Hamelman Multigrain Wholewheat Levain-Commercial Yeast Combo
I finally achieved a proper, (if off-center) ear on one of the loaves, so I'm overjoyed. I thought I made deep enough cuts into the round loaf, but apparently not. I really enjoyed incorporating a soaker, and this dough was quite easy to work with. The crumb seems good to me, but I welcome any criticisms. It felt like cheating using both levain and commercial yeast, but I love the recipe. Changes made from previous Hamelman Vermont SD bake:
1. Use of Brod & Taylor proofing box. It performed as expected. I really like that the water pan allows you not to cover the dough; the dough surface did not form a skin and was not wet either.
2. Longer final proof. It occurred to me that that as I learn to shape, I'm probably going to degas more than do experienced bakers during the pre- and final shaping, so it's a fair assumption that I'll need longer final proofing times. I realize, of course, the need to monitor and poke the dough.
3. Deeper score on oval loaf, and I thought on round loaf. Better use of tip of razor to get cleaner cuts. Question: any idea what I did wrong on the round loaf?
4. Lava rocks separated into two iron griddles. One was used for pre- and the other post-load steaming. I poured more water into the first pan after the second steaming, but that timing seems to provide minimal steam. Again, I have a Blue Star gas oven, and the steam vents out quickly, so I don't know if I'm getting proper steam. Question: The bread has good crust and color, and expansion on the oval loaf, but is there any sign of poor oven spring on that loaf?
Comments
pretty well. I like to fill the pans with lava rocks half full of water and put them in the oven when it hits the preheat temperature, 13 minutes later I unmold the bread and slash it and in the oven it goes. Do not put your face by the oven door when you open it, This is Maga Steam and it will resurface your face in an instant. The water will last fpor about 15 minutes of steam. Then you take the steam out and turn the oven down to finish baking 25 F degrees lower, What % whole grains is this bread? It looks like 100% from the crumb. Well done and
Happy baking
Not 100%. I believe it's 80%, but I don't have the book handy. I took the unusual step of adding a bit of water during the mixing, and then adding a touch of flour back because it was sticking to the bottom. I was thinking that I would like to try it with a higher hydration, since it ended up pretty stiff.
Two questions: (1) Do you use electric or gas? (2) Are you saying you put the lava rocks with water in at room temp, rather than pouring water onto hot rocks? Since the steam completely vents rather quickly using the latter method, my working assumption is that nothing will keep steam inside the oven. Just browsing this topic briefly on here, others have had the same experience. I have yet to see anyone solve this problem for gas ovens.
You really need to use a cloche for a gas oven and tent the dough on the stone or baking steel but Mega Steam going in cold half full of water and loading the dough 15 minutes later is the only thing that will produce enough steam continuously, absent a cloche, since gas ovens vent so fast.
I've had good success with my Le Creuset (although the bottom was fairly burnt for my taste), so I'd love to use a cloche (but storage problems ...). I found a link to this on TFL, see below. It's tenting with a giant turkey roaster top, after spraying dough directly with water infused with a small amount of malt syrup. I'd like to get a 19" one, because it would fit over baguettes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4PHUyRmpPc
aluminum turkey roasting pan as a cloche too - works great.
Is the stock pot clapped on top of a baking sheet. A bit Heath Robinson, but it works well enough ;-)
I finally looked at the recipe last night and it's only 50% WW. Given this, do you think I went wrong somewhere, and if so, where?
Anyway, very flavorful bread, and it toasted beautifully. I served shakshuka on top of this toast, and the flavor of the bread went beautifully with the spicy tomato sauce.
For some reason scoring on round loaves usually seems to look different than on batards. I think your scoring looks wonderful (as does the crumb; no problem there with spring I don't think), but if you want ears then hold the blade at a sharper angle (so, not perpendicular to the surface of the boule, but tilted 30 to 45 degrees). And it doesn't have to be a deep cut. Quarter inch should do it.