After my less than spectacular Forkish Country Brown....good flavor, not as good oven spring as I would like, I was advised by my mentor (you know who you are) to go back to basics.
Hamelman's 5-grain Levain is one of our favorite breads. My wife and I always have some on hand in the freezer (it freezes quite well), ready to toast a slice for breakfast or for a sandwich. It also lends itself to all kinds of variations since it is easy to modify the ingredients and relative amounts of the soaker. I have used cracked rye (as called for in the original recipe) and have also had success with bulghur wheat. This time, inspired by this post earlier this year, I tried it with freek
It's not the best or holiest baguette I've seen, but I think it is a solid attempt to develop upon (it's actually my fourth attempt since last week). I used all purpose flour (or something between APF and bread flour, it says 12.78% protein), 67% hidration and 20% sourdough starter, plus about 3% of malt flour, mixed and folded a few times yesterday afternoon, retarded in the fridge overnight and shaped and baked this morning.
The crust is really nice, not too thick, the crumb is soft and almost creamy; the taste is mostly sweet.
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To me it was new to do the finall rise of the bread in the fridge, I usualy do it the other way round, I knead the dough
and put it in the fridge for 12 - 18 hours and then shape the cold dough and put it in the baneton, proof and bake.
These were commissions! 20% whole wheat, long cold bulk fermentation (24 hours) and long cold proof (18 hours). 300 g levain for 800 g flour, so about 38% levain by baker's percentage. Produced two medium-sized loaves. I can't stop experimenting with levain percentage!
Recently I had an urge to try to recreate one of my favorite breads. This one originated in Ken’s Artisan Bakery in Portland, OR. To me it tastes almost like a dessert or sweet treat. Eaten fresh, toasted, whatever, and with a slathering of butter or cream cheese across the top, the sweetness of the raisins just pop out on the taste buds. It has more whole grain than any of the other baguettes I’ve made at home so far, and uses a stiff rather than a liquid levain.
Like many of you, we end up having lots of leftover bread from my bakes. I always like to have a fresh bread on hand, so that leaves the rumps of many loaves to be thrown out or made into bread crumbs. I ran across a recipe in Cooking Light for a sourdough artichoke and spinach strada, and I was intrigued. On closer study, I saw that the reviews said it was bland, so I spiced it up a bit. I actually used a chunk of the gluten-free sourdough I baked, cutting it up into cubes. This is a very filing recipe, so I suggest using more vegetables and fewer bread cubes.
Ideally I'd like to have a nice bread that I mix the dough for in the evening, bulk ferment it overnight on the counter and finish by shaping, proofing and baking in the morning. To get there I started experimenting yesterday with the Basic Country bread from Tartine and modifying the schedule and levain % to extend the bulk fermentation.
While at it I mixed two batches of dough, each with different %s of levain, one at 6% and one at 10%. Room temperature started at about 18C/64F in the early morning, to about 68F later in the morning and for the remainder of the day and evening.
