XV – Heinz’s Swss Artisan Bread, made with Sourdough

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Note : "The method"  edited on 11th Oct. '11.  Sorry I forgot to write you need to lower the temperature of the oven after 20 minutes! Sorry!!!!!!!!

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It doesn't happen all the times, sadly, but there're a few breads I was lucky enough to come across during our holidays abroad of which the momory has been staying with me even now.  A beautiful bread we had at breakfast in our hotel in a charming little village of Wengen, at the foot of Jungfrau in Bernese Oberland region during the first holiday in Switzerland long time ago (just after dinosaurs had become extinct) was one of them.  

 Judging from the colour and flavour, I knew it had good proportion of wholemeal and probably smaller amount of rye, but its relative lightness and  soft-ish crumb also told me it probably had more white flour than other two. And I was also quite sure it was commercial-yeast based rather than sourdough.   But those were the days well before my breadmaking became ‘obsession,’ so I didn’t know how to ask right questions as to how it’s made or what sort of grains were used.  When one of the waiters in the hotel’s breakfast room told me it was a most common bread in the area and I was satisfied with the info, (naively) thinking I’d find a right recipe for that easily enough when I got home….……and that was more than 20 years ago and I hadn’t been able to find one, yet.                                

But one day, the Saviour arrived in the shape of our fellow TFLer, Heinz.  He shared with us a recipe for Swiss artisan bread he ate as a child when he was growing up in, no other than, Hurray!, the glorious Bernese Oberland! 

  I was overjoyed and decided to try out the formula straightaway, but wanted to incorporate my starter instead of commercial yeast in Heinz’s recipe.  He assured me as long as I kept to the basic ratio of 4 : 2 : 1 = white : ww : rye, it should be alright, so that’s what I did…..nearly 2 months ago and have forgotten to blog about it until this morning……..::sigh::

So, this is my take on Heinz’s wonderful artisan Swiss bread, made with sourdough.  By no means it’s as beautiful or artistic as his beautiful crust and scorings, but still, this is the closest I’ve had ever made so far  to the bread we had in Switzerland, and,  though it’s not exactly the same, I liked the flavour very much.  So much so that a formula I conjured up some years ago and had been calling ‘Swiss bread’ was rescinded of its title immediately and now this is my ‘Swiss bread.’ 

Thank you very much, Heinz, if you’re reading this. I owe you so much!

 Swiss/Bernese Oberland-style Sourdough Loaf, inpired by Heinz

 Ingredients : (makes one medium loaf. Dough weight around 650g)

   Starter (75% hydration)   125g 

        Fed twice during 8-12 hr period before use with 50/50 = strong/wholemeal (strong 37g + WW 37g + water 55g = 129g)

   Main Dough

     Strong/bread  flour   140g

     Plain flour    40g

    Stoneground WW  flour     80g

    Stoneground Rye flour     40g

    Wheatgerm     1 tbls

    Dry yeast (optional)    1/8 tsp or less

    Water     220 – 230g

    Salt   6g

 METHOD

1.   Feed S/D twice during 8-12 hr period before you start making the bread.

2.   Mix all the flours, wheatgerm in a large bowl.

3.   In a separate small bowl, mix S/D and water to loosen S/D a little.

4.   Pour S/D+water to the bowl of flours and mix briefly into shaggy mess. Cover and leave for 30 minutes to autolyse.

5.    Sprinkle salt on the surface of the dough and S & F in the bowl for 20 times or so until salt is (probably) evenly distributed. Cover and Leave another 40-45 minutes.

6.   Two more sets of S & F in the bowl (just 8-10 S&F this time, enough to circulate the bowl once) every 40-45 minutes.

7.   Cover and cold retard for 8-12 hours.

8.   Make sure there’re a few large bubbles on the surface of the dough after cold retard. Take it out from the fridge and leave at room temperature for 1/2-1 hr.

9.   Pre-shape and shape. Put in a bannetton and proof at room temperature .until your trusted finger-poking test tells you the dough is ready, which can be anytime between 2-4 hrs depending upon the temperature and the strength of your starter.

10.   Bake in a pre-heated covered pot at 240 C for 20 minutes.

11.  After 20 minutes, remove the lid, lower the temperature to 200C and bake for another 20-25 minutes.

　＊Option – You can also bulk ferment for 1-2 hours at room temperature and cold retard in a bannetton after shaping.

 (Note:  This is slightly adjusted version of Heinz's original formula, in the attempt to make it (hopefully) closer to the bread we had in Switzerland.  The ratio of  flours for main dough is roughly 4.5  : 2 : 1 = white : ww : rye, which makes the overall ratio,  including the sourdough,  roughly 5.3 : 2.9 : 1 = white : ww : rye.) 

lumos