Hamelman's Sourdough Seed Bread
I made Hamelman’s Sourdough Seed Bread the other day. I think it’s one of my favourite breads, and everyone else who tasted it loved it too.
I have a lot of confidence in this bread as it always seems to come out great. The dough was nice and strong and easy to shape (I think the seeds give it some structural integrity), resulted in good oven spring and a great dark crunchy crust, and the flavour from the toasted seeds is so good. I think of it as ‘popcorn bread’ because it has such a nice nutty, salty, addictive flavour and I can eat it on its own. Though it must be quite nutritious. It also has a great fluffy, chewy texture.
This was my first time making it with whole rye flour. Previously I substituted whole wheat – it’s just as good either way.
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I followed the recipe quite closely, for the most part.
In the morning my starter looked young so I left it in a warm place for a couple of hours to develop.
Starter needing more time
Starter ready
I added a 20-minute ‘autolyse’ after mixing the ingredients. Then finished mixing for around 5 min. The dough was 22c, but during bulk I warmed it up to around 24-25c.
Ready to mix
Start of bulk, after an initial set of folds (edit: I lied, this is actually just after mixing, but before any folds)
The dough started bulk at exactly 1.5ltr in volume. The bulk went slower than the recipe (I’ve come to expect this with my starter), I had to extend it to about 4.5 hours, by which time the dough had risen to just about 2ltr (33%), and showed a moderate level of activity underneath (some medium and small sized air pockets visible).
I did an initial set of folds in the container soon after mixing, another by around 1.5hrs into bulk, and then by 3hrs I had done a fold on the counter and oiled the container for the final part of bulk.
Before final fold
Near end of bulk
I preshaped and shaped within about 30mins, then proofed at cool room temp for about 1.5 hours (dough around 20-21c). The loaves (910g each) felt lighter but still fairly dense and springy. Then went in the fridge for about 14 hours.
Dividing
Pre-shaping
Final shaping
Start of proof
End of proof
Scoring
The razor blade popped off the handle on the first attempt, hence the scar on the loaf. Surprised me!
I baked as usual in a dutch oven, preheated to 240c in a fan oven. After loading the bread, I baked at 230c fan for 25min, then took the lid off and finished at 220c fan for 25-30min.
End of bake
First loaf
First loaf, crumb
Second loaf
Second loaf, crumb
Second loaf, crumb
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Really happy with how they came out, I honestly could not think of anything to improve with these loaves. Absolutely delicious.
Comments
Both loaves look very appealing! How large are they?
Thank you!
They weighed about 910g each. In terms of size they looked and felt very similar to a normal sourdough loaf of roughly 750-800g, but I think the seeds add a lot of density.
This dough amount is based on the total flour in the 'Home' column in Hamelman's book, which I converted into metric and then used to calculate the rest using his baker's percentages.
To my eye there is nothing to improve on those two loaves, stunning, really stunning.
Benny
Thank you, Benny! I've seen some of your excellent breads when browsing the community bakes, so that means a lot :)
Simon
I like the "mortarboard cap" look from a well-executed #-type score on a boule. Great job.
Thank you, and yes that's my go-to scoring method for boules. Has a slightly wild quality to it when there's good oven spring, but still keeps an overall round shape and is consistent between slices.
The loaf looks very good. I love seeded bread and have made this a few times before and loved it. Great flavour and rise. I recommend you try the Five-Grain Levain.
Well Done.
Cheers,
Gavin
Thanks, Gavin! I keep meaning to try that recipe, I just need to get the cracked rye for it. Hopefully soon!
Simon
One of my favorite eating breads as well and If memory serves me right this is one of the first breads I blogged about here. The slimy flax seeds are a bit to deal with and not all of them made it into the final loaf.
I like the way you presented the stages along the way and the final results are excellent.
Don
I must have overlooked the notification for your comment, sorry for not replying sooner! Thank you for the kind words.
I prefer to think of the flax mix as 'gel-like' rather than slimy - more appealing that way! I think it's interesting seeing how the texture changes - the first time I made it was also the first time I made any type of soaker, so I was pretty impressed. Honestly didn't have too much of an issue with losing them, probably because during shaping I mainly relied on some folds, a bench scraper and a little rounding with only the very edges of my hands - otherwise I probably would have knocked quite a few off. (Also I used a mixer, and did most folds in the container. I can imagine mixing this by hand would be... messy)
And I'm glad you liked the presentation - took a bit of effort to put together (resizing, uploading, and then inserting so many images is a bit of a pain) but I think it's cool to be able to look back on the whole process and get an overview of some of the details that went into the finished loaf. A picture of the final product doesn't tell quite the same story.
Simon