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.

Fougasse with Olives

Generally, the next months breads are posted a few days before the start of the month. That wasn't the case for November, so I went ahead and picked out one of the few remaining loaves and made it. My choice was the olive fougasse.

The home recipe makes two, so I divided the dough just before the addition of the olives and made one fougasse with olives and another without. I substituted a half-dozen chopped kalamata olives for the two tablespoons of niçoise olives. It was the only olive I had on hand and they worked well.

I would recommend care when rolling out the dough. In my case the I got the dough a little too thin giving an almost cracker texture. The bread was still quite good, but I would have preferred something a bit thicker and chewier. That said, this is another recipe for the winner's column.

Sunflower Seed Bread with Pâte Fermentée

The October breads were rounded out with a sunflower seed bread. I'm partial to sunflower seed breads and this was no disappointment.

The recipe includes rye chops which, early on in the challenge would have been off-putting. But now that I'm soaking the rye berries before tossing them into the food processor, this is no longer the problem it once was. I'm not sure they add a lot to the bread, but I like them now. And they aren't that much additional work.

This recipe produced a light, lovely loaf that I would gladly make a gain. A great loaf. And three winners in one month.

Sesame Bread Sticks

The sesame bread sticks recipe is another one-day recipe. Having previously made the grissini, I wasn't sure how these would be different. While a bit leaner, there really isn't much difference.

In making these, I was much more forceful when rolling out the dough not worrying whether I was deflating them too much or not. This proved to be the right tack to take as I was able to shape these better. I also cooked them longer going for a more crispy bread stick. In general, I prefer the chewy bread sticks, but after making these, I may have to rethink my position. These were very tasty and I really liked them crisp. But, as Hamelman warns, they only keep for around five days (if not eaten before then). A winner!

Berne Brot

The Berne brot is like challah but richer. The water in challah has been replaced with milk and the oil has been replaced with butter.

This is a straight dough that is easily made in one day. Hamelman's recipe for the home baker make three medium to smallish loaves. I made half the recipe and made one loaf and several buns. Otherwise, I followed the recipe as given.

In retrospect, I wish I had made the full recipe. This is a very tasty loaf. When comparing challah with this brot, I definitely prefer the latter.