The week to date: Pain au Levain & Berliner Landbrot
Sunday, I baked a couple loaves of Hamelman's Pain au Levain with Whole Wheat. This is a wonderful everyday bread for me. It's a favorite player in a host of bread roles. (No pun intended.) I see that alfanso has nominated it for some prestigious post - I can't figure out which one, but we definitely share an admiration for this bread. Here's mine:
Monday, I baked a bread that is new to me - The Berliner Landbrot about which Stan Ginsberg blogged recently (See: Berlin Rye/Berliner Landbrot). This is a 90% rye with an extremely simple and fast procedure, especially if you already have a rye sour sitting in the fridge, waiting for gainful employment.
This came out of the oven early yesterday afternoon. After it had cooled, I wrapped it in baker's linen. I resisted cutting it for breakfast this morning, but I had some for lunch, spread with cream cheese and topped with gravlax. The crust was chewy. The crumb is cool, surprisingly light and creamy. The flavor is mildly sour, but very assertively RYE. I love it, and I am pleased to say that my wife has finally come around to enjoying high-rye percentage breads too.
This is very definitely a bread I will add to my long list of breads to bake often, which is clearly a prescriptive list, not a descriptive one.
Happy baking!
David
Comments
Looks really good. I'm interested in trying that rye too. I don't think I've ever made one with that high a percentage.
It is really good. The only modification I made of Stan's instruction was to dissolve the rye sour in the water before adding the flours to the mix. I fermented the sour and proofed the loaf in a proofing box set to 70dF, because my kitchen is rather cool this week. So Stan's timings were accurate.
Just be sure you dust your proofing container with flour very well and the surface of the loaf with rye flour. I had no sticking problems. Whew!
One thing I don't think Stan mentioned, but you probably would expect, is that this bread has a very long shelf life, being a sour rye with high hydration.
I had some for breakfast with pickled herring. A perfect marriage. Hmmm ... I recall you mentioned making krupnik a couple years ago (or more?). That would be an outstanding accompaniment for this bread.
Happy baking!
David
Yes, we make krupnik a couple of times a year.
We also have some herring in the fridge left over from our New Year's celebration. Not sure I could handle that first thing in the morning, but later in the day, with a little vodka, herring and substantial rye are hard to beat.
first thing in the morning. Bourbon, BBQ and Brats is another story:-) Love this rye bread. Perfect for pate or chopped liver - which I think I could stomach in the morning.......Pastrami would be very nice too - with one of your sour pickles. The PAL with WW is also very nice. and has to be especially tasty. You haven't lost your touch. Well done all the way around.
Happy baking David!
Are you still using the KA method for the ovals?
I assume you are referring to how I shape bâtards. I often use the method portrayed in the KAF video and in Hamelman's "Bread." Recently, I have been playing with the shaping method Mark Sinclair has demonstrated in several of his videos. I am liking it a lot. Superficially, it looks almost too simple, but it gives really nice results.
David
Another beaut! The landbrot looks wonderful. With that much rye it might be over the top for me, but I think that I'll give it a whirl too one day soon. Still keeping my 50% rye starter at the ready.
Both sets of loaves are just picture perfect. I also use the batard shaping technique that I picked up from the KAF shaping video. Maybe one day we can sit down and compare notes :o)) . Have to check out what Mark Sinclair does.
alan