Whole Wheat bread with Hazelnuts and Currants.
This year the black currant bush we have in our yard for some reason produced a lot of fruit. Neither my wife nor I are big fans of black currants just on their own. We usually freeze them, and then I wind up using most of them in sauces for grilled meat and birds. I thought I’d try using some of them up this time by making Hamelman’s Whole Wheat bread with Hazelnuts and Currants.
Our weather here this week on the east coast of Vancouver Island has been setting temperature records. Yesterday afternoon it was 28C /82F and a bit warmer still inside our house. This is almost chilly compared to some of the temps other members of this forum have been experiencing recently, but pretty hot for our part of the world. The Pate Fermentee was made the night before, covered and set outside. In the morning I put it in the refrigerator and kept it there till I was ready to mix the dough. In order to get the recommended desired dough temperature of 23C/75F I had to chill the water down to 15C/59F before I started mixing. This combined with adding the cold Pate Fermentee to the mix kept the final dough from becoming too warm. The dough came off the hook almost right on the mark and stayed within a degree or two of the desired temp during the entire bulk ferment. The loaves were scaled at 600-620 grams/1lb-5oz. A variation I made from Hamelman’s formula was to increase the whole wheat flour percentage to 65% as the whole wheat flour I had was a blended flour of whole wheat and white flour. It still came out looking more like a white bread but I’m happy with the overall results, particularly the flavor. Currants and hazelnuts make a brilliant combination that I think will make an excellent chicken sandwich for my lunch this afternoon