Hamelman's Golden Raisin Bread (Take#3)

Hi Khalid,

The bread looks perfectly turned out. Of course, I can't comment on the flavour, but as you say the white flour must be too tame for you. But the joy of daily home made bread!

Those are two very, very fine samples of bread, Khalid! Great oven spring, and it looks like you nailed the timing already on your first try. Impressive! Even a small amount of wholegrain flour goes a long way, so that could be part of it, as you say. At least, I can't think that your timing or logistics should penalise flavour in any way whatsoever.

I too find it a bit hectic and stressful to bake during the week, so I mostly end up doing it during weekends. When I do it during the week, I tend to mimic mostly what you did here (refresh sourdough the night before, mix levain for final dough first thing next morning, mix final dough, bulk ferment and shape that evening and proof in the fridge up to 24 hours; bake directly from the fridge). It works, but I keep reminding myself that it's supposed to be fun and relaxing to bake.

Anyways! Again, wonderful golden raisin loaves, Khalid!

I'd compost this over-the-hill Hot Cross Bun I'm having with my morning coffee in a heartbeat for a slice of that bread, Khalid.  Thanks for the reminder about that one.  I love breads with sultanas.  And your process timeline -- seems to be one many are adopting.  Working for me too.

Enjoy some buttered toast.  Nice bread!

Tom

Khalid looks like you were more than successful with your experiment.  What a lovely looking loaf of bread.  As you know I usually bulk ferment my dough in the refrigerator and bake it the next day which allows me to bake during the week as well.  Now I work from home so I have more flexibility but it's nice to be able to make bread on any schedule.

Nice crust and crumb and scoring.

Ian

nice raisin bread Khalid. I'm with you on the white bread too and don't really make bread with less than 25% whole grains anymore and even below 50% is pretty rare.

Since I can't bake on weekends, I plan my bakes for Monday Wednesday and Friday. On Saturday night I crank up my starters building all the leavain I need for the week for 3 larger sized loaves. I create 250 g od YW, 250 g of WW SD adn 250 g of Rye sour - all at 100% hydration.

By Sunday morning all are ready. What ever bread I am baking on Monday I stiffen that one to 80% for its last 4 hour build and leave it out on the counter and start the 4 hour flour autolyse for it. The other two get stiffened to 65% and left out for 1 hour before refrigerating until needed later in the week. I try to bake the rys our last so it has na chance for the levain to really get sour Thurday morning.

The first bake it ready for retarding on Sunday night for the next day or evening bake. This wasy I can usually get 3 loaves of very different bread done with a very easy and relaxed schedule

Very nice baking Khalid

Hi Khalid,  I baked this once a couple of years ago.    I can still remember how good it tasted.   And of course yours looks much better.   Great that you are figuring out how to adapt your excellent baking to your work schedule.   -Varda

Hi Khalid,

What a beautiful loaf.  I think you did an outstanding job for your first attempt at spreading the 'work' out...and now you get to tweak :-)

Congratulations on finding a timing schedule that works with your work schedul too.  I never knew how to do that until I discovered TFL.  Now using my refrigerator is a big part of my baking.  Love the way I can use it to slow things down when breads are rising ahead of schedule or how I can do my bulk ferments in it overnight.  Such a simple concept yet it never entered my mind on my own.  Guess I was always afraid it would kill the yeast and now I know it merely slows them down and that it is heat that kills they yeast...

I know when I first started spreading my baking out it felt odd too but now, since I bake daily, I have fallen into a rythm with it so it is like I am continually baking and I am more than comfortable with my routine.  It has become a rhythm that shapes my day.  ( I no longer work outside of the home and my children are all grown and gone except my 16 yr old son who is still here so my schedule if very different from someone who works outside of the home and has younger children wanting attention :-)

Thanks so much for the lovely post.

Take Care,

Janet

P.S.  Not sure if you have baked Phils Golden Raisin Fennel and Walnut loaf....but that loaf is loaded with flavor.  I know because I just baked it a couple of days ago - lots of whole grains and wonderful aroma as it baked....Works well being spread out over time too though I change the amt. of pre-fermented flour to 15% only.

Beautiful!

-Floyd

Hi Khalid,

It looks like it would be good toasted with a schmear of cream cheese on it for breakfast!  And you got the raisins so well distributed throughout.  Enjoy it.

Like many other commenters, I've been experimenting with long autolyse & fermentation times.  It takes a little longer to make a bread, but it's usually worth it.  I'm surprised the straight dough version tastes better.  Maybe it just needs a small formula tweak, a bit of whole grains, like you say.

-Brad

Looks pretty darn good, Khalid. I certainly wouldn't mind if I was offered a slice or two, especially with a dallop of cream cheese or European-style butter. (Admittedly, I do love my breads with a faint to mild tang.)

I haven't been able bake on a working weekday, but if you can do it... why can't I?

As always, have a jolly baking,

Zita 

I love bread with golden raisins.  I always keep a box in my pantry...not just for sweet breads.  What a beautiful bake and crumb.  I enjoy a tuna sandwich on this type of raisin bread.

Sylvia

The refrigerator is surely a help to the home baker with a "day job."

Looking at your procedure, I wonder whether doing a longer bulk fermentation before retarding the dough would help with the flavor. I would go for a 3.5 to 4 hour fermentation with hourly S&F's which should work, since you omitted the yeast. If you have time in the evening, you might also try getting through shaping and retard the shaped loaves, then just complete proofing and bake the next day.

Let us know how your tweaks work out. There is obviously lots of interest in being able to bake during the work week.

David

The crust look so nice on those.  Nice and dark!

you could probably use any dried fruit in this breadmwhich could make it a nice go to recipe for a fruit bread.

John

I bet the aroma during the bake was divine. That's one of the things I love about enriched breads.

I'm with David on proofing strategy (although my starter seems very active and therefore my bulk proofs are generally a bit shorter - around 3 hours, except in the chill of winter, when 5 works well).

My methodology, which initially grew out of scheduling demands similar to yours (I think), is as follows:

1. Feed starter in the morning so it's ready to use that evening
2. In evening, mix dough + complete bulk proof
3. Same evening, shape and start final proof out of fridge (depending on bread, time required ranges from 15 mins to an hour, depending on ambient temp), then transfer to fridge for retarding overnight. Working out the best out-of-fridge final proofing time is the problematic bit - takes some experimentation.
4. Bake first thing next morning - OR, next evening. I prefer the former, but whenever I have had to wait until evening, the results have been fine.  I guess the type of bread you're doing is a factor. 

Hope that helps.

Cheers!
Ross