Hi
I'm so keen on getting an open crumb on my bakes but I'm not so keen on the work that seems to have to go into the high hydration doughs.
Is there a lazy persons open crumb that preferably involves the breadmaker doing the dough for me?
I suspect the answer is no but it's worth a try.
Adri
but it's not going to look Instagram-worthy.
The first lazy-person's way I learned from Steve Gamelin's youtub channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/artisanbreadwithstev - - - no final "e"
I've made a few dozen of his loaves with near 100% whole wheat flour. First, follow his recipes closely, and you'll learn how the high hydration feels, before you substitute in more whole wheat flour like I did, which needs extra water.
He uses commercial yeast only, no sourdough. But with an overnight rise, all you need is 1/4 tsp per loaf.
No biga, no poolish, no starter, no barm. No weighing. No kneading. No stretch-and-folds.
He has mainly 100% white flour recipes, and then some 50-50 whole wheat/white flour recipes.
He has two broad cateories, 1) the 8-16 hour rises, and 2) the "turbo" process.
The 8-16 hour rises are more open crumb, I think, than the speeded up process. The longer rise loaves taste better, imho.
Watch a few of his videos. His mixing method is so easy, it's much easier to clean up than a bread machine's mixing paddle and pan.
here's my favorite recipe from his channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcmS7uahscI
it's a 50-50 white/whole wheat.
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But, yea, you do have to use a dutch oven, or an oven steam method, to get open crumb with a decent crust.
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The second lazy-person's way is the Hertzberg and Francois method. You can see their recipes and methods for free on youtub. search youtub on: bread jeffrey hertzberg five minutes
This is also a yeast, not sourdough, method. It uses steam from a broiler pan in the oven, not a dutch oven. You need a plastic or glass container to store dough in fridge. Easy, because when you use commercial yeast, no sourdough starter, a wet dough can keep up to 7 days in fridge.
They have four basic bread books out:
- - - Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. mostly all white bread.
- - - Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Where each recipe is like 75% whole wheat.
- - - The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.
- - - The New Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day.
Plus these two:
- - - Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Fives Minutes a Day.
- - - Gluten-free Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.
The original editions are very inexpensive now on the used Amazon market. But you can see if their method fits your goals by watching them for free on youtub, then decide if you want to buy their book.
Happy baking.
Thanks for that, I'll start watching the youtubs now.
The ultimate goal for me would be using sourdough starter though. Maybe I'll have to give in and buy a stainless steel bowl...
If anyone has a simple sourdough open crumb recipe with as little intervention from the baker as possible it'd be much appreciated.
Adri