An Old Standby with a New Twist: Pain au Levain with Asiago

I hadn’t made Hamelman’s Pain au Levain with Whole Wheat for a while.  I remember that bread as one of the best I’ve ever made.  I made up the levain last night, and mixed the dough this morning, and then went to the grocery.  There, I began to crave cheese bread.  So I bought some nice dry, sharp Asiago.

I know Hamelman’s Sourdough Cheese Bread formula (like most cheese breads) calls for combining the cheese into the dough at the mixing stage.  It was too late for that.  So, at the shaping stage, I flattened one of the dough balls and spread a thick layer of grated cheese over it, and rolled it up, flattened it a bit again, added more cheese, and shaped it into a batard.

The aroma while it baked was incredible.   It was hard to wait for it to cool.  When the loaf was sliced, I saw that the crumb was nicely aerated…and cheesated, too.  The flavor is amazing!  Cat and I almost finished a 12 oz loaf as an afternoon snack.

Is this what they mean by “loaves singing”?

The other loaves also look like they’ll be good, but they’ll have to wait for tomorrow.

Glenn