August 20, 2012 - 5:24am
5-Grain from J.Hammelman 'Bread'
Here is my first try on the 5-grain straight dough from J.H. BREAD. I baked it at 400 with convection to an internal temp of 190-200. It didnt get the deep color on the outside I had hoped (low oven temp). On my next batch I rubbed the outside with some butter to get a nice sheen on the crust and it looked much better. Inside was good. Very dense but light crumb. Sorry about the pic, its from my camera phone and has a slight red tone to it.
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if your oven can preheat to 500 F (No convection), that would be best. Use as much steam as you can using Sylvia's steam. I use a 1 C Pyrex cup half full of water with a dish rag rolled up in it that we microwave until it boils. Put it in the back corner of the oven 3 minutes before the bread goes in. When the loaf goes in, leave the temp at 500 F for 2 minutes then turn down to 450 F. At the 12 minute mark, remove the steam and turn the oven down to 425 F convection this time. Rotate the loaf every 10 minutes until the internal temperature is 205 F. Your loaf looks under baked at too low a temp. This hurts the spring and makes for a denser crumb.
A good rule of thumb if you don't have an instant read thermometer is when you think it is done, bake it another 5 minutes. Go for the deep dark brown crust.
Happy baking