The Fresh Loaf

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

I swear I am not taking a cut from Chad Robertson (:P), I guess the formulas in the book just really works for me, so I keep going back for more. As I have mentioned before, it's not a cover-all bread book like "BBA" or "Bread", it only has a handful of base formulas (4 for lean breads to be exact), then some variations. Since I have posted about the Basic Country Bread and WW Country Bread, I am not going to post formula for this Semonlina loaf just to be fair to the author(s). if you like the breads, I think it's a book worth buying.

 

The procedure is similar to the other two breads, at 80%+ hydration, I am not suprised about the open crumb, but I was pleasantly surprised by the flavor combo - fennel seeds and black seame, both in the dough and on the crust, so frangrant! Both of those two seeds have such strong aroma on their own, I never thought they would mingle so well together! I was toasting them together before mixing into the dough, such heavenly smel! I knew it would be a winner then.

 

Open and colorful crumb, and trust me, it's an explosion of flavors in the mouth.

 

Recently bought a triangle proofing basket from here, I like the result. BTW, the basket is small, enough for 1lb dough probably. However, I did half the recipe this time since DH is out of town, so I had two 1lb loaves, one triangle and one oval, rather than the usual 2X 2lb loaves. I think it's actually better to shape into smaller loaves for two reasons:

1. High hydration dough tend to spread a bit on baking stone (Chad recommend to bake in a cast-iron pot thingy that I don't have), but it's much less noticable with smaller loaves;

2. The seeds on the crust came out just right after 35min in the oven, any longer, they would get burned a little, which happened to my bigger loaves before.

 

Last time, Sylvia wanted to see how my bastkets are floured, here's a picture of the oval one after being dusted with AP+rice flour - see the little bit of flour gathered in the left? I dumped those out after.

 

Needless to say, I will make this again, maybe try the other flavor variation in the book to combine fennel and raisin with semolina.

Sending this to Yeastspotting.

justinesmith9's picture

Hello from Newlyn,Cornwall

October 22, 2010 - 4:28am -- justinesmith9

Hi I'm Justine and I live in Newlyn a fishing port in the far south west of Cornwall.I love making bread by hand and in a machine as working 50 hours a week means I don't always have time to bake by hand.Love baking sourdough in particular.Love the feel of fresh dough growing under my hands as I knead it.Would love to share tips and recipes with people from anywhere and everywhere

justinesmith9's picture
justinesmith9

I do bake by hand but as I work nearly 50 hours a week,I sometimes have to resort to a machine - what are your experiences??On my way out to work this morning, I put a ciabatta style loaf on to cook.It's a great recipe which I'm willing to share if anyone is interested.Love putting the machine on timer overnight and waking up to the smell of fresh baked bread

probably34's picture

The Final Rise

October 21, 2010 - 3:58pm -- probably34
Forums: 

I've been baking Chad Robertsons basic country bread at home and have had really good results. During the final rise the loaves only seem to increase in size by maybe 50%. This takes about 4 hours. Once in the oven, however, they spring very nicely. I'm pretty new to naturally leavened breads so im not sure if this is common or not. Is this how it all works? In Robertson's book, he only says to proof the loaves for 2 to 4 hours. He doesn't mention any expansion requirement. Does anyone have words for me?

coffeetester's picture

Impaitent

October 21, 2010 - 1:53pm -- coffeetester

Two different trains of thought are going on now. I am trying to learn the in's and out's of starting a sourdough starter. The second is I want to learn to bake really nice bread. Here is my dilemma:

 

1. My SD starter is only 3 days old and no where ready to start producing SD starter

2. I want to bake this weekend

 

cex112's picture

How long before I can use the starter

October 21, 2010 - 1:42pm -- cex112

Hi,

A few days ago I started my first sourdough starter using the Bourke Street Bakery books recipe. Now this recipe says that the starter isn't ready to use until week 4 (if I'm reading it right).

 

Just wondered if people thought this was right, as I've seen other people suggest that after a few days its ready to go.

 

Thoughts and guidance would be most welcome.

 

Regards,

 

Royston

Vogel's picture
Vogel

I've baked several things during the last weeks and I really wanted to post some pictures here, but first I had a foodborne infection from bad olives, then my camera went to die. I hope I will be able to post more regularly during the next weeks.

Work in progress: rolls

In German bakeries you can buy a wide array of different rolls. Unfortunately, since the wholefood movement became popular, a lot of those rolls, especially the darker ones with seeds, are made from whole wheat, often without long fermentation. For a lot, maybe the majority, of people whole wheat is pretty indigestible, because in contrast to rye the unwanted substances in the husk of the grain aren't fully decomposed by fermentation. I am one of those people and prefer white wheat flour.

Of course making rolls isn't much different from making bread, but I didn't really succeed in creating the thin and crispy crust of rolls from the bakery. Especially on the bottom side they were just too thick and bread-y. Now I used a perforated baking sheet for the first time and it really helped me to achieve this goal. The hot air and steam can circulate through the little holes in the baking sheet, giving a more uniform and thin crust at the bottom.

This time I made rolls with seeds and a little bit of rye sourdough. I didn't really follow any recipe and just threw some ingredients together, so don't take the following recipe as the final recommendation. Personally I liked them very much. The rolls are not shaped but just cut from the final dough, similarly to making Ciabatta. I chose this method because that's how seeded rolls are mostly sold here, too.

crust

crum 1

crumb 2

The recipe makes about 16 medium or 12 big rolls. The dough uses a total amount of 600 grams of flour and has 70% hydration (just relative to the flour, seeds not included) and is made with both rye sourdough and a wheat poolish. It is really cold here in the house (about 65°F/18°C or even less), so you fermentation times might be shorter.

rye sourdough

  • Produce 200 grams of ready 100% hydration rye sourdough (so from 100 grams of medium dark rye flour / Type 1150) in a way you feel comfortable with. I usually do a three-stage feeding over the course of about 20 hours.

poolish

  • 100g water
  • 50g all-purpose flour / Type 550
  • 50g wheat flour Type 1050 (I think it is similar to "white whole weat flour" - you can just use all-purpose flour here too, if you want to)
  • 0,3g fresh yeast (a tiny splinter about the size of a pine nut)

Disperse the yeast into the water until you can see the water becoming slightly coloured. Mix in the flour, cover and ferment for about 16 hours at room temperature.

dough

  • 200g rye sourdough
  • 200g poolish
  • 50g medium dark rye flour / Type 1150
  • 350g all-purpose flour / Type 550
  • 45g sunflower seeds, toasted and roughly chopped
  • 45g pumpkin seeds, toasted and roughly chopped
  • 220g water
  • 12g salt
  • 4g fresh yeast

processing

  1. Mix sourdough, poolish, flour and water (except for 10-20g of it) until combined to a dough. Cover and let rest for about 30 minutes.
  2. Disperse the yeast in the rest of the water, pour this mixture onto the dough. Sprinkle the salt onto the dough. Knead until the windowpane test shows medium gluten development. The dough will be a little sticky at first, but become good to work with later in the process.
  3. Put the dough into a bowl, cover and ferment for 3 hours, with two stretch and folds after 1 and 2 hours, respectively.
  4. Lightly flour the work surface and put the dough onto it, smooth side down. Degas the dough with your flat hands (flour your hands if the dough sticks). Keep the dough in a roughly rectangular or square shape and stretch it more or less depending on whether you prefer thicker or flatter rolls. Now just cut out rectangular or square pieces by using a dough scraper or cutter. Try not to squeeze down the edges of the dough pieces from now on.
  5. Put the rolls smooth side down on a baker's linen or towel, slip into a plastic bag or cover in another way you like. You can also sprinkle the towel with untoasted seeds and put the rolls on them (brush off the flour from the smooth side or spray it with water so the seeds stick, or place the rolls smooth side up so the sticky side is in contact with the seeds).
  6. Let rest until fully risen. It took me about 3 hours, but will probably take less for you in a warmer kitchen.
  7. Pre-heat your oven to about 445°F (230°C) in the meantime and prepare for steaming your oven. Gently put the rolls smooth/seed-side up on a baking sheet, preferrably a perforated one. Bake with steam for about 10 minutes at this temperature, then reduce to 390°F (200°C) for another 10 minutes, depending on how fast the rolls are colouring. Bake without steam for the last 5 minutes or so.
  8. Let cool on a wire rack.

 

A side note: It could also work not to degas the dough in step 4, but just cut out the pieces, let rest for 20 minutes or so and bake directly, without a final proofing. I've heard of this method but haven't tried it out personally yet.

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