So it's hot here in NYC, so I'm going to avoid turning on my oven for the next few months.  That being said, it's still difficult to refrain myself from playing with flour so I've taken to making pasta…  Here are my attempts using a water based dough making Trofie and Pappardelle.

Tim

Recipe
200g AP
25g WW
100g Water
1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/16 tsp Kosher Salt

Method:
-Mix all ingredients into a smooth dough, cover and let rest for at least 30 minutes.
-After rest, divide dough into 4 equal pieces.

Making Trofie:
-Roll dough into rope about 3/8" diameter, cut off 3/8" long pieces.  Roll them with your palm on an unfloured work surface until you get a piece of pasta that is about the length of the width your hand with both ends tapered.  Place on a lightly floured wooden board to dry until you are ready to cook, or dry overnight.  I have not figured out how to make them twist like the store-bought ones yet...

Making Pappardelle:
Roll out dough into a long flat sheet thinner than 1/16" with a rolling pin.  The sheet should be translucent.  Flour well, roll up and cut into strips.  Hang on a pasta drying rack to dry until ready to eat, or overnight.

When ready, cook in salted boiling water until al dente or done to your liking.

Hey All,

It's getting hot and sticky here in NYC, so I have decided to do one last bake and then dry up my sourdough starter so I don't have to keep feeding and discarding until fall when it cools down.

Tim

Stiff Levain
50g AP
50g WW
50g Organic Rye Flour
80g water
156g SD starter (whatever I had left in the fridge 50% hydration)
386g Total

9:15pm - Mix starter, knead until all combined, form into ball, cover and let rest.
10:00pm - Divide 300g, form into ball, cover and let rest.  With the remaining 86g or so, on a floured surface, divide into 4 pieces, roll out really thin with a rolling pin, and dry.  When dry, store in a tightly covered container.  I will test this starter out in the fall to see if I can revive it…  Fingers crossed. 

This starter has treated me very well leavening extremely reliably.  I believe it is about 2 years old.  It started out as a liquid starter and was converted to a stiff starter, back to a liquid, and then finally back to a very dry starter kept at 50% hydration in the refridgerator.  It was fed on an odd schedule every 3 to 5 days varying proportions of AP, WW, and organic rye flour, kneaded, left out for 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on the temperature, and then refrigerated...

Final Dough
600g AP
50g WW
480g water
16g Kosher salt
300g of above stiff leaven
1446g Total

11:45pm - In a large mixing bowl, add the water, leaven, flour, and salt.  Mix with a rubber spatula until a shaggy down forms.  Cover and let rest.
7/6/11
12:15am - Knead briefly (30 seconds or so with the stretch and fold method).  Cover and let rest.
12:30am - Stretch/fold, cover and let rest.
12:45am - Stretch/fold, cover and let rest.
1:00am - Shape into boule, place into a well floured linen lined banneton, flour top of dough, cover with kitchen towel, place into large plastic bag, and into refrigerator on top shelf overnight.  Go to bed.
9:15am - I over slept.  Dough has slightly overflowed the banneton.  Leave in refrigerator.  Clean off baking stone, place on bottom rack, arrange steam pan with lava rocks and water on top rack.  Preheat to 550F with convection.
9:45am - Turn off convection, turn oven down to 500F.  Take banneton out, turn out onto floured peel, do not slash as it seemed overproofed…  Place directly onto baking stone.  Back 500F for 15 minutes, take out steam pan, turn down oven to 450F and bake for 50 minutes.  Let loaf cool completely on wire rack before cutting, at least 12 to 24 hours.

Notes:  300g of stiff levain for 650g of final dough flour when it is warm is too much for an 8 hour refrigerated proof.  Or, my rising basket is too small for 1446g of dough...

Happy Summer!

I had some extra sourdough starter that I needed to use, and have been craving pizza for breakfast.  This recipe is extremely easy and the dough is very flavorful and has a light sour tang.  Enjoy!

Tim

Recipe
266g AP (+ 1 tbsp of whole wheat flour)
176g water
54g stiff SD starter at 50% hydration straight from fridge
6g Kosher salt
502g approx dough yield

Canned crushed tomatoes
Fresh mozzarella (sliced and or diced)
Whole milk ricotta cheese (strained)
Fontina (sliced)
Radicchio - washed and shredded
2 eggs

Method:
12:15am - Mix all ingredients by hand in a mixing bowl until you get a shaggy dough.  Cover and let rest.
12:35am - Knead dough for a few seconds until it is smooth.  cover and let rest.
1:05am - Turn dough (stretch and fold) in bowl, lightly coat dough with olive oil, cover and let rise on counter overnight.
8:30am - Place baking stone with longest side parallel to the oven in the center of the bottom rack, preheat oven to 650F (turn oven on convection to 550F and preheat for one hour).  Place oven thermometer on stone to you can see the actual temp of the stone.
9:30am - Take thermometer out of oven.  Turn oven off convection.  On a floured work surface, stretch dough out to the size of the pizza peel, lightly flour peel.  Place pizza dough directly on baking stone and bake for 2 minutes.  Then, take pizza  crust out of oven, spread crushed tomatoes to the farthest edges.  Then on 1/3rd of the pizza, arrange the radicchio and fontina, on another 3rd, place the mozzarella, the final 1/3rd, place the ricotta.  In the center break 2 eggs.  Place pizza back into oven close to the left side of the stone for 3 1/2 minutes.  Scoot pizza over to right side of stone, bake for another 3 to 3 1/2 minutes or until the egg is cooked to your liking (slightly runny yolks).  Take pizza out, let cool for a minute or so, cut and eat.

Notes: Placing the pizza close to the edges of the stone allow the crust to receive the maximum amount of heat radiating from the bottom of the oven, so it chars like a wood or coal fired oven.  Moving the pizza from each side allows both sides of the crust to char.

Prebaking the crust avoids the wet soggy crust under the toppings, and also makes the pizza easier to place into the oven without risking the dough sticking to the peel, or the sauce and toppings weighing down the crust.

Hey All,

Just wanted to share with you probably my most successful attempt at baking a pandoro like bread to date.  I have tried baking this type of bread along with panettone with little success since college (15 years or so).  I sort of improvised this recipe so I can't vouch for the "authenticity" of it but I can assure you that this is the best tasting, best textured bread using lots of eggs, milk, butter and sugar that I have ever baked.  I have also opted to use only my stiff sourdough starter to leaven this thing, and have mixed everything by hand.  I probably should have done a better job documenting, but it's too late now.  I also used the paper panettone molds as I don't have the traditional star pandoro molds.  As a final note, this bread takes forever to make, and forever to rise.  Don't rush it.  It is ready when it's ready...

Enjoy!

Tim

Recipe
Sweet Starter
110g AP
46g egg (1 extra large egg)
16g sugar
50g stiff SD starter @ 50% hydration
222g approx starter yield

6/29/11
**Stiff SD starter should be fed 1 to 2 days before and kept in refrigerator.
10:45pm - In a bowl, mix all sweet starter ingredients, knead until well combined, cover and let rest 15 minutes.
11:00pm - Knead sweet starter for a minute or so until the dough is smooth, wrap in plastic wrap tightly and tie with a twist tie.  Please in a covered plastic container and place in refrigerator on top shelf (not in coldest part).  Go to bed.

Final Dough
500g AP
164g eggs (3 extra large eggs)
136g whole milk (scalded and cooled)
100g sugar
225g unsalted sweet cream butter (2 sticks) at room temp.
12g Kosher salt
12g honey
2 tsp vanilla extract
222g sweet starter
1372g approx dough yield

2 paper panettone molds 5" diameter, 3 3/4" tall

6/30/11
10:00pm - Weigh out all ingredients using a digital scale.  Scald milk and let cool.  Take out sweet starter out of fridge.  The starter should be well expanded, like a balloon.
11:00pm - Place all the flour into a large mixing bowl along with the salt, create a well in the center, add the eggs, milk, vanilla extract, honey, mix with a rubber spatula into a shaggy dough, then knead by hand in bowl for a few minutes until a relatively smooth dough has formed.  Cut sweet starter into a few pieces and knead into dough. This operation should take about 15 minutes.
11:15pm - 11:30pm - Cover and let rest.  Place entire bowl into a large plastic bag.
11:30pm - Knead in sugar by hand.  About 1/3rd of total amount at a time until all this sugar is added.  This should take about 10 minutes to do.  
11:40pm - 12:00am  - Cover and let rest.  Whip the butter with a wire whisk until fluffy.  Butter panettone molds and refrigerate.
7/1/11
12:00am - Knead in butter by hand.  About 1/3 of total amount at a time until all the butter is incorporated.  This part is particularly gross.  Add the butter, and squeeze the butter into the dough with your hands.  The dough will look like it's falling apart, but it will eventually come back together.  Do not worry about kneading the dough until it passes the windowpane test.  It just won't happen by hand, or with AP flour.  This should take about 15 to 20 minutes.
12:20am - Divide dough into 2 equal portions, shape into a boule, place in separate bowls, cover and let rest.
12:45am - Final shape, and place into butter molds, cover with plastic wrap, place on sheet pan and into large plastic bag and refrigerate overnight.  Dough should fill the mold about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way.  Go to bed.
7:30am - Take out of refrigerator and place on kitchen counter.  Let rise.  Go back to bed, or make some coffee...
9:30am - Have breakfast.
12:30pm - Go out and take a walk, do some shopping.
3:00pm - Come home to check on the pandoro.
4:00pm - Place oven rack on 2nd from the bottom.  Preheat to 400F.
5:00pm - When the pandoro domes slightly above the top of the mold, egg wash if you like, place them into the oven on a sheet pan, turn down oven to 350F and bake for 40-45 minutes or until the internal temp reaches 190F.  

5:45pm - take out of oven, check internal temp.  Cool on wire rack and let rest for at least 12 hours.  Try not to cut into them before they have cooled completely...

Here's the crumbshot:

Hi All,
Just wanted to let you all know I'm still baking even if I'm not posting as often...  Here's the latest from my kitchen:
1.  Invisible Pizzas (We forgot to take pictures)
2.  Baguettes
3.  Olive Oil Brioche with Dried Pears and Toasted Walnuts

This recipe makes 2 pizzas, 2 baguettes, and 2 olive oil brioches...  Bear with me through all the madness:
Recipe: (Makes approx 3000g of base dough)
Stiff Levain:
400g @ 50% hydration

Sponge:
200g AP
200g Water
1/2 tsp instant yeast
402g Total

Final Dough (approx 65% hydration):
1196g AP
52g WW
36g Rye
808g Water
38g Kosher Salt
1 1/2 tsp Instant Yeast
402g Sponge
400g Stiff Levain

For Olive Oil Brioche with Dried Pears and Toasted Walnuts
180g Extra Virgin Olive Oil
175g Dried Pears
175g Toasted Walnuts

Tools:
Digital Scale
Large Stainless Steel Mixing Bowl
Measuring Spoons
2 - 4L Plastic Tubs with Covers
Rubber Spatula
Plastic Scraper
Bowl with Water
Large Plastic Bag
Baking Stone
Steam Pan with Lava Rocks
Oven Thermometer
Instant Read Thermometer
Peel
2 Loaf Pans
Baker's Linen

Method:
1.  Prepare stiff levain, mix, let ferment for up to 1 hour, and refrigerate for 24-48 hours.

2.  4:45pm - Mix sponge, cover and let rest for up to 1 hour.

3.  5:30pm - Mix base dough by hand in large mixing bowl. Add wet ingredients, and then dry ingredients on top.  Mix from bottom up with rubber spatula.  When shaggy dough forms, mix dough with wet hands for a few seconds to work out all lumps.  Place in bag and let rest for 1 hour.

4.  Roughly cut up dried pears, and toast walnuts in pan and let cool.  Lightly oil 2 tubs with olive oil.  6:30pm - Stretch and fold dough and divide into 1600g and 1200g portions.  Place 1600g gram portion into oiled tub, cover and let rest.  7:00pm - Turn baguette dough, and in the mixing bowl with the 1200g portion, add 180g of olive oil and slowly mix by hand until olive oil is combined completely into the dough.  This takes about 10-15 minutes.  Then add the toasted walnuts and dried pears.  Mix until combined evenly, place into plastic tub, rest for 45 minutes.

5.  7:45pm - Turn baguette dough, and brioche dough, rest for 1 hr 15 minutes.

6.  9:00pm - Arrange baking stone in oven on 2nd rack from bottom.  Preheat with convection until oven thermometer on baking stone reaches 600F.  Divide baguette dough into 4 pieces at 400g.  Preshape 2 baguettes.

7.  9:15pm - Final shape baguettes, place on bakers linen couch, cover and let proof for 60-90 minutes.  Oil 2 loaf pans with olive oil, divide dough into 2 equal portions (900g approx), shape brioche, brush tops with olive oil, cover with plastic wrap and leave to proof until dough reaches top of pan, then refrigerate.

8.  9:45pm -  Prepare pizza as you like, turn off convection and oven temp down to 550F, and bake for 6-7 minutes directly on stone.  Boil some water in a pot for steam pan.

9.  10:30pm - Turn oven down to 475F, Pour boiling water into steam pan, and place on top rack of oven.  Turn baguettes out on to flipping board, slash and place in oven.  Bake 10 minutes at 475F with steam, then 15 minutes at 450F without steam.  Cool completely before cutting.  Take brioche out of refrigerator.

10.  Turn oven down to 400F, remove plastic wrap from brioche, place in oven in pan directly on baking stone.  Bake for 45 minutes until internal temp reaches 190F to 200F.  Turn oven off.  Remove from pan, return loaves to oven directly on baking stone for 10 minutes.  Cool completely before cutting.

Whew!

Enjoy…

Tim

Hi everybody,

Sorry haven't been around posting much.  I have been baking, but on a much smaller and less often scale these days, and blogging much less...  I'm pretty much swamped at work these days...  Yesterday evening though, I did find some time to bake a little something...

Enjoy!

Tim

I'm finally able to drag myself to my computer to edit photos and do a fancy write-up of my latest bakes…  I've been spending too much time at work lately, and have not had time to write about baking, which seems to take more time and effort than just baking alone…  

Anyways, I had some yogurt that had been sitting around, and I've been too lazy to eat it for some reason.  I remember seeing a recipe on Zorra's blog for a Yoghurt loaf: http://kochtopf.twoday.net/stories/joghurtbrot-yoghurt-loaf/.  

These are my versions.  Version 1 is direct proofing, using more yeast, and making the bread in a few hours with direct proofing.  Version 2 uses less yeast, some honey, and refrigerated proofing.  I think version 2 is much better in all aspects, especially crumb and flavor…  Enjoy.

Tim

1/18/11 - Yogurt Bread - Part One - Direct proofing

Recipe
900g AP
100g WW
620g Water
22g Kosher Salt
200g Yogurt (Stonyfield Organic Cream Top)
176g Sourdough Starter (Storage starter at approx 68% hydration)
10g Instant Yeast
2028g Total Dough Yield

Method
8:05pm - In a large mixing bowl, add wet ingredients, and then all dry ingredients on top.  Mix with rubber spatula for approx 3 minutes, or until dough forms shaggy dough.  Cover with plastic bag and let rest.

8:30pm - Squish dough with wet hands to make sure all the lumps are gone.  Turn dough in bowl using wet hands and plastic scraper 3 times using letter fold method.  cover and let rest.

9:00pm - Turn dough, cover and let rest.

9:30pm - Turn dough, cover and let rest.

10:20pm - Divide dough into 2 equal pieces, shape into boules, place seam side up in well floured, linen lined bannetons.  Place bannetons in plastic bag.  Let proof for approx 1 hr.

10:30pm - Arrange baking stone (14" x 16"), and loaf pan with lava rocks and water filled about 3/4 way.  Preheat oven with convection to 500F for 1 hr.

11:30pm - Turn boules out onto floured peel, slash as desired, place into oven directly on to stone.  Bake for 10 mins at 500F with steam, no convection, then turn down to 450F, remove steam pan, rotate loaves, bake for another 30-35 minutes, or until internal temp reaches 210F and loaves weight 15% less than pre bake weight.  Cool overnight on wire rack before cutting and eating…

1/22/11 - Yogurt Bread - Part Deux - Retarded Proofing

Recipe
900g AP
100g WW
600g Water
20g Kosher Salt
30g Honey
200g Yogurt (Stonyfield Organic Cream Top)
190g Sourdough Starter (Storage starter at approx 68% hydration)
4g Instant Yeast (1 tsp)
2044g Total Dough Yield

Method
1/22/11 - Evening
10:26pm - In a large mixing bowl, add wet ingredients, and then all dry ingredients on top.  Mix with rubber spatula for approx 3 minutes, or until dough forms shaggy dough.  Cover with plastic bag and let rest.

10:32pm - Squish dough with wet hands to make sure all the lumps are gone.  Turn dough in bowl using wet hands and plastic scraper 3 times using letter fold method.  cover and let rest.

10:45pm - Turn dough, cover and let rest.

11:30pm - Divide dough into 2 equal pieces, shape into boules, place seam side down in well floured, linen lined bannetons.  Place bannetons in plastic bag, place in refrigerator overnight.  Go to bed.

1/23/11 - Next Morning
9:10am - Take bannetons out of fridge, place on counter.  Arrange baking stone (14" x 16"), and loaf pan with lava rocks and water filled about 3/4 way.  Preheat oven with convection to 500F for at least 1/2 hr.

9:45am - Turn boules out onto floured peel, place into oven directly on to stone.  Bake for 10 mins at 500F with steam, no convection, then turn down to 450F, remove steam pan, rotate loaves, bake for another 30-35 minutes, or until internal temp reaches 210F and loaves weight 15% less than pre bake weight.  Cool completely on wire rack before cutting and eating…

Sent to Susan at Yeastspotting on 1/26/2011

Hey All,

Wishing you all a very happy 2011.  Here's my first loaf of the year.  It was for my friend Sarah's birthday on January 2nd...  I've been baking pretty much the same bread for the past few months save for few high percentage rye breads which I will write about when I have some more time and energy...  This bread is one of my best recipies of late...  Here's the recipe and process:

Total Recipe:

750g Total Flour

540g Total Water (approx 72% hydration)

16g Kosher Salt

40g Storage Sourdough Starter @ 80% Hydration

1346g Total Dough Yield

**Storage Sourdough Starter at 80% to 100% hydration fed within a few days and kept in fridge.

Equipment:

Digital Scale

Oven with convection

Oven thermometer

Instant read thermometer

Large mixing bowl

Rubber spatula

Plastic scraper

Large plastic bag

Linen lined 8" to 10" banneton/brotform/colander lined with tea towel (non terry cloth)

2 baking stones

Wooden peel, or some way to get the loaf into the oven directly onto stone

Cheap loaf pan filled with lava rocks

Bowl of water to wet your hands/scraper/spatula

Rye Sour:

76g Rye Flour (Arrowhead Organic)

76g Water

20g Storage Sourdough Starter (I am keeping mine at about 80% hydration these days)

172g Total

Levain:

38g WW Flour (Whole Foods 365)

38g AP Flour (Whole Foods 365 and/or Hecker's)

76g Water

20g Storage Sourdough Starter (I am keeping mine at about 80% hydration these days)

172g Total

Final Dough:

598g AP Flour (Whole Foods 365 and/or Hecker's)

388g Water

16g Kosher Salt

172g Rye Sour

172g Levain

1346g Total Dough Yield

Process:

12/1/11

12:30am - Weigh out ingredients using a digital scale, mix starters in separate bowls, cover and let rest on counter at room temp...  Go to bed.

10:30am - Weigh out final ingredients using a digital scale.  In a large mixing bowl, add ingredients in the following order: water, starters, flour, salt.  Mix with rubber spatula into a rough shaggy dough, then with wet hands squish out any dry clumps, scrape down bowl sides with wet plastic scraper, place bowl in plastic bag, close and let rest.

11:30am - Using a wet dough scraper, scrape the dough from the sides of the bowl, then with wet hands stretch and fold the dough 4 times.  Pick up the dough mass from the center, lift and let the front part flop under, and release.  Turn the bowl 180 degrees and repeat.  Each time, you can squish the dough down with lightly wet hands.  cover and let rest.

12:00pm - Turn dough using method above, return to bowl to plastic bag, close and rest.

12:30pm - Prepare proofing basket by generously flouring the linen/cloth.  Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface/board, shape into large boule/round, and place into proofing basket seam side up.  Lightly flour the dough, cover with cloth towel, place into entire basket into plastic bag, close and place in top shelf of refrigerator.

10:00pm - Take dough out of fridge and place on kitchen counter.  If using an 8" basket, dough should be domed over top of basket.  Do the poke test to see if the intentation springs back slowly, but a small impression still remains.  Prepare oven by arranging one baking stone on the lowest level, and the other on the highest level.  Place bottom baking stone with the length going front to back.  Prepare lava rock loaf pan, fill 3/4 way with water.  Place steam pan on bottom rack to the side of the baking stone.  Place oven thermometer on bottom stone and turn on oven to 500F with convection.  Make sure your kitchen is well ventilated, open the windows and run fans.  This is especially important if you are using a gas oven.

10:45pm - Remove oven thermometer with tongs/oven mitts so you don't burn yourself.  Turn off convection.  Lightly flour wooden peel, gently loosen dough from basket and turn onto peel.  Slash as desired and place into oven directly onto bottom stone.  Close oven door.  Bake 10 minutes at 500F with steam pan.

11:00pm - Remove steam pan, turn oven down to 450F and bake for another 40-45 minutes.

11:40pm-ish: Check weight of loaf and internal temp of loaf.  If weight is approx 15% less than the pre-bake dough weight, and internal temp has reached 210F, then loaf is pretty much done.  You can turn the oven off and put the loaf back into the oven for another 10 minutes.

11:50pm-ish: Take loaf out of oven and let cool overnight on a wire rack...  Go to sleep...

Loaf profile

Close-up of crackly bottom crust

Bad crumbshot picture from friend's iPhone camera...

Enjoy!

Tim

Submitted to Yeastspotting on 1/4/2011