hansjoakim's blog

Here are some of my recent bakes: First off is Pane di Como from Daniel Leader's "Local Breads". This is basically a simple white loaf leavened with a biga. It's pretty wet and tricky to work with, and came across as a wicked hybrid of a plain country bread and a ciabatta dough. It's really wet according to my bread standards (73%), but I think it turned out alright. It turned into a flat, wet disc during the final proof, but the oven spring was nothing short of impressive. An interesting bread to bake, but I think I prefer Hamelman's country bread to this one.

Leader's Pane di Como

Next is another batch of Suas' NY rye. Thanks again for posting the recipe, Howard; as you said, this is a keeper. Great taste, awesome caraway scent, and a joy to bake.

Suas' NY style rye

The caraway rye is a brilliant companion to gravlaks!

Suas' NY style rye and gravlaks

Lastly, here's my version of Eric and Mark's kalamata olive and cheese loaf. I made this with a pâte fermentée, and added feta cheese to the dough. There's roughly 10% rye flour in the dough.

Kalamata olive and feta cheese loaves

The loaves were really tasty, but I'll cut back a little bit on the salt next time. I only added 1.5% salt to the overall dough recipe, but the olives were pretty salty as well. Great tasting bread, nevertheless. Thanks for the recipe Eric and Mark :-)

Kalamata olive and feta cheese loaf with pasta

I have a confession to make: I've never eaten bagels before. Somehow these dense, naughty creatures have escaped me. Well, until now, that is. I'm not sure what triggered my curiosity; it's probably a toss-up between the exotically low hydration levels in the bagel dough, and the recent US presidential election. Anyways. I leafed through Hamelman's Bread, and found a bagel recipe that looked bulletproof. This is a dough with 58% hydration (I did have a hard time getting the dough together in one piece at first), that I let ferment in the fridge overnight, shaped in the morning, and then proof in the fridge while I was at work today. When I got home this afternoon, I put some malted barley syrup into a huge kettle of boiling water, and let these chewy monsters soak for about a minute (boy did they puff up...), before they were left to cool in ice water for a few more minutes. Onto a plate of sesame seeds and then onto a scorching hot baking stone.

As I said, I've never had these before, so I don't know how close I got to the genuine NY style bagel, but let me tell you that Hamelman's recipe is pure genius. To me, these were awesome. They had that famous chewy exterior, and really pleasant hints of malted barley (both in the dough itself and from the syrup in the boiling water). Sorry, no cream cheese, but they were covered with French brie, some vegetables, and a couple of Pick salami slices. A little piece of bagel heaven right there :-)

Hamelman's bagels

Hamelman's bagels