A few posts back (Halot,etc) I told you about finding the bread book of Babka Zana, the Parisian jewish bakery, when we were in Bordeaux back in May. Since then I’ve been working on their savoury breads.
So we start off with Hallah of which they have three variations, La Hallah or Pain de Shabbat, Hallah au Blé Complet, and Hallah a l’huille d’Olive. The doughs are pretty similar: They all use commercial yeast, French Type 45 flour and have a good whack of sugar. So, first I converted them to natural leaven and invested in some T45 flour but stuck pretty close to the formulas. Then I got rid of the sugar and reduced the salt a little.
All of the hallah formulas are for three 320g loaves. The formulas shown here are my final versions (as much as any formulas are final!) after a few trial bakes.
Used my usual method for all three breads: hand mixed, 10 kneads repeated 3 times with 5 mins rest between each. 4 hours bulk fermentation, stretch and fold at the end of first 3 hours, shape, 3.5 hours prove. Egg wash. In the Pico 250C top, 220C bottom. 10 minutes steam, 2nd coat egg wash. 30 minutes total, heat lowered a little for the last 10 minutes (use your judgement – like if it’s starting to burn, turn the heat down!).
Only slight differences to Pain de Shabbat, the main one using olive oil as opposed to vegetable oil.
Obvious difference, 80% wholemeal and only 20% T45.
Followed the illustration in the book with a coating of rolled oats.
Love the book, even if I do struggle with my French. It’s well laid out and they offer suggestions and variations for you to try.
Also discovered that there is such a thing as savoury babkas which we are moving on to next.
The PArtisan Baker 