Ilya Flyamer's blog

Made a couple of sandwich breads this week. I'm quite new to this style (mostly or all white flour with light enrichment with milk, a little butter and sugar). It seemed like an easy style to figure out, but interestingly both breads came out with (rather minor, but still) defects.

Made one following the recipe from here: https://www.bakewithpaws.com/2019/05/soft-sourdough-bread-with-yudane-method.html - with yudane, and also some whole wheat flour in there. It was nice, but somehow I felt too much acidity coming through (that must be the whole grain?), and the flavour of brown sugar was a little unbalanced, maybe I would use honey instead next time. Also, it got torn a bit on the sides on top - wonder what that means? Was it a little underproofed?

Then I followed Benny's formula - except when mixing the dough I realized we were out of eggs! So I just used extra 50 g milk instead, and another splash for good measure to hydrate the flour. I didn't do any fancy colours this time, but sure liked the look of the black sesame/matcha combo, and might try that next time. Since I didn't plan it properly, I made the levain in the morning and mixed the dough in the evening, let it proof up a little, and then put in the fridge overnight. Then in the morning let it rise a lot more. It certainly doubled in volume, if not more.

Annoyingly, when baked it formed a weird tunnel/cavern just below the top crust. I think I've seen similar pictures before, but it never happened to me (I almost never made wheat breads in a tin) - does it mean it was overproofed?

Despite the hole, I really like the flavour: tasted more balanced than the previous one, and I preferred the texture too I think. Just had one PBJ sandwich, was really enjoyable.

So, was the first one a little under- and the second a little overproofed?

Also, this is the first time, I think, that I am making bread with a single rise. Overall it works really well, but I think the crumb structure cold benefit from two rises... It's hard to see in the picture, but the density of the crumb is a little uneven throughout the slice somehow, with some denser areas, and probably letting it rise and then knocking down and shaping would redistribute the dough a bit to avoid that. Does anyone know what I mean? Am I making this up?

Discovered the whole wheat flour I've wanted to try for a long time available in a shop last week, and decided to use it in one of my typical recipes, with approximately 40% of this flour, and rest strong bread flour (and rye starter). Formula: https://fgbc.dk/1l1g

Mixed all but a little reserve water and salt, left for around 30 min for fermentolyse. Then kneaded a bit to incorporate salt with remaining water, and did slap and folds until some development. Left to ferment warm, and did some folds a couple of times, then moved to a straight sided container, doing another fold for that. Left to fermented until about 50% rise, then gently preshaped, and then shaped. Retarded overnight. Unusually, it seemed like it actually grew a little in the fridge. Maybe it started warmer than usual? And this landrace flour is probably more fresh than a typical flour I get (milling date just about a month ago), could contribute too I guess.

In the morning baked. After scoring it started flattening a bit - and basically completely pancaked in the oven that two loaves even touched - but the oven spring surprisingly nicely saved it. Not the tallest loaves, but nothing embarrassing about them either.

Tastes really nice! Soft and slightly moist crumb, clear but not overpowering tang. On the edge when just starting to cut it was very open, but further in it was more even and not very open (the pictures are from the transition area, so most of the bread is a little less open than what you see here).

First time trying a Pain de Mie style bread. Generally followed Maurizio's recipe, except used smaller inoculation, and just directly used my refrigerated rye starter. Formula, scaled for 1 loaf: https://fgbc.dk/1kbm

Mixed everything except butter, left to hydrate for around 30 min, then kneaded in soft butter and developed some strength with slap&folds. I actually started really liking kneading in butter by hand: takes some time, but leaves hands smelling buttery, and the dough feels very nice and silky smooth. Left to bulk at 28C. Got distracted with a long work meeting and by accident left it to grow more than double in size, in around 11 hours altogether! The biggest bulk rise I've had, probably, and way more than what I wanted, and should have stopped much earlier. Regardless, it was late, so shaped into a pan loaf (already felt a little overfermented, but totally manageable) and put in the fridge overnight. In the morning wanted to let it rise, so warmed up at 28C until it felt like room temperature, and clearly rose (didn't rise much in the fridge). Baked as Maurizio recommended, after giving it an egg wash. Had a very big oven spring, so probably could have final proofed even more. Top crust got torn a little too.

Tastes good! A little more sour than I expected, but that's what I get for getting distracted for a few hours. I'll bake it again with more attention :)

Also, nice to have an enriched dough rise so well after the recent fail, although the level of enrichment is not really comparable.

Baked again the formula I shared previously almost identically, and again the flavour is so good! Just wanted to share again. Formula: https://fgbc.dk/1j1t Hydration around 78%, but probably could be increased a little without issues.

Mixed everything, left for 30 min to get not sticky, developed gluten well with slap&folds, left for 30 min, then, uncharacteristically for me, decided to do a lamination fold - and then just left in a straight sided container at ~27C until around 50-60% rise (despite low inoculation, only took around 6 hrs! again, this dough rises really nicely). Gently preshaped, left for around 30 min to relax, then shaped and left for 30 min at room temp in the bennetons, then refrigerated for around 12 hours. Looking at the crumb, probably could push the fermentation even further. Baked on the steel, around 20-25 min with steam @260C, then without steam until good colour @230C.

Love the colour of the crust I got this time!

Very flavourful bread, with a clear tang, but not too sour. Really like this formula for a mostly whole grain bread.

Remembered that my bag of beremeal is expiring next month, so used it for these two loaves. Very small inoculation with recently refreshed refrigerated rye starter. Here is the formula: https://fgbc.dk/1ikg

Fermentolyse 30 min
Add salt and a splash of water, mix in and knead with slap&folds until medium development.
40 min rest, then folds.
1.5 hrs rest, folds.
Let rise at 27C until ~60% growth (~7 hrs?), gently preshape, 30 min rest, shape and refrigerate overnight.

Dough was very nice to work with, and I think I fermented it in bulk nicely: ~60% growth since last fold (in a straight-sided container, not aliquot jar, so very approximate)

Boule went to a friend, so only the crumb of the batard:

Nice nutty taste from the barley, good crust, soft crumb. Not sure how to avoid the cracking, even with only 15% barley the batard got a couple big cracks (boule got a lot of scores, so didn't crack). Maybe I should try next time wetting the surface before baking, like with rye bread?

Wanted to bake some proper rye bread this week, so decided to repeat the "Nobleman's" rye following Rus Brot's recipe https://youtu.be/1Vwf3TzPTYU (sorry, video in Russian)

Here is my formula using a mix of whole and light rye flour instead of medium, due to availability: https://fgbc.dk/1i8m

Used a different mix of seeds this time (no pumpkin seeds, very little sunflower seeds, added black sesame and poppy seeds instead). Also didn't top the loafs with seeds on the outside - last time they didn't stick very well and cutting every slice produced a big mess on the table.

The pre-dough never seemed to "fall" like it should when it's ready, even though I gave it 6 hours instead of recommended 4-5 hours. I couldn't really wait longer if I didn't want to bake at 1 am. It increased in size a lot and was very spongy though, so I went ahead and there weren't any issues later.

Tried baking first ten minutes at 260C with the convection on - and it did make a nice crust and loaves didn't burst on top, but when the fan is running the oven has a serious hot spot on one side in the back, and it darkened one of the loaves too much there, and I think reduced the oven spring on that end of the bread (see far end of the left loaf). And the other bread burst on the side a little bit, must be from my handling of the loaves when transferring onto the peel. Need a better system to prove them, since the brotforms are not ideal for this type of dough (or I should try lining them with towels perhaps) and I was using a rectangular pyrex dish with a couche, and getting the dough out was a bit tricky.

Taste is great! I think I prefer the original seed mix (having large pumpkin seeds is nice in particular both visually and texturally), but nothing wrong with this one either. The bread is very flavourful anyway (and would be even without the seeds I guess!).

I guess I was due a pancake (almost)! Wanted to keep exploring the sourdough poolish idea after delicious (although ugly) ciabattas.

Decided to make a seeded sourdough with ~40% whole grain and a soaker, and made a preferment with all the whole grain in the recipe: https://fgbc.dk/1h9s

Probably overfermented the dough: flattened after scoring, and at the same time as I slashed the second loaf I noticed the skin was tearing in some places already, so I just shouldn't have scored it, and would have been much better, probably. Not used to such quick fermentation I guess! A lot of whole grain, and a very large inoculation.

Hopefully, it's at least tasty :) Will see when it cools.

Due to *life* my levain for Maurizio's "best" sourdough I wanted to bake got too ripe, so I improvised a different recipe: more wholegrain (using einkorn), slightly lower hydration: https://fgbc.dk/1gf8

Simple procedure: mixed, slap&folds, stretch&folds, bulk until increased volume and jiggly, shape, cover in sesame and poppy seeds, retard, bake.

Not huge oven spring, but sufficient to be really pleased with the look (got very nice surface tension by stitching, and scoring angle was on point, so a beautiful ear). Like the crumb as well, and tastes great.

For a colleague's birthday made cardamom knots, but increased the amount of dough and filling to also give babka a go. Adapted the recipe from https://myloveofbaking.com/sourdough-cardamom-knots/ (except used all milk and no water in the dough). Here is the actual formula I used: https://fgbc.dk/1fvt

I think I didn't ferment the dough quite enough (difficult with enriched dough), but the result is good nevertheless.

Babka is not as rich as, I guess, it typically is.

60% mixed whole grain spelt loaf

Wouldn't say it is very far outside my comfort zone, but still - as far as I remember, this is the first time I managed a loaf with high % spelt that didn't turn into a pancake a bit. Almost 40% spelt (just all I had left), total 60% whole grain - also unusually high for me, I rarely go above 40%. Also used some old stiff wheat starter (wanted to use it for another bake, and decided instead of discarding just to use it), and added a little fresh rye starter to ensure fermentation moves along. Here is the approximate formula (was adding things and weighing, and wrote down afterwards, so hope I didn't mix up any numbers): https://fgbc.dk/1ftc

Just mixed everything without any autolyse, did some slap&folds until partial development, then did some folds in the first couple of hours, and left to ferment. Perhaps because of high whole grain %, and addition of diastatic malt, bulk was done within 6 hours (total from mixing) despite low inoculation (<5% PFF). I kept it warm too. Might have been just a little overfermented even: was OK to shape, but just a tad more sticky than I expected. Coated in sesame seeds and retarded overnight. Baked covered for 20 min at 250C, uncovered until I liked the colour at 230C with convection (~15 min).

Not the tallest loaf, but I am very pleasantly surprised with the crumb for such high % whole grain! Don't often get it this open even for more typical for me formulas. Flavour is unsurprisingly very pronounces, but not overpowering. Sesame seeds as usual provide nice contrast.