Hamelman's Pissaladière Page 275

I was actually quite skeptical about this one. First I have never had pizza without sauce on it, and second putting fish on my favorite food, well it just sounded rather bad. I decided though that I would give it a try, and I am actually rather surprised that I thought it was pretty good. Anchovies are not my favorite topping, and I will not be in a rush to put this on any of my regular pizza's, but I would definitely eat a pizza that already had them on it.

Here I sliced my onions, soaked my thyme in extra virgin olive oil, and have my can of anchovies ready to slice into thin pieces.

I adapted this recipe to use 100% whole wheat white flour, which means the dough will have lots of flavor and probably won't rise very high.  I prefer the White Winter Wheat berries for this type of recipe, so that it gives me flavor but  doesn't overwhelm the other flavors of topping etc.

I saved half the dough for hamburger buns, and used a 1 lb chunk for this recipe.  While the dough was doing it's 2 hour first rise, I sauteed the onions and sliced the anchovies.  Sauteed onions are one of my favorite foods, although normally I just chop some sweet onions and put them on top of my pizza to bake while it bakes.  I chose not to use garlic in this recipe, although I do love fresh garlic most of the time.

I stretched the dough out to approximately 12" x 6" rectangle, since I think it helps the dough's crumb to not use a rolling pin.  I actually didn't have to flour the surface of this wonderful cooking mat, and didn't use any oil on it either. 

Next I moved the dough onto a sheet of parchment paper, which I believe is one of the most awesome inventions of all time. I then placed the onions on the dough, you can see the olive oil and thyme coated the top.  I then chose to put both black olives and green olives onto the top. Just so you know, green olives are really good on pizza.  I have never thought of trying this, until I was reading how Lutz on Mellow baker's did hers. 

This is the dough after it has done it's last proof, which I actually chose to do a full hour rather than the 20 minutes that was suggested in the book.  I actually needed to give my baking stone a chance to heat for 45 minutes, or it wouldn't have worked well for that initial rise and crisp crust.

I love how thick and poofy the dough looks here, and this is where I figured out that this not only doesn't have sauce, but it doesn't have cheese on it either!  This is also the point I almost stopped, disregarded all instructions and put the cheese on.  I had a mental debate, inside my head, something like this:  Pizza has cheese. You should be willing to try new things. But pizza has cheese, and sauce. You can't decide you don't like something without trying it.  Bbbbbbbbut... !!!!!!

From HamelmansPissaladiere

If you look at the picture you will notice, it does NOT have cheese.  My DH and I each had two small pieces, and actually enjoyed them!!!  I then however, could not stop myself and put a mix of parmesan, mozzarella, monterey jack, and cheddar on the top and guess what!  We actually enjoyed our pizza.  I will say it is not our favorite, and we would both choose pepperoni over anchovies, but it was actually ok.

I am working with a group of baker's which call themselves Mellow Baker's and we are baking from a book called, Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman.  Come check the forum out, it's a pretty laid back group who bakes what they can when they can with no time pressure's on them.  There are a few recipes that are suggested for each month, and we simply bake the ones that we want to. 

Hamelman's 5 Grain page 129

This bread turned out really well.  I used fresh ground Hard Winter White Wheat, Flax Seeds, an 8 grain cereal mix, Oat Groats, Sunflower seeds, but had to leave out the rye chops which were not available here.  I got a lame for Mothers day from Breadtopia, which is making a huge difference in my slashes.  It just looks so much better!

The crumb came out light, with nice size holes evenly spread throught.  Overall, it looks pretty with all the little seeds showing. 

Everything in it's place, which always helps me not forget things like salt!

Here are all the grains together in the bowl of water.  Just looked pretty!

Mixed all together ready to autolyse for 1/2 an hour.

Kneaded the dough for 4 minutes, and it was one of those days that the bread just came together really well.

This is where I realized I forgot the salt.  I went ahead and kneaded the dough for a couple minutes, then allowed it to rise for another hour.

I shaped the dough and put it into my clay baker.  This is a really awesome tool for making artisan breads.  I put it into the oven while the oven and it are cold, then turn the oven on to 425* and bake for 40 minutes.  Take the lid off and bake 5 minutes if it's not brown enough. 

Aren't all those nuts and seeds pretty looking?  We really enjoyed this loaf, can't decide though if it will be one my make again list.  I think I should have used some rye flour in place of the regular flour.  I didn't use any bread flour, or ap flour though.  It was 100% fresh ground whole wheat.

I am working with a group of baker's which call themselves Mellow Baker's and we are baking from a book called, Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman.  Come check the forum out, it's a pretty laid back group who bakes what they can when they can with no time pressure's on them.  There are a few recipes that are suggested for each month, and we simply bake the ones that we want to.

Starters for Pain au Levain with mixed starters

While making this bread, I realized that temperature might matter a lot more with my sourdough's than I thought before. I have always simply waited for my starter, Arnold, to raise the dough in his own time. This does create problems though, and unpredictability. Mr. Hamelman has a section in his book Bread about this.  He goes quite in depth about why you should be concerned about temperature, and exactly how to give your dough the exact temperature you need.  He has at least converted my thinking to the possibility that it would be nice to have the sour dough ready to bake when I planned to!

Now I am not as sold on having the exact temp correct, but I have been thinking of using my Excalibur dehydrator which has a dough setting on it.  We can be rather cold here during the winter, and even though it's April we had snow just yesterday.  This might help me to have consistent proofing temps for those times it is cold.

The trouble is that it is rather large, in my small kitchen.  I do use it for other things though, and so last night I pulled it in from storage (translation Andy lugged it in for me, he is so awesome!) and cleaned it up.  I did notice that it has heat settings from 85* F to 145* F.  It is equipped with a fan, and the directions say to use the 110* setting with a bowl of water for moisture inside the unit.  This seems to high to me, so I will have to research that a little bit more.  Thinking the 85*F setting would make more sense.

This is a slideshow of my second attempt at this bread, from Hamelman's book...  Click the link to continue reading!

April showers... wait SNOW?? Again?

OK, it really isn't a lot of snow, just what the old timers call a skiff, but geez it is almost May!  That grass should be green, not white!  Ritter agrees and was real excited about going into the barn to get out of the muddy cold.  Well, technically Ritter is excited whenever we talk to him, but especially when he gets to go see the goats, chickens, and barn kitties (ok, there IS a barn kitty behind that door).  Nothing makes him happier then seeing a barn kitty in the middle of the field that he can chase, even if he does get into trouble for it.  Most times the kitties simply rub up against him and give him lots of love though. 

Managed to take a picture of one of the wildflowers growing on the hillside...  Click link to read more!

Hamelman's Pain au Levain with mixed starters

I was introduced to rye breads when I was very young, not sure if it was due to my Norwegian heritage or simply that my family just loves rye bread.  I love the taste of caraway seeds in my rye bread, and was a little bit disappointed when I noticed this bread didn't have them in it.  I fixed this pretty quickly though, by simply adding them to the dough!  I know it wasn't in the recipe, but I do have to eat it.  The other reason I did this was because I had just threw together a loaf of my sourdough bread, made with 75% Winter White Wheat and 25% rye flour.  This sourdough loaf did a bulk rise of 4 1/2 hours, and the same time to proof.  My husband and I both enjoyed it very much and hoped that this recipe would come out with such great flavor too.  Here's a picture of my version of sourdough rye...

I started Hamelman's recipe, from "Bread".  Pain au Levain with mixed starters the day I made the loave above.

First I will share with you my starters...

Hamelman's Pain au Levain

I think that spring has finally started to peak out from behind the clouds, rain, and snow.  The bare trees are starting to have a tinge of green, from buds popping out of barren limbs.  There are even tulip leaves emerging from the ground and the Glory of the Snow blooms are dying back.  (who names these flowers anyway?)  The grass is growing, and hillsides are looking more green than brown.  It's still really muddy, windy, and cold, but it's not the biting cold of winter and I'm excited at the thought of putting away the snow boots and heavy coats.  My tulips have pushed up through the ground and have no flower stalks yet, and the Lilac bush is sprouting buds.  Couldn't resist a couple photos today!

We drove to the big city the other day, although most would call it a small town.  It's a 3 hour drive through the mountains, high plains, and crossing many streams.  The tamarack's have a faint yellow tinge to them as their needles start to emerge, from what appears to be dead evergreen's.  Yes, I believe spring is here.  The horses with their foals, the cows with their calves, and the goats with their kids, were everywhere we looked.  The birds are singing, the frogs are everywhere, and we have quite a chorus at night!

You wonder why I am talking about spring, when my post is called Hamelman's Pain au Levain?  First off, for those who don't know, Pain means bread in French.  Levain refers to a natural yeast starter, most people call this sourdough bread, at least in the USA.  You might be surprised to know that sourdough doesn't always have to actually taste sour.  Many sourdough breads are actually sweet tasting, but they do have a depth of flavor to them that standard breads don't.  In fact, any bread that has a preferment (a dough portion that has aged) will develop flavor from the wheat, but sourdough adds another element due to different chemical activities that take place.  No science lesson today on exactly what happens inside the dough as it rises and ages.  Let's just note that the French really had it right when they called it a "pain"!  Not ALL the time, but occasionally it can be.  Here is a picture of some french bread I made today.  It really looks nice, as do the baguettes that are on the right.

Hmmm, I changed the subject again didn't I?  It is just not as fun to talk about a bread that turned out like this:

Now I could go through what went wrong with this loaf, but lets just leave this one to it is really messed up and go feed it to the chickens, goats, and dog.  Whoever doesn't turn their nose up and walk away can have some, cuz it's rubbery and just plain bad.  This is not the fault of the recipe, rather it was the baker who tried to do to much and just didn't have time to finish it properly.

Hmmm, the chickens, goats, and dog seemed to think it was pretty awesome!  Did you see the happy faces in the pictures above?  That was in the middle of feeding them.  Glad the dog didn't go and bury his!

Hamelman's WW Multgrain Soaker pg 169

I must tell you that I wasn't really excited about this bread, mostly because I really like a multigrain bread that I make already.  It has all the things I really like in it, including some raisins and sunflower seeds.  Just a touch of sweet fruit really gives me a wonderful toast for the morning.  The recipe is one that I simply tweaked till I got it the way I liked it.  It's 100% fresh ground hard red wheat, and contains a cereal blend from Bob's Red Mill.  Here's a link to my blog about this bread!

Really, I am trying to stretch myself to make other breads, so that I have experience with all sorts rather than a few I really like.  Between BBA and this challenge I have made breads that I probably NEVER would have made (loved Casatiello), and might never make again (Rich Mans Brioche). 

Back to the subject at hand, I am working with another group of baker's which call themselves Mellow Baker's and we are baking from a book called, Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman. They are already through about half of the book, so I am starting midway. Here's a picture of my 50% Whole Wheat Multigrain Levain bread:

From HamelmansMultSoaker

And the crumb shot....

From HamelmansMultSoaker

I posted the rest of the pictures on Picasa, with explanations on what I did to make the bread. Link to

Hamelman's WW Levain pg 168

I decided to do a step by step of my first Hamelman's recipe, from "Bread".  I thought I would share previous loaves of Sourdough bread that I have made in the past month or so.  These first two pictures are of the breads I finished baking today from "Bread".  The step by step directions are below the comparison shots.

From HamelmansWWLevain

Here's the crumb shot from one of the two loaves.  I made them with Fresh Ground Winter White Wheat, and it is a 50% WW and 50% bread flour sourdough (levain) bread.  My starter "Arnold" has been alive since Thanksgiving, and normally has a really nice sour twang to it.  I have made sourdough breads for quite a long time, but for some reason I simply stopped baking breads for quite a few years.

The next picture is of a 100% WW sourdough bread.  I made it with fresh ground Winter Red Wheat, and did not add any bread flour to it.  Ingredients were WW, water, salt, and starter.

The next two pictures are of a loaf made with 100% Winter White Wheat, fresh ground.  It's ingredients were also simply WW, water, salt, starter.

I sliced this one in half lengthwise, because I made sandwiches out of it. 

I miss the open crumb I find in my regular unbleached ap or bread flour sourdough loaves.  Guess I am a little bit spoiled by that, and I could actually eat only sourdough white bread and be totally happy.  The flavor of the wheat is nice, but I really enjoy the sour taste from a loaf of white flour sourdough.  Trouble is that it is probably really not that good for me!  Fresh ground whole wheat is a much better choice, and has a wonderful flavor of it's own.  I am hoping to get better at producing the open crumb with a whole wheat bread.  Practice practice practice....

Here is a little bit of Arnold about to be mixed into the water.  He is a 100% Whole Wheat sourdough starter.

Whole Wheat added to the levain (starter).

Here is the poolish/levain/starter ready to sit out overnight.  It was nice and moist, but thick like a poolish/sponge should be.  Arnold had a nice smell to him before adding him to the mix.

Here's a picture of the dough which I kneaded for about 4 minutes, on speed setting #2.  My kitchenaid says that I should only use the #2 setting when making breads.  The dough nicely toes out at the bottom, and cleans the side of the bowl.  I thought it might be a little bit dry, and I think next time I will follow my instincts and put a little bit more water in. 

I pulled it out and put it into a greased bowl. It felt a little underdeveloped from what I normally do, but I knew that it called to be folded a couple times which would make it stronger.

Nice looking dough after the initial fermentation, still on the dry side for wanting an open crumb.

Split ready for weighing and shaping.

Rough shaping almost finished, allowed to rest ten minutes, and then made them longer into a baguette shape.  I like baguettes for sourdough and french breads. 

Ready for an overnight rest in the fridge.  I will pull them out in the morning and let them warm up and rise before baking.

Ready to cool off.  Second picture of loaves just pulled from the oven.  Need more practice with my razor blade, although it's possible I simply can't get enough steam in my oven to allow the bread to open up like it should.  I am also used to baking my breads at 500* for 5 minutes and then turning the temp down to 450* so when I put these in and didn't think about it and simply did it that way.  We live at 3821 feet above sea level, so I don't believe the temp difference was that great.