August 15, 2013 - 6:57am
Sesame Levain, Sweet Challah and Borodinsky
This is my first blog post here on TFL. I've been baking for quite some time now, but there's always more to learn and work on and I'll admit to being tentative sharing my bakes, but anyways --
Today, I baked:
- a Forkish-style Sesame Levain (75% hydration, 95% not-quite-white-but-not-high-extraction-either 812D wheat flour, 5% whole rye). Retarded for 16 hours and somewhat overproofed. Baked cold DO, cold oven. I find this is a nice way to warm up the oven.
- Dan Dimuzzio's Sweet Challah. This bread is family favorite, I get asked to make it maybe 4-5 times a month. The loaf is 5-braided, with the seams between the braids split open a little bit - a look I like a lot.
- Borodinsky using the Auerman process. Formula by Andy (ananda), though I tweaked it a little bit. 88% hydration, 85% whole rye, 15% 550D wheat flour. I used Lithuanian roasted rye malt, which to my mind really makes the bread nice, dark and tasty. This is my all time favorite bread, love to eat it with hard boiled eggs and a dab of good mayonnaise as an open-faced sandwich.
Crumb shots:
Sesame Levain:
Challah:
Borodinsky: