Here's what not to do with Jeffrey Hamelman's lovely Golden Raisin Bread:

1. forget to do the 2nd build on the levain
2. and not notice you forgot until too late.

A testament to this bread is that even missing 2 oz. of flour and 3 oz. of water, it is delicious! The crumb is a little coarser than usual, but the flavour and texture are fine. Well, the texture's not so great where the crust bubbled out, but elsewhere is fine.

I was doing six things at once last night, and one of them was supposed to be adding the 2nd and final feed to the levain. That is, after I transferred it to another bowl because I needed that one for something else. Never got back to it after the transfer. When I saw it sitting there later, just thought I forgot to cover it. I wondered why the levain looked a little limp at the 16 hour mark today. And why the dough was slacker than usual. And why the final dough weighed 5 oz. less than it should. Studied the formula. Dredged up the memories. Now I know. <sigh>

If confession is good for the soul, I guess I go to bed spiritually uplifted. Ready to bake another day.

Carol

Seems appropriate to make my first blog post about pumpernickel. Mentioned in my intro post yesterday that it was Horst Bandel's Black Pumpernickel in Jeffrey Hamelman's book Bread that brought me to The Fresh Loaf. Growing up in multi-cultural Winnipeg, Manitoba, I was exposed to so many wonderful ryes. So while I was at baking school, I made whatever breads (and other things) we were assigned and then worked overtime on the ryes.

To say there's a learning curve with true pumpernickel is an understatment! Made JH's recipe countless times. Thought I'd share pictures of the first decent loaf I produced, along with the grateful and happy email I sent to  my instructor in the wee hours that day before graduation. I might flub picture posting this first try. Bear with me.

The final dough, ready for the pan:

After the long night's bake:

The crumb:

Email to my instructor (excerpt):

"Best graduation present ever! I seem to have cracked the pumpernickel at last. Not completely there yet, as you can see from the concave bit, centre top. But I think I know how to solve that, too. Several insights made the difference... But most importantly, I saw a reference in side note on page 216 that his Pullman pans are 13" long rather than our 16". Meant I was vastly overproofing by trying to get the bread close to the top of the pan. Even overproofed this one because it was supposed to get 50 to 60 minutes and could not believe that it seemed to be ready at 20! I turned the oven on to preheat, and the loaf continued to rise before my very eyes like time-lapse photography. That's what produced the concave bit, I would guess. Could think of no one I'd rather share this joy with! And yes, that is one of the school's Pullman pans. It's right by my front door to bring back today."

I was happy with my first attempt at 40% Rye with Caraway, until I saw SteveB's. After looking at his post on his blog I tried his method modifications minus the covered steaming. I like the steam cover I just can't bake 2 loaves this size at the same time.

I also used only 8 grams of caraway and it was ground. I just wanted a hint of spice. The sour came through very nicely. I used my rye starter and let it age for 18 hours for maximum sour flavor.

Thanks Steve, I don't know how this could be any better.

Eric 

I tried really hard to screw up this olive levain from Hamelman's Bread. It was enjoying its bulk fermentation in a bowl on top of my stove when I started preheating my oven for some other loaves. Of course, it was sitting on the burner above the vent from the oven. D'oh! By the time I noticed, there was a crusty bit at the bottom of the dough. I cut that off, moved it off the burner and hoped I wouldn't end up with bricks. It had its folds, got shaped and I let retard in the fridge for about 24 hours. It flattened out a bit in the fridge so when I took it out to bake, I reshaped it a little then just tossed it in the oven. Happily, I hadn't killed all the yeast and it did rise in the oven. And it tasted amazing. Oh, and this is the first time I used the Italian culture I got from Northwest Sourdough. Looking forward to making this one again. More pictures of my weekend baking activities.

From a marathon baking session last weekend. The whole rundown is here. 

Laura 

Hi all,

I'll be making Hamelman's Vermont Sourdough again this weekend.  Is anyone interested in joining me and comparing notes?

You can find the recipe here: http://ostwestwind.twoday.net/stories/3707371/

I made this loaf for the first time last weekend and I finally feel like my bread starting to turn out pretty good.  I'll be concentrating on this bread for awhile, in an attempt to improve my skills.

I think the things that helped me out the most the first time I made this bread was I had refreshed the starter twice in the 24 hours before making the bread, instead of once in 12 hours.  I also followed Hamelman's instructions very closely and used a scale.

This time around, I'll be making the full home sized batch and one of the loafs will be a batard.  I've pretty much stuck will boules, but I'd like to improve my shaping skills. 

Please join me in making this delicious bread.  I really learn alot from reading other people's experience with the same recipe.

 Tonya

Hi,

I've been reading this site for a couple of months and have learned a ton. Thanks everyone for sharing.

I have a question about Hamelman's Vermont Sourdough. I recently got a scale and this was my first attempt at following a recipe with percentages.

I only wanted to make one loaf, so I converted the home recipe to grams and halved it:

My question is...from the threads I read about this dough is that it should be fairly stiff and mine isn't. It's pretty gloppy. After autolyse (45 min) and mixing in the kitchen aid on speed 2 for 3 or 4 minutes, I could see the gluten strands and it did change texture and cleaned the sides of the bowl, but it never really stiffened up. I had to scrape it out of the bowl and after letting it bulk ferment for about an hour and a half, I had to scrape it out again for the folding. It was pretty sticky.

I used KA AP Organic flour and Hodgson Mill's Rye flour. I'm just trying learn how the bread should feel and if this is stiff...wow.

That said, this is my best loaf to date and I finally got some oven spring, I think due to slowing down while following all the steps. I was trying to rush the part from slashing to in the oven because I was afraid it would deflate. I guess as long as it's not over proofed, it will be fine.

Greetings,

 I made my first attempt at Ciabatta and overall I am pleased with my results. I used Hamelman's "Ciabatta with Poolish" recipe. I followed it pretty strictly with few exceptions.

For the mixing of the poolish and the initial incorporation of all the ingredients the following day I mixed by hand using my fingers. I followed that up with about a five minute mix on second speed with my Bosch Compact Kitchen Machine. (the recipe calls for a 3 minute mix on first speed to incorporate ingredients and a 3.5 to 4 minute mix on second speed for a commercial spiral mixer). I am still far from having a good feel as to when the dough is mixed enough, so I am trying to err on the side of undermixing a bit.

From there, I followed Hamelmans direction to the letter for bulk fermentation, folding, dividing and final proof. I didn't use any oil in the tupperware proofing box I used for bulk fermentation and this made removing it for the two folds a bit difficult. I was afraid to incorporate oil into the dough and alter the results. Am I being overly cautious about this?

Also, as you will see below, I had much difficulty with the final handling of the dough. The recipe callls for final proofing good side down and then flipping it over to load into oven. That final flip didn't go so well and turned out to be more a 3/4 roll. This caused some flour to be folded into the loaf resulting in gray streaks and some crumb compression. I definately need to work on that skill.

Here are the two loaves already cut. I think I got a nice open crumb and excellent color as well. Definately my most succesful attempt so far at artisan bread. The color was definately darker than previously white loaves I have baked. I attribute this to the poolish and careful handling.

A closer look at the crumb. You can clearly see where the flour got folded into the dough a bit. I also had an excessive amount of flour on the outside of the loaves. I am going to try and cut down on that a bit on my next go around. The loaf with greater spring was baked on a stone. The slightly flatter loaf was baked on metal cookie sheet.

All in all, the flavor and texture was excellent in both loaves. I am very happy with the results and I definately learned a few things. I think I am going to try Hamelman's Pain Rustique next. It looks very similar with slightly less hydration. I know people often say stick with the same recipe until you master it, but I am learning quite a bit and enjoying jumping around a bit.

Cheers,

John

We have had a stimulating and instructive discussion of methods of replicating the effects of commercial oven steam injection in home ovens. (See http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/7192/humidity-versus-steam#comment-36522) I found it interesting that many home bakers have found coving the loaf during the first half of the bake to yield the best results - better oven spring, crisper, thinner crust, etc. So, I had to try it.

My first attempt was with a bread I have made many times - Jeff Hamelman's "Miche, Ponte-a-Calliere." I made it with King Arthur Flour's First Clear Flour. There would not have been room in the oven to bake two loaves, even if I had divided the dough, so there is no experimental control, other than my past experience. I baked this miche covered with the bottom of a large, oval enameled metal roasting pan for 30 minutes, then removed the pan and finished the baking for another 25 minutes.

The results:

Ponte-a-Calliere Miche 

Ponte-a-Calliere Miche Crumb 

My conclusion is that this bread has as good a crust and crumb as any I've made but is not substantially different from the miches I've baked using hot water poured into a hot cast iron skillet after transferring the loaf to the baking stone. The crumb is a little less open than I wanted, but the dough was less slack. The weather has warmed up, and the flour was probably dryer. I should have added a bit more water.

David