The Fresh Loaf

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Pan de Horiadaki

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

Pan de Horiadaki

Pan de Horiadaki

(Greek Country Bread)

based on a formula in Maggie Glazer's A Blessing of Bread

 

Maggie Glazer wrote that she got the recipe for this bread from Rica Sabetai, a woman fromThessaloniki who escaped the murder of the vast majority of its Jewish community by the Nazis and emigrated to the United States.

I have made at least two other versions of a Greek village bread before. Neither was really a keeper, but I learned a few things about traditional Greek breads in the process. As elsewhere, prior to the last 100 years or so, most breads used local, whole grain flours predominantly and were leavened with wild yeast. That is, they were sourdough breads. From several descriptions I have read, I strongly suspect that durum flour was used, at least as part of the flour mix.

Glezer includes a sourdough version of most of the breads in this book. That is the version I made. However, Glezer's formula calls for bread flour entirely. I substituted whole wheat flour for 25% of the bread flour. I expect to make the bread again but with the addition of at least some durum flour.

What I describe below is the formula and procedures I actually followed for this bake.

  

Total Dough

Baker's %

Wt (g)

Bread flour

9.6

99

AP flour

65.6

673

Whole wheat flour

24.9

256

Water (85-90ºF)

67.7

696

Salt

1.9

20

Turbinado sugar

2.9

30

EVOO

2.9

30

Total

175.5

1804

  

Starter

Baker's %

Wt (g)

Bread flour

64.7

99

AP flour

11.8

18

Whole wheat flour

23.5

36

Water (85-90ºF)

58.8

90

Total

158.8

243

Note: The starter consists of 30g of a 50% hydration starter that had been fed with mixed flours. This is mixed with 80g of water, 99g of bread flour and 36g of whole wheat flour.

 

Final Dough

Wt (g)

AP flour

655

Whole wheat flour

220

Water (85-90ºF)

606

Salt

20

Turbinado sugar

30

EVOO

30

Active starter

243

Total

1804

 

Procedures

  1. The evening before mixing the final dough, make the starter by mixing 30g of active, firm starter with 80g of warm water, 99g of bread flour and 36g of whole wheat flour. Cover and ferment overnight at room temperature.

  2. In the morning, mix the flours and water in the final dough to a shaggy mass. Cover and autolyse for 20-60 minutes.

  3. Add the levain to the autolyse in chunks. In a stand mixer with the dough hook, mix at Speed 2 until you achieve a medium window pan. About 6-10 minutes. (Note: At this stage, I did add about 11g of water to what Glezer's formula called for. This was to achieve the desired dough consistency and was necessary because I had substituted some WW flour for some Bread flour.)

  4. Add the salt, sugar, and olive oil. Mix at Speed 1 until all ingredients are thoroughly incorporated.

  5. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured board, stretch it into a rectangle and do a letter fold. Form a ball and transfer it to a lightly oiled bowl.

  6. Ferment at 76ºF for 2 hours. The dough will not have expanded much, but it should be full of tiny bubbles.

  7. Oil two 8 inch cake pans generously with olive oil.

  8. Divide the dough into two equal pieces. Preshape into rounds. Cover with a damp cloth and let rest for 10-20 minutes.

  9. Form the pieces into tight boules. Roll one in each of the prepared cake pans to coat with oil.

  10. Place each pan in a large, food safe plastic bag or cover with plasti-crap.

  11. Proof at 76ºF until the loaves have domed over the top of the pans and the dough does not spring back when poked with a finger tip. (Note: This is a fuller proof than done for most bread, but it will not be scored. If proofed just right, there will be good oven spring but no bursting of the loaves.) This took about 3.5 hours. (Glezer says the proof should be for 5 hours, but at room temperature.)

  12. Preheat the oven to 400ºF with a baking stone in place.

  13. Brush the tops of the loaves lightly with olive oil. Bake in the cake pans at 400ºF for 50-55 minutes. (Note: No oven steaming is called for.) If needed, turn the loaves around to get even browning and turn down the oven if it is becoming too darkly colored. It should be a deep brown when done. The bread is done when thumping the bottom of a loaf gives a hollow sound and the internal temperature is at least 205ºF.

  14. Transfer the loaves to a cooling rack. Cool thoroughly before slicing.

 

The aroma of this bread is heavenly, I think because of the olive oil. Tasted when almost completely cooled, the crust was chewy on top and crunchy on the bottom. The crumb was pleasantly chewy. The flavor was slightly sweet, very slightly sour and quite wheaty. I liked it a lot. My wife loved it.

 This version of Pan de Horiadaki is by far the best I've made to date. But I'm going to try a few tweaks – maybe boost the whole wheat to 50%. Maybe substitute some Durum flour for some AP. Substitute honey for the sugar. How about sesame seeds?

What I will definitely keep is the procedures. The autolyse and doing most of the gluten development before adding the ingredients that can interfere with that – both salt and sugar compete with gluten for water – definitely improves the crumb structure.

I'm happy with this bread, and I'm looking forward to having it toasted tomorrow morning. I'm thinking it would be a great bread for panini. And for bruschette! Oooooh! Toasted, rubbed with garlic, floating in onion soup with a heap of melted gruyere. Sheesh! And I just finished dinner!

Happy baking!

David

Submitted to yeastspotting

Comments

Isand66's picture
Isand66

This looks like a wonderful bread David.  Thanks for sharing.  I like the idea of trying it with Durum flour.  I have some fresh milled Durum sprouted and unsprouted so I will give this a go next month when I return from my business trip to China.  One question; did you include the extra water you added in the formula?

Regards,
Ian

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

Yes. The extra water is included in the formula.

David

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

and only 67% hydration this must have been a very nice dough to work with, especially with the 30 g of EVOO to smooth things out.  With the sweetness of the Durum next time, the honey substitute for the sugar could be cut back some but I think I would  up the hydration to 78% and get rid of the pans just to make it a more difficult challenge for your skill level. The crumb should be more open too! This one looks like one fine sandwich bread and has to taste great.

Well done and happy baking 

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

The dough was very soft and extensible - not at all "stiff." It was indeed very nice to work with.

The method of baking bread in cake pans is very traditional. There are some lovely videos on youtube of Greek village bakers making this type of bread in beehive ovens. Boosting the hydration and baking as a hearth bread would require proofing in a banneton, I think. I don't doubt it would be good, but it would be a different bread.

David

pmccool's picture
pmccool

The webbing on the crust is eye-catching!  An artifact of the oil, perhaps?

Paul

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

I've had a similar effect with other breads that were shaped very tightly, fully proofed and not scored, like my Pugliese and a Polish rye I haven't made for years. I think what's happening is that the dome is springing evenly and the gluten sheath is sort of opening up, like stretching out a fishing net. If there were a weak spot in the sheath, you would get bursting.

The oil results in the crust browning more, so the layer under it, revealed by the opening of the net, is exposed to the oven's heat for a shorter time and is, thus, less brown. It makes a nice light/dark contrast, doesn't it?

David

a_warming_trend's picture
a_warming_trend

...especially since I share some of Maggie Glazer's heritage. Beautiful bread, and a great reminder of the role of olive oil in bread-baking!

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

A Blessing of Bread is a wonderful book to read, as well as a great resource, especially for challah versions - like 40 or more.

David

bottleny's picture
bottleny

When search the background of this bread over the internet, it's interesting to see so many bread-bloggers from Poland making this bread. Their versions are still based on Maggie Glazer's (mostly from this post) or from this version with black olives and cumin.

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

It is interesting how many hits are for Polish blogs. Is that just because one blogger posted and other Polish baking bloggers picked it up?

Doing a search, prompted by your reply, I discovered that I had baked this bread before and written about it on FPN in June, 2011! I obviously can no longer remember every bread I baked one time!

By the way, "czarnuszką" is not regular cumin. It is sometimes also mistaken for "black sesame seeds." It is also known as "nigella." It has it's own flavor - not a bit like sesame nor like cumin, to my taste. I'm not aware of czarnuszką being used in Greece. I've read it is often used in Russian rye breads.

David

greenbriel's picture
greenbriel

I love the crazy crust texture, and the crumb looks delicious. Folks make such interesting breads around here! Thanks for sharing the recipe, David.

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

David

Syd's picture
Syd

Hi David,

Looking at your pic in the bread browser, I thought it was an example of a  Dutch Crunch or Tiger Bread boule. Pretty effect.  

I like your idea of substituting some durum flour.  I bake with durum fairly regularly.  I like it because it gives the crumb a firmer bite and it imparts a nice yellow colour, too.  I even add durum to my pizza dough (up to as much as 50%).

Nice baking!

Syd

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

Yeah. I thought about Dutch Crunch too, when these loaves came out of the oven. 

I was amazed and chagrined to discover I had made this bread, albeit not with WW, in 2011. This time, I hope to get in a few tweaks, like subbing durum, before I get distracted by some other bread project. 

Happy baking!

David

golgi70's picture
golgi70

And sounds pretty tasty.  An interesting loaf and the crumb looks perfect for a toasting bread.  Look forward to future "tweaks" with durum.  

Nice Baking

josh

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

David

trailrunner's picture
trailrunner

glad to see your post. Just got home from a 750 mile bike tour with my husband in FL. Took advantage of the "warmer " weather...not !  Had some wonderful bakery encounters on small out of the way towns...pie to remember forever ! 

Your Greek bread looks wonderful. I am going to be home a couple weeks then off again. Feeding starters tomorrow and I have plenty of Durum. Will give this a try. 

Also will be in Siem Reap and will be visiting a TFL baker there as I pass through on my bike with my husband  in the Fall. Hopefully pics to follow. c

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

I'm glad you stopped in! LMK how the bread works for you.

I'll watch out for your photos.

David

squattercity's picture
squattercity

hello again David.

I mixed this bread yesterday and baked it this morning -- though with some twists and turns. I added semolina, as I didn't have durum, and used bread flour as I didn't have ap. But then I mixed up the amounts of whole wheat flour and water (dyslexia?) and wound up with super-dry dough that wouldn't come together. I panicked and probably added too much additional water to compensate -- making for a very sticky mess until I added the sugar, salt and olive oil. At that point, it was still soft, but relatively compliant.

Then, during the bake, my oiled springform pans leaked and the excess olive oil burnt on the bottom of the oven.

And with all that: it's a super-enjoyable bread, featuring a slight sweetness over semi-sourness, enhanced by a crisp crust (carmelized oil? -- though for some reason, I didn't get the fine crack lines that you did.)

In short: what's not to like?

Thanks for featuring this -- and for suggesting modifications. Your posts have pointed me in the direction of many excellent breads and inspired me to think more creatively.

Rob (aka squattercity)