Ciabatta with Kamut

Compared with Kamut Levain and Kamut Bread, I like this bread the most. It is in fact Jeffrey Hamelman’s Poolish Ciabatta, but I replaced 30% total flour by kamut (adding to final dough, all poolish is regular flour). I also increased the hydration from 73% to 83%, as water absorption of kamut is higher.

Apparently I overrated kamut’s water absorption ability. I added too much water and the dough was very slack. Hence instead of folding the dough 2 times (1 time every hour) in the 3-hr bulk fermentation, I folded the dough 4 times in total (1 time every half hour).

Though kamut’s gluten is low, the crumb is satisfying. It is less chewy than a regular ciabatta, but is pleasantly moist. Crust is not crispy (after cooled down), and I will try to bake the dough longer next time (20mins at 460F this time for 420g dough). The dough is also too flat for a ciabatta.

However, the taste is wonderful. The ciabatta has a stronger wheat flavor than regular ones, at the same time with a subtle but unique kamut flavor. Right balance between kamut, white flour and poolish. Yum~~ (I finally served it with smoked duck breast, happy dinner :D)

Recipe based on: “Bread” by Jeffrey Hamelman

Hot Cross Buns

Hot Cross Buns in July? Yeah! Why Not! In fact I made them in Easter, but they were so highly extremely tasty, and I am missing spiced bread today, so I must write a blog about them here.

They are from the recipe of Jeffrey Hamelman’s “Bread”. It uses an interesting sponge, 1:5 of flour to milk, plus some yeast and sugar, waited until the size is 3-4 times bigger. When fermented, it was very fluffy, somewhat looked like milk that gone bad.

The texture of the bread was interesting when I ate it fresh & warm. It was a bit fluffy, similar to the fermented milk. This was the first time I tasted a “fluffy bread”. It was extremely soft at the same time, softer than white bread. I highly recommend to eat it fresh & warm.

And as I love spiced bread, bread with lots of raisins and bread with lots of candied fruit … OMG, why not make them anytime you want?

Recipe: “Bread” by Jeffrey Hamelman (you may find the recipe from the internet easily)

Olive Levain

Never thought about it, olives and tangy flavor of the levain are greeeeeeat match! This bread tastes good! (though the crumb of my bread is not as airy as that in the pic of the recipe :P)

Recipe: “Bread” by Jeffrey Hamelman

Cheese Bread

I like Parmesan cheese, and this bread has a strong flavor of the cheese with 20% of it to the flour. The crumb is moist and delicate with 60% total hydration, 5% olive oil and 18% stiff levain pre-ferment. I didn’t retard the dough but I’m satisfied with the results. Definitely appetizing in this humid and cloudy weather.

Recipe: “Bread” by Jeffrey Hamelman

Five-Grain Levain

Even though this bread contains a high percentage of whole grains (35%), its crumb is not substantial at all, and is the lightest and moistest I ever had. I believe the key is the extremely high hydration (98%), of which 40% is to soak the grains thoroughly.

I used rye meal instead of cracked ryes as I could not find them. Luckily the crumb is still nice.

The bread first gives a taste of the mildly toasted sunflower seeds, then it comes the subtle rye meal and sourdough. A good combination of grains. My new favourite.

Recipe from: “Bread” by Jeffrey Hamelman