October 27, 2018 - 9:53am
Hydration question for Five-Grain Levain: "Bread" Jeffrey Hamelman
I made the Five-Grain Levain (page 182 in my copy), and followed the formula exactly except: no added commercial yeast, and did an overnight fermentation in the fridge.
The soaker absorbed all the water, and I thought the final dough was pretty firm. Excluding the soaker water, the formula only has 57% water. Could I add more water?
The reason I am asking, this weekend I am making the similar recipe: Five-Grain Sourdough with Rye Sourdough (page 254) with exact same formula except rye flour instead of whole wheat flour.
Here is the exact recipe I made:
Thanks in advance!
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I am in the middle of making an adaptation of this recipe and once again, the dough feels very dry to me. I added more water with the salt and I added even more water after the first set of slaps and folds (I don’t follow the recipe for bulk). Start with 10 or so grams and keep adding until you feel the dough is hydrated enough. Be sure to rest the dough and give it a chance to absorb the water.
I scale the recipe to make 3 loaves and I added a total of 71g additional water. I think it could have taken more.
I have baked the Five-Grain Levain many times. It is my second favorite bread. The hydration was fine in my case. The loaves are always baked free form. The taste is out of this world and both myself and all the neighborhood find it moist and reasonably light.
I have starter adding seeds without soaking, and sometimes without roasting. But I stay clear of certain seeds and grains (chia, cracked rye, etc) without soaking. Millet, sunflower, poppy, seasame, pumkin and other work fine dry, IMO. I actually have started adding them to the dry flour mix. I know it is considered unethical but it works for me.
But strickly sticking to Hamelman’s instructions makes a great bread for me. After talking about this so much, I think I’ll have to bake one up :-))
You can’t go wrong with Danni’s advice though, she is the “queen of seeds”...
As long as you don’t call me seedy! ?
....better upon mixing. I'll update after final shaping.
Thanks for the input.
I prefer this version to the 25% WW version. Will make again for sure.
We want to see!
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Very nice loaf!
Just curious, where did you find the cracked rye? Seems hard to find.
Lovely bake!
Sharon
For this bake I actually used rye chops.
Also, I actually used rolled oats, not "oats".
Thanks. I’m going to try to find rye chops or flakes - if not, some other grain.
...substituted for cracked rye. Here is what i used:
Rye Chops on Amazon
I live in Montreal, and on Amazon.ca. I can get Rye Flakes, and Rye kernels. I’ll try to see if I can order from Amazon.com - I will also check out a couple of health food stores by me to see if they have it.