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Multi-grain Levain – August 14, 2015

Finally, the air has cooled enough to go and into the garden and grill.  What better way to showcase your favourite homemade hamburger with a lovely Spelt hamburger bun.  These buns are perfect for hamburgers because they have just the right amount of resistance in the crust to hold all the trimmings but are soft enough to avoid a messy squidge out when you take a bite.  for details stop by mybreadandbrot.com

So, my first loaf turned out really well. But I thought maybe I would tweak it a bit and see if I could adjust the flavor a bit. The original recipe for the levain was 35% in the final build. I decided to up it to 50% so that more of the whole wheat flour would be in the preferment. Certainly made for a very active dough. I only bulk fermented for a little over 2 hours and the final rise was a little over an hour.

I am always amazed what Lucy manages to come with in her spare time when no dreaming up bread recipes.  This week she has developed a new piece of software that turns an existing piece of hardware into something truly unique and transformative for all bread bakers.

  Last week I went on a short vacation to Vermont and usual we visited King Arthur Flour and several cheese shops.  We also visited Sugar Bush Farms where they tap their own trees for 4 different grades of maple syrup as well as numerous varieties of cheddar cheese.  We of course loaded up with a ton of different cheeses and assorted grades of fresh maple syrup.

A really crazy, busy week. I fed the starter, but did not get round to making the dough until the next evening. There was no time to make the loaf, so the dough sat in the fridge for another night and day. The next evening I took it out, briefly kneaded it and formed a loaf. Back in the fridge overnight. She did not look impressive by the next morning. I was in a rush and left the oven on too high a temperature. She burst out of her skin, and rewarded my neglect with a really tasty loaf with a great crumb. Thank you sourdough!

I've been thinking of different methods of baking crusty lean loaves in my clay pot (it's my only baking gear, no oven or fancy grills) lately. One that should be easy but gives me results as close as an oven can get, that means a brown crackly crust, scores that bloom and an open crumb. The heat of the pot is very uneven, the bottom is extremely hot while the top is too cool so the only way to get an even bake is to let the top and bottom of the bread face the extremely hot bottom of the pot.

As this August has unofficially turned into the Hamelman Pain au Levain batard month, I thought that I'd submit one more entry to the mix.  I did a TFL search for hamelman pain au levain baguette after baking my version as a batard.  And in the vast compendium of our website here I could not find a single reference to anyone ever having done his batard as a baguette .

I have a friend who wanted a loaf with more whole wheat in it, so I decided to try Jeffrey Hamelman's Whole Wheat Levain. It is 50% whole wheat and 50% bread flour. Hydration is 69%. I used KA white whole wheat. I think it turned out pretty good! I like how the crumb turned out. I am working on using a lighter touch when handling and forming the loaf.

Definitely a "kitchen day" here chez Casa Witty...

First on the agenda, bake the batch of Chelsea Buns that I got going yesterday. I pinched Drogon's recipe and method in lieu of my usual one. Have to say it was a beautiful dough to work with; silky, stretchy and so easy to handle. Filled the buns with a mix of 65g melted butter, 300g of raisins, 75g caster sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp cloves, 1/8 tsp nutmeg, pinch of cardamom. The verdict?