ananda's blog

Two Leavens, Some Wholegrain and a Commercial Mixer

I wanted to use my new [very old!] 20 Quart Hobart dough mixer as soon as possible, so made a dough from the flour I had available today, after building both my rye sourdough and wheat levain over a couple of good feeds.

I only had around 40g of each culture in stock, but built each one with a feed Tuesday and Wednesday evenings to give me a working amount to build a great final dough today, Thursday.

Details are given below:

Method:

• Build the 2 leavens as described above
• Firstly deposit the rye sourdough into the mixing bowl.   Add weighed and tempered water to this, then add all the remaining flours.   Leave out the salt and wheat levain, and mix for 3 minutes on first speed, using the hook attachment.   Scrape down the bowl half way through the mixing time.   Allow to autolyse for 1 hour.
• Add the wheat levain and salt and mix for 1 minute on slow speed.   Scrape down the bowl, add a pinch of flour as needed, and mix on 2nd speed for 5 minutes.   DDT 24°C
• Bulk ferment for 2½ hours, with one set of bold S&Fs after 2 hours.
• Scale and divide as follows: 2 @ 480g, 1 @ 960g, 1 @ 700g and the remaining piece, just short of 1500g.   Mould round.   Rest and prepare 5 bannetons.   Re-mould and set upside down in the bannetons for bulk proof.
• Bulk proof time between 3 and 6 hours to fit schedule
• Bake in an electric oven with steam and on a stone.   Cut the dough surface just prior to loading.   I loaded each loaf to an oven pre-heated for 1 hour to 280°C.   I used steam by misting the dough surface with water, and adding boiling water to a pan of hot stones on the base of the oven.   The first 10 minutes the oven setting was 250°C, with the fan off.   After that I lowered the heat to 215°C  and switched over to fan convection on full power, and baked out each loaf.   The 2 small loaves were baked simultaneously.
• Cool on wires

No wood in stock, which was a bit of a pain, given I had 5 loaves to bake off the same dough.   Some loaves were proved in front of the fire, and some were held in the fridge for an hour to ensure smooth production schedule…that worked.

The dough was splendid!   The mixer is a joy, and, the even fermentation at 24°C with gentle, but excellent development and generous hydration produced results as good as I could have hoped for.

Plenty wholegrain too!  

The taste?   I really rate this bread very highly.   Let’s see what other local people think now…

Nigel's November Baking Day

On Saturday I managed to get up early for a change, so I could pay a visit to my friend and long time baking colleague, Nigel.   It is actually all down to him that I ever got involved in the food industry, and baking in particular.   Both of us were founder-members of the Red Herring Worker's Co-op in Newcastle, a business which Nigel had pioneered single-handedly for a few years already before we came together to create it as a formal business entity.   That was way back in 1987!

Fast forward to our current situations, and we both seem to have wood-fired ovens built at our homes, and ready to use as an integral part to our imagined future destiny.   Nigel, thank you so much for helping me to get my oven built in the first place.   Apologies for not getting on board to help build your own monster; at the time I seem to remember having to defer my MSc for a year as teaching commitments at Newcastle College just about pulled me under a very big wave indeed.

Nigel's oven is a very big beast indeed.   It gave me several big lessons when I went to help out on Saturday morning.   Firstly there was well in excess of 100 loaves to bake.   We also made a range of sweet and savoury pasties.   Nigel had fired the oven hard the previous evening, and again from early Saturday morning [05:00]   I arrived at 09:00 [he lives over 40 miles south from my home], and the oven was sitting happily at just under 350*C.   We started baking at 11:00, just as we finished off most of the pasties, and moulded up a second batch of unbleached white loaves.

Well, it was a great chance to catch up with a lot of old friends.   Some folks I hadn't seen for around 20 years.   Other fellow "Herrings" came along, so too, Katie [of "Stout and Flax Seed Bread" fame] along with her Dad.   It was a lovely sunny day, and I managed to grab some photos of Nigel's burgeoning bakery den, and he kindly took some snaps as I had a chance to set his lovely loaves, and to pull them, baked, from his wonderful oven.

Here's a few photos; you can see more on my flickr site, here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24731237@N03/sets/72157627995705763/

Very best wishes to you all

Andy

“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

Baking and other October News

The teaching in Leeds did not work out as I found myself very unsettled and unhappy in a place I did not want to be staying instead of being at home with Alison.   There is always opportunity for me to work in Leeds again, but I do not want to be tied to regular delivery of FE baking courses there.   I left at half term, and went on holiday to Sicily having already bagged an interview at Gateshead College for an Associate Lecturer post; that’s tomorrow!

Regarding baking, I have made the following breads at home recently:

1.    Ciabatta

Wheat Levain built from stock wheat levain; no refreshment details available

Method:

• Build the leaven and set up the soaker in advance
• For the final dough combine the leaven and soaker with flour and salt for a., then mix the “bassinage” stage to develop the dough.   Let the down with water as in b.
• Ferment in bulk for 3 hours with “S&F” every 50 minutes.   Scale and divide as required.   I made 3 trays of Foccaccia flavoured with Roasted Onions and Butternut Squash with Rosemary, as well as 3 loaves of Ciabatta.
• Shape the dough, then final proof for 3 hours.   Bake in the wood-fired oven.
• Cool on wires.

2.   Pain Siègle de Thezac.

Sour built from stock Rye Sour; no refreshment details available

Method:

• Build the sourdough and set up the soaker in advance
• Combine all the ingredients with soaker and sour for the final dough and mix to develop.
• Bulk proof time is 3¼  hours, with “S&F” every hour.
• Scale, divide and mould round.   I made 3 loaves scaled at 650g and one large with the remaining dough at just less than 1450g
• Final proof for 3 hours in prepared Bannetons
• Tip out each loaf and score the top with an “S”, and bake in the wood-fired oven
• Cool on wires

 3.    Pane Nero di Castelvetrano with Almost-All-Sicilian Flour

Leaven Refreshment:

1. Monday 10:00   Wheat Levain Stock 20g [flour 12.5, water 7.5], “ODDO” Semola Rimacinato 50g, Water 50g.

2. Monday 15:30   Refreshment 1 above 120g [flour 62.5, water 57.5], “ODDO” Semola Rimacinato 137.5g, Water 62.5g

3. Monday 22:30   Refreshment 2 above 320g [flour 200, water 120], “ODDO” Semola Rimacinato 150g, Water 90g TOTAL 560g, as below, used at 06:00 Tuesday.   Soaker: set up at 22:30 on Monday with refreshment 3.

Method:

• Set up levain and soaker [see above timetable]
• Combine leaven and soaker with remaining flour and water and develop the dough, mixing by hand.
• Bulk proof for 3 hours with 1 “S&F” after 1½ hours.
• Scale and divide as 1 x 700g and 1 larger loaf of just over 1.5kg.   Mould round.
• Final proof for 3 hours in prepared Bannetons.
• Bake in a pre-heated and hot electric oven using a baking stone and steam.   I hadn't the time to chop wood for the brick oven today.
• Cool on wires.

I made the Ciabattas, Foccaccias and Pain de Siègles before we went away on holiday.   A colleague in the village was looking after Shuffles [our cat] for a few days, and she had arranged a “Coffee Morning” on the Saturday to raise money to pay for fitting our new Christmas Lights in the village.   Most of the breads were my contribution to that event.   The bits leftover were for Beverley, my Sister-in-Law and my Niece, Eve, to tuck into when they stayed in our cottage the first weekend.   We have enjoyed the last of the big Pain de Siègle loaf on our return from Sicily.

During the holiday, I quickly found a supply of Pane Nero di Castelvetrano, and took photographs to show what the modern day traditional and local version now looks like.   The label is very revealing.   “L’Antico Forno” means “The Old Bakery”, and it was situated in a smaller town just outside Castelvetrano.   The ingredients are listed as Farina di Grano Duro, Aqua, Sale, Lievito.   30% of the flour is from the “Tumminia” durum.   I do not have good enough grasp of the Italian language to know whether or not the loaf is made using Baker’s yeast only, or if an element of, or even all, natural leaven is used.   From a flavour point of view, I would be inclined to think that Baker’s yeast was the chosen leavener.

However, the rest of the label gives more information to consider.   The price of the bread was €3.00 per kilo, with each of the 3 loaves we bought being half kilo loaves.   The date of manufacture is shown, and recommended consumption within 5 days.   My two main comments: the keeping qualities were superb, and 5 days was a perfectly reasonable shelf life.   So I really do wonder about the source of leavening!   And, the taste of the bread had such a distinct sweetness to it, which Nico advised of when I first got hold of the Tumminia flour.

The day we went to Castelvetrano was a shocker; it rained heavily all day, so we were not tempted in any way to stop and seek out Molina del Ponti [see: http://www.molinidelponte.it/], the recommended milling source for a further supply of Tumminia.   I did, however, locate some Durum flour in a local supermarket which had been grown in Sicily and milled in nearby Valderice.   This is the link to the miller’s website: http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://www.molinooddo.it/prodotti.html&ei=sgiwTq-UL86-8gP88eW8AQ&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCAQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3DODDO%2Bgrano%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26tbas%3D0%26biw%3D1132%26bih%3D448%26prmd%3Dimvns  

I bought a 1kg bag of “Rimacinata” to use to make one more batch of Pane Nero di Castelvetrano, and I also bought a bag of the traditional Cous Cous which is very common in the north west of Sicily demonstrating an Arabic and African tradition.

My final formula for the loaves are given above, and plenty of photos to illustrate the whole post.

The sweet taste is there, and, a huge step forward here; Alison is raving about the crust on this bread!   This is a new and very welcome event.

Happy Baking to you all!

Andy

Rye Sourdough Black Breads with a Hot Grain Soaker

I recently purchased 2 types of malted grain prepared for the purpose, primarily, of brewing; in other words gently crushed for easy mashing to extract sugar.

One of these grains is barley, the other is from rye; details as follows:

• Rauchmalz – Bavarian Smoked Malted Barley, EBC 10.   Apparently this is highly prized, it has been very lightly prepared, so its colour grade is very low down the spectrum.
• Roasted Rye Malt, EBC 800….very dark indeed.

Both of these come from Germany.

Additionally I had some Organic Rye Flakes left in the store cupboard which needed using up.

I wanted some large panned loaves to go in the freezer for a “Wine and Cheese” Night organised at Ingram Hall, nearby on 5th December.   This arrangement came out of the sales I made at the Powburn Show in August.   See:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/24576/%E2%80%9Cnine-show%E2%80%9D

I refreshed my rye sour from 80g in stock, through 3 feeds to end up with just short of 2kg to use to make these breads.   I prepared a hot soaker the night before and then added this to the sour culture to make the “sponge” demanded in the 3 stage Russian process.

I made 2 large tinned loaves, one small one, and had just a little paste left to make another really small loaf.

Recipe and formula details are shown below:

 Method:

• Refresh the Rye Sourdough over 3 refreshments beginning with stock base of 80g.
• Make the Hot Soaker 4 hours before the full sour has been built.   To do this, pour the boiling water onto all the other ingredients and stir well to mix.   Leave covered to cool to room temperature.
• Make the Sponge by combining the soaker with the full sour required.   Return the spare rye sour to stock.   Cover the Sponge and leave to ferment for 4 hours in a warm place [28°C is ideal].
• Add the remaining flours plus the salt to the Sponge and mix to form the Final Paste.
• Bulk ferment, covered for one hour.
• Prepare the tins by lining the walls neatly with silicone paper.   I made one Pullman Pan scaled at 2000g, one large panned loaf at 1200g, and one small at 600g.   I made the remainder up into a small loaf [c.397g] and baked it later.   I docked the 2 panned loaves without lids, using a wetted probe thermometer needle.
• Bake in an Electric oven at 160°C using fan assistance for convection, with steady steam supply.   The small loaf baked one hour, large loaf 1 hour 40 minutes, and the Pullman Pan took 2 hours.
• Cool the loaves thoroughly on wires.

Hot Soaker                                  Soaker to mix with sour for sponge    Active Sponge ready to mix final paste

Mixed Final Paste                                Full proof in different pans, ready to bake

The flavour of this bread is impressive.   There is obvious sourness from the Rye Sourdough, making up 30% of the flour mix.   The malty flavour is wonderful, and complex too, thanks to both the smoked malt, and the very dark roasted rye.   It lingers on the palate for ages reminding just how tasty the bread really is.   The use of the “Sponge” makes for a great combination of the sweet and sour, and the ferment was alive.   One hour in bulk, followed by 1½ hours final proof is all that was required before the breads were ready to bake off.

It is the weekly trip to Leeds first thing tomorrow, with hot/boiled water pastry and savoury short paste featuring early on, followed by a day with a Level 2 group working on production in the morning, then an afternoon’s theory class to follow.

Photographs below:

All good wishes

Andy

Pane Nero di Castelvetrano in the Wood-fired Oven

I still have some of the unique wholegrain durum flour which Giuseppe kindly brought back from Sicily for me back in late July.   The bread is known as “Black Bread” [Pane Nero] on account of it being baked in traditional brick ovens fired using tinder-dry olive wood.   The first time I baked this bread, I blew my electric oven up; the second time I made one good loaf and totally burnt the top of the second loaf, and smoked the house out.   I still haven’t got the hang of the top heat in my SMEG oven.   The grill setting is the only aspect of this oven which is not impressive.   Meantime, my wood-fired oven has been re-vamped and is now in great working order.   So, I returned to this very traditional bread, with our holiday to Sicily now just 3 weeks away….woo hoo!!

I increased the Tumminia flour to 30%, but dropped the small element of rye sour.   I also decided to use only Gilchesters’ flour in the final dough, rather than mixing it with strong industrial white flour, meaning 40% of the total flour; organic and untampered traditional Sativa wheat milled to very fine flour which is ambitiously marketed as “Pizza/Ciabatta Flour”!!   This means that 70% of the flour in the grist can reasonably be described as weak.   Thus, I reverted to using only a wheat leaven to raise the dough, made with Carrs Special CC, an excellent quality Strong White Flour, for the remaining 30% of flour in the formula.

I began with 80g of levain from stock and built it over 24 hours with 2 refreshments to end up with almost 1500g.   Formula and recipe details shown below:

Method:

• Prepare the leaven with the final refreshment and make the soaker.
• Add the white flour to the soaker first of all to form an undeveloped dough.   Mix the levain into this and develop this gently for 10 minutes.    Rest for 5 minutes, then mix a further 10 minutes.   An electric dough mixer would be a bonus, but I’m mixing by hand still!
• Bulk proof for 2½ hours with a stretch and fold after 1 and 2 hours.
• Scale and divide.   I made 1 loaf @ 600g, 2 @ 750g and 2 just short of 1500g.   Mould each dough piece round, and place upside down in prepared bannetons.
• Final proof, covered, for 2½ hours.
• Tip out each loaf onto the peel, score the top and mist with water and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
• Bake in a HOT wood-fired oven.
• Cool on wires

One of the large loaves tipped right over in the oven, so it baked upside down.   The smaller loaves baked 40 minutes and the large loaves took one hour.

Very tasty loaves, rustic and traditional!   There is the sweetness which Nico mentions coming from the Tumminia, giving perfect balance to the use of the leaven.   The bake from the hot oven yields full flavour in the crust.

Photographs are attached below.

I have a busy few weeks’ ahead, and expect some enjoyable times.   Alison’s sister, Mandy is arriving today from New Zealand with her husband and young son today for a fortnight’s visit.   They have come primarily to celebrate the 80th Birthdays of Alison’s father and step-mother…next weekend at a big gathering of friends and family.   We have a family escape the following weekend at a country house hotel before Mandy flies back to New Zealand.   After that we fly to Sicily for a week’s holiday the following weekend!

However, I need to make some more rye bread, so may get chance to post again next weekend.

All good wishes

Andy

September’s Baking 2011

 The new job is proving to be very demanding, as I should have anticipated!   A last minute appointment in a very busy baking school inevitably means there is a lot to do.   And staying in Leeds for 2 nights, away from home, is not easy to adapt to, even though I have been made so welcome by friends who offered me a place nearby to stay when this job first became a real possibility.   It will remain difficult for Alison and me to deal throughout the year, for sure.

On the bread front, I have made the following breads, in addition to the Kamut ® loaves recently posted.

A Borodinsky mainly following Auerman’s techniques, but using crushed roasted barley instead of crystal barley malt powder, as posted here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/24237/celebrating-rye-breads   I wondered if it may prove to have a burnt, or, bitter taste to it, but the flavour was really lovely in the finished bread.   I used Organic Rye Flakes as a topping on the bread rather than freshly ground coriander seeds.

Borodinsky using a “Scald”

Makes 1 “Pullman Pan”

Gilchesters Miche

The good news is that the wood-fired oven fired really well today.   I had to hand-mix over 5kg of dough first thing this morning.   This is quite a challenge with weak Northumbrian flour and hydration at 78%!   The 1 hour autolyse is essential, then gently working the dough on the bench to develop the gluten over a lengthy time period also makes life easier.   I used 2½ hour bulk with one S&F before scaling, dividing and shaping.   I made 2 loaves scaled at 1660g and 2 at 835g.   Final proof was a further 2½ hours.   I baked out the bigger loaves for just short of 1 hour.   More detail on this formula is available here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/24911/gilchesters-miche-and-borodinsky-bread and 

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/23811/miche-using-stiff-levain-and-gilchesters-organic-farmhouse-flour

In the meantime I built a really good fire in the oven.   Once “scuffled” out, the oven settled at around 300°C, with the top heat radiating from the curved roof particularly effectively.  

Lots of photographs are attached.

Top heat reading from the roof of the oven; Infra Red laser point thermometer

Bottom heat reading after one hour of baking, with the oven door ajar for 10 minutes

                                                                                                                  Thin Cell Walls, above

and the finished crumb, close-up, below:

I’m finding it quite difficult to keep up with everyone’s posts on TFL at the moment with my midweek schedule journeying to Leeds and back.   Apologies if I’ve not kept in touch with everyone’s baking activities.

All good wishes

Andy

Wheat Levain and Kamut Boules Baked in the Wood-fired Oven

Last Monday and Tuesday Alison and I were joined by my family who came up to help with a number of projects we have on the go just now.   Many thanks to my Mum and Dad and Brother and Sister-in-Law, for all their help.   The initial project which dragged them up from northern and eastern corners of Yorkshire to the far north of England was to try to make some improvements to the firing efficiency of my wood-fired oven.   My family have watched and supported me from afar in my summer baking antics, and I believe my brother’s offer to try to improve the potential of the oven was an offer of genuine enthusiasm to help me expand my own baking activities in the longer term.

Whilst the rest of us slaved away inside, Dave dismantled the chimney section of the oven, modified the design and then re-built it.   We built a small fire on the second afternoon to verify that things had improved; they had!

After my first 3 day stint in Leeds and a lovely Saturday evening entertaining friends at home with a lovely South Indian Fish Curry, I had some time to fire up the oven properly over 2 days, and bake bread in it.

I fired the oven gently on Sunday, then somewhat harder today in the gales resulting from an always unwanted hurricane emanating from the US and blasting over from the Atlantic.   The chimney seemed none-too-stable, but the fire roared nicely in the end.

My leavens had been a little neglected, so it was a good time to spend re-building their strength too.   I have a number of different speciality flours in the store cupboard at the moment, some in just very small amounts; others I held slightly more of.   These were left over from the TFL baking course at Newcastle College which ran near the end of July, just before my escape.

I decided to make some bread using the half kilo of Kamut flour I had in stock.   Andrew Whitley (2006; pp.87) explains that it is

“Considered to be an ancient relative of durum wheat, Kamut is the registered tradename for a cereal derived from 36 grains mailed by an American airman in Egypt to his father in Montana in the 1950s.   Its production is always organic and is controlled by the Quinn family.   Kamut is generally higher in protein than wheat but with poorer-quality gluten.”

I used a flour mix consisting of 30% Kamut, 20% Gilchesters’ Pizza/Ciabatta flour and 50% Carrs Special CC Bread Flour.   The leaven was made with the bread flour, and the amount of pre-fermented flour was 20%.   I suspect this was a trifle too low.   I began with 50g of stock levain which was built to 530g over 14 hours and 2 refreshments.   Hydration was in excess of 71%.

Here is the formula, recipe and method:

Method:

• Mix the flours for the final dough with the final water required, and autolyse for one hour.
• Combine the autolyse with the levain, salt and butter and mix gently to a dough.   Develop by hand-mixing a further 10 minutes.
• Bulk proof the dough covered for 5 hours [leaven portion too low!], with one S&F after 1½ hours and another after 3½ hours.
• Scale and divide into 2 x 1.04 kg pieces and one piece just over 700g.   Mould round and place upside down in prepared bannetons.
• Final proof, covered for 3½ hours
• Tip each loaf gently out of the banneton onto the peel, cut and bake in the wood-fired oven for 50 minutes.
• Note that I used a wet tea towel to line the oven door as a source of steam; this was primitive, but worked surprisingly well.
• Cool on wires after taking photographs.   Cut the loaf open far too early under temptation and enjoy a slice splattered with butter well before you really should!

These were very tasty loaves indeed!!   Oven spring was good, although the dough had been a trifle slow to prove all day.   Here are the photographs; not perfect, but the oven is well on the way to being able to perform how I always hoped it would.

So, all in all, a good few steps forward.

Codruta asked me about the “factor” in the table on the last post and I forgot to answer; sorry Codruta!   The factor is the number that is used as a multiplier to move from formula to recipe.   In this case, it is 16; so the total flour is 1600g, from 100%.

Best wishes to all

Andy

Gilchesters Miche and Borodinsky Bread

I made these loaves at home in my new SMEG oven at the end of August.

I have a new job, starting very soon, back on the “Lecturing Circuit”…the best of news!   Even better, the work is exciting, challenging and specific to my specialist area of baking.   The pay is improved too, and the terms of service.   The down side?   It means I have to travel even further…to Leeds, a good 100 miles away, and 2.5 hours on the train!   This means staying in Leeds through the middle part of the week…ho hum!

Still, I will be at home in Northumberland at the weekends, indeed, 5 nights of the week.   I hope to have the wood-fired oven working better very soon, so there should be plenty for me to post on moving forward.

In the meantime, a re-visit to 2 of the breads I am most pleased with producing in the months gone by.

1. 1.    Gilchesters Miche

Method:

• I began with 40g of levain from stock, which was given 3 refreshments the day before use to end up with 800g mature culture.   I retained 32g for stock and used the remaining 768g in the final dough.
• Firstly, autolyse the Gilchester flour 1320g] with the water [1116g] required for the final dough, for 1 hour.
• Combine the autolyse, levain and salt [32g] and mix gently to a developed dough over 20 minutes.
• Rest covered for a bulk proof of 3 hours.   One S&F after 1¾ hours.
• Scale and divide into 2 x 1.6kg pieces.   Mould round and set upside down in prepared bannetons.
• Final proof for 3 hours.
• Bake  profile as follows: Pre-heat the oven for 1¼ hours; take up to 280°C, then allow to sit at 250°C until 15 minutes before baking commences.   Take back up to 280°C.   Tip the proofed dough piece onto a pre-heated baking sheet dusted with semolina, and cut the top.   Use boiling water in a pan filled with stones as a steam source and set the tray and bread onto the pre-heated baking stone.   Turn the heat setting to 250°C, and bake for 15 minutes with the fan turned off.   Mist the loaf after 8 minutes, and top up the boiling water in the pan of stones to keep the steam supply going.   Turn the heat to 235°C.   Then drop the loaf directly onto the baking brick, remove the steam source, and switch over to convection baking.   Bake a further 25 minutes.   Turn the heat down to 200°C and bake for another 10 – 15 minutes.   Turn off the oven, but leave the loaf inside, with the oven door ajar for 10 more minutes.   Cool on wires.

1. 2.    Borodinsky

Method:

• Rye sourdough utilised 2 refreshments beginning with 63g stock and ending up with 863g finished culture.   63g retained for stock and 800g used in the final paste.
• Make the scald at the same time as the final refreshment of the sour: weigh the red malt [sift as necessary] and dark rye flour into a bowl, add the salt, and coriander, which should be freshly ground using a mortar and pestle.   Weigh the molasses into a pan, and pour boiling water onto this to the specified weight.   Bring this to a rolling boil on the cooker hob top.   Pour onto the dry ingredients and combine well with a stout plastic or wooden spatula.   Add any extra boiling water required first by checking the weight of the contents to allow for any evaporation.   Cover and cool.
• Make the sponge by combining the sour and scald.   Cover and hold at 28°C for 4½ hours.
• Add the final portion of flours to form the final paste.   Cover and bulk prove for one hour.
• Scale and divide; 500g for a small loaf, and the remainder for a Pullman Pan, just short of 1.5kg.
• Final proof of 3 hours.
• Bake with a regular supply of steam in a convection oven at 190°C.   The small loaf bakes in 50 minutes, and the Pullman Pan in just over 2hours.
• De-pan and cool on wires.

All good wishes

Andy

Pane Nero di Castelvetrano and my new Oven

In my previous post, here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/24641/tumminia-and-pane-nero-di-castelvetrano I told the tale of running through the village to find an alternative oven, having blown up my own early in the bake cycle for my first attempt at the Pane Nero di Castelvetrano.   The result was a minor miracle, given the circumstances, but not one yielding a particularly dark crust, implied as pre-requisite in the real loaf.

Subsequently, I dismantled the old electric oven and found that the wiring point where the mains lead enters the cooker was completely melted through.   I weighed up a couple of alternative solutions.   Firstly, to call out an Electrician to repair the wiring and re-assemble the cooker safely?   I figured that the oven just wasn’t up to the job, and that the same situation would only happen again soon, with further risk of setting fire to the kitchen.   Not a good idea!

Alternative Two was therefore necessary.   I’d better find a new oven.   A good trawl through E-bay, and I’d found a great solution.   I needed an oven with a much better specification to cope with bread baking, that wasn’t going to cost a small fortune.   Given that the expensive ovens all have fancy features which I have no use for, there was no point me buying something with “all mod cons”.   So, I happened upon a SMEG oven, some years old now, yet brand new and unused, if you get my drift?   It had been displayed in a Showroom, but certainly never turned on.   The oven door still had the protective plastic covering attached, and everything arrived pristine…by Courier on a pallet, just a couple of days later!

I had fitted the oven and it was up and running by teatime, but didn’t use it that evening.   Yesterday [Saturday] we stayed in and watched back episodes of MadMen on the dvd player on my pc to take us to the end of Season 3.   I cooked Fassolia, and baked a tray of Spanokopita for a really tasty meal.   Yes, I did make my own filo pastry too!

Anyway, I set to, and baked another Pano Nero di Castlevetrano today, to see if I could test out the new oven.   The formula is the same as before.   I made 1.15 times the quantity in the last post, giving just over 2 kg of dough, which I divided into a 600g loaf and a loaf just short of 1400g.

First revelation; the oven will pre-heat to 280°C!   I replaced the old 3 bricks with 3 firebricks left over from building the wood-fired oven.   These are really heavy, and I am not going to keep them in the oven like I did with the ordinary bricks in the old oven.   Other than that, the set up was the same.   I pre-heated the oven for 1 hour with the fan, then another half hour without the fan at 250°C, before cranking it up to 280°C again ready for baking.

I used boiling water poured onto hot stones for steam, and kept a steady supply going for 10 minutes, with the oven set at 250°C and the fan switched off.   Then I dropped the heat back to 235°C and kicked the fan in for convection for the rest of the bake.   For the last 10 minutes, I switched over to top heat only, with the fan off, and the oven door just slightly ajar.   This was an attempt to darken the loaf top.   Personally, I would have fired the small loaf some more.   However, Alison is less fond of well-fired loaves, so the pictures show what is actually a bit of a compromise.   I managed to go completely over the top with the big loaf, and had to scrape off the layer of charcoal on the top, just to rescue it from oblivion.   Hence, no pictures of this loaf, sorry!

Wow, it’s so good to have a good oven in the kitchen to bake on, although I need to pay more attention in order to know exactly how it works!

Meantime, my brother is visiting in a couple of weeks’ time.    We have a mission to set up the wood-fired oven so it functions well and without hindering other peoples’ lives [the smoke situation!!!]   If we enjoy as much success as I have with my new SMEG, then I’ll be very happy indeed!!!

All good wishes

Andy

Tumminia and Pane Nero di Castelvetrano

Back at the beginning of June, one of my Bakery students, Giuseppe, took a two month period of work experience in a Patisserie in his native town, Catania, in Sicily.

A couple of months earlier, Alison and I had, regrettably, decided not to make our annual summer trip to Crete, this year.   As an alternative, we decided to take a week’s holiday in NW Scotland at Easter, and embark on a week’s adventure in Sicily during the October half term.   We have booked a lovely top floor apartment in a town house overlooking the old harbour in Castellammare del Golfo in the North West corner of the island.

A few kilometres south west of here is the town of Castelvetrano.   Giuseppe had already wet my appetite for exploring the native bread scene, as you can imagine.   Not only that, but the BBC Radio Four Food Programme broadcast a 2 week special on the regional food of Sicily, around about this time.   I did some further searching to get more detail of regional bread specialities.

I came across Pane Nero di Castelvetrano, which is discussed in reasonable detail on the Slow Food website here: http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://www.slowfoodsciacca.it/pag_ge.asp%3Flingua%3Dita%26link%3D122&ei=Kl5FTqndOYSk8QPrs9y2Bg&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=9&sqi=2&ved=0CG4Q7gEwCA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dpane%2Bnero%2Bdi%2Bcastelvetrano%26hl%3Den%26qscrl%3D1%26nord%3D1%26rlz%3D1T4DKUK_enGB309%26biw%3D1154%26bih%3D400%26site%3Dwebhp%26prmd%3Divns

I asked Giuseppe what he knew about this bread before he flew out to Sicily.   He knew a bit about it, mainly that the bread is made only with local flour which is famous, and, increasingly, rare.   It is from a variety of durum wheat grown only in this particular region of Sicily.   Given Catania is on the eastern coast of Sicily, it was not certain whether Giuseppe would be able to obtain any of this flour, however, he promised to have a go.

I then began a discussion with nicodvb to find out more about the Pane Nero di Castelvetrano, as well as taking a look at some YouTube videos, such as this one:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJyAqGnybE8    The bread is made using a leaven system.   The flour mix is 80% local and refined semolina durum, described as “blonde grain”.   I believe this will be the equivalent grind to “rimacinata”, if I’m not wrong.   The other 20% of the flour is from the tumminia durum wheat grain, which is milled quite coarsely, and is a wholegrain flour.   Nico explained that the tumminia flour is revered on account of the sweet aftertaste imparted in the finished bread.   Some pictures of the flour are shown below.   The character of a wholemeal semolina is quite evident:

The reference to the dark colour seems more to do with baking the bread hot in a wood-fired oven, rather than using a particularly wholesome grist.   So, the authentic version has a darkened crust rather than a brown crumb.   My version of the bread isn’t that well-fired, but more on the baking calamity later; I had a bit of a nightmare with my electric oven….yet again!

Mid way through Giuseppe’s work placement, I received an e-mail from his girlfriend.   It seemed that he was being worked so hard that he was unsure whether he could get out to find the tumminia flour.   However, there was quick re-assurance that he was really enjoying the work and learning a lot.   Later on I exchanged e-mails with Giuseppe, when he contacted me to say his boss had driven out specially to get hold of the flour for us.   A couple of weeks later and Giuseppe returned to the UK to discover I had left College.   We have been meeting regularly since then as he is now very focused on setting up his own bakery/patisserie in the region.   Watch this space, as I am happy to be playing an active role in this adventure.

Nico sent me a message recently asking me how the bread had turned out using the tumminia flour which Giuseppe had brought back.   I had been so busy with leaving College, and putting the Powburn Show bread together, [see: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/24576/%E2%80%9Cnine-show%E2%80%9D] so I had not had time to use the flour and bake a Pane Nero di Castelvetrano.

First task was to refresh my leavens.   In doing this I decided to alter the formula I had planned and agreed with Nico.   You will all know how much I love rye, and I suddenly hit on the idea of using a small amount of rye sour in this mix, in place of a portion of the wheat leaven.   I came up with 25% wheat and 6% dark rye to make up the portion of flour which has been pre-fermented.   I thought about how to mimic the “blonde” semolina grain [80% of the flour mix].   I came up with 54% Carrs Special CC strong bread flour and 20% Gilchesters Organic Ciabatta/Pizza flour which is grown locally, and therefore much lower gluten quality.   The tumminia flour was added as the remaining 20% of total flour as noted in the Slow Food instructions.   Hydration was set at 68%, and salt 1.8%.   The formula and recipe are laid out in table format below:

Method:

• The Rye Sour had 2 refreshments and the Wheat Levain had 3.
• I soaked  the Tumminia flour in all the final dough water for one hour.
• Subsequently, I combined all the remaining ingredients with this soaker and the pre-ferments and mixed the dough for 10 minutes by hand.
• Bulk fermentation was 3 hours, with S&F after 1 and 2 hours
• I made one large loaf, so moulded the entire dough round, and placed upside down in prepared banneton.
• Final Proof was also 3 hours.
• Given that the oven decided to blow up 15 minutes into the baking, there is little point in describing a recommended bake procedure.   I darted around the village and after another 10 minutes found a neighbour returning home.   She agreed to bake the loaf the remaining time in her oven.   It took another hour from cold, but the final result was quite acceptable.
• I brought the loaf home and cooled it on a wire.

Some photographs of the finished loaf:

The final loaf is very bold; for a dough weight of very nearly 1.7kg, baked in the circumstances described, the end result is very pleasing.   The crumb is very even and moist to the point of sparkling.   The flavour is actually intense, but not at all sour.   A real eating pleasure!

To Nico and Giuseppe: many thanks to both of you for your support and encouragement in helping me to create this wonderful loaf of bread.

All good wishes

Andy