White Levain; Moscow Rye; Stollen Slice

White Levain; Moscow Rye; Stollen Slice

The long-awaited delivery of logs arrived on Sunday, so I re-fired the oven on Monday to get some heat into the brickwork, then fired again yesterday and set-to early on a full day of production.   My new delivery of flour only arrived late on yesterday, so I had to make Gilchesters’ White breads, as opposed to my more favoured Farmhouse loaves.   By close of play I had 14 white loaves [2 @ 1200g, 4 @ 800g and 8 @ 600g finished weight], plus 8 Moscow Rye @ 800g and 2 slices of Stollen yielding 36 finger pieces in total.

Here are the formulae:

1. 1.    Gilchesters’ White Levain

Wheat Levain Refreshment:

Method:

• Build leaven as described.   Ferment the leaven for 1 hour ambient after the last refreshment, then leave overnight in the chiller.
• In the morning take the leaven out of the fridge first thing.   Make an autolyse with the flour and water for the final dough with DDT 28°C, and leave covered for one hour.
• To mix the final dough, divide the leaven and the autolyse into 2 and mix 2 separate mixes in a 20 quart machine with the dough hook.   Use the delayed salt method, adding the salt after 7 minutes of mixing on first speed.   Scrape down, add the salt, then mix a further 8 minutes on first speed.   DDT 26°C.
• Bulk ferment for 2½ hours.   Stretch and fold after 1½ hours.
• Scale, divide and mould.   Rest 15 minutes and prepare bannetons.   Re-mould and put into bannetons.
• Final proof 2 hours.   Tip each loaf out onto the peel and score the top.   Bake in a wood-fired brick oven.
• Cool on wires.

There is a sequence of photographs below which cover most of the process.

Autolyse, above

Ripened levain, above

White dough off the mixer, above

White dough after 2 hours bulk fermentation, above

Same dough after Stretch and fold, above

14 dough pieces, pre-shaped, upside down and resting, above

Final Shape, above

Scored and ready to load to the oven, above

Baked Miche, above

A basketful!

2.    Moscow Rye

I have posted the formula for this on my blog many times.   I made 7600g of Paste.

 3.    Stollen Slice

This is baked as a tray-baked slice with a layer of marzipan through the middle, then cut into fingers, as opposed to baking as individual loaves.   I used a “ferment and dough” method; the end-product was really special.   This is the formula and recipe to make 2 slabs:

Oven profile: bake in a convection oven at 160°C for 40 minutes, or in the wood-fired oven as it begins to drop from baking lots of bread.

• Whisk all the ingredients for the ferment together in a steel bowl.
• Cover with cling film and set in a warm place for half an hour.
• Mix all the ingredients, except the fruit and the marzipan, together with the ferment in an upright machine with a hook; 2 minutes on first speed and 6 minutes on 3rd speed.   DDT 28°C.
• Rest for 15 minutes, then cut the fruit into the dough with a scotch cutter.
• Bulk proof 20 – 30 minutes.
• Scale and divide into 4 x 580g pieces; mould round and rest 15 minutes.
• Line 2 small baking sheets with silicone paper.   Pin out each dough pieces to a rectangle the size of the baking sheet.   Place one dough piece on the base of each baking sheet.   Top this with a thin layer of raw almond paste, then place the second dough piece on top of this to make a sandwich.   Brush each top with egg, and scatter 100g of flaked almonds on each slab as a topping.
• Final proof 50 – 60 minutes.
• Bake as oven profile.
• Baste with a layer of melted butter, then dust with icing sugar.   Allow to cool and repeat.   Allow to cool completely on wires, then dust once more with icing sugar.
• Cut each slab into 18 fingers for serving.

A couple of photographs to complete the post

I am offering some of these items for sale in our local village hall on Saturday morning.   I will now be adding Eric’s Favourite Rye to the offering.   So, I’ll be baking again on Friday, and would like to encourage others on TFL to join with Floyd and myself over the weekend; bake for Eric.

Very best wishes

Andy