Community Bake - Pt2 The Bread - Hamelman's Swiss Farmhouse

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DanAyo on 6 Aug 2019 at 06:10

Swiss Farmhouse YW
by Jeffrey Hamelman
Jeffrey Hamelman has given us permission to post his copyrighted formula and instructions.  The Swiss Farmhouse bread is taken from his book, BREAD: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes (second edition), by Jeffrey Hamelman. Copyright 2013. Published by John Wiley & Sons. If you don't own this book, it is an all time favorite on TFL and definitely one to consider.

The actual bake was scheduled for Friday, August 6, but some of the bakers already have their YW ready to go.

If you need to make a Yeast Water (YW) and have never done so before, have no fear. It is super simple to make. MUCH EASIER than a sourdough starter. If you are not a sourdough baker, this is a great way to start the learning process. See THIS LINK for full instructions and help.

NOTE - the Total Dough weight was set to 1000 grams for easy recalculation. Suppose you wanted to bake a 750g loaf. You would multiply each ingredient by .75 to get the correct amount. Or, let’s say you want to make two 750g loaves. Simply multiply each ingredient by 1.50 (750 + 750 = 1500). 1500 is 1 & 1/2 (1.5) times larger than 1000. If anyone needs help with this or anything else let us know. We are all here to help. Novice bakers are especially welcomed in all of out Bakes. Learning from, and sharing with others is the reason for our Community Bakes.

Here is a reply I got from Jeffrey concerning the proper type of flour. “Bread flour is the term the Bread Bakers Guild uses for flour with a protein content of about 11.5 to 11.8. Unfortunately this is also what most people refer to as all purpose.“

1.    Prepare Raisin Yeast Water   --- 5 to 6 days before the bake, soak the raisins (organic raisins are recommended) in water. Cover and leave at warm room temperature (75-80F). White mold normally begins to cover the surface of the raisins, an indication that the liquid is ready. Once the ferment starts to actively bubble, it should be ready.

2.    Build #1   --- Discard the spent raisins and measure the required amount of juice, add flour and mix to incorporate. Lightly cover and leave at room temperature for 6-8 hours, until well risen. NOTE – you can keep the remaining YW to refeed and perpetuate. Give the YW another handful of raisins for food and refrigerate.

3.    Build #2   --- Add water for second build to the first, then mix to incorporate. Incorporate the bread flour and the whole wheat flour into the mix. Lightly cover and leave to ripen for 12-14 hours until fully doomed. Note – if the room is too warn and/or humid you may retard the preferment a couple of hours or so to slow things done. The important thing to achieve is a fully risen and doomed preferment.

4.    Mixing--- Add all ingredients to the mixing bowl, except the walnuts and raisins. Mix until the gluten has attained moderate development. After mix in the nuts and raisins at slow speed until evenly incorporated. Desired dough temperature (DDT): 76F.

5.    Bulk Ferment   --- Ferment at room temperature (~76-78F) for 2 ½ to 3 hours.

6.    Folding   --- Fold the dough half way through the bulk fermentation.

7.    Dividing & Shaping   --- Divide, preshape, and shape the dough. Cover the dough to prevent drying.

8.    Final Fermentation   --- Ferment 1 ½ - 2 hours @ 76F.

9.    Baking   --- Slash dough and load into a preheated and steamed oven set to 450F. After 15 minutes lower oven to 430F to avoid excess darkening due to the raisins. Loaves scaled to 1 ½ pound will bake in approximately 36 minutes.

and dense.  So as to what gave me problems - I was surprised at how quickly both builds domed. The second build literally almost burst the saran wrap off - I had to switch bowls - and that was only after a few hours. So I guess a problem was that things moved faster than the time frame and because my timing was off, as it was the middle of the night when I checked on it, it went into the fridge.

With the levain - I put it in my mixer and added the water to break it up. I had to add more water to it and then the add-ins did not fully incorporate with the mixer, so I folded them in by hand at the end.

Next problem, again, I was unable to bake after the final fermentation. I had made a huge mistake thinking I would just make one large boule - but again - this dough kept rising and it became huge. That meant I now had to divide it and probably degassed it and compromised the structure. Because it is a stiff dough, it was very hard to reshape at that point. Again it went into the fridge, where it continued to expand. I'm telling you this dough was like the blob that ate New York City.

One bread -the one in the photo - was ok. The other one I tossed. It came apart in layers.

Major mistake: making the full recipe instead of just one bread. I wasn't thinking when I measured that this was for two loaves. That's what happens when your kids come home for the weekend and you spend too much time in the kitchen and babysitting!

However, I have refreshed the yeast water, many thanks to Abe. And with Kat and Leslie and Abe's encouragement, I will probably make this again. I need to be better prepared. This doesn't seem to be a dough that is necessarily forgiving. And man, it's not easy to work with. My KA mixer almost had an anxiety attack from the weight.

This is only the 2nd time using yw and my 2nd attempt at this recipe. I'm willing to give it a go one more time. Anyway, thanks for this CB. It's been a learning curve for me that's for sure!

 

 

When you consider the weight of the add ins (37% of the flour weight) and also the large size of the raisins and walnuts, a very strong dough with well developed gluten is necessary. Heavy lifting is need in order to raise a dough like this. As you stated your YW was definitely up to the task. 

The add ins. Since they are large it is more difficult for the dough to encapsulate them. Think about a flax seed and a raisin or large chunk of walnut. Imagine how the dough needs to encase each piece.

Jeff says, “4.    Mixing--- Add all ingredients to the mixing bowl, except the walnuts and raisins. Mix until the gluten has attained moderate development. After mix in the nuts and raisins at slow speed until evenly incorporated. Desired dough temperature (DDT): 76F.”

IMO, the incorporation of the raisins and nuts are very important step for success. I can’t speak to mixing the add ins via mixer. Mine was done by hand. It seems many are intimidated with lamination. If you haven’t tried it, I encourage you to give it a try. If not on this dough, maybe another. The idea of adding the raisins and walnuts was appealing because it allowed precise control over the distribution and at the same time was a very gentle process. 

If you haven’t seen this, check it out. https://youtu.be/Bncopq4aH1Y

Danny

I think I tried it once, and I was intimidated. I will check out the video. I did watch one on Instagram. Something else to consider when I make this again. I can definitely see the benefits of adding them by lamination. Makes sense. anyways, Like I said, a learning curve!

 

Thanks Kat. It took a few attempts to get an active YW, and thanks to Abe, I’m keeping it going and started a second one. 

I will probably give this another go, for the sake of saying that I could do it. But I’m not a big fan of such a stiff dough. Like you, I do like the familiar, higher hydration doughs. Not saying I am totally comfortable with a super high hydrated dough, but using the stiff starter always leaves me uncertain. And my arms got a work out with this one. And not making half the amount was a mistake. 

When my ego repairs itself I will give this another go. But again timing is crucial here, at least for me. 

It sounds as if your YW is really good, and timing perhaps got in the way.  I must admit I have only ever made one of these at a time.  I hope you have another try, maybe add a little extra liquid if you feel it is too stiff, I reckon the dough could handle it.  Did you add the walnuts and raisins at the start or during one of the folds?

Leslie

Leslie, I added about 18 grams more water, probably could have added more. I added the raisins and walnuts after I  added the flour. Basically I followed Hamelmann’s instructions. Initially I added the water to the stiff starter and broke it up in my mixer. I think that would have been the best time to add the add-ins. What is your opinion. But then I had to completely incorporate them by hand as the mixer just couldn’t get all of them into the dough. 

Had I made only one I’m sure the outcome of adding in the raisins and walnuts would have been easier. I’m tempted to make another one soon, but want to make sure that I have the time to do this. This bread is not for the faint of heart. 

approached it the right way.  Next time though try adding the nuts etc on the first fold. yes the dough is strong and you won’t get many folds but pat it out gently as much as you can, spread nuts etc and roll/fold  it up. maybe pat the nuts etc into the dough as you want a good distribution.  I love this bread and have made it many times.  

lol looking at the instructions, maybe just try incorporating gently as I suggested at end of mix.  I usually just wing and it doesn’t seem to matter. 

hope that makes sense, bake happy Sharon

Leslie

Think I got it this time! Wow, what a learning curve - but I’m glad I gave it another go. Please excuse the photos for being out of order!

 

 

So here goes: 

That the second photo is from the second build. The crumb is soft and delicious. I will, however, the next time I make this, place Saran Wrap directly on the dough even though it is placed inside a plastic bag for the final BF. I found that it had a little bit of a skin, but was fine after it cooled down. I do not bake with steam, but I sprayed the top of the dough and inside the lid with water and inside the oven. 15 minutes at 450, 25 minutes at 425, without the lid. 

Making one dough was much better, but still a stiff dough to work with. Frankly it doesn’t need a preshape with one boule. Hard dough to work with. But I’m happy with the result.

Thanks everyone for your encouragement! Now on to the next CB!

Persistence paid off! Glad you broke the code. 

It really is a special bread. IMO

Danny

Sharon, did you hear that Kristen of Full Proof Baking will be our featured baker for the next CB? That gal can teach us a lot.

Thanks so much Leslie. It’s great to learn something new in this great adventure. 

Yes Dan I’m excited about the next CB. Just saw it today. This will be fascinating as well. You keep us going my friend!

I just tried to follow the link in Swiss Farmhouse YW Part 2 for a copy of the baker's percentage spreadsheet and apparently I am not authorized. Any help appreciated. I have started my raisin yeast water starter.

Cheers,

Dave :-)

Hamelman’s Instructions:

1. RAISIN SOAK: 5 to 6 days before the bake, soak the raisins in the water. Cover and leave at warm room temperature (24°-27°C is ideal). White mould normally begins to cover the surface of the raisins. an indication that the liquid is ready. Occasionally. however. no mould is visible. If the juice is bubbly with a sweet and tangy aroma. the natural yeasts are most likely active in the juice and the dough process can begin.

UPDATE: My successful process adopted Debra Wink’s research (microbiologist): Proofing box set at 25°C. I used organic raisins and left for 5 days. Setup was a 500ml jar with a water airlock. After 5 days, there was no sign of mould. Despite lots of activity from day 3, I waited until day 5 so that the Saccharomyces population reached its maximum, while other yeasts drop like flies. The lactic acid bacteria drop to their lowest numbers after about five days (less than 10/ml), which explains the absence of acidity in the bread. 

2. FIRST BUILD: Drain the raisins. collecting the juice. Discard spent raisins. Scale the required amount of juice, add the flour, and mix to incorporate. Cover and leave at room temperature for 6 to 8 hours. until well risen. I put it in my proofing box for 8 hours.

3. SECOND BUILD: Add the second build water to the first build and lightly break up the contents of the first build. Add the second build flours and mix until incorporated. Cover and leave to ripen for 12 to 14 hours until fully domed. My second build was ready after 12 hours in the proofing box. As always, the goal is for the preferment to be domed and fully risen at the time of final mixing; make whatever adjustments give that result and all will be well.

4. MIXING: Add all the ingredients to the mixing bowl except the walnuts and raisins. In a spiral mixer, mix on first speed for 3 minutes in order to incorporate the ingredients, If necessary, correct the hydration by adding water or flour In small amounts. Finish mixing on second speed for 3 minutes, to moderate gluten development. Mix the walnuts and raisins together and add to the dough. Mix on first speed only until they are evenly incorporated. Desired dough temperature: 24°C.

5. BULK FERMENTATION: 2 ½ to 3 hours.

6. FOLDING: Fold the dough halfway through the bulk fermentation.

7. DIVIDING AND SHAPING: Divide the dough into 680-gram pieces (or larger, as desired). Preshape into rounds. When sufficiently relaxed, shape into round or oval loaves, or place into loaf pans. Cover the loaves to prevent a crust from forming during the final fermentation.

8. FINAL FERMENTATION: 1 ½  to 2 hours at 24°-25°C.

9. BAKING: Place the risen loaves on the loading conveyor or peel. Slash as desired. Presteam the oven, load the bread, and steam again. Bake in a 232°C oven. After 15 minutes, lower the oven to 221°C to avoid excess darkening due to the raisins. Loaves scaled at 680 grams will bake in approximately 36 minutes.

The baker's per cent is: (I've recalculated for a 680 g loaf, you can adjust if needed.)

Overall Formula Baker's  %    g

Whole-wheat flour          10    33

Bread flour                     90   293

Raisin Juice                 10.5   34

Water                           59.5  194

Salt                                2       7

Walnuts                       22      72

Raisins                        15      49

Total Yield                 209      680

 

Raisin Soak

Raisins, washed         100      71

Water                         250     178

Total                          350      249    

   

First build

Bread flour               100        54

Raisin Liquid, drained  63      34

Total                           163      89

 

Second Build

Bread flour                  67.7      68

Whole-wheat flour       32.3      33

water                           63         64

First build                    87.6      89

Total                                       253

 

Final Dough

Bread flour                             170

Water                                      130 

Salt                                            7 

Walnuts                                    72

Raisins                                     49

Second build                           253

Total                                        680

 

 

Please explain your problem in detail. Are you having problems sending my a Personal Message (PM)?

Once I know the exact problem, I’ll contact the site admin and get it fixed.

Danny

Hi Dan,

I followed the link to PM you for the baker's percentage spreadsheet and arrived at a page saying I was not authorized. I would love a copy of the spreadsheet so I don't need to build my own from scratch is all.

Thanks for your patience.

Cheers,

Dave R-B :-)

I noticed in the text that you clarified that Hamelman’s “Bread Flour” is actually what we in US call All Purpose.

Have most of the bakers used AP for this recipe?

Would the be any benefit to using Bread Flour in this recipe? If so what adjustments should be made?

Was amazing!

Having been chastened by earlier attempts at making a sourdough starter I vowed to follow aHamelman’s recipe to the letter, or as close as an incorrigible recipe scofflaw like myself can come:

- made yeast water with raisins, apple and a tbsp of clementine juice was a piece of cake once I established that my lower oven with one of 2 lights on provided the perfect fermentation temperature

- made a single 680 gram boule, thank you  to Gavinc for providing the numbers. - read every post by all Swiss Farmhouse Community Bake participants, thank you for guiding the way, I could not have done it without you!

- mixed and kneaded the 680 gram loaf in my vintage 7-cup Cuisinart food processor.  It was a piece of cake.

- incorporated nuts and cranberries with the food processor at the Mixing stage and contrary to apprehensions, had no problems whatsoever with stretch and folds.

- narrowly averted disaster when my loaf slid on it’s parchment  paper skid just as I was inverting the 500° dutch oven onto the 500° F baking stone.  The raw loaf was essentially bisected by the screaming hot, very HEAVY, unwieldy  pot!  I somehow was able to detach the raw boule from the pot and position it under the cover, hoping for the best!

-  The result?  Given the disaster, I am amazed the boule recovered almost completely, although I suspect that we sacrificed some oven spring to the fumbling and violence (and the fact that I also found out that my inverted dutch oven DOES NOT SIT FLUSH against the hot tile!)

Dinner was the most amazing Roast Turkey, Cranberry and Bbrie sandwiches ever!  The favor and crunch of the bread was out of this world!

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Note the “scar”. Where the dutch oven nearly bisected the raw dough ball on the hot tile as I was inverting it over the boule.  I am amazed it recovered as well as it did!

8B03A63C-1C4B-4866-858F-927FC25F196B.jpeg

Your loaf looks fabulous. Pecan and cranberry is a very nice flavour combination. This bake challenge stretched me somewhat, and like you, took me to a new level of experience. I got a real sense of achievement when successfully completed. It's a loaf with a nice flavour that I will bake again as I have 1 kg of organic raisins :).

Cheers

My scoring was not as clean as I’d like.  I have a curved  lame which I don’t love and the skin on the boule fought me.  I need to investigate alternatives for scoring.

Was not quite sure if just the one S&F was required so I built another round in before preshape.  Used the Roberts video for shaping.

Given the almost calamity with the enamel dutch oven I Don’t think I’ll go that route again, I’ll probably go with straight  steam or an inverted heavy earthenware ceramic bowl.

Adriana

Built yeast water using rowan berries from a tree outside (presumably organic), a little apple jam and half an apple - non organic. Built on Tuesday evening, it looked ready on Friday night, and I made a test levain, which didn't do much during the night with cold temperature, but then doubled during the day. It smelled quite a bit of acetone. I tried refreshing it, and it grew well again, and had less acetone smell; at the same time, fed the yeast water a few raisins, and removed some of the old fruit.

Then, yesterday built a production levain according to the recipe, it doubled by evening, then made the second build in a mixing bowl. It grew a lot overnight, but developed a dry skin on top. I mixed the final dough in the morning, also incorporating the old test levain so as not to waste it (it was in the fridge). Here is the formula: https://fgbc.dk/10pm

Did 50 slap&folds for gluten development and to mix properly. 2x stetch&folds at 30 min intervals, and then lamination (strudelation?) to add the inclusions.

Followed very similar timings to the original post, and then shaped as a boule and baked for 20 min with steam, and 20 min more without.

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The bread is absolutely delicious. My first non-sourdough bake, and immediately my girlfriend says it's one of the best breads I've baked! And I probably have to agree, it's so good.

The only issue is the raisins on top of the bread got burned.

Looks like you did some tweaking. How would you describe the flavor and texture?

I remember being so surprise how quickly a Raisin Yeast Water could be made from scratch and mature. 

It really is a special bread, IMO...

Thanks!

I think the tweaking was minimal, just rescaled to 900g total, and included the refrigerated levain just to use it instead of discarding. Unless you mean the fruit used to produce the yeast water? That was a spontaneous idea, since I didn't have any organic fruit on hand. And well, can't really compare the taste to a raisin yeast water, since I don't have one :)

It is interesting, it's much more moist than my SD breads at 70% hydration, but less soft. And the the crumb is shiny, I usually don't get that with this hydration with SD. Flavour is nice and complex. Surprisingly a little more wheaty than I expected with so little whole flour! And of course raisins+walnuts is a great combo.

 

Yea, I was talking about the YW.

” Built yeast water using rowan berries from a tree outside (presumably organic), a little apple jam and half an apple - non organic.”

That’s not to say there is a problem with you YW, but it’s not something I can relate to. What is vigorous and bubbling?

The raisin YW as so easy to make, I wouldn’t keep it going in the fridge for future use. It’s easier IMO to make it from scratch. OH! The Raisin Yeast Water fermented super fast becuase it was fermented pretty warm. I yhink at least 80F.

Yep, it was bubbly! It was a bit trickier to judge the readiness, because the fruit were mostly floating from the beginning, and without prior experience I wasn't sure how much bubbling to expect.  But I fed it a few raisins to make sure it stays active until the day I wanted to start the dough, and they all floated up in around 12 hours.

The weird thing was the smell of acetone in the test levain, and in the first production build - but I couldn't smell any in the second build, so it was all fine.

Was very happy with the flavour using raisins and toasted sunflower seeds, as not much of a fan for walnuts.  Wouldn't change a thing, flavourwise.  My crumb was a little dense so room for improvement.  Didn't follow the method too much - winged it as I felt.  Next time I will use a proofer to control temp as its winter here in New Zealand and room temp flucuates depending on heating etc.Slice

The loaf

For the bulk ferment. Looks lovely to me but if you want a lighter crumb then give the bulk ferment all the time it needs till the dough is aerated and puffy. Timings are a guideline. I happen to love Walnuts in bread but another lovely combo is toasted pine nuts and raisins.  

Unless it's fridge cool. The recipe does involve two builds before the final dough and the second build is quite a high percentage of the final dough. Even when cool it shouldn't take that long. 

If the bulk ferment took so long then i'd expect the first to builds to be as long too. If they went according to plan and were closer to the recipe then no reason why the final dough took 10 hours. If they didn't go according to plan because it's cool then did each build take 10 hours? 

I too experienced extremely long proof times for the first build with this bread. According to Hamelman's instructions, the first build should be "nicely risen" in 6 to 8 hours and the second build should be domed in 12 to 14 hours. I've only baked this loaf twice, but both times, the first build took much longer than the second. In my case, the first build had not budged in the specified 6-8 hours and I ended up going to bed and allowing them to rise in the proofer overnight. Both times I awoke to dough that was tripled in volume with a nicely rounded top, but I couldn't say precisely how long it took because I was asleep when they finally peaked. He stresses the importance of making sure that second build peaks, but he also says you can refrigerate the dough overnight, so if the rises are not working with your schedule, you can toss the dough in the fridge. Hope this helps.

–AG

Thanks, I did fridge the dough.  Working with a better schedule for the 2nd attempt and will follow temperature using my proofer. 

I think YW does much better at warmer proofing temps. I do the first build overnight at room temp and if it is not ready in the morning then putting it in a warm spot will jump start it. The second build and final proof go much faster than the recipe times for me if proof temp is above 80F. 

I noticed that the bottom crust on your sliced loaf is extremely pale and that may have limited your oven spring.

Don

Baked the Swiss Farmhouse Loaf, first time after coming to Switzerland. Made a yeast water using a few over-ripe grapes that already tasted yeasty from the beginning. Basically followed the recipe as written with minor changes: realized I am out of wholegrain wheat flour, so instead of mix of white and whole grain flour in the second build just used Ruchmehl (Swiss version of high extraction flour); and changed the timing a little for the final proof due to life intervention, after around 30 min warm proof placed in the fridge for a few hours.

Baked in the gas oven, preheated the steel and switched it off when after placing the bread on it, steamed with a tray of hot water, and covered the vent. As usual, I bake this as a boule with a cross-score, imitating the Swiss flag :)

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Wonder why this time the crumb is so purple, previously it was much lighter I think. Also seems to be a little sweeter than in the past, maybe the raisins are sweeter and more sour this time?..

Delicious, particularly amazing with soft cheeses!