(Apologies to Jimmy Buffett)

One of the many objectives of the formula development project is to gain understanding of the baking process.  I have found that nothing beats working with the same general dough over and over, with very minor variations to understand the impact of various elements of the baking process.

So when comments on my last entry wound around to "intensive mix" vs. "improved mix" and the somewhat weak crumb of my last loaf, I really wanted to give them full consideration.

I may have mentioned elsewhere on these pages that my so called "normal" life contains, as a major feature, participating in the "security theatre" that is enjoying a long run in airports near you. Leaving discussion of the politics aside, it does provide me with long spaces of time where thoughts can roam free and it is wisest and best that they stray far from my actual circumstances and focus on something more pleasant - like bread.

I was idly mulling over intensive mix, when in one of those spooky out of body experiences that the doctors at The Place worry about -  The Voice in My Head (known also as "my teacher")  came rushing in on me. (It has been too long since I actually worked with "my teacher" - a situation to be remedied this year when I may be pushing it to overkill - and believe me, if you don't think I am studying and practicing in preparation for this - then I have not expressed myself well on these pages.  This frenzied activity could explain a lot.)

"Pat, please tell me two ways to achieve dough development."

"One is through the action of the mixer and another is through time - that is the time spent in bulk fermentation - and folds, sensei."

"And beyond the ingredients what produces flavor in bread?"

"Time and folds, sensei."

"What have I said about intensive mix?"

"That it is fine for panned breads where all one wants is to achieve is volume and one doesn't care about flavor, sensei."

"And why would someone who uses intensive mix see no value in a bulk ferment?"

"Because the dough is fully developed coming off the mix and many of the carotenoid pigments have been destroyed by the oxidation of the mixing process, so the bulk ferment is essentially working with damaged goods, sensei."

"Is intensive mix ever appropriate?"

"Yes, yes it is, but it will be a different style of bread than those made with longer fermentation times, sensei."

"Speaking of volume - what does bread do best at high altitudes?"

"Rises and achieves volume often collapsing in the oven since it rises higher than the baked supporting structure can sustain - forcing us to deliberately reduce the rising,  sensei."

"What must be perfect?"

"Everything, sensei?"

"You sound like you are asking."

"Everything, sensei."

"You know what to do. Bake and evaluate."

Coming to with my hands above my head and a TSA officer telling me that I could go stand on the mat, I knew what I must do.

Later, at home, giving the evening pizza crust a good twirl (my teacher once told me that this was a skill that s/he lacked and so I became obsessed with learning to twirl pizza crust) and reflecting that I had brought it to full twirl worthy development with nothing but time and some strokes with a plastic scraper, I reflected that there are indeed many ways to achieve a well developed dough.

On the formula development front, I wanted to add an inclusion in the dough and had settled on flax seed.  I'm a big fan of flax - it being the thing that produces my favorite cloth - and this bread being a reflection of my favorite things; it seemed to be the logical choice.

I had some golden flax seed in the pantry and decided to use that.  I created a soaker that seemed for all the world to be "hydration neutral" - it released no water when I put it in a sieve and seemed to have no droplets in the container that held it.  Alas, as I added it to the mix, it did release some water and the dough hydration changed just a bit. Not enough ruin the dough, but definitely a change.  Truly, I will be asking questions on this concept in the near future.

I also decided to use bread flour (not high gluten flour) as a way to produce a somewhat tougher crumb - although I regret this decision because I will now have to go back and test the formula with all purpose flour, anyway.  It would be cheap and easy to just call for bread flour, but as I have told many clients - I'm easy, but I'm not cheap.

I mixed the dough for the six minutes that I had mixed it before - I feel that I might be able to mix it less, but I realize that My Precioussss is somewhat under loaded with this volume of dough and its efficiency is somewhat less at that load.  I also wanted to recheck my dough development at this timing for the mix to satisfy myself that last week's crumb was not a result of poor dough development.  It was a sufficiently developed at six minutes.  No, it did not create the glove like windowpane as required by the shredibly soft loaf, but this dough is full of oat flakes and steel cut oats and these are going to keep that type of windowpane from forming no matter how long I mixed.  The dough development was fine, and next time I will actually mix a bit less.

What I did do was degas the dough better and put a little more muscle into my shaping. I also watched the proof very carefully and didn't try to compensate for pan size by proofing longer.

The golden flax seed no doubt added some nutrition to the bread and did create a subtle and pleasant taste change, but it didn't create the hoped for "pretty bread."   The crumb, however, was firm enough to hold a rather overstuffed grilled cheese and salsa sandwich, so I think I'll (sort of) be declaring victory on getting the crumb right by getting the shaping and proofing right. 

As I said before, now the work begins.  I will be switching out the golden flaxseed for regular flaxseed next week and have high hopes that I will get me my pretty bread at last.  But now I have to understand if I can use all purpose flour, get exact mixing times, get a better read on the soakers -and get exact weights for each type of pan and each type of shape that I wish to make.  This is tedious in the extreme and I will probably suspend my posting on this until I can organize a tasting to compare the original- original and a couple of versions of my variations. I don't know if my version will "sell out at bake sales" yet, but as I taste it, it has that elusive quality of "balance." I can taste the molasses in the bread, but I can also taste the grain- it has little crunchies, but I don't fear breaking a tooth.  If anything, the crumb is a little too light (although it passed the spread butter and the gloppy sandwich test) but by no means unacceptable. I've got a niggling little voice telling me I need to mill a lot more triticale and get to that ill conceived experiment of a high percent of pre fermented flour,  some yeast and a pan and gardening/pond cleaning season is fast approaching - so plenty of other things to do while I make tedious small tweaks.

Pictures and formula follow.

Total Dough Wt		72.88	oz
	Ingredients			Soaker			Percent of Flour in Levain	0.1		Final Dough
	%	Wt	UOM				%	WT	UOM	Ingredients	Wt	UOM
Total Flour	1.00	27	oz				1	2.7	oz	Total Flour	24.30	oz
Whole Wheat Flour	0.30	8.1	oz							Whole Wheat Flour	8.10	oz
KA AP Flour	0.60	16.2	oz							KA AP Flour	16.20	oz
Triticale Flour	0.10	2.7	oz				1	2.7	oz
Additional Water	0.14	3.7	oz				0.6	1.62	oz	Additional Water	2.08	oz
Rolled Oats	0.17	4.59	oz							Rolled Oats	4.59	oz
Steel Cut Oats	0.11	2.97	oz							Steel Cut Oats	2.97	oz
Boiling water	0.74	19.98	oz							Boiling water	19.98	oz
Shortening(leaf lard)	0.03	0.81	oz							Shortening(leaf lard)	0.81	oz
Molasses	0.06	1.62	oz							Molasses	1.62	oz
Agave Nectar	0.05	1.35	oz							Agave Nectar	1.35	oz
Milk Powder	0.04	1.08	oz							Milk Powder	1.08	oz
Salt	0.03	0.756	oz							Salt	0.76	oz
Yeast	0.004	0.108	oz							Yeast	0.11	oz
Golden Flax Seeds	0.1	2.7	oz	0.1	2.7	oz
Soaker Water	0.22	6	oz	0.22	6	oz				Soaker	8.7	oz
Seed	0.008	0.216	oz				0.08	0.216	oz	Levain	4.536	oz
Totals	2.399259259	72.88	oz		8.7	oz	1.68	4.536	oz		72.88

Prepare the soaker -  allow to soak 12 hours

Prepare the pre ferment - allow to mature 12 hours

Pour the boiling water over the two types of oats and allow to cool to lukewarm

Combine all ingredients except the soaker and mix 6 minutes in one speed spiral (or to moderate development by any means desired.)

Add soaker and mix only until combined (I did this mostly by hand).

Bulk ferment 4 hours - one fold

Shape

Proof 1 hour

Place in oven at 375F - immediately decrease temp to 360F and bake 45-50 minutes (I actually bake about 45 minutes and then remove the bread from the pan, return it to the oven, and bake 5 minutes - more as this gives a nicer crust on the sides - but this will be one of those minor tedious tweaks.)

Remove from pans and cool.

Have Fun!

Added by edit:  I was just reflecting on the process and looked at a picture of the bread at the beginning.  I thought I would post it here so the contrast was evident.  Hardly the same loaf at all!

It's been half term holiday week here; where has it all gone I'm asking, as I go back to work tomorrow.

I s to have spent much of the week working hard to tackle all the complex issues I have to deal with ready for next year.

A brief reflection on our trip to Bolton on Friday 18th February is quite calming and re-assuring that my job is a good one.   Unfortunately Faye was not in the "prize money" on this occasion, but we both had a great day out, and were very well treated by our hosts.

Some photographs are attached as Faye presented her Nettle Bread to a judging panel of VIPs, including Brett Warburton, the man in the open neck shirt, busily checking out her loaf, and asking very pertinent questions.   How cool is that?   Also on the panel was the head of Innovation for Warburtons, Darren Littler, who I met some years ago when still a student myself.   Many of Warburtons R&D team were taught by the same lecturer as me, on the Baking course at Leeds.

Faye's bread was one of only 2 loaves which were genuinely artisan and made with a pre-ferment.   The other 2 Baking colleges in the hunt both used bread improvers in their loaves.   The other 4 entrants' loaves were from catering students, and looked like fairly ordinary homebaked bread.   What matters, however, were all the students' wonderful ideas and the hardwork put in to develop their loaves.   And, it cannot be an easy task to stand in front of 3 esteemed bakers from the Warburtons Company, and present your own product, and talk about it so confidently.   I was really proud of Faye, especially when she stated simply that she used a leaven in her bread as she was only interested in "artisan" bread, then proceeded to explain to Darren how she had built her own leaven from scratch, and kept it going all this time.   Some photographs below:

 

 Level 2 Baking Students have an entrance into the College "Equality and Diversity" Competition tomorrow, with a theme based on breads of the world.   These are to be made with our own local ingredients, primarily, and presented in a Cornucopia, made from bread dough.   My contribution is the Borodinsky bread shown below.   Given I had an active rye sourdough, a bag of good bread flour, and plenty of Bacheldre Dark Rye, I could not resist more baking today, with a Pain de Siegle.

Borodinsky using a "Scald"

Makes 1 "Pullman Pan"

Material	Formula [% of flour]	Recipe [grams]
1. Rye Sourdough
Dark Rye Flour	30	300
Water	50	500
TOTAL	80	800
2. "Scald"
Dark Rye Flour	20	200
Barley Malt Syrup	4.5	45
Blackstrap Molasses	6	60
Coriander Seeds-ground	1	10
Salt	1	10
Water	35	350
TOTAL	67.5	675
3. Final Paste
Rye Sourdough [from above]	80	800
Scald [from above]	67.5	675
Sifted Rye Flour	23.5	235
Strong White Flour	26.5	265
TOTAL	197.5	1975
Overall Hydration	85%
Pre-fermented Flour	30%

 

Method:

• Build the rye sourdough over 2 to 3 refreshments from stock. Ferment fully after final refreshment through to sour
• For the "Scald", dissolve the molasses and malt extract in hot water, and bring to a boil in a pan. Grind the Coriander seeds and combine these with the salt and rye flour. Pour on the boiling liquor and stir to mix. Cover tightly and cool to ambient.
• Combine the sour and scald for the first stage of the final mix, then add in the remaining portions of flour to form a paste
• Bulk proof for one hour
• Shape into a Pullman Pan, pre-lined with silicone paper. Proof for 3 hours, approx. before baking
• Place into the oven rising to 180°C, with a pan of water in the bottom of the oven. Leave for one hour. Turn the oven down to 130°C and bake a further 3 hours. Turn the oven off and leave in the cooling oven a further 3 hours
• De-pan and cool on wires

Pain de Siègle

2 Boules of classic naturally leavened bread proved in Bannetons.

Material	Formula [% of flour]	Recipe [grams]
1. Rye Sourdough
Bacheldre Dark Rye Flour	24	300
Water	40	500
TOTAL	64	800
2. Final Dough
Rye Sourdough [from above]	64	800
Carrs Strong White Flour	76	950
Salt	1.8	22.5
Water	28	350
TOTAL	169.8	2122.5
Overall Hydration	68%
Pre-fermented Flour	24%

 

Method:

• Build the rye sourdough from stock with at least 2 refreshments
• Weigh the required sourdough, and add the correct amount of water to this. Blend, then carefully add the white flour. Combine, and autolyse for 1 hour.
• Start to develop the dough on the bench with 5 minutes work. Rest for 10 minutes. Add the salt, and develop the dough a further 5 - 10 minutes. Rest for 10 minutes, then develop a further 5 - 10 minutes.

• Line a bowl with a little oil as a container for the dough. Cover with cling film and bulk proof for 2 hours. Stretch and fold after 1 hour.
• Scale and divide. Mould round and place upside down in prepared bannetons.
• Final proof is approximately 3 hours.
• Pre-heat the oven and masonry to 250°C. Tip out each loaf, score the top, use steam, and bake for 15 minutes. Drop the oven temperature to 220°C and bake a further 20 minutes. Drop the oven temperature to 200°C and bake each loaf out.
• Cool on wires

 

It's proving hard to spend so much time on TFL at the moment.   I wish I had more time to post, but it's a tough time in UK education right now, with lots of challenges needing full response.

Andy

Hello,

Recalling Larry's wonderful cheese bread that we liked so much, I wanted to make cheddar cheese bagels (my husband's favorite bagel). We enjoyed these for breakfast today...so nice to have these warm treats on a cold, snowy day!

I followed Mr. Reinhart's Bagel formula in BBA, but added 172g of grated sharp cheddar to the flour mixture when mixing the dough.
I kneaded the dough by hand, and the some of the grated cheddar was still visible in the dough before baking.
Additional cheddar was sprinkled over the bagels after boiling, and before baking.

This was the best looking one of the bunch, and a close up of that yummy cheese:
 

The shaping could definitely use some improvement!, and a crumb shot:
  

 

I put some dill, shallot and black pepper cream cheese on my warm cheese bagel - heavenly!
(I'd mixed this up for some crostini, but it was really good on this bagel, too.)
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill
2 tablespoons very finely chopped red onion (I used shallot)
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Happy Baking everyone!
from breadsong