Blog posts

Hansjoakim's Pain au Levain with Rye Sour

June 3, 2016

Hansjoakim contributed this formula to TFL a bit more than two years ago. (Sourdough bread and fyrstekake) It was added to my “to bake list” right away. Well, I am finally getting around to baking it, since I had extra ripe rye sour looking for a meaningful role, and I was in the mood to try something new.

Most of us realize how tiny and insignificant we are in the scheme of things until it comes to our passions and emotions. Then all hell breaks loose and we instantly want to become the center of the Universe.  I am always telling my young daughter to keep her head even when everyone else is losing theirs.  On humans this sometimes works...... but for Lucy …...not so much.

It must be spring - I have garlic scapes in the garden! Of course, that inspired this week's test loaf - Roasted garlic scape and Asiago cheese levain. The scapes were chopped and roasted with a little EVOO for about 15 minutes in a covered dish at 400F. I baked demi-loaves (scaled around 400 grams) because this is a specialty bread, not an everyday kind of bread. Each loaf had about 2 Tbsp each of chopped, roasted scapes and shredded cheese.

A slow sourdough with wheat and rye starters as well as a soaker made with dry bread, water and salt. It is then made with wheat and rye flours, semolina and ground hazelnuts. Great depth of taste. Lutz just called it dinner. Dinner it is.

Recipe here: https://www.ploetzblog.de/2015/07/25/abend-brot/

I have been so boring in my baking and sorry I haven't posted in so long.  I keep making the same recipe and trying to eliminate steps as I go, to make it as easy as possible, including the clean-up.

For this loaf, I don't accurately measure the ingredients...I sort of do it by feel.  I use about one cup of really active starter (still on the rise); 1-1/2 cup of water; 1 cup whole wheat flour and 2 cups of bread flour. I generally use King Arthur Flour or Bob's Red Mill; you can't beat high quality flour.  

This was my second try at this classic Italian bread and finally a success! 

Formula is 350 g total flour @75% hydration. I used 50g liquid levain, 35g durham semolina, 240g BF, 1 tsp salt and 225g H2). I developed the dough as I would normally do then finished it as Mr. Reinhart suggests: a couple of letter folds with 30 minutes rest, then a thorough docking with fingertips and a drenching of herb oil. Lots of fresh basil, dried rosemary and all the Italian regular herbs into the oil.

I really had luck when I finally raised my own sourdough starter. It was God's gift. Now I can bake my own bread that can't be really copied by anyone else. This is really a major leap in my baking. A bread made with primitive leaven baked with primitive methods back when there are still no ovens, this is some real primitive bread made with love.

Two of my favorite breads

David Snyder

30 May, 2016

Last weekend's bakes were two of my favorite breads.  One is Hamelman's Pain au Levain with Whole Wheat Flour. I have blogged on my bakes of this delicious bread several times over several years.

I recently had to revive my starter.  I had attempted dabrownman's stiff, sour rye build method, and I must have screwed it up somehow, because it wasn't activating well.  I also was putting it straight into levains, which I had done before with decent results, but I now prefer to do at least one build prior to making the levain.  So I resorted to rebuilding it with 2-1-1 feeds, 1-1-1 feeds, and 1-2-2 feeds until it was very active, before allowing it back in its cave (the fridge).