Caramelized Hazelnut Squares from ABAP
Hello, I have a group of people at work I wanted to bake bread for. I wanted to make them something special - this bread seemed to fit the bill!
It was such a pretty bread, as pictured in Advanced Bread and Pastry. With thanks to Mr. Michel Suas for a wonderful, if involved, formula - there are four separate preferments and I had to create a spreadsheet in order to figure out how to scale enough ingredients for 2000g of dough.
I divided into roughly 250g pieces to create as many loaves as I wanted to give (with one extra to keep, for tasting!).
I sliced the one that achieved the least height & was surprised but happy to find an open crumb, so I hold out hope for the others.
The caramelized hazelnuts are fantastically, wonderfully delicious in this bread!!!
Regards, breadsong
Comments
Those look simply amazing and I'll bet they are just as delicious! Thank you for sharing.
and some lucky co-workers!
Larry
I bet your co-workers are going to be well-pleased. c
Hello and thank you zawacki, Larry and trailrunner!
My co-workers and I discuss our respective hobbies from time to time.
They have patiently listened to me go on sometimes about bread.
I thought I'd better show up with the goods! I hope they like these loaves!
:^) from breadsong
Perfect for the holidays! Lovely crumb shot, looks so delicious!
Sylvia
Hello Sylvia, There are so many gorgeous things in the ABAP book, & so much great technical instruction too. This bread caught my eye as I have a weakness for hazelnuts. Goodness, the formulas in this book are fabulous. I've tried making two things from the book so far and have been very happy with the results. Thanks from breadsong
Loaves look good enough to eat! he he How did you caramelize the hazelnuts??
Pam
Hi Pam,
These hazelnuts were dee-licious. It took extreme willpower to save them for the bread. I shelled more than I needed, to allow for drydown when roasting.
After roasting, skinning and cooling, I coarsely chopped them and weighed the amount I needed (200g for the amount of dough I made).
I boiled 73g of sugar and 22g of water until 240F, stirred in the chopped nuts and adjusted the heat on the stove down a bit (to med-high)(I was cooking over a gas flame) and stirred constantly until the sugar started to caramelize.
I added 20g of unsalted butter and constantly stirred until it was caramelized to my liking.
I turned the nuts out onto a silpat-lined baking sheet and separated the nut pieces and let them cool completely before mixing into the dough.
At Christmastime I may make these again, for 'gifts from the kitchen'. I might leave the nuts whole and try adding some herbs and/or spice along with the butter. The nuts separate beautifully - caramel sticks to the nuts but the butter keeps the nuts from sticking together.
If you make these I hope you like them! From breadsong
Hey Breadsong
Thanks for the recipe.
Pam
Birdsong,
What wonderful looking loaves& hazelnuts caramalized looks just terrific. Can you post the spreadsheet of yr recipe for 8 loaves for the math challenged & spreadsheet ignorant?
It is about the most beautiful bread I have seen in a long time. Thanks --mo
Hello, Thanks so much for your kind words. I've dashed off a quick note to the book publisher requesting permission to reprint the formula (want to respect copyright). Will post as soon as I hear back. Thanks again from breadsong
From SUAS. Advanced Bread and Pastry, 1E. © 2009 Delmar Learning, a part of Cengage Learning, Inc. Reproduced by permission. www.cengage.com/permissions
Hazelnuts are my favorite nuts - unfortunately they cost a fortune here (in Germany they are dirt cheap) and are hard to come by, too.
Karin
Hello Karin, I think this company ships orders for hazelnuts:
http://www.americanalmond.com/store/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=57
I just became aware of this company recently so I thought I'd pass this along.
I'm not sure how their prices compare to what you might find at retail.
They seem to have a good selection for hazelnuts though (blanched, etc).
I'm glad you liked my little breads!
Thanks from breadsong
Dear breadsong, unfortunately I'm absolutely unable to wrap my brain around this formula - I guess I'm not "advanced" enough for this bread...
Karin
Hi Karin, I apologize if this spreadsheet is not helpful as it's shown!
I included the baker's percentages on the left, in case anyone was interested; weights, in grams, for ingredients are shown on the right.
I set up my spreadsheet so I just have to type in the amount of dough I want in grams at the top of the spreadsheet (total dough weight), then the preferment and dough ingredient weights automatically calculate.
All of the weights in grams of the various ingredients and components are shown in the Total dough weight column, for a total of 2000 grams.
The next four columns show the weight in grams for the ingredients used for the four preferments.
I made the two levains and two sponges at the same time; they all fermented for 12 hours;; then I mixed all four preferments with the water until all was combined; added the remaining dough ingredients, and carried on.
I hope this helps...I really needed Excel to help me figure out the math for this one. Regards, breadsong
I think I've got it now. But how do you measure those tiny yeast amounts in gram percentages? Can you tell me the baking temperatures and times, too?
Karin
Hi Karin, I found a small electronic scale a few years ago, manufactured by Salter, that scales to .1 of a gram.
I checked their website - they don't seem to make one any more.
Amazon to the rescue!
Baking time was 35-40 minutes with steam, 440F, for a 1 pound loaf.
I baked mine for less time as I was baking 250g loaves.
from breadsong
Hi Karin, Just saw this - kind of cool:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/21015/tartine-book-how-much-tablespoon#comment-146758
-- breadsong
What I use for the small ingredients like yeast and salt --and what I recommend-- is a "pocket scale". (Plug that term "pocket scale" into Amazon or Google to access a whole alternate universe:-)
They're dirt cheap. They have the same 0.1 gram resolution as those digital spoons. And I like the form factor better (those digital spoons seem to always want an extra hand to hold them, while pocket scales rest on the counter by themselves just fine).
You'll probably wind up with two scales: one large capacity but with only 1 gram resolution for the large ingredients, the other with 0.1 gram resolution but limited capacity for the small ingredients. Given the low price and easy storage of the pocket scale, having two scales isn't nearly as silly as it probably sounds at first.
In an earlier post I presented more detail about name and price and purchasing.
I'd linked to a pocket scale on Amazon in my reply above but the link might not be obvious. Thanks for your helpful post. Regards, breadsong
I'm really impressed by how open the crumb is in spite of the amount of hazelnuts. Great job!
Hello reddragon, Thank you so much. from breadsong