jeffrey hamelman

Today, I baked Hamelman's "5-grain Levain" from "Bread."

Various TFL blogs have featured this bread. They can be found by searching the site. The recipe was posted by fleur-de-liz here: Eric: Hamelman's Five-Grain Levain. She was a very active contributor to TFL at the time I joined and an inspiration to me. She encouraged me to bake this bread for the first time way back when. It is, indeed, among the most delicious breads I've ever made or tasted.

David

 This loaf turn out to taste really nice with the nutty flavour and texture from soybean & linseed.

The recipe is adapted from Hamelman's multigrain sourdough and Bourke Street Bakery's soy and linseed sourdough. I basically followed Hamelman's method and recipe but replace the grains with soy and linseed to the equal amount.

I also noticed that my loaves rise really well this time. The bread structure also appeared to be well-developed (I think and I hope). I figure that this could be a result from a more mature/developed culture. I left the culture to ripe for about 19 hours this bake as oppose to the usual 12 hours.

Bread baking never ceases to excite me. There are lots of flavours and texture to explore. I've been baking bread for over 4 months now....but I'm still sitting in front of the oven looking at my babies being baked and risen to its full growth...at every bake....and still get excited every time. It has been such a satisfying experience.

I was in for a pleasant surprise when I made the beer bread from Jeffrey Hamelman's Bread book.  It was sweet and tasty.  I had my fun turning this into rolls.  

I've adapted the recipe a little,  reducing whole wheat,  and using the diastatic malt powder as I just couldn't find barley that I could sprout.  

I'm beginning to appreciate the stretch and fold method,  as I do see the impact on the crust.  I'm also learning how to steam my oven such that I get the thin crispy crust.  

Check out my full blog here.  

The boules are Vermont Sourdough from Jeffrey Hamelman's "Bread." I made these using a San Francisco Sourdough starter from Sourdo.com that sat, without being fed, in the way back of my refrigerator for at least 6 months. It had been a firm starter, and while looking kind of gray on the surface, came back to life after 4 feedings at 125% hydration. And by then, was really, really happy to be making bread.

The Vermont Sourdough has a crunchy crust and chewy crumb. The flavor is just about perfect - moderate sourdough tang but not so sour as to mask the complexity of the wheat flavors. 

Vermont Sourdough Crumb

The bâtards are my San Joaquin Sourdough. No crumb shots or tasting notes on these. They are being frozen to take on a family vacation next week.

David

I am living at my aunt's these days and it has been a real pain in the arse getting used to baking in here. The kitchen is like twice smaller than mine, the oven is electric which is good, but feels just... weird.

However, I managed to make three loaves already, all Hamelman's: with olives, 50% whole-wheat sourdough

and whole rye and wheat sourdough.

They all turned out really good and delicious, but the one with olives was obviously the best. That's exactly why no picture of it - it was all gone before I could grab my camera.

My attempt of the Vermont Sourdough.  2 loaves,  proofed at the same time,  but one was overproofed,  the other not.  Why?  The details are in my blog.

The one on the bottom left is probably over proofed.  Difficult to score,  and it just didn't look good after baking.

I'm still wondering why the difference?  One is on wicker basket,  the other in plastic basket.  Could that be the cause?

Jenny