The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

An exercise in poor self-control

alfanso's picture
alfanso

An exercise in poor self-control

With an early get-away tomorrow morning for a road trip north for family affairs, I just had to get in two final bakes.  The first was the Hamelman Pain au Levain with whole wheat.  Which I've raved about endlessly.  For a twist, I aded some diced fresh apple and toasted walnuts.  The walnut flavor this time, having been toasted, came through strong, but the apple still held back on the flavor profile.  Back to the drawing board.

Just today I completed my largest bake to date.  2.4k (that's where the lack of self-control rears its ugly little head) of the marvelous Semolina Capriccioso - my take on David Snyder's wonderful creation.  4 x 600g.  They were too large to actually fit into the oven across without getting into each other's way, so I staggered them.  For some reason these were a little too sticky and soft at shaping time, and therefore they showed a bit of reluctance in obtaining my more typical oven spring during the bake.  

Three are give-aways, one is reserved for us for the road trip.

The semolina bread just after steam released, rotated and staggered.

And the same group during the final moments of the bake.

Here are the 2 x 750g Hamelmans.

During the trip I'm scheduled to meet up with another TFL contributor, but I'll leave that for a later blog entry.

alan

Comments

Flour.ish.en's picture
Flour.ish.en

I make Hamelman's Vermont sourdough all the time as my go-to bread. Don't know why I haven't done pain au levain. You have given me a reason to do just that. These breads look amazing. Giving away is a generously sound approach. Any excuse to bake more breads is a good one.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

gotten out if them is to use dried apples and reconstitute them in apple cider.  Better but nit great.  The bread all looks grain as usual.  Have fun ion the road trip and happy baking.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

in apple cider vinegar?  That might give 'em a kick.   :P

Lovely loaves.  

alfanso's picture
alfanso

the first time I tried rehydrating apples with regular cider.  No go.  They were even less obvious than this second try, which was with freshly diced apples soaked in boiled apple cider (a TFLer suggestion from my first experiment).  I was also going to replace some of the water in the formula with some small amount of the boiled cider.  But when it came down to adding it, I just flat out forgot.  So I think that I will try that one next, although it may well affect the overall flavor of the loaf.  But I will also try to keep your suggestion in mind as well.

thanks, alan