The Fresh Loaf

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Mystery of page 249 solved.

LindyD's picture
LindyD

Mystery of page 249 solved.

I've been curious why Jeffrey Hamelman's unkneaded six-fold French bread appears at page 249 in some copies of his book, "Bread," while other copies show a recipe for beer bread.

So I went to the KFA baking circle forum and asked the question.  A nice member there e-mailed King Arthur and received the following response from Jeffrey Hamelman:

"The beer bread was in the first printing of the book, and for the second 
printing I removed it and added in the no-knead French. I'll look and 
see if I have the no-knead here and send it to you. And you can feel 
free to disseminate it if you wish. 
Thanks and best wishes, 
Jeffrey Hamelman "

My procrastination paid off since I have the second printing.  Nice to know that we can reproduce the recipe here.

Radicalkat's picture
Radicalkat

Hey there,

Any update on that recipe? I got "Bread" as a holiday gift but it must be the older printing because it has the beer bread recipe. Would love to have the no-knead baguette recipe.

Thanks

LindyD's picture
LindyD

Here it is, which is the text supplied by Jeffrey Hamelman from the KAF site.

UN-KNEADED, SIX-FOLD FRENCH BREAD
Jeffrey Hamelman
BREAD: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes
Dough yield
Home: about 5 baguettes at 12 oz

HOME
BAKERS %

Bread flour 2#, 4.5 oz (8 ¼ cups) 100%
Water 1#, 10.6 oz (3 3/8 cups) 73%
Salt .73 oz (3 ½ tsp) 2%
Yeast .12 oz, instant dry (1—1 ¼ tsp) .33% (instant dry)
TOTAL YIELD 4# 175.33 %

For this formula we are going to take our normal methods of mixing and leave them on the shelf for the time being. This bread is fascinating in its very unique production technique: the dough is un-kneaded—simply brought together with a few strokes of a plastic bowl scraper—and folded every half an hour for 3 ½ hours. The combination of a lengthy bulk fermentation along with the frequent foldings yields a dough that has very agreeable lightness, a beautiful creamy crumb color, and an internal structure of large, random holes. Although this dough can be made on a large scale, it’s probably more suitable for the home bake, and the formula is therefore written for a small yield. The dough also makes an excellent pizza crust. Feeling adventurous? Try 75% hydration.

METHOD:
1. MIXING: Place all the ingredients into the mixer. With a rounded plastic bowl scraper, bring the ingredients together into a shaggy mass. Do this by running the scraper down the inside wall of the bowl and bringing the ingredients up from the bottom of the bowl and folding them on top of the ingredients that were on top of the bowl. Rotate the bowl about 20% with each stroke, so you are always working on a different portion of the dough. There is no need to empty the contents onto the work table. Cover the bowl with a sheet of plastic. Desired dough temperature: 75°F. When doing the calculations to figure the water temperature (see page 382 for a discussion of desired dough temperature), remember that there is virtually no friction generated by mixing in this fashion.

2. BULK FERMENTATION: 3 ½ hours. Set a timer for 30 minutes. When it goes off, use the plastic scraper to give 20 strokes to the dough in the same manner as for the initial mixing. Use fair vigor, but avoid tearing the dough. Reset the timer and continue giving 20 strokes with the scraper each time it goes off. The folding is done a total of 6 times.

3. DIVIDING AND SHAPING: Divide the dough into 12—14 ounce pieces (for baking on a small pizza stone, scale down accordingly). Pre-shape gently into rounds or blunt cylinders and let the divided pieces rest on a lightly floured bench, covered with plastic. Allow the dough to relax for about 15 minutes, until it can be shaped with no tearing. Use your gentlest hand to shape. The shaped baguettes should have sufficient tautness to ensure good volume when baked, but strive to shape as delicately as possible in order to retain lots of air pockets within the dough. Sift flour lightly onto a length of baker’s linen and lay the baguettes onto it with their seams up. A slight crust will form on the surface that is in contact with the linen (the eventual top side of the loaf), and this will help give better definition to the cuts once the loaves are scored. The slight sheen of flour on the bread’s surface also gives it a nice rustic appearance.

4. FINAL FERMENTATION: 1 to 1½ hours at 76°F.

5. BAKING: Carefully invert the baguettes so the seams are on the bottom and transfer them to the peel. Score the bread. In the home oven, just steam the oven once, as soon as the bread is loaded (see page 27 for steaming in the home oven). Bake at 460°F for 22—24 minutes depending upon dough weight.

 

tc's picture
tc

Bread flour 2#, 4.5 oz (8 ¼ cups) 100%

Is that the right amount? 4.5 oz seems awfully small unless I'm missing something...I did some conversions from cups and 8.25 cups gets you loosely  2.5 pounds, or 40 oz.

Furthermore, I calculated the percentages based on TFL lessons, and they don't match what's listed in the recipe above. Unless I'm doing it wrong, which is possible.  So for the water,  if this is supposed to be 45 oz flour x .73 = 33oz water, not 10.6. I am new to baker's percentage so what's happening here?

Chuck's picture
Chuck

2#, 4.5 oz

I think that's all one quantity: 2 pounds and 4.5 ounces (i.e. 36.5 ounces by my calculation:-). The comma  --apparently meant to be a joiner--  can easily appear to be a separator instead. Wouldn't it be nice if everything was decimal so 2#4.5oz could be written as 24.5oz? Reminds me of when my Dad had a shop cut a new piece of glass to 24 inches, then was flummoxed when it didn't fit in the 2'4" wide frame.

tc's picture
tc

thanks for clearing this up. Before you replied, I had made the bread based on percentages only,  and it turned out so good! Love that a straight dough can still taste complex and yummy :D

proth5's picture
proth5

Let me just say that I use this method for mixing all manner of doughs- enriched doughs, whole wheat doughs - even tortillas.  It is a beautiful mixing method and even though it sounds like a lot of work, it is not.  It does take time, but very little effort.

I have a couple of those "hand crank" bread mixers and I can even use this method with larger batches of dough, but substituing a few turns of the crank every 30 minutes for the folding action.

Just be sure to really fold the dough (not just push it around) and stop folding if you see the dough starting to tear at all.

Please try it.  You will be sold.

 

jyslouey's picture
jyslouey

For this s&f method, does the dough remain in room temp or does it go back into the fridge between folds every half hr?

After the 6th fold, is there a need to let the dough ferment for a period of  time or is the dough ready to be pre-shaped and shaped for the 2nd proof? 

Thanks. 

Judy

proth5's picture
proth5

1.  My dough usually stays at "cool" room temperature.  When I am working with levain based doughs, I don't see much rise during the folding period.  When I am working with commercially yeasted doughs I do see some rise.  If your environment is extremely warm, you may want to find a way to keep the dough cool - but not as cold as the refrigerator.

2. The next step is the bulk ferment.  Again, for levain based doughs, they really need more time anyway.  For commercially yeasted doughs, in the early phases the dough is not developed enough, so it does benefit from a bulk ferment.

Hope this helps.

jyslouey's picture
jyslouey

I guess this means that I can only  use this method during the winter months, otherwise I may have to set the air-con way down low.

Judy

proth5's picture
proth5

Just drop the bowl with the dough into a styrofoam (or something) cooler with a bit of blue ice...

SteveB's picture
SteveB

The seeming desire on Hamelman's part to differentiate himself from the "no knead" terminology has lead him to use the unfortunate term "un-kneaded" which implies, at least to me, a kneading which has been undone.

SteveB

http://www.breadcetera.com

 

proth5's picture
proth5

Just like Norm, he's a baker, not an English major.

But I'll gladly trade the strange English for the great technique. :>)

SteveB's picture
SteveB

I'd like to think that the carefully chosen words of his book are more a function of his thoughtfulness and less a function of his editor's pen.  :)

SteveB

http://www.breadcetera.com

proth5's picture
proth5

The epilogue of the book clearly shows that he has the soul of a poet.  But, a few things convince me that he got some editorial guidance elsewhere.

And that's all I have to say about that.

hansjoakim's picture
hansjoakim

Maybe that's in the upcoming edition of Breadcetera, Steve? The method of double kneading, or "how to unknead kneaded dough" ;-)

LindyD's picture
LindyD

"Un" means "not, lack of" per my copy of Webster's and the online version of Cambridge. 

Thus, "unkneaded" means not kneaded.

Sounds better than "fold in a bowl" French bread.  ;-)

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

I appreciate your finding this for us and posting it! I have the earlier edition without this formula, although I use the technique very frequently. I can't recall where I first encountered it ... probably from Pat.

BTW, Hamelman is not the originator of this technique, at least according to The Artisan web site, Joe Ortiz published it several years earlier.

In any case, I vote for "stretch and fold in the bowl" as more descriptive.

David

kazz_42's picture
kazz_42

Has anyone tried to convert this to a 50% hand milled whole wheat and if so how much more liquid should i add. I really love white bread but i feel quilty making it all the time, and i am going to get a hand mill soon and want a good recipe to add to the pile. This technique sounds really great for whole wheat, it will allow that long period of time to absorb the liquid.