December 24, 2010 - 5:16pm
Mr. Hamelman's Un-Kneaded, Six-Fold French Bread (For Stuffing!)
Hello, I wanted to have some good bread to make the turkey stuffing with. Mr. Hamelman's formula for Un-Kneaded, 6-Fold French Bread looked good so I wanted to give it a try. Instead of the 5 baguettes as instructed, I roughly shaped two big loaves. This dough was 73% hydration.
We couldn't resist and cut some to make sandwiches for lunch today.
Another really, really good bread from Mr. Hamelman!!!
Merry Christmas everyone! from breadsong
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Amazing crackly crust! Wish I could get my crust looking like that! Great job!
Happy holidays!
LeeYong
Hello LeeYong, All that water and an oven preheated to 500F, then a 460F bake, seemed to do the trick. I love a crackly crust and haven't always been able to get one - was pleased with how this turned out! Happy holidays to you, too!
from breadsong
I just made two batches of sour dough, one with King Arthur AP and the other with KA French Style. I used exactly the same approach for both. The French Style crust cracked like crazy and the AP didn't. What flour were you using? Thanks.
Hi varda, I used a 50/50 blend of 13% spring wheat bread flour and 10.5% winter wheat all-purpose flour (neither were King Arthur flours). This is probably not helpful to you! I don't know if the King Arthur people can comment - they have a bakers' direct line that I've called once or twice with questions (the people I spoke to were very helpful).
Regards, breadsong
That gives me something to work with. You attribute the cracking to your oven preheating and cooking temp. I have seen other baking strategies for achieving the same effect. But I wonder if it's really mainly due to the flour mix. In my case, the loaves made with KAAP had nicer crumb and really even a better textured crust than the lovely cracked loaves made with the french style flour. Ah well, can't have everything.
Hi, Varda.
Your experience is consistent with mine. You get a crackling crust more easily with lower gluten flours. From my memory, KAF French Style flour has about 1% less protein than their AP flour.
David
David, thanks for providing an answer & for this helpful information about lower-gluten flour. Regards, breadsong
Great loaves!
Is this recipe part of his book Bread? I have it at home, but I'm not there right now to check it out.
I just happen to have the book open to the recipe right now! :^) - breadsong
THanks so much! Good to know I have the recipe, then... ;-)
My copy of "Bread" has a different recipe on pg 249.
Lindy posted the text of this formula for the rest of us, in case your copy doesn't have it. Here's a link:
Hamelman no-knead French bread
David
I checked out my book, also doesn't have the six-fold bread
Glad you guys posted, I'll be definitely giving this recipe a try