Swiss Farmhouse Bread by Hamelman
Raisin Soak
- Raisins 100%
- Water 250%
- Total 350%
3-5 days to mature. Place in jar and keep warm. Once the raisins are floating and the mixture is fizzing it's ready. [Hamelman recommends 5 days but mine was ready in 3.5 days]
First Build
- Bread Flour 100%
- Raisin Liquid 63%
6-8 hours until well risen.
Second Build
- Bread Flour 67.7%
- Whole-Wheat Flour 32.3%
- Water 63%
- First Build 87.6%
12-14 hours.
Final Dough (makes two loaves)
- Bread Flour: 1 lb, 0.8 oz [i made it about 15% wholegrain]
- Water: 12.7 oz
- Salt: 0.6 oz
- Walnuts: 7 oz
- Raisins: 4.8 oz
- Second Build: 1 lb, 8.9 oz
Form the dough and knead till medium gluten formation.
Add the walnuts and raisins and incorporate.
Bulk Ferment for 2.5-3 hours giving it a stretch and fold half way through.
Pre-shape and bench rest.
Shape and final proof for 1.5-2 hours.
Bake.
Even though the yeast water was only used in a relatively small amount in the first of two builds the dough maintained a lovely sweet biscuit (cookie) aroma throughout the whole process. The smell when this bread is baking is awesome. All in all a lovely bake.
Darn ! yet another to add to the “must bake” list, i think sooner rather than later especially as hubby is Swiss! can’t wait to see crumb!
very nice bake Abe!
Leslie
If it tastes even half as good as it smells I'll be happy. Your hubby is Swiss? I wonder what he'll think of this recipe. Hamelman advises one can play around with the recipe a bit. Choosing to make it more wholegrain and different add-ins. I put a bit more wholegrain into the main dough but kept everything as is. If you have the book then he goes into more detail (I've just given an outline). If you don't then message me if you have any questions. Crumb shot soon.
Taste is wonderful. Definitely will be visiting this recipe often.
Now it is a MUST DO :).
I have Bread 2nd edition I think, I don't see it in there (but I may not be seeing it) - there are other walnut & raisin receipes - so is this just an adaptation of one of those?
Leslie
In my book (which is also 2nd edition) it's on page 320.
If you still can't find it (perhaps it's missed out in certain books although I don't know why that would be) then I'll send it to you.
I had another look and mine was printed 2004 so maybe it is a first edition not 2nd edition and that would explain why it is not there.
Can you send it - that would be awesome.
Leslie
I made this particular bread twice in the past and both times, the thing wouldn’t rise and I ended up with bricks. Nice flavour but total bricks! Yours look lovely and look at that crumb! I am officially jealous. I am going to go pout in the corner! ?
It is a lovely recipe. The only thing I can think of is that it does need warmer temperatures than a Sourdough starter. I built the yeast water using my yoghurt maker as a proofer. Also did the first build in it as well. Did the raisins all float and fizz when making the yeast water? Funny thing about the recipe is that he tells you to wash the raisins. For one thing if you can eat them straight from the packaging then why would one to wash them? And wouldn't one be washing off any yeasts that might be in them? I just found some currants (everything else had oil and/or was sulphured and these were the only things I could find that were 100% fruit), used one cup of them to two cups warm water (boiled and cooled) then kept them at 29C for a few days.
and I got a few bubbles but I really couldn’t call it fizzy. Using currants is a great idea! I might try that next time.
just use an organic apple. It is so fast and easy. Way easier than raisins at least in my experience. It will smell like apple cider . You can then convert it to any fruit you want just as you convert your SD to any flour that you want. You will love it !
It’s a wonderful recipe and was a great way to try out my first raisin water - looks delicious
And thanks for the suggestion too. I've was bought the book as a present and had been enjoying all the sourdoughs which I almost bake exclusively. A while back I tried yeast water with success but then turned back to sourdough and forgot about it. This recipe reminded me how good yeast water can be and I really should venture to try other breads too. I'm keeping the yeast water like my sourdough starters as I hear they can last a long time. Any more suggestions please throw them my way.
I have been being grandma all day so just seeing this ! Perfect loaf ! Just what I would expect from the YW. I am so glad for you. Can you tell me more about the actual bake ? What were the grams that you used to get the size loaf you got ? Thank you and VERY impressed !! c
For all your guidance. It's been a successful weekend which is a good start for the week coming. My yw has taken up residence in the fridge. So let me get this right... however long it is since the last activation is ok to just take some of the yw and go straight into a Pre-Ferment with flour? And then too back up whatever I've taken out and return it to the fridge.
I'm sending you a private message.
as long as there is floating fruit you need do nothing and you don't ever have to take the YW out and leave it at room temp before using or when adding new fruit. You will get a build up of mother yeast in the bottom of your jar over time. What you want to do is shake well before removing the YW that you are going to use for your bake. Add back the amount of water you took out. Voila...done.
As an aside you will find that the date yw really stays foamy day after day in the fridge. Much more so than my apple ever has. I have never been able to get raisins to grow :) I do have an orange peel in my date water as well as in my apple. I am about to do a quince YW....will keep you posted. It is a sickness , I am telling you ! c
Sounds like a very easy maintenance. I made quite a lot of yeast water but wished to keep a lot less and simply top up whenever I take some off. I found a small jar, put on a tablespoon of YW, fresh water and fruit. Within a few hours the currants were all floating and it was fizzing. Very quick. I think I'm going to enjoy exploring YW very much. Thank you for your guidance.
I now put the orange peel in my raspberry YW, and i feel it is definitely better too. I am going to see if I can find some organic raisins and get this YW going as this is as I said a MUST DO recipe!!
Leslie
as the starter to begin your raisin. No need to begin again. It is just the same as your SD starter. You use it as a jumping off point for other flours. So you use your raspberry or apple or raisin....whatever you had success with as your base and simply take out a small amount of the YW and feed it water and a new fruit. Voila...done. Give it a go.
Rosie II is having a feed on apples at the moment as for some reason the raspberries are not doing their thing (our weather is quite strange this summer) so once I find some organic raisins, will have a go.
Leslie
That's just begging for honey and butter.
Even when trying a slice on its own it was very tasty.
stronger in another week or two. Then you can toss it in the fridge for 6 months, forget about it with no worries like I do:-) Well done and happy baking Abe
On Friday afternoon I was concerned that it wouldn't be ready for the weekend bake. My high hopes seemed dashed. However all of a sudden it came to life and while some were floating the day before by Saturday morning they all were and with lots of bubbles. Once the YW decided to wake up it happened very quickly. Must've found some very good dried fruit. Glad to hear it gets even stronger. I'm also very impressed with the dough it made. It was two builds with the yeast water only being used in the first. The first build went well and the dough smelled so good. But even though the first build was relatively small and subsequent builds/final dough were with water the dough retained that lovely cookie dough smell. It's amazing what that little bit of yeast water imparted to the dough. I'm loving this relatively new way of making yeast. Apart from my brief foray into YW a few years ago I have been concentrating on sourdough. Why did I stop?
never run out of space! Now this beautiful bake will have me adding another to mine. It looks just lovely. Good shaping and a nice interior (they call that a "crumb", don't they?). I keep reading about others' adventures with YW but haven't dipped my toe in there yet (Ugh, not a pretty picture is it?). From what I can gather, they are pretty easy to get going.
This one will now become the new caboose on my train of upcoming-first-time bakes, and I notice that I had a forgotten post-it tab peeking out from that page. Thanks for bubbling this one up on TFL to remind me.
alan
Can't recommend it enough. It isn't sourdough but it's just as tasty. If the dough isn't too wet then I'm finding a pre-shape as boule then once it has relaxed to roll the dough from the top down. Placing my hands under the dough then folding and with each turn making sure no air pockets have been introduced, getting the tension by gentle pushing it back and it's sealed and repeat till a log has been formed. YW is fun and you're right, just put the ingredients together (preferably not with your toes) and keep warm. Give it a stir once a day. It likes air I believe. I hope you do try yeast water as I'm sure you'll love it.
After six days, I sadly also ended up with a brick. No idea what I did wrong.