MELLOW BAKERS: RUSTIC BREAD

Posted in Breads by sallybr

Not sure what Mellow Bakers is all about? Click here to read about it.

I haven’t decided yet if I”ll make the bagels, which are part of the three breads listed for this month. While debating this extremely important issue, I baked Rustic Bread today (page 115 of Hamelman’s BREAD).

and the crumb was just the way we like it….

The bread takes a pre-ferment made the day before and allowed to rise for 12 to 16 hours at room temperature (around 70F). Next day, the final dough is mixed using a combination of regular, whole-wheat, and rye flour. The basic mixing and the folding method for kneading are very similar to that for Hamelman’s Vermont sourdough series, which happens to be my favorite way to handle bread dough. I did not need to adjust anything in the recipe, the dough came together beautifully.

Check the work of my mellow baker buddies by clicking here….

…. to bagel or not to bagel: that is the question! 😉

3Apr2010

MELLOW BAKERS: LIGHT RYE BREAD

Posted in Breads by sallybr

My first bread in this long journey, Hamelman’s light rye bread, requires a sourdough rye starter. So if you’re like me, and only have white flour starter, then you’ll need to feed it once or twice with rye flour to convert it into rye. Once your sourdough is actively bubbling, this bread will come together in minutes. The final dough only contains 15% rye, so the flavor is mellow, just like our virtual group… 😉

I was pleased with the lightness of the crumb, which was more open than I expected for a rye bread. That was from the high proportion of white flour in the formula (85%). I made a silly mistake in shaping the bread: I forgot to flour the countertop. Yes, it’s hard to believe I was so absent-minded, but… it happens. To shorten a long story, I had to re-shape it, and the extra handling resulted in a bread that was a little too long and a little too flat. Still, it didn’t compromise the internal structure or the taste, and a recipe that withstands my boo-boos is a recipe worth keeping!

Similarly to what happened in the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge, we will not post the recipes for this group project. The Light Rye Bread can be found on page 197 of Hamelman’s BREAD. It is also available online.

2Apr2010

COME MELLOW WITH US!

Posted in Breads, General by sallybr

As more and more fellow bakers finished the BBA Challenge, a net-gossip started: what should we do next? It was so much fun to bake together, cheering each others’ successes and commiserating over the failures, that we all felt a void when the party was over.

The idea of baking another complete bread book, from beginning to end, didn’t appeal to me because of the tight scheduling required. So when Paul proposed “Mellow Bakers,” it was just what I was looking for: we’ll bake Hamelman’s “BREAD” at a leisurely pace, and I’ll even emphasize the “mellowness,” by skipping some of breads. In fact, they already made hot cross buns while I only watched from a safe distance… 😉

So here is an invitation for you: for a nice bread project that will expose you to delicious recipes by a great author, Jeffrey Hamelman, first jump to Paul’s site to read all about it, and then to the Mellow Bakers forum to introduce yourself and join the party!

I’ll see you in the forum!