September 16, 2012 - 11:23am
My First Jeffrey Hamelman's 5 Grain Levain
Here is my first try at JH 5 Grain Levain - with actual levain from my sourdough starter. My previous versions of this bread were with only commerical active dry yeast. I was happy with it, except wished for more rise/height in the boule.
I think the seed topping is not part of the original recipe. I just can't resist the toasted seed flavour the topping ads to these kinds of breads.
Just wish I got the same consistent open holed crumb in my same day's bake of the Tartine Country loaf.
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One of my favorites. Judging from the crumb structure I'd say you got about as much rise as you were going to.
Nice bake!
Larry
Wally, what did you mean by 'Judging from the crumb structure I'd say you got about as much rise as you were going to.'?
Meaning that this particular bread recipe wasn't meant to give much rise? Or, that something about the crumb structure in my particular bake wouldn't allow it to rise more?
I have seen photos of other's JH 5 Grain Levain bakes, with quite a bit of rise. That's the only reason I was disappointed in mine.
Was there something I could have done differently to get more of a rise? I used my typical steaming method (details on my forum post about steaming meathod). I get super rises using this method for other breads.
John
My guess is that he was refering to the fact that when you are doing grain breads such as this, especialy with sourdough, the volume you achive is less than you would with even a plain 100% WW. This being mainly because those grains can be very heavy fo the gas/heat to move.
That being said, those loaves aer VERY nice looking!
Thanks Sean! My good camera work helps ;)
Well, the reason I was wondering is I have seen many photos of different attempts at this same recipe and they were nice and heighty. Perhaps those were attempts that made slight changes to the recipe. You should check out my non-levain version. Pretty much has all the same % of ingredients but gives a great rise.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/30019/hamelmans-5-grain-nonlevain
That recipe has lots of grains just like the original JH recipe. Only difference is I used commercial yeast and not levain from my starter like this one.
John
I'm guessing it tastes better the the commercial yeast version too! The crumb looks very nice the dark crust looks perfect.
Nice baking
Much better than my commercial yeast version! It makes amazing sandwiches and is great fresh, with some peanut butter and jam.
I LOVE the texture it gives compared to the commercial yeast. Chewy and spongy.