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Hamelman Vermont Sourdough with Increased Whole Grain

JoshTheNeophyte's picture
JoshTheNeophyte

Hamelman Vermont Sourdough with Increased Whole Grain

Yesterday i moved one notch further on my journey through Hamelman, attempting his Vermont Sourdough with Increased Whole Grain.  Ambition got ahead of my scheduling ability: as soon as I had mixed the flour and water, I realized that i wasn't going to finish in time for my evening plans and this bread was going to be an experiment in extended fermentation.  Despite doubling the fermentation time from the recipe, the results were pretty, darn good.  If Forkish's times are far too long, are Hamelman's schedules too short?

I mixed the Levain around 7:30 am: 125% hydration all AP flour with 93F water.

i mixed 9 hours later, 3 short of the12-16 hour recommendation for mature levain:

662g AP (60g of "00" flour as I ran out of AP) [Edited]

153g Whole Grain Whole Wheat (Farmer Ground Whole Wheat Bread Flour)

407g Water, 87F

458g Levain

19g salt[EDITED]

I mixed everything but the salt and let it sit for a 1 hour autolyse.

5-8 minutes of hand knead till i could get a medium window and the dough appeared nice and smooth.

I came back from my evening plans around 11am and the dough had been fermenting for 5 hours (plus autolyse with the levain, so really 6+) and had roughly doubled in volume.  I don't think the dough was over-proofed at all.  I actually think the 2.5 hour version of the breads i had been making before were under-proofed.  Maybe my levain was not as mature as Hamelmans's?  If I had used a 12+ hour built starter would my bread have been over-proofed after 5 hours?  Tough to say.

I pre-shaped into boules followed by a 10 minute bench rest and then final shaping and placed them seam side up into bannetons.  Since I wasn't staying up any later, I put the loaves in the fridge for overnight proofing.

I baked the bread this morning around 11 am after 12 hours in the fridge.  I bake in 2 DOs with a pizza stone on the rack below.  I scored one of the loaves and my 13 year old daughter scored the other attempting to imprint the first initial of my 3 kids L, R and B.  This worked out better than you would expect.

The baking regime was as follows:

preheat, 500F, 30 minutes

covered, 475, 20 minutes

uncovered 460-5, 25 minutes

Results and lessons learned. The bread is pretty good.  The bake is a little uneven and I think this is because i forgot to rotate the DOs which I usually do.  The 2 DOs are wider than the pizza stone underneath so I think that leads to some uneven browning.  Also, the bottom is a little overcooked (by appearance, it didn't actually taste that way), so i need to work on my temperature schedule.  The crumb is not nearly as open as the higher hydration, FWSY country blonde (78%).  I think the higher degree of whole wheat also makes it a little heavier.  But for a bread with 15% whole grain, i think the bread has nice oven spring.  Still a long way to go on scoring (though my 13 year old seems to be doing better than me!).  I think it's about getting a consistent depth for the whole length of the cut and across all cuts.

Up next, the Hamelman Pain Au Levain with a stiff starter.  This will require converting my starter from 125% to 60% hydration.  I worked this out in a spreadsheet.  As always, the question is time -- not sure whether I will get to this during the week due to work, childcare and other pursuits.

Thanks,

 

Josh

NB I have a bunch of pictures I want to add but I can't get the media button to work.  When I click on the "library" tab, I get a blank panel.

 

Comments

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

What a great bake. Loving these breads. Crust and scoring are perfect.  

Perhaps your kitchen is colder than his or your starters differ. Could be that Hamelman doesn't utilise the bulk ferment to the full extent. And, as you said, it might be that your starter was young and needed more time. Did you leave it for longer and hoped for the best or was it intended because you saw it was taking longer?

Either way that is one fine bake. Shame we can't see the crumb shot. 

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

I've just checked Hamelman's recipe and yours differs slightly.

Flour 100%

Water 50%

Salt 2.3%

Levain 56.25%

 

If you have 755g flour then you should have...

377.5g water 

425g levain (189g flour + 236g water)

17g salt

 

Now you didn't mention how much salt you added. That and the formula being a bit off could contribute to different times. 

 

JoshTheNeophyte's picture
JoshTheNeophyte

My poor penmanship got the better of me.  i read 662g of AP as 602g of AP.  I think the formulas ok.  I edited up above.

Thanks for the positive feedback.  It is much appreciated by a new baker like me.

 

JoshTheNeophyte's picture
JoshTheNeophyte

figured out how to add pictures.

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

It looks delicious! I love the scoring and the dark bake!

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

It came out looking perfect inside and out.  You definitely have some young talent in that kitchen of ours too.

Well done and happy baking.

PalwithnoovenP's picture
PalwithnoovenP

Love them inside out and I'm sure they're tasty!

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

Are you changing your starter, hydration and flour, with every bake?

Up next, the Hamelman Pain Au Levain with a stiff starter.  This will require converting my starter from 125% to 60% hydration.

JoshTheNeophyte's picture
JoshTheNeophyte

I don't have a separate mother/levain situation.  I just maintain the starter on the counter.  If I'm not baking then i discard and do a really small feed.  If i'm baking then i feed for the bread in question. So converting just involves adjusting the feed for the 60% hydration starter to account for the 125% hydration seed.

JoshTheNeophyte's picture
JoshTheNeophyte

I take it you maintain a starter at a given hydration.  If you want to bake a bread at a different hydration, you would then elaborate for that bake?  or do you adjust the recipe to fit the hydration of your starter?

Thanks,

Josh

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

80% bread flour, 20% whole rye, 50% hydration and lives in the fridge.

When it comes to baking i'll take a little off and build a levain (aka pre-ferment, aka starter) to whatever specification needed.

When the mother starter runs low i'll give it a feed, allow it to increase in size by about 1/4 then return it to the fridge. This way I'm not slave to my starter and it doesn't continuously change.

There are many ways to keep and use a starter. As many ways as there are bakers. I happen to like this way.

Corrected to 50% hydration (not 25%). I was thinking in grams.

hreik's picture
hreik

Nice bake and well done!

His recipes always seem to work for me.

hester

joc1954's picture
joc1954

I like the crumb you got because it looks very similar to what I usually get.

Well done and happy baking!

Joze