1 cup warm milk 2 dl
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tsp salt
50 g of soft butter
1 egg
100 g of yogurt
600 gram flour
20 ram yeast
+ 1 egg for lubrication
The dough for the lubrication of:
150 g Mascarpone cheese
150 g pumpkin
few sweetener
A cs. of vanilla sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch

baby Sponge
Some black coffee

The yeast should megfuttatni little milk.
Moderately soft dough kalácstésztát
Half an hour keleszteni be covered with a board and can be sampled.

I made half of the croissant. Rectangular and I gave the anointing and the cheese pumpkin mixture. Anointed the dough thinly and dipped in coffee cake ráfektettem baby and rolled up.

The remaining dough in different samples was developed.

Been clearing up old files on my PC and found photos of breads I baked ages ago and had comletely forgotten about….. One of them was Tartine’s Basic Country Bread.

Ever since I read Shiao-Ping’s blog about her ‘imitation of Chad Robertson’s Country Sourdough’ and all the buzz following the publication of ‘Tartine Bread’ last year, I’d been so intrigued to find out how wonderful its famous bread.  Thought of buying a book, but didn’t in the end after reading many reviews and contemplating for a long time. It was very interesting to read Eric’s view on the book he posted a while ago, because that was exactly what I’d thought the book might be like and the reason why I decided not to buy. 

 But still, my interest in the bread itself never faltered, so I searched through the internet for the formula and found this wonderfully generous site with detailed formula. It was a God sent! (Thank you, Martha! :))

 Didn’t follow its method of ‘how to start the levain’ but I just fed my starter with 50:50 = WW : Strong with hydration of 75%, as my regular starter, and increased the ratio of pre-ferment to a bit over 30%.  Here’s my formula for my take.

My Take on the famous Tartine’s Basic Country Bread

INGREDIENTS

Levain.....WW 35g

                  Strong flour 35g

                   Water 50g

Main Dough ..... Strong 220g *

                                Plain  50g *

                                        * (or 270g AP flour)

                                 WW  30g

                                 Water  210g

                                  Salt 6g

 METHOD

1. Mix WW and strong flour for the levain ingredient. Feed the starter with it twice during 10-12 hr period before use.  (1^st feed = 20g flour + 15g water, 2^nd feed = 50g flour + 35g water)
2. Mix all of the levain with main dough flours and water until shaggy mess. Autolyse for 30 – 40 minutes.
3. Sprinkle the salt over the dough and S & F in the bowl until the salt is evenly distribute. Rest for 40- 45 minutes.
4. Repeat S & F in the bowl every 35 – 40 minutes over next 3 hrs until the dough increases the volume by 30% or so.
5. Pre-shape and rest for 20 minutes.
6. Shape and cold retard overnight.
7. Take out of the fridge and leave until the dough returns to room temperature and fully proofed. (finger-poking test!)
8. Pre-heat the oven to 240C with a Pyrex with lid or a cast iron/Dutch oven in it.
9. Bake at 240C for 20 minutes in a covered Pyrex (or similar).
10. After 20 minutes, remove the cover, lower the temperature to 200C, and bake for another 20 minutes.

Verdict :  Not too sure……:p  It was pleasant tasting bread with quite well balanced, gentle flavour, for sure.  I can see why a lot of people like this as the daily basic bread, but tbh it was too gentle and lacked complexity of flavour I’m used to from other breads I bake regularly, I thought.  It was good bread, but to be entirely honest, I didn’t find it was that sensational.  Which is actually very similar thing I’d found from Hamelman’s Pain au Levain (::gasps:: BLASPHEMY!!!!) ; another bread which is very popular,  but the one I only baked a few times.

I did not follow CR’s formula to a tee, so it’s quite possible I’m missing something here, I must admit.  

 OK….I’m open to anyone telling me off!!!

 ::braces herself::   :p

(Must admit it makes good sandwich bread, though, thanks to its mild flavour profile, probably....)

I baked this recipe for the third time tonight, and I am still scratching my head.   For this iteration I made the following adjustments:

1)  Reduced the malt to 10 grams, based on Eric Hanner's parallel bake comments and results here.
2)  Reduced my mixing time to 10 minutes to reduce the level of dough development.
3)  Added a wire rack to the middle of my oven to avoid baking directly on my quarry tiles.

The results are strange, to say the least, and certainly not "right" yet.  Here is a pictorial tour:

After 10 minutes the dough still seems fairly well developed, but it is certainly much less so than the previous iterations.

This blurry shot shows the dough at the very beginning of bulk fermentation.

Here is the dough 45 minutes later at the end of bulk fermentation.  I may have let it go just a bit too long.

Divided into 2 loaves of 521 grams each, shaped and panned,  and ready to proof.

After 45 minutes they were proofed to show above the top of the pan.

Here are the panned, slashed and egg-washed loaves in the 350 F oven (that really needs a good cleaning so please ignore that if you would).  Note that the loaves are even, there is good clearance all around, and the slashes are down the center.  I am using conventional heat, not convection, so the fan at the back is not in use.  From here it gets really strange.

These loaves baked for 35 minutes.  I tested the internal temperature of the one on the left at 25 minutes, and stuck my big thumb into it getting it out of the oven.  That is why it has the big dent in the end.  It was not up to temperature yet so I put it back in the oven for 10 more minutes.  After a total of 35 minutes the internal temperature was 207F. 

The loaves rose unevenly in the oven, or so it appears to me.  The slashes now appear to be off center, and the outer edges of the loaves are taller than the inner edges.  This could be from weak shaping, or from uneven temperature, or from something I have not thought of.  They also have the same caved in side profile (see the next photo) that the previous bakes have shown.

I have not yet cut a loaf, so I do not know what the crumb looks like, or if there is a compressed doughy line up the inner or outer sidewall of these loaves.  I do expect to find one, but I will do that in the morning and post it back here then.

Edit on Tuesday, 11/8/2011:  Crumb shot added below.  This is the less distorted of the two loaves posted above.  There is an only-barely-visible compressed doughy line up one side of this loaf, and the crumb is a little less airy and insubstantial than previous bakes.  The largest holes seem to be smaller than in previous bakes.

My next steps are going to be to buy some true All Purpose flour, remove my baking tiles entirely for the next bake, and recheck the temperature of my oven in several locations to make sure I am still getting even and accurate heating.  It was accurate and consistent (as much as can be expected from a home oven) just six months or so ago, but this project requires re-verifying everything.  I will also consider modifying the shaping from that commended by the authors.

Thanks for stopping by.
OldWoodenSpoon

Here is the fourth (!) installment of my breadmaking tutorials. As always, your input is appreciated! Please see Ovenmitts Blog at www.ovenmittsblog.wordpress.com for the whole post!

Breadmaking 104 - Bakers' Percentages

So many people ask, “What’s up with these bakers’ percentages?? How does one loaf of bread make 175%?!”

So, I’ve come to tell you all about these bakers’ percentages. Let’s do this backwards. I’m going to tell you the summary first, and the reasons why after. It’s like a scientific paper! What is that called again? Oh yeah. The ABSTRACT! I feel like I should start all of my posts with an abstract….

Anyway! Here is my abstract: Bakers’ Percentages are the best things ever!

I guess that doesn’t help much, does it? Maybe I should reconsider my biology major…

Let’s start with Hydration.

The hydration of a bread recipe is the ratio of water to flour. For example, if you are using 10 oz flour and you add 6 oz water, you have a 6:10 liquid to flour ratio, or 60%.....

Please see the original post for the rest!

More then a few times now I've stroked my ego and declared, “grilled burgers with handmade hamburger buns!” Each time I might add, it has been in front of the eyes and stomachs of my friends. Whatever they happened to think of my attempts and the results that they ate, I knew the truth. They were horrible! Not surprising, considering my experience up until this point has not been in straight doughs, has not been in hamburger buns, and I really didn't know what I was talking about. Give me some dough to laminate, some brioche to mix. I can make several different types of hearth bread shapes, but more “American” type breads I am ashamed to say I am somewhat ignorant.

That last statement would be true up until about two months ago when I started working at an establishment that focused on making hamburger buns and dinner rolls. Sure there are some other types of breads, brioche pullman loaves for example (brioche toast for breakfast?), but more then anything else, we make thousands and thousands of rolls and burgers. And it really blew my mind, one of those steps. It makes sense though, if you want a wide, squat, cylindrical bread, your bread shape has to be wide, squat and cylindrical. You take a nice well rounded roll, let it proof up, then you smash it flat. I must admit, it hurt to flatten my little burger babies.

Sure at the other bakery I worked at we did the same thing. But we didn't do it anywhere near to the same extent. We didn't let them proof up, but more like like them rest. We didn't flatten them completely either, seeing as how they weren't particularly relaxed after being rounded. Just a gentle love tap all across the top. They were slightly flattened, and it was visible in the final product, a somewhat squat, yet quite tall, “hamburger bun”. But what they have me doing now, its totally different. Everything gets smashed flat. All the burgers that is. Kaiser rolls too, and the result is just like at the grocery store! Which is not necessarily a good thing, or a bad thing for that matter. It is different. A different shape for a different job I imagine. So tonight, having gotten out of work early armed with the knowledge working at an American bakery has equipped me with, I will be having hamburgers tonight.

“Rossisky” using the Three Stage Auerman Process; Pain au Levain using Rye Sour and Wheat Leavens; Panned “Wholewheat-style” Loaves with mixed leavens.

Refreshment Régimes:

1. 1.     Rye Sourdough

Refreshment One.   Saturday 16:00

Refreshment Two.   Sunday 07:30

Refreshment Three.   Sunday 15:00

1. 2.    Wheat Levain

Refreshment One.   Saturday 16:00

Refreshment Two.   Sunday 07:30

Refreshment Three.   Sunday 15:00

************************************************************************************************

1. 1.    “Rossisky” using the Three Stage Auerman Process

See Refreshment Régime above for sour building.   The “Scald” was made at the same time as the 3rd refreshment.   The “Sponge” was made 21:00 Sunday night.   The final paste was made 09:00 Monday morning.

Method:

• Build the sour as above.   Make the “scald” at the same time as the final refreshment of the sour, by pouring boiling water onto the flours and mixing.   Allow to cool to room temperature, covered.
• Make the “Sponge”, by combining the Built Sour with the “Scald”.   Leave to ferment, covered, for a further 12 hours [this proved to be too long; recommended time is 4 hours!]
• Add the remaining ingredients to the “Sponge” to make the final paste.   Target temperature is 29 - 30°C.
• Bulk Ferment for one hour.
• Scale and divide: I made one loaf in a pan @ 1kg, and one shaped round and proved in a banneton using the remaining paste.
• Bake on the “dead” wood-fired oven.
• Cool on wires, and set aside wrapped in linen cloth for 24 hours, before slicing.

1. 2.    Pain au Levain using Rye Sour and Wheat Leavens

See Refreshment Régime above for the rye sour and wheat levain building.

Method:

• Build the sour and leaven as above.
• Autolyse flours, water and rye sourdough for the final dough for 1 hour.
• Combine all materials for the final dough and mix to develop.
• Bulk proof 1½ hours
• Retard overnight, covered.
• Scale and divide: one @ 1500g, one @ 700g and one just short of 1200g.   Mould round and proof in prepared bannetons.
• Final proof: 3 hours
• Bake: Decant each loaf onto the peel, score an “S” shape onto the top, and set in the wood-fired oven to bake.
• Cool on wires.

1. 3.    Panned “Wholewheat-style” Loaves with mixed leavens.

These loaves are a request from a new-found customer who lives in the next village to us, and has been buying bread from the Village Bakery, Melmerby, where I used to work, for many years.

It’s as “plain”, as I go when working at home, and is largely wholewheat-based, which was the main tenor of the request.   It’s also made in pans, to allow for breaking into small and easy quantities for freezing down.

The refreshment régimes for both the pre-ferments are shown above.   The soaker was prepared at the same time as the final refreshments took place.

Method:

• Build the leaven and sour as above, and prepare a cold soaker [2], at the same time as the final refreshment stage for each pre-ferment.
• Combine the rye sourdough, soaker, flour and water for the final dough for 1 hour autolyse.
• Add the remaining ingredients and mix to develop a strong dough.
• Bulk proof 1½ hours.
• Retard overnight in the chiller, covered.
• Scale and divide: 4 pieces @ 390g for the Pullman Pan, and one piece @ 516g for the smaller loaf.  Mould round and rest, covered for 15 minutes.   Shape and pan.
• Final proof for 3 hours.
• Bake in the wood-fired oven.
• De-pan and cool on wires.

Comments.

The Russian Rye paste was too stiff, and therefore slow to prove; always a worry from my experience, producing a tasty, but dense loaf of reduced quality.   I fear the “zavarka” was too stiff, as a result of exuberance on my part boiling the water, resulting in excessive starch gelatinisation.   Result?   A very tasty dark loaf, but very dense!

I badly need more wood to fire the oven.   It was pleasing to bake these 3 varieties, but I now acknowledge I need a regular supply of tinder dry, soft wood; cut small.   The search continues…

Both the other doughs proved well and made good bread.   Today was a lovely sunny day here in Northumberland; however, there was a really sharp frost overnight, so it was a challenge to keep the dough warm enough to enable active final ferment, given 2 of the doughs had overnight retard.   The wholemeal looked particularly good.   Oven spring in both was fine, and the crumb of the Pain au Levain with the 2 pre-ferments looks great.   The crust?   This is where the wood-fired oven is really coming into its own with wonderful radiated heat from the arched roof of firebrick.

I managed to sell 4 of the 7 loaves I made today and net £10 proceeds.   My business adviser came to see me, and he left with a loaf he was happy to purchase, full of positivity about my progress, and other ideas I have too: a “pre-order Pizza Takeaway” service one night a week?   Seems like a winner to me!

This is arriving on a pallet by courier tomorrow, and I can’t wait!   An old 20 quart Hobart planetary mixer, but in excellent working order.   So, making up to 10kg of dough at a time should be really easy moving forward.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24731237@N03/6324106618/in/photostream

Happy Baking Everybody!

Andy