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A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.
jamie0168's picture

Looking for a recipe for my first brotform boule!

December 8, 2011 - 10:03am -- jamie0168
Forums: 

I just got a brotform as a gift. I haven't baked in awhile. (Peter Reinhart's Book "Bread Baker's Apprentice" kind of scared me away from baking because my bread turned out horrible when I used that book...my fault, I'm sure.)

So, being afraid of that book, I need some new bread recipes. Like most bread lovers, me likey big holes in my bread :) Got any bread recipes (french, foccacia, etc) that I won't mess up?

tn gabe's picture
tn gabe

What follows is my attempt at passing on what I've learned from watching a Youtube in a language I do not speak.

Some new toys. Both the dough whisk and the silicone scraper are great. AP and WW, poolish, milk, sugar, butter, and salt.

Maybe 30 seconds of mixing with whisk & dough was starting to come together. Another half minute or so & scraped the dough out onto the board. Picture doesn't do the scraper justice. The bowl was a little wet when I added the flour. Kneaded the dough for a minute, but should have developed it a little more.

Bought some safety razor blades, too. Wow! Much sharper than anything else I've tried to cut dough with so far. My attempt at 'Pointage' allowed the dough to spread while resting.

While the dough rested, I worked on folding my parchment for the butter. Watch the video. He makes it look very, very easy, in the effortless way only someone who has done something many, many times can do.

Even executed somewhat poorly, the parchment still makes getting the butter to fit the dough much easier.

Butter is 6" x 12" and dough 12" square. Single fold. Tap with pin and roll out.

 Rolled out to 12" x 24" and trimmed to make square and expose layering. No 2, is a "book fold" and the seam must be offset.

If I'm counting right, should be at 4 layers of butter now. Before and after resting (and almost getting dropped on the floor when I realized I'd forgotten to set the timer on my pain levain that was in the oven!).

Here the dough is again rolled and trimmed to 12" x 24" for Fold C. Scraps are re-incorporated.

I messed up by pressing the scraps in too firmly before finishing the "tri-fold" and had to roll out the top a bit more to get everything looking right again. Some more tapping and time to rest. Not for me of course, but for the dough while I got some Struan in the oven. 12 layers of butter now. I had been trying to layer more than this and ending up with no layers at all.

Getting short on time and a little tired of snapping pics. Should have got pictures of the shaped croissants, but again watch the video. It is important to shape firmly and push out while rolling if you want the really pointy ends of a 'manly croissant' (what I pretend he's saying in the video since I don't speak French).

The better looking ones had been either sold and/or eaten by the time I snapped these pics. Should have proofed longer and at a lower temp. Running short on time, proofed at 80 ish for about 90 minutes.

Not perfect by any means (either the croissants or this blog) but I feel like I'm getting better.

Anonymous baker's picture
Anonymous baker (not verified)

Here are some sourdough loaves of Mission Fig Almond Anise & Medjool Date Cashew.

These are all rifts of Nancy Silverton's Fig Anise Bread from The Breads of the La Brea Bakery. In the fig bread, I add about 1.5x her quantity of figs and honey-roasted almonds. In the date bread, I add about 1.5x her quantity of medjool dates and roasted cashews. In both, I adjust the hydration as necessary.

1. Ingredients for Mission Fig Almond Anise

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2.  Ingredients for Mission Fig Almond Anise

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3.  Ingredients for Medjool Date Cashew

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4. Shaping the loaves was quite the task. I didn't adjust the hydration well enough, so incorporating the nuts and dried fruit into the loaves by hand was quite the task.

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5. A shaped Mission Fig Almond Loaf

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6. About to shape a Medjool Date Cashew Loaf

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7. All loaves in their brotforms. Giving them ~30 minutes to rise before putting them into the refrigerator for an long, overnight retardation.

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8. One of the boules after retardation. These loaves don't rise much during bulk ferment, retardation, or proofing. The final loaves are dense and chewy (with crunchy nuts). No sherry vinegar was used in the making of these breads. ;)

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9. These are the final Medjool Date Cashew Loaves. The fig are in the background.

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10. A fig loaf with some surface detail. (I didn't mean for it to look like a Masonic symbol, but that's what a couple people told me it looks like.)

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11. All the loaves together, ready for the their photoshoot (and surely dreading their future fate as hiking food–they keep forever, so I take loaves with me into the mountains when I go camping/hiking).

(Sorry, but I forgot to take shots of the crumb. I slice them very thinly, like biscotti. The crumb is dense and filled with nuts and dried fruit.)

Baker Frank's picture

Breads of Italy

December 8, 2011 - 6:33am -- Baker Frank
Forums: 

Just got done reading Daniel Leader’s book Local Breads with great interest only to have it squashed by the comments on TFL from fellow bloggers concerning the inaccuracies of the recipes.

Can anyone suggest a good source for breads of Italy &/or would be so kind to share their favorites.

Thanks, Frank

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