joc1954's blog

Recently I made this gluten free pizza for my younger daughter who has intolerance for the gluten and also should not eat cheese. Hence the pizza was made without cheese what is quite unusual, but it was generously topped with grilled vegetables.

Here is a video about preparation.

Happy baking, Joze

Many people wanted to get details how to make the bread with translucent alveoli walls which I have published in the community bake 50% wholewheat thread. So I promised to make notes about the process. However, this bread was not made with sourdough starter but rather with tomato and basil yeast water.

For those who don't like to read too much here are the major differences to what most of people usually do:

1.) Longer autolyse (this time 4 hours) at room temperature

2.) Extended bulk fermentation in the fridge for 18 hours

3.) Bread was shaped as ciabatta.

4.) There was almost no final proofing - just time needed to warm up the oven

5.) Staring baking temperature was 500 dF (260 dC).

This are by my opinion the differences which are not common in most recipes or traditional procedures.

The reason for 4 hour long autolyse is giving more extensibility to the dough caused by enzymatic activity of protease. Second reason is to hydrate well the bran particles so they will have less sharp edges and will not cut the gluten network so much.

I made this bread only from 300g of flour mixture with 50% of whole-grain wheat flour and 50% of type 500 white bread flour with unknown protein content but estimated to be between 11 and 12%. Definitely with significantly smaller protein content than American or Canadian flours.   The plan was to shape it as ciabatta.

The process is as follows:

1.) Two stage levain build: first stage with 50g of white flour T500 and 50g of yeast water. When doubled add 50g of whole-grain wheat flour and 50g of water (better if you use here yeast water again). The levain build will take about 5-8 hours.

2.) Mix whole-grain wheat flour and white wheat flour type 500 with 70% of water (70% of weight of flour for the main dough) and let it rest for 4 hours at room temperature.

3.) Mix levain and alutolysed flour with hand and develop gluten by using scoop & stretch method (rhubaud method of mixing). This usually takes about 2-4 minutes and as result you get a cohesive dough. Let the dough rest for about 20-30 minutes.

4.) Add 2% of salt and additional 5% of water (if necessary) in my case this was 15g. Incorporate the salt and water into the dough and repeat gluten development with scoop & stretch method.

5.) During the bulk fermentation make 6 stretch & folds at 30 minutes interval.

6.) When the signs of the dough are clearly visible: dough is well aerated, billowy, has risen for about 40-50%, the traces of previous folding are clearly visible at next folding then transfer the dough into rectangular container which is well oiled with olive oil and put it in the fridge for at least 12 to 24 hours. See the attached video.

7.) When the dough has risen nicely and one can see a lot of alveoli - after at least 12 hours, tip the dough out of the container and shape it as ciabattas. See the attached video.

8.) As this dough contains 50% of whole-grain flour it does not need a lot of final proofing. I just preheated the oven to 500 dF (260 dC) and baked the ciabatta in iron-cast skillet. No scoring needed! The temperature should be reduced to 430 dF (220 dC) after 8 minutes, uncover after 15 minutes of baking (from the start)  and continue baking at  410 dF (210 dC) for 10 minutes more. Overall baking time for ciabatta is about 25-30 minutes.

In the picture above one can easily spot the bran particles in the translucent alveoli walls.

I hope that the instructions are clear enough that you will be able to make such bread. Happy baking!

Joze

I was tempted for a long time to make a bred with dark red wine which we produce in Slovenia. This bread is my second attempt to make this kind of bread.

Here are the instructions for those who would like to make bread with red wine:

1.) Take a recipe for the bread you think you would like to "convert" to wine bread. No changes in the procedure.

2.) Instead of adding water add wine reduction - simmer the wine for few minutes that you get rid of alcohol. This will likely change the color of the wine. Then cool the wine and use it instead of water. If you want you can replace just a part of water with wine but this will definitely result in less intensive color of the crumb..

3.) Be careful with hydration as the wine will have influence on the gluten development so I recommend that you start initially with lower hydration (65-68%).

The rest of the procedure is the same. This bread was leavened with yest water made from tomato and basil which is really very strong. My starter (mixture of 50g of yeast water and 50g of white flour) doubled in two hours.

Happy baking and enjoy experimenting.

Joze

In last months I was experimenting quite a lot with fermentation process. This bread is the result of latest experiment where I am testing the procedure how to get really well open crumb. Basically this is the amended Tartine country loaf recipe which starts with the true autolyse (just flour+water) for several hours, continues with adding starter, one hour resting period, adding salt plus additional water (double hydration), followed by at least 6-8 stretch & folds at about 30 minutes intervals during the bulk fermentation. At the end of bulk fermentation the dough is chilled in the fridge for 6-8 hours, then shaped cold and final proof is done on the bench. The starting baking temperature is about 260-270 going down to normal temperatures after first 8-10 minutes.

The overall hydration in this particular case was about 85% and the white flour protein content was above 13%. The dough was hand mixed. I had similar results with flours with substantially lower protein content - only 9.3%.

The outlook of this bread is similar to famous "crystal bread" although this bread is not made according to that recipe and the hydration is much lower.

Happy baking!

Joze

This is a 50% whole-grain spelt bread, the rest of flour is T500 (strong white flour).

The dough was hand mixed with 4 hour long autolyse, then starter was mixed in and the gluten was developed with scoop & stretch method. Salt added after about 30 minutes and a bit of additional  scoop & stretch for about two minutes and then stretch & folds every 45 minutes for first 3 hours of BF.

About 73% overall hydration,  30 hour long cold retardation at about 10 degrees Celsius, then direct bake in iron-cast skillet starting at 240 dC for 10 minutes, 220 dC for 20 minutes and continuing uncovered for 10 minutes at 220 dC.

Happy baking, Joze

This is an improved version of my gluten free 100% buckwheat bread leavened with yeast water. The recipe was tested many times from different enthusiasts and always gave a very good result. It might happen that you will not get so open crumb in first attempt, but the bread will still be tasty and soft like a cake as it contains no gluten. 

You can use any active yeast water.

PROCEDURE:

1.) Prepare the leaven - The leaven is built in two stages. Start with 50% of flour and 50% of yeast water – so with 100g of flour and 150g of yeast water. When doubles add the rest of flour and yeast water and wait until doubles again. You can use any active yeast water.

2.) Add the water from the main dough part to the leaven and psyllium and let ferment from 30 - 60 minutes. Then add the buckwheat flour and salt and mix well for at least few minutes on a low speed or mix with hand. Now you can add seeds, walnuts, …

3.) Leave the dough to rest for about 30 minutes and mix with hand for about a minute. Repeat this step again after resting of 30 minutes.

4.) Form a loaf and put it into the proofing basket and let it rise until it almost doubles what might take about 3-5 hours.

5.) Bake in preheated oven at 240 dC covered or with a lot of steam for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 220 dC and bake it for 40 minutes. After that uncover it and bake for next 10 to max 20 minutes. For this last part you may reduce the temperature if the loaf is already well brown.

Happy baking,

Joze

This is a very tasty bread with 30% of barley flour, 30% of rye flour and 40% strong bread flour.

Procedure:

1.) Prepare 20% of leaven at 100% hydration (could be with white flour or rye flour)

2.) Mix all ingredients flour+water+leaven +2% of salt  (no autolyse) and develop the gluten right away after you mix on low speed for about 3 minutes.

3.) Do series of S&F in 30-45 minutes intervals.

4.) The bread on the picture was cold retarded for 20 hours.

Bake as you normally bake your breads, nothibg special required.

Happy baking,

Joze

I baked this bread for my daughter. She is suffering from gluten intolerance problems.

The mix of GF flours is like this:

I added 5% of psyllium and 2% of salt. The 200 grams of seeds (sesame, flax, sunflower and pumpkin) were soaked for several hours in hot water (100% hydration).

Procedure: 

1.) Use yeast water to make a 2 stage leaven from the mixture of flours. To speed up the process add 1 tablespoon of molasses.  Start with 50g of YW and 50g of flour mixture and when doubles add again 50g of YW and flour mixture. Alternate option is to z+use active dry yeast. 

2.) Soak the seeds in hot water few hours ahead of mixing time.

2.) Use about 200g of water and heat it to boiling and scald the flour mixture (all flours except flax and Schaer mixB).

3.) Add about 250g of water to the leaven and psyllium and let it rest for about 30 minutes.

5.) Mix all ingredients together - all scalded flour which has already cooled down and the rest of the flours, soaked seeds and leaven with added psyllium and add 2% of salt.

6.) Mix this in a mixer for about 8-10 minutes on a slow speed. Add water as needed to get not so stiff dough - the hydration without soaker should be about 80% or more.

7.) Transfer this into proofing bowl and let it rise at least 50%, but you can leave to almost double.

8.) Shape the boule and put it in proofing basket and wait until raises about 70% and then bake it.

9.) Bake it like any gluten bread with steam for about 45-50 minutes at same temperatures. The finished loaf might have tendency to collapse a bit. You should do a bit of scoring.

Happy baking,

Joze

This bread contains 20% of buckwheat flour and 80% of strong bread flour (in my case it was Italian Costa d'Amalfi).

Hydration about 75% and cold retarded.

The procedure is as follows: slightly roast the buckwheat flour in a pan until starts smelling and then scald it with all water from the recipe, wait until it cools down and then add bread flour, salt and starter and mix by hand until all ingredients are well incorporated. After 30 minutes rest period use scoop & stretch method or French slaps and develop gluten and then perform stretch & folds every hour until you are through bulk fermentation. I shape it using stitching method and the cold retard and bake it as you bake any other sourdough bread.

You can add walnuts or pecans, what gives this  bread even more taste.

Happy baking!

Joze 

This is 100% spelt bread - 10% whole-grain spelt flour home milled, 90% white spelt flour, 70% hydration, 10% inoculation.

I tested a new approach in making this bread - no autolize, no "fermentolize", just mixing all ingredients including salt at slow speed and after 3 minutes at higher speed for gluten development until the dough didn't stick any more to the walls of the bowl of my Kitchen Aid mixer - about 2-3 minutes more.

4 stretch and folds, preshape, shaping using stitching method and our on counter before short cold retard as we needed the bread for breakfast. Baked in iron-cast skillet the standard way 30 minutes covered.

Due to extensible gluten property of spelt gluten I decided to completely skip autolyse or fermentolyse and just mix the dough and develop gluten right away. I think this approach paid off as the crumb is very nicely evenly opened.

Happy baking,

Joze