Five-Grain Levain

Once again, I find myself jumping ahead of the challenge. Last time around, I made the fougasse with olives. As it happened, I was only ahead for a couple of days. That was the first on the list of the next set of recipes. With only a few recipes remaining, that may well happen again.

This loaf was extremely similar to the last loaf I baked, the Five-Grain Sourdough with Rye Sourdough. This time around, I used rye flakes rather than cracked rye. Otherwise, the I followed the recipe as given.

This produced another lovely loaf, quite similar to the last. I may have a slight preference for the earlier loaf, but would be happy with either. Another great loaf.

Five-Grain Sourdough with Rye Sourdough

The title refers to this as having a rye sourdough. Actually, this starter is prepared from a standard sourdough culture, not a rye culture. And, as a possible alternative mentioned by Hamelman, I used rye chops rather than the cracked rye called for by the recipe. Apart for that, I prepared the loaf as described in the book.

The results were excellent. This produced a lovely loaf that is now one of my favorites.

Golden Raisin Walnut Bread

This is truly a lovely bread. The combination of golden raisin and walnuts works very well together. The loaf has a small amount of whole-wheat flour (20%) that give the loaf just enough of a whole-wheat taste to keep it from being a "white" bread.

There was nothing unusual about this loaf. I followed the directions as given and had no surprises. The loaf was a bit wrinkled looking, something I've encountered with several of Hamelman's loaves, but this certainly didn't affect the taste. Overall, this recipe is topnotch and one of my favorites.