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The formula for this bread is from the second edition of Hamelman's Bread.  It's a 50/50 white/whole wheat bread with a multigrain soaker.  It is leavened with both a sourdough levain and a yeast kicker in the final dough.  The multigrain soaker composition is entirely up to the baker.  In this version, I used flaxseed meal, whole millet, and a blend that includes sunflower seeds and flaked wheat, barley, rye, and oats.

The levain and the soaker were set up before I went to bed.  Since nights are getting frosty here in northern MIchigan, the levain was stashed in the B&T proofer at 75F.  It was 11:00 a.m. the next day before I could start the final dough, so the levain was nice and bubbly. 

All of the ingredients were placed in the bowl of my KItchenAid mixer.  Hamelman's recommended mixing and kneading times resulted in a fairly firm, though not dry, dough. The dough went back into the proofer for bulk fermentation, which proceeded very nearly as described in the book.

Since it just two of us (and a lot of days just one of us) who eat the bread, I elected to shape three medium-size loaves, rather than the two large loaves mentioned in book.  The shaped loaves were placed on a lined sheet pan for the final fermentation.  Happily, the dishwasher was running, which meant that the countertop immediately above the dishwasher was nice and warm; so that's where I placed the sheet pan with the loaves. 

When the loaves had nearly doubled in volume, they were slashed and placed in the preheated oven.  I added boiling water to the steam tray and closed the oven door.  The loaves expanded very well in the humid heat, forming prominent ears.  Hamelman notes that the oven temperature can be lowered if the bread browns too rapidly.  I didn't and the breads is, to use Hamelman's own words, boldly baked.  At least that's what I told my wife when she said it was burnt.  It wasn't, as you can see here:

I've made a note for myself to add some more water the next time I make the bread.  It rose well and had a good oven spring but the crumb would have been more open if the dough was looser. 

The bread tastes wonderful, as is typically the case with Hamelman's breads.  The crumb is firm and moist.  The crust is crisp, with a bit of crunch at the ears.  Lots of wheaty, nutty, roasty flavors to enjoy.

Paul

I figured out how to downsize an image. Used my flaked Kernza for my usual porridge bread. It just keeps getting better and better! Amazing tender open crumb. I took advantage of the information others posted to get more flavor out of the porridge step and just poured boiling water on the flaked grain and didn’t cook further. Worked perfectly.

I use different flour combinations each time I make this bread. This time was Rye, Rouge de Bordeaux , and Stardust ( white hard wheat ) . All milled in my Mock Mill. With Arrowhead AP as the white flour. Whole grains are 70% of the mix. 100g of Kernza. I use my “ trinity” and Apple Yeast Water and 250g of active levain. Made 3 /750g boules. 

Didn’t do my usual “ beat like batter” step. Went straight to all liquids and all flours mixed til wet. Autolyse 1 hr ( while digging holes for 3 gallon size shrubs I’m redoing my landscaping). Wet  the counter place dough pat out to lamination size letter fold. Rest. Do two more times. Let rise til triple. Shape rise 1 ° room temp. Retard 18 hrs bake in graniteware roaster lid on/ lid off. Couldn’t be any more tender and full of flavor. 

Loaf is exceptionally tasty. Really deep flavour with very little sourness, excellent complex crust. Smoky, earthy and smooth. Definitely my best rye bread so far.

I wanted to try making a 60% rye (whole and medium 50/50) that was flavourful, not too sour, and had most of the rye in the pre-ferment so that the grains were more broken down (for flavour, but also digestibility), and BF and proof would be relatively fast, about 5 hours or so, with some sort of rise in the oven. 

I decided to do separate levains, one for the medium rye and the other for the wholegrain rye. For the medium rye, I thought I would go for my standard 1:3:3 ratio, which leaves me with levain at peak after 10 hours of overnight rise, ready to be used in the morning. For the wholegrain rye, I decided to experiment with a 1:10:10 ratio, which I would also use after 10 hours, when it would only be at 1.5x (this ratio usually requires about 14-16 hours to peak here). Part of the liquid used here would also be malt syrup, to further slow down fermentation. The idea was that some flavour would be developed, but hopefully with a manageable about of LAB and yeast to not mess up BF, given that 60% of the flour would now be pre-fermented.

In the morning, the medium rye had tripled and the wholegrain rye had risen by 50%. Mixed everything. BF took 4 hours, proof 1 hour, and baked at 220 degrees for 40 mins.

Figures for a 565g loaf (excluding inclusions):

Wholegrain rye levain: 8g starter, 92g whole rye flour, 73g water, 20g malt syrup

Medium rye levain: 30g starter, 92g medium rye flour, 96g water 

Final dough: 122g bread flour, 47g water, 4g salt

Cranberries and walnuts added during shaping

Overall hydration is about 70%.

Would be adding this loaf to the baking spree for the husband's party next weekend.

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Over the past couple of years I have searched for an emmer recipe that I liked.  This bread will be my go-to for emmer.

The evening before, I mixed the levain, which consisted of 30 g of starter, 80 g of emmer flour, 80 g of bread flour, and 180 g of water.  That sat covered at room temperature for slightly over twelve hours, during which time it expanded and became bubbly.

The next day I mixed all of the final dough ingredients, which were 300 g of emmer flour, 300 g of bread flour, 325 g of the levain, 335 g of water, and 15 g of salt.  Initially I simply mixed to uniformity (i.e., all flour moistened, everything distributed roughly, a shaggy dough) and then left the dough covered for 30 minutes.  The next step involved developing the gluten, which occurred via 300 French folds.  The dough then rested covered for 45 minutes until the first of several stretch-and-folds.

With a kitchen temperature of 72F and dough temperature of 73F (measured after the French fold session), I knew that the bulk fermentation stage would take a while.  Following the first stretch-and-fold, I did three more at roughly fifty minute intervals.  Each gave me a chance to feel the dough as it progressed through the bulk fermentation, which lasted a shade over five hours.  By then the dough was feeling softer and pillowy and certainly not as tightly elastic as just after the French folds.

Opting not to do a bench rest, I immediately shaped the dough and put it into a banneton, which I placed inside a plastic bag.  Proofing took an hour and nineteen minutes.  I use two aluminum pie pans with lava rocks for steam, and I poured water into one of them just before inserting the loaf into the oven and then poured water into the other pan just after.

The bake took 47 minutes at 440F and produced a really nice loaf (weight 1161 g).  Here are photos of the crumb as well as a couple of slices.

Lastly, I should give Tom (aka tpassin) some credit for inspiring this recipe.  He posted a spelt recipe some time ago, and I had played around with that a bit and then substituted emmer flour in place of the spelt for this recipe.  If you are looking for a nice simple recipe to make a really great emmer bread, try this one.

We were out of bread again since we’ve been away so much and I haven’t had the time to bake as much as I like to.  I also didn’t have much time to plan and do something different.  When I realized that I hadn’t done a 100% whole wheat bread in a while I pulled out my tried and true 100% WW SD Hokkaido Milk bread formula which is now onto a 4.0 version.  I have to say that this is one of my best bakes in sometime.  Usually there are somethings that could have been better with each bake, some tweak that I’d so next time.  This one however, there really isn’t much to complain about.  I’m so happy with the oven spring this 100% wholegrain loaf attained.  The four lobes each rose so evenly.  When I measured the dough for each lobes I made sure that the center two were equal but heavier than the outer two.  I usually make all four the same weight, but wanted to see what would happen with the center two being heavier.  I’ll need to do this again on a few more bakes to see if there is an advantage to doing this, but my first time doing this suggests that there might be.

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For one 9x4x4” Pullman pan loaf.

Instructions

Levain

Mix the levain ingredients in a jar or pyrex container with space for at least 300% growth. 

Press down with your knuckles or silicone spatula to create a uniform surface and to push out air.

At a temperature of 76-78ºF, it typically takes up to 10-12 hours for this sweet stiff levain to be at peak.  For my starter I typically see 3-3.5 times increase in size at peak.  The levain will smell sweet with only a mild tang.

Tangzhong 

In a sauce pan set on medium heat, stir the milk and whole wheat flour until blended. Then cook for several minutes until well thickened, stirring regularly with a spoon or heat-resistant spatula. Let cool in the pan or, for faster results, in a new bowl.  Theoretically it should reach 65ºC (149ºF) but I don’t find I need to measure the temperature as the tangzhong gelatinizes at this temperature.  You can prepare this the night before and refrigerate it, ensure that it is covered to prevent it from drying out.

If you plan on using a stand mixer to mix this dough, set up a Bain Marie and use your stand mixer’s bowl to prepare the tangzhong.

Dough

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the milk (consider holding back 10 g of milk and adding later if this is the first time you’re making this), egg, tangzhong, salt, sugar and levain.  Mix and then break up the levain into many smaller pieces.  Next add the flours.  I like to use my spatula to mix until there aren’t many dry areas.  Allow the flour to hydrate (fermentolyse) for 20-30 minutes.  Mix on low speed and then medium speed until moderate gluten development this may take 5-10 mins.  You may want to scrape the sides of the bowl during the first 5 minutes of mixing.  Next add room temperature butter one pat at a time.  The dough may come apart, be patient, continue to mix until it comes together before adding in more butter.  You will want to check gluten development by windowpane during this time and stop mixing when you get a good windowpane.  You should be able to pull a good windowpane, not quite as good as a white flour because the bran will interrupt the windowpane somewhat. 

To develop by hand, melt the butter and add it with the wet ingredients.  

On the counter, shape the dough into a tight ball, cover in the bowl and ferment for 4-6 hours at 82ºF ending bulk fermentation once the dough has risen 30-40%.

You can next place the dough into the fridge to chill the dough for about 1.5 hours, this makes rolling the dough easier to shape.  Remember, if you do so the final proof will take longer.  Alternatively, you can do a cold retard in the fridge overnight, however, you may find that this increases the tang in your bread.

Prepare your pans by greasing them with butter or line with parchment paper.  

Lightly oil the top of the dough. Scrape the dough out onto a clean counter top and divide it into four. I like to weigh them to have equal sized lobes. Shape each tightly into a boule, allow to rest 5 mins. Using an oiled rolling pin roll each ball out and then letterfold. Turn 90* and using a rolling pin roll each out to at least 8”. Letterfold again from the sides so you have a long narrow dough. Then using a rolling pin, roll flatter but keeping the dough relatively narrow.  The reason to do this extra letterfold is that the shorter fatter rolls when placed in the pan will not touch the sides of the pan.  This allows the swirled ends to rise during final proof, this is only done for appearance sake and is not necessary.  Next roll each into a tight roll with some tension. Arrange the rolls of dough inside your lined pan alternating the direction of the swirls. This should allow a greater rise during proof and in the oven.

Cover and let proof for  4-6 hours at a warm temperature.  I proof at 82°F.  You will need longer than 4-6 hours if you chilled your dough for shaping. I proof until the top of the dough comes to within 1 cm of the top edge of the pan.  At this point the dough should have risen 130-140% in total from the start of bulk fermentation.

Preheat the oven to 350F and brush the dough with the egg-milk wash.  Just prior to baking brush with the egg-milk wash again.

Bake the loaves for 50 minutes or until the internal temperature is at least 190ºF, rotating as needed to get even browning. Shield your loaf if it gets brown early in the baking process. After 50 mins remove the bread from the pan and bake a further 10 mins by placing the loaf directly in the oven on the rack with the oven turned down to 325ºF.

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My Index of Bakes

A few months ago I was given some French flour by my sister after her holiday in Brittany. So it was time to have another try at "proper" French pain au levain.

I've tried to make a good pain au levain with proper French flour a few times before, but never had much success, often ending up with a dry, lifeless crumb. The last time I tried, I used the Prof Calvel's recipe from his book le Goût du Pain (the French version - he increased the hydration in the American book, presumably for American flours). I wasn't happy with the result. Also, as an aside, I find his recipes are difficult to follow! This is how the crumb looked:

It was time to look for another recipe. I am a member of BoulangerieNet.fr so I headed over there and looked for a good recipe.

Eventually I came across this one, which looked good to me (translated to English):

"10 kg CRC t85 stoneground flour

7l of water

-autolysis 30 min

5 kg of stiff levain (always half the weight of flour)

360 g of salt

10g fresh yeast

400g water

11min in 1st then 3 in 2nd (fork mixer)

temperature at the end of kneading 27°c and up to 29-30°c when it is cold.

bulk approx. 30min then fold and another 30 min

scale and preshape not too tight then shaping.

blocking in a 4°c room then slow growth at 13°c approximately 11 hours.

possibility of blocking for 2-3 hours at 4°c depending on your availability in the oven."

Note the addition of fresh yeast; French law permits addition of up to 0.2% in pain au levain.

At first I didn't understand the blocage/blocking steps, but it turns out that avoidance of night work in French bakeries has always been a big thing, so a retarder/proofer called a Panem came into being.

This crash cools the shaped loaves to 4c and then it has a ramping set point to increase the loaf temp to 13c ready for baking in the morning.

I don't have a ramping controller, but I do have a small dedicated dough fridge with digital stat.

So I crash cooled the shaped loaves to 4C - as I normally would. Then at 11pm I changed the set point to 9.5C, baking at 9am the following morning.

I think this technique is used because the bulk time is only 1 hour, so the dough is underdeveloped after bulk.

I also did some research on the levain, to keep things authentic. Traditionally the French bakers have used a stiff (50% hydrn) levain (levain dur) and they developed a 3 step build, to ensure a minimum quantity of old levain went into the dough.

This was devised in the 18th century and is known as  "Le travail sur 3 levains":

I'm afraid I find the French levain build diagrams over complex and tricky to follow, but eventually I came up with my own version which is shown in my bread log. It includes some initial refreshes to get the levain in tip top condition.

My main levain is already a stiff levain (50%) fed on French T65 flour, so I was good to go with it.

For the main dough, I pretty much followed the recipe from BoulangerieNet, with scaled down quantities. I didn't have any T80 or T85 flour, so I used a mixture of T65 and T110. I kept the mixing action gentle, with 6 min low speed and 1.5 min high speed (spiral mixer).

As expected, I observed NO dough volume rise during the 1 hour bulk.

I was quite pleased with how the loaves turned out, with good ears, thin crispy crust and quite open crumb. I was happy with the flavour, but I can't say that it tasted any better than if I had used British flours!

Full recipe and process details in my bread log

I think if you want a true French taste, the only answer is to eat the bread in France!

I haven’t baked in quite a while with the traveling that we have recently been doing.  I was tasked with bringing rolls for our family dinner at my sister’s new place up in the Muskokas and this was going to be our first visit since she and her husband moved there.  Everyone is a fan of milk rolls but I wanted to make them slightly different than I have for dinners past so added red Leicester cheese to the dough and the top of the rolls.  They came out pretty well although I have have underdeveloped the dough somewhat limiting the oven spring.

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For 24 rolls in a 9 x 13” pan

egg wash: 1 egg and 1 tbsp milk, beaten…

Prepare the stiff sweet levain overnight or the day before and refrigerate when ready.

Cook Tangzhong mixing flour and milk constantly until it becomes a thick roux.  Let cool before adding to final dough.  Or add to cold milk and egg to cool it down.  Add the levain and break it up into small pieces with your spatula.  Add the salt and dissolve.

To mix by hand, add the flour to the wet ingredients (milk, tangzhong and egg) to dissolve.  Next add the flour and mix with a silicone spatula until no dry flour remains.  Rest 10-20 mins.  Next perform French folds until the dough is well developed.  Smear the butter onto the dough and then fold to incorporate and then perform further French folds until well developed.  Form into a tight ball and place in a bowl covered with plastic or a damp cloth @ 82°F for 3-4 hours, some rise will be visible. Alternatively, you can add the butter once the dough is moderately developed a pat at a time.  Finally mixing the dough until well incorporated.  Allow to bulk ferment until risen about 30-40% depending on the temperature this may take from 4-6 hours.

Butter a large baking pan or line the pan with parchment.  Punch the dough down and then divide into 24 equal portions.  Form each into tight boules.  Place in the buttered baking pan seam side down.  Cover them and allow them to fully proof about 4-6 hours, they should pass the poke test.

About 30 mins before the end of proofing time, whisk your remaining egg and milk and then brush the small boules.

About 30 mins prior to end of final proof preheat the oven to 350°F. 

Immediately prior to baking brush the dough again with the egg and milk mixture.  Top with the shredded cheddar cheese to your preference.

Bake the rolls uncovered for 30-35 minutes or until the internal temperature is at least 190F. Cover if your rolls get brown early in the baking process.

Remove the bread from the oven but not the pans and then let cool for 10 minutes before pulling the bread from the pans. You may need to slide a butter knife down the sides of the pan to loosen the bread, but I have found parchment paper to be unnecessary. 

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I also baked a rhubarb streusel pie with all butter crust and pastry leaves.  I added a handful of strawberries to give the filling a bit more colour.

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My Index of Bakes

I was pleasantly surprised by this loaf. This is a 40% whole einkorn loaf, hydration 70%, with some barley malt syrup mixed in and poppy seeds on the crust. All the einkorn is in the overnight levain. The high PFF makes this a fast bread to bake on the same day as mixing - I mixed it at 8:30 am, baked it at 12:30, and (don't frown) ate it at 2 pm with carrot lentil soup.

I wasn't expecting myself to develop strong feelings over this loaf (yes, intense relationship with bread), but I actually loved it. The slightly grassy flavour of einkorn paired with the deep, almost caramel notes of the malt syrup, further lifted by the nutty, almost seaweed-umami crunch of the poppy seed-studded crust ---- all that eaten fresh, even almost slightly warm, with butter.... .... .......

Figures for a 610g loaf:

Overnight einkorn levain: 24g starter, 135g whole einkorn flour, 115g water

Final dough: all of the levain, 203g white flour, 128g water, 10g barley malt syrup, 5g salt

Process

Levain took 11 hours to peak.

Mixed the dough together and did 4 mins of walk-and-stretch (my mobile version of SF lol). Rested and did actual SF thrice during 3-hr BF at room temp 23C. Shaped and proofed for another hour and baked at 220C for 33 mins.

Will need to try out another two or three types of loaves for a big bake coming up next weekend. The husband is organising a stag party and I'm keen to offer ten loaves. 

A friend recently asked if I could try making some semolina loaves. He missed them after his vacation in Italy and sent me references to the Matera bread.

After reading a couple of posts here, I ventured on my first loaf.

First loaf - Complete failure

I started off with what seemed to be a standard recipe. 500g semola rimacinata, 100g 70% hydration starter, 350g water, 1.5% salt.

BF took 7 hours without dough degradation but also without much gluten development. I did a final proof of about an hour and then shaped it before putting it into the oven.

There was very little rise in the oven. Crumb was dense. Most importantly: poor flavour. Bland and flat. Sour. No durum taste.

Verdict: Very disappointed. Decided to not cut any corners. Converted my wheat starter to a semolina starter.

Second loaf - Better flavour but flat 

Kept to the same recipe but used a semolina starter. Taste was better. Still too sour and overpowered the durum, I thought, but the dense crumb problem persisted.

Verdict: Still not right. Need to find a way to increase oven rise. Perhaps knead the dough more and stretch BF and final proof.

Third loaf - Even flatter

I extended BF to 8 hours and final proofing to almost 2 hours. The dough collapsed considerably during shaping, before going into the oven. As a result, the loaf was even flatter.

Verdict: Ready to throw in the towel. How can durum wheat be harder than spelt and rye? I've worked with it so much with pasta and lower % in standard loaves. Then I remembered: this is a new brand of semola rimacinata that I'm using. I remember that what I used previously was a just a little finer. Could this explain it? Ordered three bags.

Fourth loaf - Some volume, but sourness bugs me

 Dough felt so much better during mixing. Increased hydration slightly as this flour seemed to soak up much more. I went back to BF 7 hours and final proof 1 hour, this time using the newer, finer semola rimacinata. Dough felt so much better during BF - good strength. Final proof and shaping went well, and loaf doubled in the oven, major improvement.

Verdict: Achieved the volume I wanted. But I think the durum will come out better if I can reduce the sourness. Decided to increase the % of PFF.

Fifth loaf - Happy for now

Final recipe for now gives 76 % hydration and 17% PFF.

In numbers for a 1kg loaf: 454g semola rimacinata, 332g water, 206g 90% semola rimacinata starter, 8g salt.

The bizarre thing is that BF still took 6 hours despite the increase in PFF. Very pleased with the flavour profile now. This loaf baked for a total of 45 mins at 250/240/230/220 degrees with the decrease every ten mins. Think for my next loaf I might increase the bake by just a little more, though it was completely cooked. I think the crust can take a little more thickness!

Overall: Fun journey, and will be making this loaf as one of my standards.

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