I learned a few things last week that I should have known but learning them because they happen to be the only way you get something done tends to stick more in ones mind.

I wanted to bake some of the Essential Columbia in Maggie Glazer's book.  It is one of my favorite breads (a staple in my freezer) and one that i do fairly often. This last baking turned out four of the most perfect loaves i have ever done and, since a friend repeated my methods with the same results, I feel confident sharing. The interesting thing is that I wound up doing what I did because i had to in order to fit the baking into an otherwise hectic schedule.

Note: I wont repeat the recipe since it is easy to find in Glazer's book.

I had just refreshed my 100% starter a few times. It was very healthy. It was Friday night and I knew that i had a small window to bake (or even mess with the dough) on Sunday Morning. I planned on a double recipe to get 4 loaves. So ... on Saturday at 6:00 AM I made the firm starter from the 100% starter. I left for a day away from home but the starter worked on the kitchen counter (about 70 degrees) until i got home at 4:00PM. It was nice and expanded. At 4:30PM I mixed the other flour and water (only) and left them to autolyse, again at about 70 degrees.  I went right off to an event and got home at 9:30PM. That's a LONG autolyse. But I had no choice. The firm starter was now about 15 hours old and bubbly even if it was a firm starter. Too Long? Nah.  I mixed the autolysed dough, the firm starter and the few other ingredients in my stand mixer for 8 minutes on low. The gluten was great. I watched a bit of TV until 10:30 and then did one single session of as many folds as the glutenous dough would allow -- 5 or 6.  I then put the dough into a plastic container with its lid on and put it out into the 50-55 degree garage. The next morning at 7:00AM the dough was beautifully doubled. 

I shaped it, using both the baguette letter fold with the filone roll at the ends, into fat battards  (using my linen-lined plastic fish-n-chips baskets as baneltons) and did a second rise for 2 hours. My slashes (one per loaf) were very shallow and from end to end at about 2 o'clock cross section .  I baked it at 450 rather than 400. Voila! Perfecto! Great oven spring. Ballooned up to be round in cross section and with a terrific crumb. Oh, tastes great too.

So ... if I had a LOT of time I would not have given either my firm starter nor the autolysing dough nearly the time it deserved and the long overnight cool rise helped a bunch too. Actually, this was a great schedule for baking this bread and the results were amazing ... yah, I know, show me the picts. Sorry, take my word for it. But, I will not now be in nearly the same rush as I had been in the past. I will also say that the only "prime" time i spent on this bread was the baking at 10:00AM.  Everything else was at a "no-conflict "time with the rest of my life.

second endeavor after coming back to my electric oven after a month of wood fired brick oven adventures. delicious little rolls for pretty much anything, for me it was a dinner roll.

pretty good rise for a 100% whole wheat, but that seems to be the standard since switching to natural leaven, open crumb, super moist. i was quite pleased. the crust was pretty good too even for the electric oven, although my heart still has a brick oven sized hole...

I just returned from the King Arthur Flour Co’s Baking Education Center and wanted to share my experience taking the 10hr, day and a half class:  “Naturally Leavened Breads” with Jeffrey Hamelman. Being greeted by sunny 70 degree weather in beautiful Vermont was a great way to start the day and the Education Center is a light and airy building with lots of well managed work space. 

We were set up two at a work bench and each of the 12 participants had their own set of tools:  a 6qt Kitchenaid or 7qt Viking mixer, a scale, metal and plastic dough scrapers, stainless steel bowls and of course access to lots and lots of Flour. We were also given a packet with formulas we would be using for our Breads along with others on Desired Dough Temperature, making Liquid and Stiff Levains, etc. The class room is in the same building as the K A Bakery and we would work in the commercial equipment area as needed during the day.

the breads

After a short introduction Jeffrey had us dig right in … within minutes of arrival we were Scaling materials and preparing in earnest for the 7-8 loaves of Bread we would each be bringing home  by the next day’s end of class. It became clear from the beginning that this was not going to be a walk in the park … not a lecture format about Bread … rather an intense, professional, emersion into natural levained Bread … real ‘on the job training’ under the hand of a Maestro.

The whole class, the flow and timing of everything we did, was built around the Bread.  When our dough was taking a breather then we had time for a demonstration, a talk from Jeffrey or questions and answers, otherwise we were attentive to our job ... making and baking Bread.

We worked with:  a Pain au Levain with All Purpose Flour (KA Sir Galahad) and Medium Rye, a Currant and Walnut Sourdough with Sir Galahad and Whole Wheat Flour, and a 5 Seed Sourdough with Sir Gal, High Gluten Flour (KA Sir Lancelot) and Whole Wheat Flour.

5 seed sourdough

We used both Liquid and Stiff Cultures and were shown, and then directly used, different techniques on each loaf: hand or machine mixing, autolyse, soakers, room temperature bulk fermentations with folding, and 40deg overnight retarding to name a few.  Forming options for different types of loaves and slashing styles were shown and then tried out. We received countless tips like: adding optional fresh yeast, using a lined benneton when retarding, how to convert a liquid levain to a firm one, and on and on. Luckily these many learnings were not isolated lectures but put to use right after the individual descriptions/examples were shown. This made everything Jeffrey taught easier to integrate.

This was set up to great advantage because it not only allowed us to learn the varied construction possibilities but also to be able to do comparisons. For example, a machine mixed Pain au Levain could be compared side by side with a hand mixed Pain and an overnight retarded Pain.  Or a Sourdough Bread made with Stiff Levain compared to one made with a 125% hydration Liquid Levain. So, ease/timing of production using different techniques at the bench was directly mated with actual taste tested results from the oven. I saw that everything we do in Bread making is more than just a method choice … it is a choice for a desired result.

currant and walnut sourdough

If there was an overriding theme to the class it would be this:  Once a ‘technique’ was completed he directed us to then look to the dough for confirmation/nonconfirmation of what we had done. I saw how measurement and clock work are very important parts in Jeffrey’s production. They are a foundation that helps bring consistency and a standard and honesty to our work. But, he stressed that only through direct connection with the dough itself can we see if what we are doing is really working well and will make the best Bread. 

At some point during the two days of class each participant called out ‘ Jeffrey!!! ‘   Is this Poolish ripe?   or    is the gluten developed enough?     am I too wet here?     Is this proofed enough?  

“ See with your fingers ”  he would reply,  and then he’d call us all over to give our opinion, each to look and touch … to know for ourselves. He would never tell us what his take on the matter was until we gave ours. That was a real gift.

I’ve attached a few photos of the Breads I made in class.  One of my Pain au Levain is missing from the group picture … I ate it on the drive home.

Thank you Mr. Hamelman

        and Susan and Crew at the KA Baking Education Center.

Dave

Pain au levain

miche style pain au levain approx 1.5 kilos

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.

  I recently read this on the Fresh Loaf as a "non-member" of the site. 

     Here and there Hamelman makes a nod to the home baker, but it doesn't take long for the amateur baker to realize that Hamelman is not all that interested in his or her plight. The continual references to steam injectors and oven vents, proper posture when lifting 75 pounds of dough, and potential injury from improperly holding 7 to 8 foot long peels while unloading dozens of loaves of bread quickly make the amateur realize this book was not intended for him.