Hamelman

This morning I proofed and baked  Jeffery Hamelman's "Sourdough Seed Bread" from his book, "Bread." This is basically a pain au levain with toasted seseme and sunflower seeds and a soaker of flax seeds. Hamelman is clear that this bread's flavor benefits from slow fermentation. You can spike the dough with commercial yeast, but it's better not to. You can bake it the day it's mixed, but it's better to let it cold-retard. I went for all the flavor I could get, and I got it in abundance!

 This bread is really full of seeds. The fermenting dough is lumpy with 'em. It rose pretty well during bulk fermentation, but, after overnight in the frige, the boules rose maybe 30% in 3.5-4 hours, so I dumped, slashed and baked. They had amazing oven spring and bloom. After cooling, I sliced and had some with freshly made Italian bean soup for lunch.

I really expected this to be a rather dense bread. I thought all the seeds would wreck havoc with the gluten strands, and the minimal rise seemed to confirm that. It turned out to have a much more open crumb than I expected and, while certainly a substantial, chewy bread, it was lighter chewing than expected. And the flavor! The toasted sunflower seeds really came through. The seseme seeds were just an overtone.  Flax seeds baked into bread have a flavor I love, especially in a whole wheat sourdough. The bread itself had a nice tang and sweet, crunchy crust.

 I

Hamelman's Sourdough Seed Bread

Hamelman's Sourdough Seed Bread

Now Fleur-de-Liz claims Hamelman's multi-grain levain is even better tasting than this one. It's hard to imagine, but, if she says so, I'm going to have to bake that next. (Hey! No crowding in line!)

David

Today's Vermont Sourdough came out better than the last. I tried to be brave and really work the slashes and I think they're better but need work. It made me a wreck because I thought the whole thing would collapse. They didn't and next time I will cut deeper. I was really happy with the crumb this time.Vermont SourdoughVermont  The bread did not get a dark crust like last time probably because I put it in a cooler oven this time. 460º then down to 450º. Also I let the loaves rise 2 1/2 hrs. till they were light and puffy but still (I hoped) had more room to grow and they did once they hit the oven. I thank zolablue for that. This bread is so delicious it's my new favorite. I'm going to make it again for friends on Tuesday. I made today's bread to give away and as you can see I cut them in two but the breads going to my sister and she doesn't care. I had to see inside, right?

I hope many of you try this, it's an easy one. Also, like I said I added the salt along with the other ingredients in the final dough and there's no problem that I can detect.

PAIN RUSTIQUE: PAIN RUSTIQUE: Today I made Hamelman's Pain Rustique and I'm very happy with it. It is creamy and delicious. Thanks TTonka and Susan. I made 3 loaves, one for my neighbor, one in a bread tin for my grandaughter (brushed with butter) and one for us. I will make this again for sure. I'm also going to finally buy Hamelman's book so I don't have to struggle to read the recipe from a pdf. By the way Susan my icons to enlarge the page go off when I go into the file. Who knows why.