The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

XV – Heinz’s Swss Artisan Bread, made with Sourdough

lumos's picture
lumos

XV – Heinz’s Swss Artisan Bread, made with Sourdough

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Note : "The method"  edited on 11th Oct. '11.  Sorry I forgot to write you need to lower the temperature of the oven after 20 minutes! Sorry!!!!!!!!

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It doesn't happen all the times, sadly, but there're a few breads I was lucky enough to come across during our holidays abroad of which the momory has been staying with me even now.  A beautiful bread we had at breakfast in our hotel in a charming little village of Wengen, at the foot of Jungfrau in Bernese Oberland region during the first holiday in Switzerland long time ago (just after dinosaurs had become extinct) was one of them.  

 Judging from the colour and flavour, I knew it had good proportion of wholemeal and probably smaller amount of rye, but its relative lightness and  soft-ish crumb also told me it probably had more white flour than other two. And I was also quite sure it was commercial-yeast based rather than sourdough.   But those were the days well before my breadmaking became ‘obsession,’ so I didn’t know how to ask right questions as to how it’s made or what sort of grains were used.  When one of the waiters in the hotel’s breakfast room told me it was a most common bread in the area and I was satisfied with the info, (naively) thinking I’d find a right recipe for that easily enough when I got home….……and that was more than 20 years ago and I hadn’t been able to find one, yet.                                

But one day, the Saviour arrived in the shape of our fellow TFLer, Heinz.  He shared with us a recipe for Swiss artisan bread he ate as a child when he was growing up in, no other than, Hurray!, the glorious Bernese Oberland! 

  I was overjoyed and decided to try out the formula straightaway, but wanted to incorporate my starter instead of commercial yeast in Heinz’s recipe.  He assured me as long as I kept to the basic ratio of 4 : 2 : 1 = white : ww : rye, it should be alright, so that’s what I did…..nearly 2 months ago and have forgotten to blog about it until this morning……..::sigh::

So, this is my take on Heinz’s wonderful artisan Swiss bread, made with sourdough.  By no means it’s as beautiful or artistic as his beautiful crust and scorings, but still, this is the closest I’ve had ever made so far  to the bread we had in Switzerland, and,  though it’s not exactly the same, I liked the flavour very much.  So much so that a formula I conjured up some years ago and had been calling ‘Swiss bread’ was rescinded of its title immediately and now this is my ‘Swiss bread.’ 

Thank you very much, Heinz, if you’re reading this. I owe you so much!

 

 Swiss/Bernese Oberland-style Sourdough Loaf, inpired by Heinz

 Ingredients : (makes one medium loaf. Dough weight around 650g)

   Starter (75% hydration)   125g 

        Fed twice during 8-12 hr period before use with 50/50 = strong/wholemeal (strong 37g + WW 37g + water 55g = 129g)

 

   Main Dough

     Strong/bread  flour   140g

     Plain flour    40g

    Stoneground WW  flour     80g

    Stoneground Rye flour     40g

    Wheatgerm     1 tbls

    Dry yeast (optional)    1/8 tsp or less

    Water     220 – 230g

    Salt   6g

 

 METHOD

1.   Feed S/D twice during 8-12 hr period before you start making the bread.

2.   Mix all the flours, wheatgerm in a large bowl.

3.   In a separate small bowl, mix S/D and water to loosen S/D a little.

4.   Pour S/D+water to the bowl of flours and mix briefly into shaggy mess. Cover and leave for 30 minutes to autolyse.

5.    Sprinkle salt on the surface of the dough and S & F in the bowl for 20 times or so until salt is (probably) evenly distributed. Cover and Leave another 40-45 minutes.

6.   Two more sets of S & F in the bowl (just 8-10 S&F this time, enough to circulate the bowl once) every 40-45 minutes.

7.   Cover and cold retard for 8-12 hours.

8.   Make sure there’re a few large bubbles on the surface of the dough after cold retard. Take it out from the fridge and leave at room temperature for 1/2-1 hr.

9.   Pre-shape and shape. Put in a bannetton and proof at room temperature .until your trusted finger-poking test tells you the dough is ready, which can be anytime between 2-4 hrs depending upon the temperature and the strength of your starter.

10.   Bake in a pre-heated covered pot at 240 C for 20 minutes.

11.  After 20 minutes, remove the lid, lower the temperature to 200C and bake for another 20-25 minutes.

 *Option – You can also bulk ferment for 1-2 hours at room temperature and cold retard in a bannetton after shaping.

 (Note:  This is slightly adjusted version of Heinz's original formula, in the attempt to make it (hopefully) closer to the bread we had in Switzerland.  The ratio of  flours for main dough is roughly 4.5  : 2 : 1 = white : ww : rye, which makes the overall ratio,  including the sourdough,  roughly 5.3 : 2.9 : 1 = white : ww : rye.) 

 

 

lumos

 

 

 

 

Comments

Mebake's picture
Mebake

What a wonderful healthy looking loaf, Lumos :) Great depiction of the swiss bread.. just lovely!

This is a bread you'll bake for many times to come, i'am sure.

 

lumos's picture
lumos

Thanks, Khalid!

Yes, this has quickly joined my team of regular daily breads.

lumos

varda's picture
varda

of recreating a bread you remember.   The color of your crust is gorgeous.  Isn't this a great site, that puts so many bakers with so many different areas of experience and expertise together, and makes so many more things possible.  -Varda

lumos's picture
lumos

Thanks you, Varda.

Absolutely!  So much of bready-goodies you can pick up here from wonderful people from all over the world,  not one professionally written book can match the wealth of this site. 

Biggest kudos for Floyd for creating this space for us. :)

lumos

Syd's picture
Syd

A fine looking loaf, indeed Lumos and I can tell from that crust colour that there is a lot of flavour there.  Those are my favourite ingredients and, as far as I'm concerned, you can't go wrong with any combination.  It never ceases to amaze me how a little more of this, a little less of that, a slightly longer ferment, etc. can produce an infinite variety of flavour nuances, all the while working with the same ingredients. 

Nice baking Lumos. :)

Syd

lumos's picture
lumos

Hi, Syd! Thanks!

Yeah, those are my favourite ingredients, too. All my bready world revolves around them, with occasional addition of spelt.

As the flavour of crust-wise, my faux-Poilane has been the champion in that sector, but this one for sure has a lovely flavour, too, as you said; this is more robust/gutsy and wheaty because of higher ww content, while the crust of faux-Poilane is more delicate but deeper and you can taste the complexity better without any of the grains overpowering others.

If my memory serves me right, the one we had in Wengen had darker colour and slightly more wheaty aroma and natural sweetness, so I suspect it had higher ratio of ww than this one. I'm thinking of tweaking that part in my next bake.

lumos

wassisname's picture
wassisname

That's a great story of the power of an unforgettable bread, with a happy ending no less!  Beautiful bread, lumos, I look forward to the next one.

Marcus

lumos's picture
lumos

Thanks, Marcus!

Yeah, my life tends to revolve around foods .....and its memories. It seems to be getting  more intense and obsessive with the age. :p

lumos

Frequent Flyer's picture
Frequent Flyer

If you don't mind a short story, I too was in Wengen back when Moby Dick was a minnow.  We were staying in Lauterbrunnen, just below Wengen in the valley and could see Wengen lights at night.  We asked the innkeeper about a trip to the top of Jungfrau and he said "First you take the train to Vengen."  But, we told him we had a car.  He ignored us and repeated "First you take the train to Vengen," and told us how to proceed from Wengen and back. 

Getting nowhere with this guy, we jumped into our car and backed out, only to find the innkeeper standing behind us with arms crossed.  "Vhere are you going?" he asked.  I gulped and replied "To Wengen."  He stared for a moment and then said "There are no roads to Vengen - First you take the train to Vengen."  What he didn't say but was implied was "Stooopid Americans."

So...I'm looking forward to trying this Swiss Bread from a vacation I took lo those many years ago.

FF

lumos's picture
lumos

LOL what a lovely and funny story! Loved it! Thank you so much for sharing. :)

It's the most beautiful part of the world, isn't it? We loved it so much, we went back there about 10 years ago (little mammals had  already emerged by that time....in the shape of  our kids) with our family friends, promising them they'd absolutely love the area, .....and it rained for the whole week we were there, until a few hours before we were supposed to leave.

We changed our train from Interlaken at Lauterbrunnen to take the tiny mountain train up to Wengen.  Yeah, 'Vengen' is unfortunately not accesible via roads, and that's actually the reason a lot of people go there on holiday; enjoying the total peace without a noise of traffic.  There's a little church in the village right at the edge of the cliff, facing  down your Lauterbrunnen way.  Every evening just before the sunset, a lot of tourists gather around the little church and quietly watch the sun goes down behind the mountains, enjoying the way sky changed the colour gradually. Many of them are old couples from other countries, like Britain, France and Germany, who'd been coming back to Wengen many times over the years.

Did you go to Trummelbach while you were there? 

Got to ask bready question, too, before getting told off or kicked out.  :p   Did you have a  similar bread at breakfast while you were there, too? The one we had had darker colour than the one I made. (Am thinking of increasing WW in the next experiment) Ours was oblong shaped loaf without any scoring.

lumos

 

 

Frequent Flyer's picture
Frequent Flyer

I do think we went to Trummelbach - I recall the caves and tunnels in rock formed by a glacier.

Lumos, I really don't recall the breads we had there.  I do recall the food was terrific at the inn and that had to include bread.

FF

 

rossnroller's picture
rossnroller

Very artisan, very sourdough. As Syd said, you can just tell how good that must have tasted.

I agree with you about TFL being a tremendous source of recipes, inspiration and knowledge about bread and baking. Like you, I have gotten far more out of this site in practical terms than all my bread books combined (although that may be in part because I haven't carefully read through any of them cover to cover). As much as I esteem the gurus, somehow I find the recipes posted by folk here more compelling. Speaking of which, your/Heinz's Swiss bread has just been added to my must-try list.

Enjoyed your story, Frequent Flyer - well told! Thanks for the chuckle.

Cheers
Ross

lumos's picture
lumos

Thanks, Ross!

As much as I esteem the gurus, somehow I find the recipes posted by folk here more compelling

Couldn't agree with you more.

Do you also have a same problem with me of the must-try list growing at an alarming speed and you can never catch up? :p

lumos

 

 

rossnroller's picture
rossnroller

Sure do - I keep a notebook of the breads and other baked goodies I bake, and a year ago totalled up the different breads at around 40.  I try less new ones now than I used to, preferring to keep cycling through 5 or 6 regulars and experimenting with my own breads. This is fun and satisfying, but does little to reduce my list! You can never have it all, huh?

Cheers
Ross

lumos's picture
lumos

Bread is just a small part of my food obsession (I run a tiny cookery class at home). I have two large book shelves choc full of cookery books and it's virtually bursting at the seams joints because of my ever increasing bread recipes, usually printed from this forum.  I sometimes wish we didn't have a technology for being able to print out web pages so easily.  It's an absolute bready-hell ....which is  total bliss! :p

lumos

Frequent Flyer's picture
Frequent Flyer

Thanks Ross.

FF

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hello lumos,
I've added this to the (wonderfully long) favorites list, and want to try to make soon!
I didn't see the post from Heinz and am so glad you featured this formula (and your version of it is just as beautiful!).
:^) from breadsong 

 

lumos's picture
lumos

Thanks, breadsong!

Yeah, Heinz's bread is beautiful, isn't it? :)

Look forward to the report on your result on this bread.......in about a couple of hundred years, maybe?  We all know how long our 'Bread to Bake' lists are becoming unmanageably long! :p

lumos

Ruralidle's picture
Ruralidle

Hi lumos

That looks a great loaf!!!

But ..... I don't know why you call it Swiss bread.  It is so close to my preferred recipe for a "general purpose" sourdough loaf that I might just have to sue for copyright theft :) .  I have, however, changed the recipe recently by replacing the whole wheat and rye flours with the 4 Grain Blend flour from Little Salkeld Watermill and I think the result is even more tasty.  Perhaps I can bring you a pack to the "get together" (otherwise postage make it a costly bag of flour if you buy just the one to try it).

Best Wishes

Richard

lumos's picture
lumos

LOL but I'm pretty sure Heinz's childhood days in Bernese Oberland predates the beginning of your sourdough life by a few decades, so you could be the one who'll be sued by him!  :p

Interesting little mill, Little Salkeld is. I've heard of them before but never actually investigated about them until now. Quite interesting range on flours. Gosh, their P & P is the most expensive I've ever seen!

4 Grain Blend flour sounds really yummy.  Yeah, if you happened to order a few bags before our Get Together, please order one small bag for me, too. (Will pay you the cost when we meet, of course.) Thank you!

lumos

Frequent Flyer's picture
Frequent Flyer

I didn't see salt listed in the ingredients.  I'm guessing 1.5% to 2% of the total weight of the flours?

FF

lumos's picture
lumos

::GASP::

Thank you, FF, for letting me know.  Sorry, it's 6g. 

I edited it in now. 

 

 

jamesjr54's picture
jamesjr54

The first was presented as a gift to a sour-dough homesick Californian.

14 hour cold retard; 3 hour final proof. Otherwise by the formula.

lumos's picture
lumos

Thanks! :)  I posted a proper reply to your blog.

best wishes,

lumos