Tartine's aromatic Semolina Bread + Walnut and Sage Wholewheat

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PiPs on 6 Feb 2012 at 04:01

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I have wanted to bake the Semolina sourdough from Tartine Bread for some time now. The heady mix of toasted fennel and sesame seeds held within the golden crumb sounded like a delicious combination beneath a crunchy encrusted exterior.

Finding the durum flour proved to be quite a challenge though. It took me more than a few visits to organic grocery stores until I discovered a small bag tucked away on a low shelf from a New South Wales company specialising in pasta and durum based products.

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It has been some time since I last baked with durum flour and I was a little nervous with the amount of water that the Tartine formula called for … 80% Hydration! … however the dough developed strongly over a three hour bulk ferment and shaped easily into batards. The seed coating looked beautiful as they quickly rose in cloth-lined baskets … it is hot and humid again in Brisbane.

The hot oven in the hot kitchen punched the wet dough upwards and I couldn’t help but let out a small sigh of relief as watched the oven spring unfold. This is aromatic bread. The crumb is full of vibrant fennel seeds with the sesame seeds playing a much smaller role in the flavour profile.  The crumb is sturdy but not tough … the fennel flavour is sturdy also - bright and savoury. I would be inclined to reduce the amount of fennel seeds just to allow the sesame flavour to show through a little more.

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By the end of a week in the fridge, my desem starter is keen to step out and stretch it’s legs after pushing its bed of flour upwards to a cratered top. Keeping the ideal cool temperatures is an impossible dream at the moment so my next best option is to feed sooner and watch its development closely.

The idea for the Walnut and Sage bread surfaced during a week of afternoon bus trips home. I knew I wanted to bake a whole-wheat desem bread studded with walnuts and I loved the idea of incorporating a sweet honey walnut paste similar to a concept used by Dan Lepard. The idea of sage came after … to balance the added sweetness brought by the honey.

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Walnut and Sage 100% Wholewheat

Formula

Overview

Weight

%

Total dough weight

2140g

 

Total flour

1081g

100%

Total water

919g

85%

Total salt

20g

2%

Prefermented flour

162g

15%

 

 

 

Desem build – 4 hrs 26°C

 

 

Starter (50g not included in final dough)

75g

50%

Freshly milled wheat

150g

100%

Water

75g

50%

 

 

 

Walnut Paste

 

 

Walnuts

50g

 

Walnut oil

20g

 

Honey

20g

 

Water

50g

 

 

 

 

Final dough

 

 

Desem starter

243 g

26%

Freshly milled organic wheat flour

919g

100%

Water

788g

85%

Walnuts lightly toasted

300g

32%

Walnut paste

140g

15%

Chopped fresh sage leaves

1/2 cup

 

Salt

2og

2%

 

Method

  1. Mix desem starter and leave to ferment four hours
  2. Mill flours and allow them to cool before mixing with cold water (Hold back 50g of water) from fridge and autolyse four hours.
  3. Combine walnut paste ingredients and mix till smooth with motar and pestle.
  4. Lightly roast remaining Walnuts and allow to cool.
  5. Add desem starter to autolyse then knead (French fold) 5 mins. Return the dough to a bowl and add salt and remaining 50 grams of water and squeeze through bread to incorporate (dough will separate then come back together smoothly) then knead a further 10 mins. Add Walnut paste, roasted walnuts and chopped sage leaves and squeeze through dough until combined.
  6. Bulk ferment two hours with two stretch-and-folds 30 mins apart.
  7. Preshape. Bench rest 20 mins. Shape.
  8. Proof for 1 hour at 28°C
  9. Bake in preheated dutch oven at 250°C for 10 mins then reduce temperature to 200°C and bake a further 10 mins. Remove from dutch oven and bake on stone for a further 20 mins.

 

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After allowing them to cool I couldn’t wait any longer to try a slice. The knife sliced through the delicate soft crumb with ease. The walnut oil and walnut paste softened the crumb and coloured it the lightest purple. There were some lovely walnuts protruding from the crust but Nat’s quick fingers saw to them … I am sure they would have been distracting for the photos anyway :)

The sage flavour sits at the back of the palette complimenting the walnuts – you breathe it in - a perfect balance. So much so that the bread moves effortlessly between sweet and savoury settings. Perhaps a late breakfast with honey and ricotta or a slice toasted with blue cheese and glass of red to accompany one of our favourite pizzas on a Saturday afternoon watching the sun slowly set.

… our version of Jim Laheys Zucchini Pizza – with added red onion and pine nuts.

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Cheers,
Phil

encrusting on the semolina bread.   I have been thinking about bread books lately and was contemplating starting a thread about people's top three, but I like your idea better which is to speak with pictures.   So here's back at ya

Thanks varda,

Great idea about the books! I recognise quite a few of those ... I can't see myself buying any more books for a while ... Thom Leonard's book was the last one ( ... and it was second hand)

Cheers,
Phil

....my baking-related books, that is!

Hi Phil,

The desem bread is just sublime, I can't imagine how good that will taste.   I'm really glad to see you post on durum, as Australia is renowned for producing top quality durum wheat, I believe?   It sounds like you had to work hard to find it, however.

All good wishes

Andy

... how about ya top three books then? :)

I am really chuffed with the desem bread ... it's SO nice. I can probably source durum in larger quantities but I still don't understand why it's so hard to come by ... your right Australia is renowned for it's durum though I think a large amount of it is exported. The durum flour I found had no specs or nutritional chart so I am in the dark about it apart from its baking qualities and there was quite a lot of colour/minerals in the flour - more a light golden tan colour than yellow.

Cheers,
Phil

 

Hamelman's "Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes", Wing/Scott "The Bread Builders - Hearth Loaves and Masonry Ovens" and Pyler's 2 volume "Baking Science and Technology" are the Top 3.   Love Elizabeth David's "English Bread and Yeast Cookery" and Suas "Advanced Bread and Pastry and DiMuzio is good too, and and and....

A

Hamelman's book is fantastic and I am not sure why it's not in my collection but I have never heard of Pylers "Baking Science and Technology. Will have to google that one. I leafed through Elisabeth David's book in a store one day and found it fascinating but was not sure how I would incorporate its recipes into my day to day baking. I enjoyed the stories in Daniel Leaders book as well when I borrowed it from a friend.

mmm ... My top three?

Wing/Scott "The Bread Builders - Hearth Loaves and Masonry Ovens",  Chad Robertson's "Tartine Bread" and Maggie Glezer's "Artisan Baking" ... I'm a bit the same ... hard to pin it down to three, but I have learnt the most from these books with the added bonus of reading enjoyment.

Made a promise to myself of no more bread books for at least a year ... we'll see how I go :)

Phil

I have the other two you mention and have considered buying Pylers book but its rather pricey for a gamble, what is it you like/dislike about it? I haven't seen any reviews about it. I noticed someone called it " a beast of a book" though its two volumes.

Hi

I have very little use for bread books which are, in the main, recipe books.   I can do all that myself quite easily.

I want books that teach me new things.   And I also teach baking for a living.   Pyler's book is the manual which helps me stay the essential steps ahead of the students.   I do use other scientific texts as well, but this one is a complete baking manual.

My 2 volumes cost just £25 imported from the US.   How I came to pick them both up at that price is another story.   But, expect to pay well over £100 for the pair.   That is standard pricing for academic texts.   For Confectionery, I like Street's book.   For sourdoughs Kulp and Lorenz are excellent.   For industrial bread Cauvain is top notch, especially his book on Chorleywood Bread Process.   Calvel's book translated by Wirtz and MacGuire is also a must.

Best wishes

Andy

Oh, Andy, we lesser beings stand with our mouth agape, in awe....... (just kidding!)

I do admire your profound knowledge that you share with us so graciously. I still need recipes for inspiration, and, also, am too curious to see what's all out there in the great wide baking world to rely just on my own knowledge.

Best wishes,

Karin

 

 

I agree about not wanting "recipe" books per se. A recipe can be somewhat useful as an example of a style but I find myself adapting those to my liking anyway, I also tend to do wild fermentation as I find them much more interesting. At any rate I'm looking for texts which will improve my knowledge, technique etc, to help me further develop my own styles and interpretations not collect a lot of redundant recipes. I know there are a lot of holes in my knowledge, many of which I'm probbably not aware, but I can't afford to go to school right now as I have a couple of business's I'm trying to get going. I also want to get some idea about how to ramp up production without sacrificing quality as I'm working on a pretty small scale right now as a cottage industry I mainly grow produce, used to work as an electronics engineer, but have this interest in fermentation, kind of started with beer wine etc, including wild fermented styles such as Flemish Reds and Lambic replications. Somewhere along the line caught the wild fermented bread bug and started getting serious about it though I've never had any formal training. I been baking for for myself for about 30 years but started selling artisan bread at the markets for extra money in the winter and its sort of taken on a life of its own to the point where people started hunting me down when I took a break from it. Now I get people petioning markets for me and taking my bread to restaraunts etc without my knowledge. This is a bit new to me as I never got close to that sort of support from the public selling organic produce but then good bread is scarce here in most of the US. I'm just a self taught amature but I do use my imagination and am not afraid to experiment, expanding my limitations. I've learned a lot on my own though I realize its just the tip of the iceberg. I'm working on getting a CSA style operation going in addition to the markets. A CSA is a community supported system where people buy into a subscription service. I had planned to use bread as a way to get people to buy into a produce service but the bread seems to have more interest which is frustrating becasue I really like being an organic farmer and I like the hours better LOL. I like baking bread alot too though so I'm counting my blessings but I could use more sleep. I realize this is an uncoventional approach but it seems to be working so far though I've got a long way to go. I found a used set of Pylers Book set online for $80,00 US but its the 1973 edition which I assume is the second?. I also found a 1982 edition for $99.00 US which I assume is the Third? They didn't say what editions they were and though I've heard there are 4, I've seen more than that online and wonder if some of the dates are simply printing dates. How much difference is there between these additions and which would you recomend? I'm on a low budget and the hardback 2010 editions go for over $300.00 us. I also noticed some of the older editions are listed as new, which is strange unless there is some value to having an older edition instead of the later ones. I've also heard Michel Suas's book - Advanced Bread and Pastry is pretty good though I've heard its geared more toward a French tradition which I don't want to limit myself to. Sorry to bother you with this, its just hard to judge these things without looking at them. I've tried talking to lacal bakers but mostly get confused looks or advice to do things in a more mundane way so it hasn't helped. If you have any other advice about my situation I'd be very grateful as well. I've kind of bitten off a lot, maybe more than I can chew but I'm trying to make a go of it. Makes life interesting anyway Thanks for your advice Wyatt
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hanseata on 6 Feb 2012 at 10:46

Wonderful loaves, Phil, I'd love to try those.

Karin

Toast

Jeremy on 6 Feb 2012 at 14:47

Amazing grigne on your semolina, I have been fiddling with durum of late, but my schedule is proving a pain in my neck!

My rye levain I fear is overly sour or too old so I failed to rise a loaf of your any grain bread...totally dysfunctional baking this month! Maybe it was the hemp seed? Whacky bread!!

 

Always a pleasure to admire your baking...fabulous!

Jeremy

Thanks Jeremy,

Sorry your any grain loaf was sad :(  ... I was getting pressure put on me to bake some those on the weekend ... I think some heavy rye would be nice again soon.

Never used hemp seed before ... mmm (sound of brain ticking over)

cheers,
Phil

Your photography is stellar!

I haven't made the Semolina bread from Tartine Bread. It looks like a winner.

David

This is not the first time you’ve put together so many wonderful flavors and aromas that I can’t even keep them straight in my head, Phil.  Brilliant!  And beautiful, as always.  The crumb of the desem loaf is just perfect.  I’ve made bread with sage, but never thought to combine it with walnuts.  I’ll be making a note of that combination for future use.

Marcus

Ha Ha, thanks Marcus,

What I can't portray in the photos is how soft the Walnut and Sage crumb is. The oil in the Walnut paste has made a real mark on the finished loaf.

I snuck another slice when I got home from work today... yep it's still good :)

Cheers,
Phil 

 

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dabrownman on 6 Feb 2012 at 19:54

What a pro!!!  I don't think they could be any better. Such attention to detail, your skill shows itself so easily.  The tastes must be as good as the smells.  Thanks for the recipe too.

Thanks dabrownman. Everything really fell into place for this bake ... nice to have days like that. Hope you try the walnut and sage one day ... it's a nice combo.

Cheers,
Phil 

I just found an un-opened can of Walnut Oil in the cupboard that must have been there since around 2002.  Ummm....10 years old....... I wonder if it is still good?  Only one way to find out I guess .......  Oopppsss....No walnuts in the freezer for some reason.....Got to go to Sprouts and get some, after I start a levain build....... be back later.  No sense kicking this bucket down the road any longer :-)

Hello Phil,
The Tartine Semolina is one of my all-time favorites - your version is gorgeous.
And the walnut-honey paste, combined with walnuts and sage - amazing combination - and I'm sure equally good for sweet and savory, as you say.
Wow.
:^) from breadsong

 

Thanks so much Breadsong,

I wasn't prepared for the amount of flavour in the Semolina Bread. Wasn't until I tipped all the roasted fennel and sesame seeds on to the dough that I stopped and went .... Oh my!

Great to hear from you...

Cheers,
Phil 

 

Hi Phil,

Abusolutely stunning loaves!

I am interested in your desem starter. How does your desem starter smell like? Does the bread have an earthy or bitter flavor?  

Your posts really amaze me every time.

Thank you so much for sharing,

Akiko

Thanks for kind words Akiko,

The desem starter has a sweet wheat smell when I can keep it within the right temperature range - around 18C is best I find. Its not bitter or earthy at all unless its fermented to far or too high in temperature. I watch it pretty closely during summer to avoid this. The wholewheat breads I make with fresh milled flour are not sour at all - they have a natural and clean flavour.

So glad you are enjoying the posts.

Cheers,
Phil 

Very interesting information, Phil..

May I ask one more question?

What percentage of water is in your desem starter at the refrigerator and the room temperature when you refresh?   I am very curious about natural yeasts now. 

P.S I have made your olive bread for several times. :)  I like your olive bread very much, especially the crumb!  Very soft.  When I used fresh herbs for it that was my mistake, it came out quite bitter... I was shocked.. then I ate a piece of them 5 days later( I kept it in the freezer ) ..then I didn't taste bitter at all.. the bread was pretty good.

Thank you for sharing your great formulas..

Akiko

 

 

Hi Akiko,

I am really happy that you like the olive bread.

I keep the desem starter at 50% hydration. It is fed using a 1:1:2 ratio ... this works well if I can keep the temperatures under control. I am thinking about a small wine fridge to help during the summer months :)

Cheers,
Phil

Thank you so much, Phil!   I think that is great idea to keep the starter in a small wine fridge.   I am looking for a used crappy refrigerator to ferment baguettes in the summer... :)

Thank you again,

Akiko

Lovely baking and excellent photography, Phil! Your pictures tell the whole story and demonstrate an incredible attention to detail. A pleasure to read.

Syd

Now that is bread passion, Phil!

Photos shown above are like something taken out of a New peter Reinhart or Hamelman or Dan Lepard cook books!

I'am curious, as to what flavor difference does a desem have iver a typical wild yeast biga. Do you maintain a desem out of convenience only?

 

Thanks Khalid,

That's a great compliment ... It's a funny thought considering the photos are taken my old flour covered kitchen :)

The desem starter if kept at ideal cool temperatures (I like 18C) brings a clean fresh flavour to the bread if fermented correctly using fresh milled flour. I don't find it sour at all. I like using the fresh milled flour for a starter and the desem serves the purpose nicely, plus it survives quite happily in the fridge between refreshments. 

Cheers,
Phil

OK, I'm a late-comer, again. :p

Great loaves, again, Phil.   You have such wonderful artistic flare in shaping/scoring/decorating loaves and how to present them; something you must've been born with. 

Dark colour of walnut and sage loaf is really  beautiful (Belated congrats on the top page feature! ) but I also like the open crumb of Semolina sourdough, too.   I so understand fennel seeds can be overpowering.  I often regret adding just a liiiitle too much in cooking.  Sometimes less is more.  (I know in theory, but....:p)

Thanks so much lumos,

I feel I still have some way to go with decorating the bread - breadsong's stencils for example are beautiful - not sure I am going there though :)

I really love the fennel flavour but I think it could use a liiiiittle less :) ... next time perhaps.

cheers,
Phil

Are you sure it's legal to post photos like that here!?  Those are gorgeous!  Makes me want to drop work today and go home and bake. Been reading through Tartine this week.  Duram is on the list now :-)

Beautiful!  Thanks for the great (if not distracting) start to the morning!

 

Pdiff

Ha Ha,

Perfectly legit ... you can enjoy as much as you like :)

It's a great book ... and the semolina bread is well worth making.

Cheers,
Phil

Seems TFL had a few hiccups this morning,

I received your wonderfully generous comments through email ...

You make smile Mini - ear to ear!

It is not fair that we get to see all these wonderful breads on the fresh loaf but rarely get to really experience them. I keep all my flour sacks - I have a rather large pile ... I have a few plans for them ... mmm ... bread book eh? Hamelmans' might be a bit large for it though :)

Cheers,
Phil

Here is the evidence!  Plain as walnuts and seeds.   It is just too much!   Oh dear! I must have died and gone to heaven (or overdosed my carbs) 'cause I just can't explain it any other way.  I see but I just can't take in the aroma!  Knew I was a gonner when I went and clicked on a walnut centerfold!

Blam!  POW!   Flattened like an overripe sourdough (I would just love to fall slow motion backwards into a pool of the stuff, gotta be rye tho) maybe with your combo of seeds toasted on top.

Wow!  Just look at those waves of toasted seeds!  Oh Phil!  the only thing better than this is ... is ... smell o vision.

Where is that starter?!   I need a ripe sniff back to reality!  My sage is frozen under fresh snow...   Wait one minute!    Noses work in heaven!

"Smells like heaven"   yup, that kind of expression's gotta come from baking seeded loaves.  And walnuts and sage.  Hmmm.   Sage often takes on the flavour of wild berries if it grows crispy green and cool.   Oooo, I can image-a-smell that.

Are you saving the Durum flour sack?   Is it big enough to use as a gift tote for a loaf?    or a new bread book? 

When I saw it up in triplicate,  panic set in where seeds had grown.  yikes!    Did some fast erasing.   not fast enough I see.

Got an e-mail, huh?    You are so sweet!       

A whole pile of flour sacks?   Hmmm.   :)    The gears are turning...

I don't want to cut into it.  Not yet.  I  think that there might be something purple or green or both inside.  It could be a purple people eater or even something much, much worse.  I'll have to wait until the morning light - don't want to be crippled by darkness if it is something horrible ........and emerges very hungry.  I will need every advantage to escape when and if it attacks.  I plan to use them all if necessary.....until tomorrow then.  I'll contain it in a brown paper bag so it stays nice and comfy, unperturbed......  and has no reason to attack anyone ......until it is too late......and the bread knife strikes when it is least expected.  Sleep well my friends in bread.  We will deal with this purple menace tomorrow - if we live through the night.

 

brown bread too :-)   The brown bag containment field worked overnight I am pleased to say and, once under the bread knife, it was purple after all!!! The cell phone camera just doesn't do it justice like your photography does., This is one handsome round of bread and the smell is unique but nice as well.  Even when using the home ground whole meal wheat berries, the crumb is not dense, but slightly open, soft and moist too.  The home grown sage comes through well and the walnuts, which I thought would be too much, are also very tasty and in balance.  What a great concoction Phil.  Have had it plain, toasted and with goat cheese this morning and it just grows on you.  Before you know it - its nearly gone - but I did freeze half of it.  I cut your formula by a fartor of 4 and got a small round.  It didn't spring much as I thought it would in the cast iron enameled pot I used but I think the pot was too big and I should have used a smaller one.  It did rise well in the basket during final proof. I did let it go 1 and 3/4 hours instead of the 1 in your formula.  This is a sophisticated, fined and elegant yet rustic kind of bread that is in a new class - the purple one.....a bread that people want to eat.   Very nice indeed Phil. 

 

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sweetbird on 16 Feb 2012 at 13:11

Oh my goodness! It seems I only turn my back on the computer for a second and when I turn back around I find a whole delicious assortment of new formulas, deeply beautiful photographs and wonderful stories from you! I'm trying to catch up and have just spent some happy minutes reading through these recent posts. I truly hope you're assembling all this material so you can get it to a publisher. It's great stuff. Your Tartine loaves are impressive. Chad Robertson uses seeds very assertively! I've made both his semolina breads -- this one as well as the variation with golden raisins, fennel seeds & coriander seeds. Both are unusual breads -- the first was very bold and the second was sweeter and more delicate.

Your sage & walnut bread is going on my list of breads I must try. Sage-walnut is one of my all-time favorite flavor combinations. I don't have a desem starter but will give it a go with one of my other starters. Thank you, Phil!

(Love the photo of the bread books, too!)

All the best,  Janie

Hi Phil,

A friend was here today when your 'Sage and Walnut' loaf came out of the oven. Even though she had just finished her lunch she couldn't resist tasting one of the small rolls I had made with some of the dough.

She decided to simply eat 1/2 of one of them.  The entire roll was gone within a few savory moments.  She was enthralled by the flavors and textures of this recipe.

While eating I showed her your photos and her first comment was, "I would love to have one of those photos on my kitchen wall."

From there we began to micro manage your life and decided that you should market your pictures for people's homes and local stores or restaurants that deal with breads or any foods in general.  In your spare time, of course.  :-)

Needless to say she was captivated by both your bread and your keen eye for detail.

And I just thought you would like to know.  :-)

Thanks for another wonderful loaf that has now been added to my collection!

Take Care,

Janet

to design and build a whole house, or possibly just the pantry,  around PiPs Pictures, where I would have fake but real looking loaves of Phil's bread placed strategically in the space, but not nailed  down (like Frank Loyd Wright did with his furniture) so that they could be moved and forever enjoyed where ever they ended up.  I can see whole wall murals made of Walnut and Sage for the dining room.........Semolina Seeded for the  Loo and for the bedroom..........something really sexy.......

(as opposed to Bauhaus).  It was Angelina Jolie, wearing some thinly sliced bread  in the ....eeerrrr......bedroom.   If one needs bread everywhere - who am I to get between true love and......thinly sliced bread :-)

Hi Janet,

That's really nice feedback to get :)

It's a funny thing to photograph something so transitory as bread. It's kind of like sculpture but its not meant to last long. All these breads that I have photographed have all been eaten now ... gone. Just a few pixels is all I have to show they existed. I kind of like that for some reason ... I like the transitory nature of bread ... its a useful thing for keeping us alive ... but I also like the beauty and the craft of its creation and nurturing.

Maybe there is a market of the photos ... I am not sure ... at the moment I am just going with the flow ... try not force it too much :)

Good to hear from you and i'm so glad your friend liked the bread.

Cheers,
Phil

Phil,

And that us exactly what your photos capture - the essence of the moment; that pregnant pause that is so richly filled with possibility all from the barest of ingredients....

I totally get 'going with the flow' otherwise the outside demands step in and your art is forever changed and so are you.  My husband simply can't understand why I don't sell my loaves.....because it would change everything, that's why....I am at an age where those types of demands would ruin it all.....

My friend and I totally understand and I hope you know that - all tongue in cheek talk :-)

Take Care,

Janet

OMG!  Your breads look amazing.  I have always wanted to make a sourdough that was covered with seeds.  Did you have to lower the temperature at all when baking these?  I don't have Tartine's book, because I already have too many bread books.  I  just want to know if you had to do anything special when using the seeds on the crust so that they do not burn.  Thank you.

Hi caryn,

Glad you like them. The seeds within the bread are toasted. The seeds on the outside of the bread are not toasted. I rolled the dough on a fairly damp cloth before rolling in the seed mix. I didn't alter the bake temperatures at all. Even the seeds on the base of loaf were fine.

cheers,
Phil

Thank you.  It does make sense not to toast the seeds that are on the outside, but toast the ones on the inside.  Just curious, then at what temperature did you bake these loaves?

Hi,

Loaves were baked at roughly 250C for ten minutes with steam. Then a further 35 min at 200C. I rotate then halfway through the bake. Keep an eye on them as ovens can vary.

Cheers,
Phil 

Hi Phil,

Yesterday's bake was your walnut sage again as people really liked it!

I did photos this time but no crumb shot as all went to friends.....

I did a couple of different scoring patterns and I didn't score as deeply as I did on the previous loaf of yours I just posted for you.  Both work - just a different look...

            

 

                                                                                                  

When I baked this loaf before I had kept the dough stiffer than the HL you posted. (I am used to following Peter Reinhart's 75% HL for whole grains....) This time I didn't and the difference was noticeable....These loaves were lighter and oven spring was greater.

 In the evening,  just prior to retarding the dough, it was still pretty slack/sticky even after 3-4 rounds  S&Fs at 45 minute intervals.  I am always amazed at how things continue to tighten up overnight.  By morning it was a nice smooth dough without any of the stickiness or slackness  it had the night before :-) .

I am now watching the HL levels YOU post and sticking to them :-)

Thanks again for this formula!

Take Care,

Janet     

Wow ... they look great Janet!

Glad the hydration level is working for you ... it would make it a lot easier having the overnight retard. I know another wholegrain baker who does they same thing and says the dough is much easier to handle the following day.

So nice that people are enjoying your breads.

Cheers,
Phil 

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Janetcook on 16 May 2012 at 20:26

Phil,

Going back a bit here but when I made your walnut bread a while back I was using an almond paste that I had stored in the refrig. and it was 'store bought' so the question I have tonight didn't even occur to me then but  tonight I am working on another walnut loaf - this time with onions and, after reading a recipe in HML, I decided to make my own walnut paste, which I did, but when it came time to mix the loaf I couldn't help wondering, "Why go to the trouble of making a paste?  Why not simply put those ingredients into the dough separately when mixing????"  This sage loaf of yours came into my mind so I figured I would ask you if you know why one makes a paste???  

What difference does it make in the long run to go to that extra trouble of making a paste to begin with?  Why not just grind up part of the walnuts into a fine powder and then add to the final dough with the other ingredients that also go into the paste?

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Janet