This Community Bake will feature Jeffry Hamelman's Five-Grain Levain. The formula and instructions are taken from his very popular book, "Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes". Many bakers consider this bread a favorite of theirs and I am in that group. The portion of whole grain along with the seeds makes this bread stand out among the best. The book can be Seen HERE.
For those not familiar with our Community Bakes see THIS LINK. The idea of a Community Bake is for those interested in baking and learning to bake with us and post the results. This way we can all learn together. This is not a bread baking competition, everyone wins!
I chose to post the bake today in order to give everyone time to gather the ingredients since there are 4 grains and/or seed add ins. It is not necessary to go out of your way to get the specified seeds or grains. I substitute all of the time and the bread is always great. Hopefully the bake will get into full swing by next weekend, but feel free to start right away.
I've included an additional image of the spreadsheet for those that want to bake a smaller batch. The formula is for 1000 grams, but you could easily divide each ingredient by 2 in order to make a 500 gram loaf.
Here are the instructions from Hamelman's book. If you don't already own the book, I suggest you give it some consideration.
Five-Grain Levain
by Jeffrey Hamelman
Resource --- Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes Pages 182 - 183
1. Liquid Levain --- Make the final build 12 to 16 hours before the final mix and let stand in a covered container at about 70°F. Mix Levain and Soaker at the same time.
2. Soaker --- Pour the boiling water over the grain blend and salt, mix thoroughly, and cover with plastic to prevent evaporation. Make the soaker at the same time as the final build of the levain and let stand at room temperature. If grains that don't require a hot soaker are used (such as rye chops in lieu of the cracked rye listed here), a cold soaker will absorb less water, and therefore it's likely that slightly less water will be needed in the final dough.
3. Mixing --- Add all ingredients to the mixing bowl. In a spiral mixer, mix on first speed for 3 minutes, adjusting the hydration as necessary. Mix on second speed for 3 to 3 1/2 minutes. The dough should have a moderate gluten development. Desire dough temperature 76°F.
4. Bulk Fermentation --- 1 to 1 1/2 hours (if yeast (.008%) is used). Otherwise see Step 7 for clarification.
5. Folding --- the bulk fermentation should be 2 hours with 1 fold
6. Dividing and Shaping --- Divide the dough into 1.5 pound pieces; shape round or oblong. Large loaves of several pounds are also a beautiful sight. And good rolls can be made from this dough. NOTE – I like to make 3 pound boules and place them into the Dutch Ovens and then refrigerate. After they are shaped I place the ball upside down on a water soaked towel and then put the wet side on a towel that is floured and filled with pumpkin seeds. This gives the bread an excellent flavor and also makes it more attractive.
7. Final Fermentation --- The dough can be retarded for several hours or overnight, in which case the bulk fermentation should be 2 hours with 1 fold and the yeast should be left out of the mix.
8. Baking --- With normal steam, 460°F for 40 to 45 minutes. There is a great deal of water retention in this bread, so be sure to bake it thoroughly.
Danny
Dan,
I PM'ed you about trying the Abel Sierra "ziggy" cut since you are having a ball with Brad's sausage cut. Here is my take on it.
I think that it is pretty clear by now that the 5-Grain is not one that takes a bloom easily and the most successful of those, by and large, have been batards which had one longitudinal score from tip to toe. And even then there are only a handful from our 5-Grain gallery here that bloomed as well as we'd like.
My previous ziggy scores have had a significantly better bloom on them, particularly the sesame semolina, but then again it was with 2 distinctly different doughs. A bit disappointed in not seeing a better oven spring, but knowing the terrain before taking the dive I'm not surprised that the bloom was less dramatic as my prior attempts.
The view from above...
and from the broadside...
An interior view of the dang thang...
And a snail's eye view...
To perform this type of cut I keep the curved razor blade in the drawer, instead opting for a ceramic knife.
I felt as though I should have pushed the oven time a few minutes further and garnered a darker surface, but I'll still call this one a successful bake. And a fun scoring pattern to keep around for fun and games. Thanks to good ol' Abel.
650g x 1
alan
Alan, your richly browned crust are equally iconic to your beautifully scored baguettes! Your breads are unique and highly identifiable. The traits of a master.
I imagine you would opt to not work that hard, but you would have made a master commercial baker.
You have been a great help to me in the past, and you can be sure I’ll be knocking on your door in the future.
Thanks...
Danny
that the bakes always look a little bit redder than they really are likely due to the incandescent light overhead. And probably combined with the way that my phone camera interprets the image. I'll also guess that as the surface oxidizes (or whatever it does) the color is lessened by a shade over time.
Some folks have suggested that I either 1. get a job in a bakery or 2. open my own.
My wife's uncle says to open a bakery. I asked him to advance me a quarter of a million to cover the lease, equipment etc. All I hear from him is a loud "gulp".
I may hang a sign on my door knocker reading "Gone Fishing" - something you could well relate to ;-) .
Thanks for the kind words as it keep me from the doldrums.
alan
PS I do like the idea that my breads are identifiable from the looks. I've heard that before too. Consistency is something that I do strive for. Makes me happy and feeling accomplished in something other than my skills at re-arranging the sock drawer.
By far your best result yet. You are one determined baker! I'm jealous that you have the time to bake this often. Consider using the bran in the levain next time, because the levain loves it. I take the remaining sifted flour, weigh it, and add white flour to make up for whatever weight is missing from the sifted bits.
Do you plan to do slap and fold from now on? It's messy, and I wonder if it over-oxidizes the dough. I must say your dough looked amazing at the end of the slap and fold.
Phil, I often use the bran in the levain. But JH calls for a 1 to 5 starter to flour ratio @ 125% for 12 - 16 hours. I think the bran would cause the levain to over ferment.
I use Slap & Folds quite a lot. But the question regarding over oxidating the dough is a good one. I hope others with knowledge on the subject can enlighten us.
Dan
That might explain why my dough was on a path to over-fermenting in the fridge. The last time I made this I was not using bran levains. Rarely, though, is a levain all bran. I think this one was less than 50% bran.
BTW, given the Tartine method of using young levain, I vary the levain fermentation times pretty much. I've mixed these Hamelman levains as early as 6 hours. Sometimes this makes for a longer ferment, but not by much.
a beauty Danny! the bakers percent will be a little different now but wow, you nailed it
Leslie
Thats an awesome crumb and an amazing save! Well done!
Here is the second loaf from the 3rd bake. Hydration was 105.4%.
For those that prefer dark bakes, this one fills the bill. A tad dark for me, though.
It ssems that the extra water (totaling 105% hydration) gives the crumb a noticeably softer texture and chew. All loaves in this bake were retarded free formed in a couche. I retarded in a sealed plastic bag. This is responsible for the blisters and also the shiny crust. <A special thanks to BreadForFun for the tip.>
Danny
it is getting better with each bake! beautiful crumb!
Leslie
You should see the breads at Josey Baker. They love to bake them until they're ALMOST burnt. It comes across as daring and exciting. Excellent bread, too.
You can see what I'm talking about on Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/josey-baker-bread-san-francisco
Well practice does make perfect. I have learned so much from this thread.
and the latest loaves are just amazing Dan!!! WoW...I have not been much on the site recently but could not resist to have a look at the community bake and I can see that you have been busy and with amazing results!!!! Beautiful loaves! Kat
Both the save and the end result -- not to mention your calm in the face of a major hitch!
Congrats on a beautiful bake.
Is your floor in yet?
Carole
Carole the flooring is scheduled for next month.
This bake went so well! It will be hard to top it.
Hi Danny, sorry to have missed this community bake - although I might try it next week. Life has been hectic - but I am totally impressed by everyone's results. Thanks Dan for putting this together and thank all of you for participating. It's so much fun to see everyone's hard work and inspirations.
Sharon
Sharon, please post your results. I believe that people will visit this bake long after the dust settles. I may bake the Five-Grain in the next week or so. If I do, I plan to post the bake here.
I have baked way over 100 loaves of this bread, and I can say for sure that I have learned a lot by seeing and reading the results of bakers on this post.
It is never too late to join in on the bake. Years down the road all participants should be notified each time there is a new post on this bake.
Danny
You've given me the encouragement to try this for sure. I will definitely post results!
Again - very nice Danny.
and impressive! Surely only an insouciant Frenchman would sling dough around wearing a black shirt.:D EDIT: this is after watching the link to Bertinet.
I watched and copied the moves as best I could with a Champlain and a Maurizio dough. True confession; they never became resilient, smooth balls, though the texture improved. I lost count somewhere in the seventies. I found bits of dough in my eyebrows and stuck to the kitchen window over the sink. They turned out okay -
Image
Thanks for the link!
Just a heads-up for anyone who enjoyed the flavour of the Five-grain Levain that they baked: check out @mrjeffmccarthy's Seed Monster Sourdough
Less grains, more seeds and an excellent tasting loaf!
Lance
Hamelman’s Five-Grain Levain
There was no bench time (ambient temp fermentation) for this process
All ingredients, including the soaker was mixed at the same time. Wet (Levain, soaker, water) in one bowl and dry (flour, salt) in another. Then mixed together until dry ingredients were wetted. Rested for 30 minutes and remixed to fully incorporate, then did 75 slap & folds. Rested 20 minutes, and finished up with 25 gentle slap & folds. NOTE - dough entered the retarder @ 68F.
Retarded at 52F for 12 hours (dough increased about 75%, then shaped cold (no preshape), put on parchment free formed, and bagged tightly. Retarded for 12 hours @ 38F. Slashed one dough diagonally and baked (covered on stone) @ 485F for 20 minutes. Then removed cover and baked 20 minutes @ 465 convection. NOTE - I tented with foil towards the end of the bake because I didn’t want the bread to over brown.
NOTES - Followed the formula almost exactly. Hydration remained the same. I did sift the whole what and used the bran in the Levain. Used steel cut oats, he didn’t specify. All fermentation was done cold, no real bench time. Baked a little hotter, wanted max spring and bloom.
I am really diggin’ dem diagonal slashes.
Danny
The loaf expands during oven spring at right angles to the scoring. So, to get the roundest cross section possible, score at right angles to the long axis of the loaf. Note: If you score a boules with parallel cuts, the baked loaf with be oval, not round.
For more details, see my Scoring Tutorial in the TFL handbook, or such search for it.
David
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve studied your tutorials! And I think something is learned every time. Today’s take away is the need to score much more shallow. 1/4” is not very deep! That seems counter intuitive. A shallow scores produces a larger ear, but your explanation makes sense. This principle provides a better understanding of Doc’s VIDEO.
It appears, from the image above, that those scores are probably 5/8” deep. Wouldn’t it be great if the shallower score produced the consistent ears that I’ve worked for years to achieve?
I have thought for some time that the lack of ears were result of improperly developed gluten. I thought, if I scored Alan’s or your dough, the ears would be gorgeous. Would love to find out I was completely wrong :-D
I always appreciate your information and help.
Danny
Really nice job on these loaves, Danny. Scoring is one place to get creative with breads, so experiment.
-Brad
Really nice!
Sorry I missed this community bake of one of my favorite breads. I happened to be making it this weekend and the saw this post.
I usually hand mix my bread but for this is one I used my Bosch Universal mixer to get better results and less mess on my hands from the seed soaker. I did an half hour auotlyse in the mixer without the salt mixed on first speed for about three minutes then added the seeds until incorporated. The recipe was followed using KAF bread flour and fresh ground 5% sifted WW except my levain was 100% and I sprouted the rye berries before chopping them with a knife which is easier than cutting the dry berries. The water in the soaker was reduced to account for the previously soaked and sprouted rye and this was added back in along with the water not used in the levin which was added to the final dough to end up with the same amount as the recipe. I baked it on a stone with a roasting pan covered for 20 minutes at 500 and 25 minutes at 450 uncovered.
Thanks everyone for sharing your inspirational bakes and I thank you Jeffrey for my favorite bread book not just for the recipes and techniques but the stories from a life in bread baking that accompany it are worth it alone.
Hey MT, it’s never too late to join in on this or anyother Community Bake. Thanks to Floyd, we are sent notifications when ever a new post is added. Many of us will happily join in and reply.
Your bread looks absolutely perfect to me. Thanks for posting...
What a gift Jeffrey Hamelman presented the bread baking world when he published his book!
Danny
Wow, excellent work!
She's at it again! Some progress this time, write-up and pix here.
Keep on baking,
Carole
As this was to be my first attempt at the five grain levain bake I thought I would stick closely to the original formula, although oats and cracked rye weren't locally available so I used pinhead oatmeal, and after several unsuccessful attempts to crack rye, just the rye grains. Also I noticed in Jeffrey Hamelman's book "Bread" that under the heading of"Dividing and shaping", he comments that "large loaves of several pounds are also a beautiful sight" so as someone who likes a large loaf and appreciates a beautiful sight, I scaled up the "Home" formula to produce about 3Kg (6.6Lbs) of dough.
When I mixed the final dough on day two, it seemed to be far too dry and I measured out an extra 50 grams of water. Luckily I didn't add it before I had rested the mix for 30 minutes, by which time it had become very sticky and certainly didn't need extra water. I machine mixed it for about five minutes and then stretch and folded several times before leaving it to bulk ferment, with S and F's every 30 mins.
J H suggests that bulk fermentation without the added yeast should be about 2 hours. I can only guess that my liquid levain which had looked very fizzy and ready to go after the overnight growth in a comfortable proofer was not yet strong enough for the task ahead, because after three and a half hours there wasn't much sign that bulk fermentation was complete. However I had run out of time so I divided and shaped the two loaves and put them in the fridge in the hope that inspiration would come to me overnight.
Next day nothing had arrived during the night so I decided to try warming the loaves for a couple of hours in the proofer and then allowing a further two hours proofing.
Well that did the trick. the dough now looked more rosy cheeked and wobbly so I heated up the oven and baked them.
I was never more relieved when I removed the dutch oven lids after thirty minutes to see that there had been decent oven spring rather than deflated balloons.
Here's the crumb. Not quite as open as I would like.
So I will certainly try this again but first I will have to figure out why my levain took so long to wake the dough.
a beautiful sight!
Congratulations, enjoy them and keep on baking,
Carole
Alan, I think most of us bulk fermented longer than 2 hours. Im guessing more like 3 or 3 1/2.
What are you using for the green background in your images? It looks really nice.
Danny
Doesn’t the bread taste great?
Hi Danny. Yes it is a very tasty loaf which I'm looking forward making again, should be a lot easier with what I've learned this time.
The green background is actually a cotton tablecloth, kindly offered by my wife when I was looking around for a darker background than the bare wooden bread board.
Alan
work out in the crumb? I'm curious, since I can't find cracked rye either, but was too afraid to use them whole.
Thanks for your lights!
Carole
Well I was worried about using the whole berries but having spent a lot of time trying a small electric coffee/spice mill which produced a little gritty flour and a lot of undamaged berries smelling of curry, followed by an old hand cranked meat mincer which passed the grains through undamaged and finally a mortar and pestle which left me having to sweep up a load of rye berries from the floor, I had a "what the hell" moment and just threw the whole berries into the soak.
So it was very much luck rather than judgement and to answer your question, the boiling water and the 12+ hour soak softened up the berries just enough to leave a bit of bite and add some texture to the bread.
I will use whole berries again next time and hope it will work as well.
By the way I'm a little bit puzzled by " Thanks for your lights "
Alan
that's good news -- about just giving them a long, hot soak, I mean. I'm sure I'd have burnt out my herb chopper!
Sorry about the "lights": bad translation from a colloquial expression. Basically, "thank you for enlightening me", or "thank you for shedding light on the matter".
Enjoy this delicious bread and keep on baking!
Carole
DanAyo asked me to post a link to my blog about baking this bread. Here it is:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/59521/hamelmans-fivegrain-my-bake
Ok, I decided to do the bake. I went with rye flakes, rolled oats, flax seeds, chia seeds and sunflower seeds. For the flour I used KA bread flour(purchased when I went home, and KA white whole wheat).
Used my KA mixer after the autolyse and added the soakers with the levain, water, flours and salt. Mixed for about 6 minutes total then did a couple of S & F by hand and let it BF for two hours, with one s & f after 60 minutes. I did the BF in my oven with the light on.
Pre-shaped into two loaves and let rest 20 minutes, then shaped and into the fridge. After 9 hours, late last night I baked the first loaf, at 450 F for 20 minutes, lid on, then 25 minutes, lid off. I used my Staub DO and put two sheets of parchment under the dough, and a pizza stone on the rack below the rack the DO was on. I gave a quick mist to the dough and inside the lid but that was it.
The second one was baked this morning - after a 19 hour retard, and this time after I removed the lid, I dropped the temperature to 425 and turned on the convection. It's cooling as we speak.
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This a very delicious but filling bread!
Here is a shot of the second bake which is looking equally delish! Thanks Danny and to all for this community bake!
Big success. Good oven spring, lovely crumb and looks delicious. So glad you got to try it in the end. I'm sure you'll be returning to this recipe.
I've been wondering where you've been.
Great bake, congrats! Isn't this one yummy?
Your crust and crumb and scoring are terrific.
Keep on baking!
Carole
Carole, I have been off the grid recently so making this bread was a bit nerve wracking. That said, this bread is terrific! Could eat the whole thing myself..
The second bake could take first place at the county fair. I love the bloom and score.
I hope JH comes back to this post for a visit. I can’t imagine how gratifying it must be to know that countless bakers the world over place this bread at the top of their bread list. For me and Hester it is number one. I bet many others would agree.
As of this time there has been 348 posted replies to Community Bake! A giant THANKS to Jeffrey Hamelman...
Danny
This bread also stales well. I discovered four slices in my car. they were several weeks old , mold free. and made an excellent car snack.
I am about to make a 4th batch but is there a definitive answer on roasting the seeds before the soak?
I use the seeds both ways, toasted and not. I have even made this bread by adding the dry seeds and add ins (no cracked grain) to the intial dough mix without a soaker. They all bake well, IMO. BUT, I think the general consensus is that toasting the add ins provide more flavor.
Try it both ways and let us know which method you like best.
Dan
>>This bread also stales well. I discovered four slices in my car. they were several weeks old , mold free. and made an excellent car snack.
A true Freshloafian you are, clearly.
Danny, your push made me do it. Abe, as always, made it clearer to me. I downloaded Hamelman's book - and his recipes are way above my level of baking, but this one really is special, and I also hope he pays another visit.
This has been a great community bake!
Here are photos pre-bake:
It looks wonderful, both pre and post bake!
Abe and Danni, I aspire to be like you when I grow up lol! Actually, there are so many fabulous bakers on this site. And when I see all the different variations and wonderful breads, sometimes it can get a bit scary but this bake went much better than antipated. Greatly appreciate everyone’s input and knowledge. I must say, this is a bake I’m really happy with!
The fact I’ve managed to keep my starter alive after 2 years is nothing short of a miracle! Love this bread!
I must say that I prefer the crust on this one, where I lowered the temperature and put on the convection bake. But both delish!
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When I think the oven spring has finished and it's 95% baked I'll stop the steam and finish off with the fan for a nice crust. Try toasting this bread for great favour. Nice start to the week Sharon.
Bon Appetit.
Thanks, Abe. I think I like the idea of using the convection. I was really hesitant but it worked beautifully with this bread...
I just purchased the book on amazon tonight. It should be here Saturday.
I have some questions. There are a lot of comments on this thread and if my question is answered in here I am sorry. I am also at work and I am unable to download the files to see if my answer lies in there.
I have a starter culture and would like to make this recipe. But I was wondering when making the Levain how much starter do I add to the flour and water? Other recipes I have used call for a small amount like 25g or 50g of starter to be added.
I do not own a mixer. I mix by hand. Will this be ok?
I appreciate any other direction and maybe my questions will be answered when I get home and download the files or I receive the book on Saturday.
Jeramiah, if you scroll up a little you will see my post that contains a link to the blog where I described my bake of this bread. The post includes quantities for all of the ingredients (scaled for two loaves.) I mixed by hand, and that will work, but be ready for a sticky messy dough (keep a dough scraper handy).
Happy baking.
Ted
Thank You. Figured I gave up to early.
I've had this one bookmarked for a long time and finally got to try it this weekend. This is definitely one for me to improve on, but I think it will take great toasted. I followed the recipe, but replaced the cracked rye with spelt (hard for me to source cracked rye) and the flaxseed with poppy and sesame seeds. I needed to up the hydration by about 30g. I added the seeds through lamination which worked okay, but I think given the quantity of seeds that lamination may not have been the best choice in this case. The seeds never incorporated as evenly as I would have liked. I definitely underproofed my bakes this weekend, but I wanted to get to bed!
the other is a polenta bread
Ilene, you have baked an outstanding Five-Grain! It is a super favorite of mine. I can almost taste it, buy looking at the pictures :D
JH gave a gift to the world, when he shared that one. It is out of sight toasted...
Danny
OH! Mixing the seeds during the initial mix works well.
I plan to bake a version of this at the end of the week. I cannot find cracked rye but was thinking I'd do a combination of sesame seeds, flax seeds, sunflower seeds and rolled oats. I'm not planning on using my KA to mix so I'll see how hand mixing goes. I'll also need to decide when and how to add the seeds which I will toast and do the soak.
I've been enjoying Kristen's lamination process lately as it really does build gluten well, but having only used it twice, I think I'll use this bake to try it again hopefully my technique will improve each time I use it.
Benny
Hi Benny,
Enjoy! It's a fun recipe to try. I added the seeds during lamination for this one and while I wouldn't discourage it, I felt that the huge volume of seeds make it a bit hard to fully incorporate through lamination. When it came to shaping there were patches with tons of seeds making it difficult to form a skin on the dough. That said, I just pre-shaped first (haven't been doing this lately) and then it seemed to shape up fine.
Mixing by hand seemed to work out perfectly fine, but I think the dough would have benefited from more water.
No cracked rye, no problem. Substitutions work well.
Adding the seeds in the initial mix, as instructed, works as well as any method, IMO.
Benny, you are going to be blown away with the flavor. This is my favorite bread...
Dan
Having not seen this recipe before I was very interested in it because I love the flavour from seeds in breads. And based on everyone's reports from their bakes, this has excellent flavour so I'm really looking forward to this bake since it is new to me and has reviewed so well. Thank you for putting this CB up last year and thank you for whomever brought it back to life recently.
Benny
Lamination was never going to happen, the dough is super sticky. I’m working on bulk fermentation and have done a combination of slap and folds, stretch and folds and now coil folds. I think I’ll do one last set of coil folds and leave the dough to complete bulk fermentation before shaping and cold retarding in the fridge. So sticky.
For what it is worth, in this bread I put in the soaked seeds at the start, and used lamination to build strength in the wet , sticky dough. I just wet the counter top, stretched out the dough(easy to do) and folded it up like a letter going into an envelope. Gives a lot of strength.
In hindsight, I should have just tried the lamination, but the dough was so sticky that I chickened out. I'm not confident that I built enough structure for this dough. We'll see tomorrow after the cold retardation overnight.
Benny
I have had good luck with sprouting the rye berries and then chopping them up. This is one of the recipes that I prefer to use a mixer for because of the difficulty of incorporating the slimy seed mixture into a stiff dough. Looking forward to seeing your bread. These are from last weekend. It's good winter time bread.
Hi Fellow Bakers and Bakerinas,
May I urge you, or at least mildly suggest, that it's best to add the seeds at the outset. Yes, because of the slight puncturing effect on the gluten from the seeds, it will take a bit longer (maybe one minute) to achieve adequate gluten strength. That said, if your mixing style is not aggressive, an extra minute will not have a negative effect on flavor. And if you are thinking "well, that extra minute will oxidize some of the carotenoids and that's a bad thing since it will impair the flavor," keep in mind that this is not a baguette or a ciabatta, where you want to minimize oxidation of carotenoids, since they are so very important for maximizing flavor. In the Five Seed, so much of the flavor comes from the soaker ingredients, from the levain, and from the long fermentation. A further option would be to add the soaker at the outset but hold back some of the final dough water, maybe 10% (the bassinage technique). In that slightly drier environment, gluten development will be quicker. Once the dough feels strong enough, drizzle in the bassinage water on slow speed until it's just incorporated. This is by far one of my personal favorite breads, and like anything I do well in the baking world, mostly I want to pass it along to as many people as possible to spread the enjoyment and the skill and the nourishment.
All the best,
Jeffrey
This is my first posting on this forum and the bakes here looked so good, I had to try baking this bread for the first time. All the sourdough and I used the recipe without adding any commercial yeast.
Super nice bread, George. The crumb is great for this type of heavily seeded bread. How do you like the taste?
Glad you joined the gang!
Danny
Hi Danny!
The taste is really wonderful and I used the mixture of seeds as you used in the posting.
I found out about this forum from a youtube of yours on overfermenting bread.
The last time we met was from the back of your boat and you provided sandwiches made from your bread; I remember the bread as well as the great time I had !
What a great gang to join!!!
George Q
I’ve been retired from Charter Fishing for a couple of years now. I’ve shared a lot of sourdough on my boat.
As I think about it, I was introduced to The Fresh Loaf by a fellow fly fisherman on a charter trip somewhere around 15 years ago.
Glad you joined the forum and thrilled to hear you baked the Five-Grain. IMO, for flavor, it can’t easily be beat. Your bread is beautiful!
Danny
Yes Danny the Five-Grain bread is one of the most flavorful loaves I've had. I am impressed by Mr. Hamelman's formula as the directions are so clear that it invites variations and modifications. I would not be surprised if there isn't a 10-Grain variant that someone claims as their own. In other words, a formula good enough to steal!!
The problem I ran into is my starter was roaring into high gear when I mixed it and it was overproofing as I watched. I threw it into the refrigerator immediately after shaping and it kept growing. As problems go, it is a good one to have but next time I'll use a bit less starter and the kitchen was around 66 degrees too. Not very warm!
I'm learning a lot just from this thread and I've got so much to learn!!
George
So not my best work. I think I should have stuck with my original plan to add the overnight soaked seeds and oats during lamination. Instead I added them during mix and the resultant dough was very sticky to say the least! I didn’t use a mixer and did it all by hand and really never achieved good structure. I think either using the mixer to mix to get some structure or doing the lamination would have helped. I didn’t get great oven spring because of the lack of structure, when I took the dough out of the banneton after the long cold retardation, it slowly started to spread. You can see from the profile of the loaf that it spread during baking as well.
Hopefully the crumb and flavour will be great though. When I eventually bake this again, I need to ensure that I achieve better structure.
Benny, you may be expecting too much of this type of bread. You shouldn’t have the same expectations for this bread and you might have for a bread like Kristen’s Basic Open Crumb. They are entirely different in every way. But if taste is king, the Five-Grain will give anything a run for it’s money, IMO. Keep in mind the formula calls for ~34% seeds and cracked grain. Debra taught me that it is not so much that the sharp edges of seeds and grains tear the gluten, but it is the physical size of these items that hinder the ability of the gluten to form around them.
Try to think about it this way. Say you have 1000 super thin sheets of latex. If they are wetted and placed on top of one another they will stick together very well. Now think about those same sheets, but this time we put a large number of marbles in between each of the sheets. The adhesion will not be nearly as good. NOTE - the example is mine, not Debra’s, but I think it makes sense.
Jeffrey wrote into the Community Bake recently and he stands by mixing the seeds and grains as originally instructed. After trying a number of ways to incorporate those add-ins, I completely agree.
It is commonly believed that the sharp edges of the add-ins tear the gluten. Debra has investigated this under the microscope. If sharp edges tear the gluten, how can a food processor with sharp blades be used to produce a dough with highly developed gluten?
The above is my understanding, and as always I stand to be corrected, if any of it is incorrect. I live by the statement, “the truth will set you free”.
Sticky Dough
The stickiness of this particular dough is not so much because of excess hydration. It is caused for the most part by the “gel” produced by the soaker. I think this same gel is also a major contributor to the lacy crumb that this formula produces. At least this is what I think at this time.
This video may interest you. I like hands on and touching the dough, so Slap and Folds (French Folds) are frequently used when not machine mixing.
Danny
For a dough where it is difficult to develop the gluten because of some unusual ingredient or essential condition, I have found that picking an appropriate water to wheat flour ratio and developing the gluten first before adding the things that otherwise make it difficult (a lot of water, massive amounts of whole grains as in this formula, even corn flour which absorbs a lot of water without contributing much to the dough structure) can create a success where it is otherwise absent or occasional. This is something I learned when trying to recreate a very old (16th century) Portuguese bread that adds corn flour (new to Europe at the time) to a basic wheat dough which was probably pretty rough as well. If the gluten is not well developed before adding the pre-hydrated corn flour (masa in my case rather than polenta) I found it impossible to get enough usable structure to hold the crumb together. But once the gluten is developed, you can incorporate the corn flour to get a very nice loaf. More recently I have used this approach to make a 25% rye loaf with a more open crumb than I have achieved in the past so it has become a tool to be used as needed.
So spreading the add ins on the laminated dough would have helped achieved this potentially.
Hey Benny,
Not just for this Five Grain formula, but for any dough that is sticky or loose-textured by nature--don't underestimate the value of bassinage. Hold back 10% or so of the final dough water and this will make the mixing and gluten development much easier. Once you are satisfied with the structure of the mix, slowly add the held back water. It can make all the difference particularly if mixing either by hand or in a stand/planetary mixer.
~Jeffrey Hamelman
Hi Jeffrey and Dan
Yes perhaps I was expecting too much, you’re right of course the add ins will affect the structure.
I haven’t been making a habit of using bassinage and again you’re right, I’m sure holding back some of the water and later adding it should make gluten development easier. I will definitely keep that in mind for my next bake of this recipe. I will post crumbs shots once I’ve cut into this amazing smelling but still warm bread.
Thanks for all the guidance.
Benny
Benny, let us know the experience of your first bite. Try to describe it in detail.
Dan
Wow, this bread is awesome in flavour. I love the nuttiness of it, I’m not good at describing what I taste, only that I do love this bread. I’m very happy with the fermentation that I got with this, very happy with the crumb.
I love that crumb. I'll bet it tastes just as good as it looks. One of my favorite things about this bread is that the crust is always light and thin but crispy. The flax and oats must have something to do with that because Hammelman's seed bread has a similar crust. Try it sometime with the rye chops, I think it is a big part of the flavor profile.
My partner and I just ate half the loaf for lunch it was that good. You’re right about the crust, considering how long it was baked for I would have expected it to be thicker, but instead it is relatively thin and crispy. Yumm.
Benny
I was wondering why the top was darker whereas mine end up much lighter in color in the bloom area. You may want to lower your oven rack.
Interesting that you noticed the top being dark. I have been baking on the second lowest rack so that I could put a cookie tray on the lowest rack to shield the dough from the direct heat of the bottom elements. I thought that in baking mode the upper elements should be off but the top did darken a bit more than I would have liked.
In my non convection oven only the bottom is on for baking. I have the same problem when I use a countertop oven. A piece of foil loosely over the top prevents that. Although I do like the taste of that bit of burnt ear in each slice.
Hey Benny, I was browsing past CBs and came across the image below that you posted during Kristen’s CB. If you are plagued with over browned crust you can place a piece of aluminum foil over the top of the loaf once it attains the color you want. All further browning will cease once the aluminum is in place. Not sure if you know that or not.
Danny
Yes the aluminum foil trick to prevent over browning, I don’t know why I didn’t think of it since I do that for pies, but thanks for the reminders Dan and MTloaf.
I'm just thinking about this now, but I wonder if when I remove the lid of the dutch oven, since it is oval, would I get the same protective effect by putting it back on after being turned 90*. I would still allow the steam to escape but would over most of the baking bread.
Your bread came out really super. I hope you no longer regret not doing the lamination for the seeds! I really don't think the crumb can be much better for this type of bread.
Thank you Ilene, that is kind of you to say. I was very happy with the crumb and the flavour, my partner and I actually ate the whole loaf yesterday which has never happened before. ? I would still have preferred to have achieved better structure and hope that I can next time.
Benny
To Jeffrey, Benito and Dan, I have made this bread a few times, and honestly, I don't remember the need to do a lamination with it, or stretch and folds. Yes it's sticky but it holds - I followed Jeffrey's instructions and even when I mixed by hand, I did not do stretch and folds, only the one after 45 minutes or an hour, and shaped after two hours and popped it into the fridge. The first time I made this bread it was challenging, but honestly, it doesn't need a lot of work. I worried that too much handling would degrade the dough with all the seeds. And the seeds are best added in the beginning. JMO
Sharon
I'm a real amateur but this is one delicious bread. A favorite frankly!
Bassinage - “It can make all the difference particularly if mixing either by hand or in a stand/planetary mixer.”
I never considered bassinage for mixing by hand. Sounds like a good idea, especially with a dough with sticky and wet characteristics like this.
I'm sooooooooooooo late to this party. Is there any way to get a copy of the spreadsheet provided originally with this post? I have JH's book, but my math skills are pretty paltry and anything to help would, well, help.
Thanks!
Send your email address to my PM.
kvenick@cinci.rr.com
Thanks!
Sent it, Kven
I had another go at this bake, but made a few mistakes right at the start. Rather than using the recommended 214 g of bread flour and 109 g of water for the final dough, I accidentally use 321 g bread flour and 243 g of water which I reduced to 236 from the total formula column, yikes. Other changes I made include reducing the soaker water to 150 g.
I’m quite happy with the end product considering the accidental changes I made. This was the largest loaf of bread I’ve made to date and it kind of overflowed my banneton which is better sized for 750 g loaves. So taking that into consideration I’m pleased.
Benny, you sure have been baking great breads! The crumb shot makes me want to eat. And I’m on a diet.
Danny