a dry oven for another 25-30 minutes.

  12. Transfer the loaves to a cooling rack, and cool completely before slicing.

     

    Notes on my baking procedure

  • To steam the oven, I use a cast iron skillet filled with lava rocks. This is pre-heated along with the baking stone. Right after the loaves are loaded on the stone, I place a perforated pie pan with 10-12 ice cubes on top of the lava rocks.

  • I start my bake with the oven at conventional setting. At the end of the steaming period, I switch the oven to convection bake and lower the temperature 25ºF.

  • For this bake, when the loaves were fully baked, I turned off the oven and left the loaves on the

    stone with the oven door ajar for 10 minutes.





We tasted the bread when (almost completely) cooled. The crust is very crunchy. The crumb was denser than I had hoped, although this is a rather low-hydration bread. My experience with nutted breads has always been that the crumb tends to be less open than expected, so now I expect it.


The crumb was very chewy. The flavor of the bread was lovely, with no perceptible sourness, except for the sweet-sour flavor of the currents. At this point, the bread, nuts and currents each contributes its distinctive flavor. Quite nice.


I'm looking forward to having this bread toasted for breakfast. 


David


Submitted to YeastSpotting


 

coffeetester's picture

What are we baking this weekend.

October 29, 2010 - 8:19pm -- coffeetester
Forums: 

I got the "Dough" Book, by Bertinet, out. I was thinking of the Pain De Compange. I Love Rye bread and its an over night poolish. My first loaf last weekend was a white poolish and came out OK (Dense with no crumb but taste. Are people experimenting or are we making out stand by's.

 

PS Im experimenting with my SD starter and feeding it different amounts to see what I should use.

elcouisto's picture

is this (picture included) a sign of bad glutten development?

October 29, 2010 - 5:52pm -- elcouisto

I'm having problems with my cinnamon buns lately and I'm not sure why. The recipe I'm using is "The Bread Baker Apprentice" one, almost identical to Floyd's one (it's the first result on this website's search results when typing "cinnamon rolls").

Here are the steps I'm following:

a) mix the ingredients together until it form a rough dough (I use active dry yeast instead of instant dry yeast and I activate it 10 minutes before, with 4 ounces of 100F milk)

Beginner Leah's picture

Retard Anything?

October 29, 2010 - 4:13pm -- Beginner Leah

When making artisan style sour dough loaves, are there any 'rules' about want you can and can't/shouldn't retard?

Are certain grains, fruits, dairy out of the question, or is just the weight of the dough a factor?

This beginner would appreciate any guidance, thanks!

 

Franko's picture
Franko

Savoury Polenta Levain

 

This summer our garden provided us with a bumper crop of little cherry tomatoes , so many in fact that we, or rather my wife Marie, ended up putting a large portion of them in the dehydrator so we could make use of them through the winter time. The tomatoes were cured briefly in a mix of salt, olive oil and fresh oregano before going into the dehydrator. When they were finally ready to eat we were amazed at how well the pure tomato flavour had been retained. I've eaten a lot of the sun dried type that you can find at the grocer or deli over the years, but I've never had any with quite as intense a flavour as these little gems. At last count we had just over a half pound of dried cherry tomatoes , which made me think that we could spare a few to make a bread with. The idea of using them in a loaf with polenta came from remembering an excellent grilled polenta with a sun dried tomato, garlic, parmigiano and olive oil dressing that I'd had years before at a pot luck BBQ with some friends.

Searches on TFL and the web in general didn't turn up much that I was interested in as most them called for eggs and milk or other ingredients I wasn't keen on, so I thought a little experimentation was in order to make the bread I had in mind. It had to be made with natural yeast, polenta -(more accurately, a hot cornmeal soaker), and the dried tomatoes, other than that I was pretty open to using whatever I felt would help compliment the flavour of the tomatoes. Thinking about the grilled polenta dish that I'd had, I decided to just go with some roasted garlic and parmigiano as the flavour additions and see how that worked. Well it worked just fine! The tomato flavour came through as the main player, the garlic and cheese offering subtle support, and the polenta adding a soft texture to the overall loaf. The sour sort of plays around in the background, which is what I was hoping for since I wasn't going for a tangy or sharp flavoured bread. The polenta gives it a soft crumb, and the wheat provides a good chewy crust, making for a pleasant contrast while you're eating it. This bread is great for panini sandwiches and toasts up quite nicely as well, but to me this is what I call a 'cocktail bread' , or something that you might make to take to a friends for dinner, or to have with some olives and cheese and a glass of wine as your waiting for the main course to finish cooking. There are a number of other things you could add to it such as toasted pine nuts, various herbs, or a different type of cheese but if you're looking for the taste of the tomato to shine through I'd recommend using a light hand. The recipe is included below as well as some photos. If any TFL'rs are interested in giving this one a whirl, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on it.

 

All the best,

Franko



 

                      SAVOURY POLENTA LEVAIN

Ingredients

%

Kg

Kg

 

 

 

 

Levain

 

 

 

Mature liquid Culture

13

10

 

Bread Flour

100

78

 

Water

125

100

 

 

 

 

 

Polenta

 

 

 

Water-144 F

100

300

 

Yellow Cornmeal

33

100

 

Butter/olive oil *

5

15

 

 

 

 

 

Final Dough

 

 

 

Bread Flour

100

600

 

Polenta

69

415

 

Honey

2.5

15

 

Roasted

Garlic/

Shallots

 

6

36

 

Parmigiano Cheese

10

60

 

Levain

31

188

 

Salt

2

12

 

Water

25

150

 

Dried Tomatoes

*

10

60

 

Total

 

1305.5

 

 

Notes:

*drizzle a little olive oil over the tomatoes to soften before starting the mix.

sundried tomatoes packed in oil and drained can be used as well -all or in part

* either butter or olive oil work well, use butter if a richer flavour is desired

Procedure:

  • Mix the levain 16-18 hrs before making the final dough and keep at room temp.

 

  • Make the polenta at the same time as the levain. Pour boiling water over the cornmeal and butter/oil and stir well then heat in microwave on high for 1 minute, stir until it begins to thicken, then heat for another minute or less and stir again till the polenta is very thick. Pour into a shallow container and let cool overnight. The polenta should be soft and slightly granular, not gelatinized or rubbery.

 

  • Break the polenta up in the mixer using the paddle attachment on 3rd speed for 1 minute, then add and mix all the ingredients except the salt and tomatoes on 1st speed until combined in a rough mass. Add the salt and mix on 1st speed for 3-4 minutes then on 2nd speed for 7-8 minutes. Adjust the water if needed to attain a medium soft dough. The dough should be soft enough to incorporate the dried tomatoes easily.

 

  • Mix in the dried tomatoes on 1st speed until thoroughly combined. Knead the dough by hand on the counter for 4-5 minutes using minimal dusting flour and a scraper until it's developed and the dough is smooth and elastic.

 

  • 1st stretch and fold after 1 hr, then again after the 2nd hr.

  • Retard at 45F or less for 18 hrs. Allow the dough to come to room temp of 70-75F for 1-1/12 hr before shaping.

  • Lightly round the dough, cover and rest for 15-20 minutes, then shape as desired and roll the loaf in semolina. Try to tuck any tomatoes poking through the suface back inside or underneath the loaf to keep them from scorching. Let rise for 2-1/2 to 3 hrs, then slash and slide on to a stone in a preheated 500F oven with normal steam and lower the oven temp to 460F. Bake for 15 minutes then rotate the loaf for even baking if using a non convection oven and bake an additional 20-25 minutes, rotating the loaf once more.

  • Cool the loaf on wire racks for 8hrs wrapped in baker's linen

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hello, I recently purchased the Tartine Bread book, by Chad Robertson, when I had an opportunity to visit the Bakery.
I was there for breakfast, so alas, did not get to taste Mr. Robertson's bread, but did get to enjoy a lovely croissant & have a good look at his book... 


I really liked how Mr. Robertson described his journey as a baker and it's beautifully written and illustrated.
I especially liked what he said about fermentation...I had to have this book to add to my collection back home!

My dear father-in-law celebrates a milestone birthday this weekend, so I wanted to bake this special Country Bread for him.
I really tried to make sure I was fermenting the dough in the right temperature zone...ensuring a cool enough environment for the leaven and then a warm enough environment for bulk fermentation...requiring some woodstove management as I tried to control temperature in the house!

I retarded the loaves in the fridge for 7 hours before baking. I don't have the combo cooker that is recommended in the book so just baked my usual way.  The first loaf went in straight from the fridge, and I had an interesting blow out on the bottom of the loaf, that actually made the loaf sit up pretty for pictures! The second loaf proofed for about 45 minutes prior to baking, and I scored it differently, hoping that would help control how the loaf expanded.

I scored the tops with an "F" for Father-In-Law...the aroma of the baked loaves is heavenly...the loaves sang nicely and the crust crackled!
I don't have a crumb shot yet because the bread's for the 'big day' tomorrow...I hope father-in-law likes his bread!!!  
Regards, breadsong

butterflygrooves's picture

Do I need to do anything to my starter?

October 29, 2010 - 11:34am -- butterflygrooves

I fed my starter last night (Day 3 - Pineapple Juice/WW) at 6:30, by 11:00 it was only millimeters above the line so I went to bed.  At 7:00 this morning I found that it's expanded a huge amount!  I had to loosen the lid a little to let some gas out so the jar wouldn't burst, I left the lid on keeping it just loose enough so that it won't explode.  It's now 11:30am and it looks like it's starting to VERY slowly deflate.  It smells like a strong yeasty beer, yum!

Pages

Subscribe to The Fresh Loaf RSS