Mebake's blog

This is my recipe of a 50% sourdough spelt.

Procedure:

Day1:

In the evening, take you starter out of fridge, refresh it , and leave it on counter to double. Refresh it again before you go to sleep in such a way that it would double overnight.

Day2:

In the morning, refresh the starter in propotions that would allow the starter to ripen in maximum of 4-5 hours. I chose to bake during week day, therefore i brought the starter with me to work to build my final levain. I was afraid of over ripening during my duty, so i reduced the starter in the levain from 25% (51g) to 25 grams. it took the levain 11 hours to ripen @60 hydration at 78F !

At Home, i cut the levain and dissolved it in the recipe water (tepid water), and then added the remaining ingredients except the salt. I Autolyzed the dough for 1/2 hour, and then spread the dough, sprinkled all salt on top, kneaded the dough until a smooth ball is formed. I was wary of my mixing , so as to not to over develop the spelt.

I immediately transfered the dough in its iled bowl to the refrigerator for an 18 hour retardation.

Day3:

In the morning, I removed the dough( which has increased 50% in volume) to a bench and stretched and folded it letter wise. The dough was returned to the bowl, and i went to work.

On the evening, and 18 hours later, i removed the dough (which increased 50% in volume) to a bench divided it into two (1000g, and 800g).An hour later, i preshaped the still cold dough into a boule and a batard. An hour later, i shaped the doughs, and inverted them into floured bannetons.

I left the doughs to ferment for 3.5 hours. I preheated the oven with a stone and a pan filled with lava rocks to 470F for 30 minutes, and then inverted the doughs onto a peal and transfered the doughs to be baked for 15 minutes with steam, and 20 minutes without.

The flavor was mildly tangy, and spelt flavor was quite discernable. I liked it, though i would prefer a more hydrated dough (70%).

Khalid

This is another bake from "Whole grain breads" of P.Reinhart. It is Whole Wheat Hearth bread.

It is 100% WholeWheat.  70% of WW flour was from a sack of Indian Chakki atta (stone ground flour). I suppose Chakki atta is 96% extraction. Remaining flour was milled from red winter italian wheat, sifted. Therefore, i suppose that this is not entirely 100% ww, but close.

I used 1.5tsp veg. oil instead of butter, and 1.5tsp honey. The crust was chewy, and the crumb was somewhat moist but not dense. THe bread had a sweet wheaty aroma, and the taste was superb. It was indeed one of my best WW breads i have made.

I will definitely make this bread again.

This is a late bake from Hamelman's WW levain, only with yeast being left out. I have done bulk dough retardation for the first time, and it was successful, though it took 8 hours to be reeady to bake following its exit from the 18 hour refrigeration.

The result: The sweetness the recipe usually produces was reduced, and a slightly sour tang replaced. Yummy.

This is a seeded levain bread baked from Hansjoakim's recipe here. Boy was it tasty! Rye, though at 15% was pronounced, and had a wholewheat aftertaste. The seeds i used where flax, and sunflower.

I involuntarily differed from Hans recipe. Due to my hectic schedule, my rye starter was overripe, and so was my Rye levain. I had to add commercial yeast to get this bread going, so the sour tang was not as intended by hans' recipe.

All in all, this bread is versatile, and appeals to many tastes including mine. I shall make it again, once i get the Rye levain happy again. Thanks Hans for sharing you recipe!

 Khalid

I wanted to bake under a pyrex, and an ss bowl this time. The boule on the Right was under a pyrex bowl, and the Batard was under the stainless bowl.

My adapted recipe of Hamelman's Formula:

Total Formula:

Bread Flour: 1lb  (50%)

Whole Wheat Flour: 1lb (50%)

Mixed Grains: 5.8 oz (18%)

Water: 1lb , 10oz (78%)

Salt: 0.7 oz (1 T + 0.5Tsp) (2.2%)

Yeast: (1tsp) instant yeast (1%)

Honey: 1oz (1 T, 0.5tsp) (3%)

Levain:

Bread Flour: 3.8 oz (100%)

Water: 4.8 oz (125%)

Starter: 1.5 T (20%)

Soaker:

Grains (Cracked oates, or wheat or Rye, Sunflower seeds, Flax seeds, Buckwheat): 5.8oz (100%)

Water : 6.9 oz (120%)

Salt: 0.5 tsp

Final Dough:

Bread Flour: 12.2 oz

Wholewheat Flour: 1lb

Water: 12.5 oz

Salt: 1 T

Yeast: 0.1oz  (1tsp)

Honey: (1T + 1tsp)

Soaker: All

Levain: All

Neat Results, but the chronic charred bottom remains a challenge i have to put up with in My gas oven.

The loaves could have used more proofing time, but i bet the premature levain i mixed in had something to do with it.

For a change, i decided to lay a side my beloved "BREAD" by Hamelman, and go back to my first baking companion: "Peter Reinhart's" Whole GRain BReads.

I always wanted to bake the Struan, but the laborious and tedious preparation for this bread deterred me. Yesterday, i took a deep breath and gave it a try.

The Recipe (750 g loaf) calls for butter, sweetner, and cooked and uncooked soaked grains. This is a 100% wholewheat bread.

I deviated in two places: 1) folded the dough once after the first 30 minutes of the total 1 hour bulk fermentation. 2) I did not add the extra flour, so the dough was wetter than suggested by Reinhart.

Now that i did Baked it, i realized that i should have either added the extra flour called for, or shortened the final 1 hour final proofing time to 30 minutes max. The Loaf was overproofed.

The taste of the bread is absolutely superb, sweet soft interior with chewy soft grains, and wheaty after taste.

 Highly recommended!!

This is baked from Hamelman's "BREAD", levain breads.

I knew that the radiant heat from a preheated stone will result in an unmatched ovenspring, so i played with my steaming technique a bit to accomodate the stones.

Here is a picture:

The roaster lid had no hole, and no steam was injected. THe result is not bad, but the color suffered somewhat. I had to endure to hassle of tkeing the stones out after 15 minutes, and shifting the rack upwards to finish the loaves, otherwise the bottom will be charred.

This particular bake was a redemption, after several all-sourdough Multigrain failures in a row. Having seen David, Lindy, and many other TFL bakers exhibit their wonderful 5 grain levain loaves, The recipe was on my to-do list for some time.

Also, Hamelman praises the flavor of the said loaf in his "BREAD". Yesterday, I gathered some nerve to start another sourdough, this time armed with the collective wisdom thankfully shared by fellow TFL members.

I discovered that the cause of my levain loosing vigor and character soon as it is built is because the starter culture that seeded the levain did not contain enough happy yeasts. I apparently underfed my starter or did not correctly nurture the yeast population in it, which lead to less than optimal culture, and consequently weak proteolytic levain.

yesterday, i had a well fed starter and at the peak of its activity. I seeded the levain, and took it to work for observation. It peeked during my duty after 8 hours, and i had to refresh it. Eventually, the final dough was full of vigor.

I chose to omit the yeast, so i retarded the dough for 10 hours at 10C.

I had some slices today, and it is very light and tasty. It is only remotely acidic. i suppose it should taste better tomorrow. I believe that omitting the yeast changes the special flavor that Hamelman praises, so i'd want to try it next time with yeast.

khalid

This is a late bake of Hamelman's "BREAD" under levain breads. It is 90% White flour vs. 10% Wholwheat with 230g of Pitted olives.

The loaves were fermented for 2.5 hours bulk, and immedietly retarded for 8 hours overnight at 50F (10c). I suspect the crumb will be tighter than i wish, because i believe the loaves needed an additional 1 hour fermentation prior to retarding.

Any ways, today i'll cut into them and find out!

khalid

This is a 2nd shot at Hamelman's Whole wheat levain (sourdough 50% wholewheat), after improving my steaming technique.