Hammelman's Pain au Levain
I recently baked Pain au Levain from Hammelman's book 'Bread..." This is the second formula I've tried from this book, following two fairly sucessful attempts at Vermont Sourdough. There are a few differences between the two. Vermont SD starts with a liquid levain while PaL starts with a stiff levain. Hammelman calls for whole rye in Vermont SD while calling for medium rye flour in PaL. Also, a long final ferment is called for with Vermont SD while it is recommended not to go for the long ferment with PaL. I didn't vary from the formula and had pretty satisfactory results. I also had good results with a new brotform following a previous episode where the dough stuck and I ruined a couple loaves a week or so ago. Here are a couple pics of the look of the loaf and the crumb:
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| From bread |
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| From bread |
I've just run across the roasted garlic levain on page 183 and am thinking that is going to have to be one of the next attempts. Have any of you tried this formula?
Comments
And that knife is way cool. I haven't tried Hamelman's sourdough but have been thinking about doing so recently because I killed my KAF sourdough. Bah. But see the good news is you inspired me.
So what did you think? How does it compare with the Vermont version for you? I bake his Vermont with whole wheat version quite often myself.
Russ from RI
Comparing the two formulas I'd say the crust and crumb are almost identical. The flavor is a bit more developed in the Vermont SD, but not by a huge amount. If one was trying to decide which one to bake I may direct them to either depending on whether they wanted to start with liquid vs stiff levain, or whether the schedule they had fit the prolonged ferment or not, as the flavor doesn't seem to pull me in one direction or the other. Just my 2 cents.
I suspect Jeffrey would be pleased. Really nice looking crumb!
thanks for sharing! yeah, where did you get that fancy looking knife?
That's not my knife, but I have one just like it. I've found that the blade is a bit flimsy for thick-crusted breads, so I pretty much just use my Victorinox bread knife now.
Thanks for the comments on the bread knife. It really is a work of art! It was a gift from my sister who bought it from an artisan in central Utah. It's actually designed for lefties - yay! I haven't found it to be flimsy at all, in fact just the opposite, I'm always amazed at how quickly it cuts through loaves, including crusty ones such as this. I still fall back to the Henkels bread knife for thicker cuts or other odd sized cuts, but it's definitely a great tool to have around!
Hi,
My everyday bread is the Hamelmann multigrain (made with levain) OR the Pain au Levain (or PaL with whole wheat). Occasionally the Vermont (not as fond of the Vermont with whole wheat), but DH believes it is "too sour". hrmph!
I have not made any of these with the overnight/long ferment though.
Can't go wrong with these!
MommaT
I make the vermont or vermont/ww versions almost every week, but now that I have a stiff culture in addition to a liquid one, I might try this one. Thanks!!