jschoell's blog

Make a soaker with whole wheat flour and spelt berries. Let it sit at room temp, covered. A day later, mix yeast with warm water and honey. After 5 minutes, add the foaming yeast to the soaker, along with some salt and enough whole wheat flour to make a sticky dough. Knead for 5 minutes, form a ball and transfer to a bowl coated with good EVOO. Let rise until doubled.

Pour out dough and slice off chunks that will form 3 inch diameter balls. Wrap balls in plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze. 

After a day of chilling, preheat oven to 500 F, with a heavy cast iron pan on the middle rack. Pour 1/4 cup of poppy seeds on a work surface. Take the dough ball from the fridge, unwrap it, and flatten it on top of the poppy seed mound. Flip the dough over and smash it into the seeds again, sweeping the seeds into a pile as needed. Continue until the dough disc is black on both sides with poppy seeds. Slide it onto the preheated pan and bake until puffy, about 5-6 minutes. 

I was eating a bowl of Cream of Wheat for the first time in ten years. That is the only inspiration for this loaf. I think a souerdough starter would work well with this recipe. 

Whip up a 75% hydration Biga with 2 c bread flour, let it chill in the fridge 24 hrs. For the final dough, combine 1.5 c bread flour, 1.5 c ap flour, .75 c farina, 2 tbps kosher salt, 1.5 tsp instant yeast, the biga torn up, and about 1.5 c water. Mix with paddle until combined, switch to hook and knead for 5 min. Let dough rest 2 min, then knead another 3 min. Transfer to large oiled bowl. Stretch and fold every 20 min for an hour. Shape into loaves and refrigerate for 12-24 hrs. Bake at 450F for 15 min then 400F for 20 min.

This makes a killer mozzarella and tomato sandwich!

This was very easy and tastes better than your average sliced bread... It looks cool too!

Ingredients: (for white dough)

• 2 cups bread flour
• 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups water

Ingredients: (for beet dough)

Do the same as the white dough in a seperate bowl, replacing the water with beet juice. To obtain beet juice, I shredded 3 pounds of fresh beets, loaded the shreddings into a mesh bag, and squeezed  out the juice. I recovered about a cup, so I added water to make 1 1/4 cups. 

Instructions: (remember you are making TWO doughs)

1. Add all the dry ingredients (flour, yeast, salt) into two bowls and stir with spoon for about 15 seconds.
2. Add water to one bowl and beet juice to the other bowl. Stir for about 1 or 2 minutes.
3. Cover the top of the bowl loosely with plastic wrap.
4. Let sit on counter top for about 12 to 16 hours (I ussually do this for about 13 hours), the dough will look all bubbly on the top when done rising.
5. Generously sprinkle flour the top of your clean counter top or a cutting board (don’t worry about using too much flour, it won’t hurt it).
6. Slowly pour the dough from each bowl on to the floured surface, using the silicone spatula to help it peal off the sides of the bowl.
7. Sprinkle a little flour on top of the dough and rub your hands together with flour.
8. With you hands, gently stretch each dough out to a rectangle shape.
9. Lay the beet dough on top of the white dough.
10. Roll up the dough from one end to the other.
11. Place the dough into a lightly greased bread pan (seam side down).
12. Let dough rise till it is a bit above the top of the bread pan (about double in size or 1 to 1.5 hours).
13. Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees.
14. Place bread in the oven for 30-40 minutes.
15. Remove from oven, dump bread out on a cooling rack or your counter top and allow it to cool.

There is a delicious flavor from the beets...somewhat salty, a bit savory, and a smidge of sweet. The deep cherry red color emitted from the crust, but inside it lost the red component and is a boring brown. I think I'll try the beet dough on the outside next time.

Does anyone know why this happens?

• 4 cups bread flour
• 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 1/4 cups water

1. Combine all the dry ingredients (flour, yeast, salt) in the large bowl and stir with spoon for about 15 seconds.
2. Add water to the bowl and stir for about 1 or 2 minutes (it won’t look that good but that doesn’t matter).
3. Cover the top of the bowl loosely with plastic wrap.
4. Let sit on counter top for about 12 to 16 hours (I ussually do this for about 13 hours), the dough will look all bubbly on the top when done rising.
5. Generously sprinkle flour the top of your clean counter top or a cutting board (don’t worry about using too much flour, it won’t hurt it).
6. Slowly pour the dough from the bowl on to the floured surface, using the silicone spatula to help it peal off the sides of the bowl.
7. Sprinkle a little flour on top of the dough and rub your hands together with flour.
8. With you hands, gently stretch each dough out to a rectangle shape.
9. Lay the purple dough on top of the white dough.
10. Roll up the dough from one end to the other.
11. Place the dough into a lightly greased bread pan (seam side down).
12. Let dough rise till it is a bit above the top of the bread pan (about double in size or 1 to 1.5 hours).
13. Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees.
14. Place bread in the oven for 30 minutes.
15. Remove from oven, dump bread out on a cooling rack or your counter top and allow it to cool.

This is my second experiment with using beer brewing methods to make a bread.

This time I wanted to see how the flovor of hops would taste in a baked loaf. 

barley flour soaker. Leave at room temp overnight.

1 lb of malted barley of your choice... I used 90% special B and 10% chocolate malt. Place grains in a large pot and cover with water (no more than 2 cups) Slowly raise temp until it reaches 160F, then turn off heat, cover, and let sit for an hour. strain the liquid into a new pot. Save the spent grain for other fun stuff. 

add whole hops to the strained wort, and begin the boil. Boil for 30 minutes, keeping a loose cover on the pot to prevent evaporation. Allow to cool to room temp. Strain out the hops and your wort is ready to add to the dough!

Combine the flour, salt, sugar, and yeast. Whisk together. Tear up the soaker and add to the flour mixture. Add oil, wort and water. Mix until you get a ball, then transfer to stand mixer.

knead for 5 minutes, rest for 2 minutse and knead 2 minutes more.

Place dough in oiled bowl and refrigerate at overnight or longer if needed. 

On baking day: Remove dough from fridge and allow to reach room temp, about an hour. Stretch and fold and place back into bowl. After 30 minutes, do this again. ferment until dough reachews 1.5x original size. Divide into 2-3 pieces depending on size of loaves desired (I made two, but I think smaller loaves would be better for a more open crumb). Allow to proof for and hour. Preheat oven to 500F. Add water to steam pan, insert the loaves and reduce temp to 450. After 15 minutes, rotate and reduce temp to 350. Bake for 30 minutes or until center of dough reaches 200f. 

The finished bread had a moist, chewy sandwich bread texture. It is not very sweet. I does have a nice malt flavor and i can detect a little of the hop bitterness and flavor. I think I'll add more hops next time!

NOTE: all these amounts are approximate!

SOAKER

2 cups barley flour

a few grains of instant yeast

enough water to make a sticky paste (about a cup... I didn't take exact measurements.)

FINAL DOUGH

about 3 cups bread flour

2 tsp salt

3 tsp raw sugar

1 tsp instant yeast

1 tbsp canola oil

about 1 cup of cooled wort

about 3/4 cup water 

I'm a homebrewer. One of the best smells in the world is a boiling pot of wort, and I've always wanted to somehow "eat" that smell. Well, this is what happened on my fist attempt at a "brewer's bread".

Day 1: 3/4 c KA bread Flour

  3/4 c Whole Wheat flour

          1/16 tsp instant yeast

  enough water to make a very sticky dough

mix well and let sit at RT for 18-24 hrs then refrigerate for a day.

Day 2: Go to your local homebrew store and pick up a pound of your favorite malted barley (or wheat). I used 3/4 lb caravienne and 1/4 lb belgian aromatic. Mash at 150F for an hour with one quart of water. I used a crockpot and a thermometer. Strain the wort into a bowl and sparge with a cup or two of boiling water. Process the spent grain in a food processor until it obtains a paste-like consistency. Refrigerate the wort and the grain paste overnight. 

Day 3: Cut up the biga into 10 pieces. Combine:

Biga

1 1/2 c bread flour

3/4 - 1 c spent grain paste (depending on how much "whole grain" you want to taste

2 tsp instant yeast

2 tsp coarse kosher salt

1 tsp canola oil (or whatever you like... try melted lard!)

1/2 c wort ( adjust as necessary... my final dough was very sticky)

Stir with a fork until you get a ball, then knead with dough hook on medium speed for 4-5 minutes. Rest dough 20 min, stretch and fold in bowl, repeat three times. form into loaves or boules, proof 2 hours. Set oven to 500f, pour 1 1/2 c hot water into steam pan and place loaves in oven. Reduce to 425f and bake for 15 min, rotate then bake for 10 min or until dark brown and center reads 200f.

I was expecting to get a dark, heavy brick, but I was pleasantly surprised by how light and crispy it turned out. Next time I'll add some hops!