breadbakingbassplayer's blog

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

To be updated...

Tim

This is a crazy looking bread from the town of Matera in Southern Italy made with durum flour and a natural sourdough starter…  I had tried making this bread before with the durum flour, but made the dough too wet so it wasn't very easy to shape.  This most recent attempt was reasonably successful.  What makes this bread interesting is that it is shaped after the final proof and dumped into the oven.  Please see the links below about this bread and how to make it...

Links about this bread in Italian:
http://mollicadipane.blogspot.com/2008/12/il-pane-di-matera_7869.html
http://www.gennarino.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=14036
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng4jnGnLTb4

My attempt is using my sourdough starter to make a biga naturale and AP flour.  I have also taken liberties in the processing of the dough, so the taste is probably not that "authentic"...

Total Recipe:
1250g AP
825g Water
125g Sourdough Starter @ 100% Hydration
30g Kosher Salt
6g Instant Yeast
2232g Total Dough Yield

Biga Naturale
250g AP
126g Sourdough Starter
144g Water
520g Total

Final Dough
1000g AP
682g Water
520g Biga Naturale
30g Kosher Salt
6g Instant Yeast
2232g Total

6:45pm - Mix biga natural and let sit covered for 3-4 hours.
7:15pm - Mix flour and water from the final dough.  Mix until combined well (2-3 minutes) and place in lightly oiled large plastic tub, cover and let rest.  This is basically a long autolyse.
9:45pm - Sprinkle the kosher salt and yeast over the flour and water dough.  Cut up biga natural and distribute over the dough.  Knead for a few minutes until well combined and the yeast and salt are dissolved in the dough.  About 5 minutes.  Do not add flour.  If the dough sticks, just wet your hands and continue.  Cover and let rest.
10:30pm - Turn dough (stretch and fold method), cover and let rest.
11:00pm - Divide dough into 2 equal pieces, preshape into boules, place each in it's own plastic bowl that is 2x it's size, seam side down.  Cover and let rise for 2 hours.
12:00am - Place baking stone in oven, preheat with convection to 500F.
12:50am - With a plastic scraper, gently scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, shape (Watch the video.  It's tough to explain this one…), slash, place on lightly floured peel and place into oven directly on the stone.  When last loaf is in, bake for 15 minutes at 450F with convection.  Then, turn off the convection, bake for another 15 minutes at 425F, then 30 minutes at 400F.  Turn off oven, and leave in for another 15 minutes.  Cool completely before cutting.

I made these for some friends of mine, who I hope will give me a crumbshot as I don't have a loaf for myself…  I saw one of them today, and it looked very good…

Tim

Here's the latest bake...  70% Whole Wheat Pain Au Levain...  I'm trying to make a WW bread that also tastes good.  I think this is one of my more successful results...  I'm also working on a new boule shaping method that I'll call the "snail" method...  I think this is the best method as of late for shaping...  I'll post the recipe and method if anyone is interested... For now, here's another 360 degree view along with crumbshot.  Enjoy!

Tim

Inspired by one of Shiao-ping's early bakes...  I'll post a description shortly...  For now, here's a 360 degree view of the loaf...  It's cooling now, so I'll have to post crumbshot pics tomorrow...

Enjoy!

Tim

Recipe:

500g AP

300g Water

150g Sourdough Starter @ 100% Hydration

12g Kosher Salt

7 Scallions/Green Onions

Sesame Oil

962g Dough weight not including scalions/sesame oil.

Method:

10/15/10

10:00am - Feed storage sourdough starter 100g AP and 100g water, leave on counter covered.  Should increase by 50% in 2-3 hours.

12:40pm - Mix all ingredients in large bowl with wooden spoon.  When a rough dough forms, squish out all the lumps with wet hands, cover and let rest.  This should take no more than 5 minutes.

2:24pm - Stretch and fold dough in bowl, cover and let rest.

3:29pm - Stretch and fold dough in bowl, cover and let rest.

4:20pm - Stretch and fold dough in bowl, cover and let rest.

5:30pm - Stretch and fold dough in bowl, cover and let rest.

6:00pm - Wash, dry, thinly slice scallions, place in bowl and set aside.

6:30pm - Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface.  Stretch dough out like a pizza.  Brush dough lightly with sesame oil, and distribute scallions on top of dough.  Roll dough into log, then with the seam side up, roll dough up into a snail.  Please seam side up in floured banneton, place into plastic bag.  Proof for 3 hrs.

9:00pm - Arrange baking stone on 2nd rack from bottom along with steam pan (loaf pan filled with lava rocks, fill halfway with water).  Preheat oven to 500F with convection.

9:45pm - Turn off convection.  Take banneton out of plastic bag, sprinkle boule lightly with flour.  Lightly flour peel.  Turn dough out onto peel, slash lengtwise (along the roll), place into oven directly on stone.  Bake 500F for 10 minutes.  After the 10 minutes, remove the steam pan, turn oven down to 450F and bake for another 35 minutes.  After, turn oven off, leave loaf in for another 10 minutes.  Cool completely before slicing and eating.

Sent to Susan @ Yeastspotting on 10/17/10

There was a period of time where my brother and I were buying each other different salts for fun…  He went to Hawaii one time and brought me back a small bag of  Alaea Sea Salt (Hawaiian Red Salt).  Time passes, I buy him some other salt…  Then he goes to Hawaii again to visit a friend of his, and she sends him back to the mainland with 3 more bags of the stuff, which he gives me…  So now, after a few years, I still have tons of the stuff, so what better idea to get rid of some of it by trying some in bread… 

Interesting stuff.  It contains a small amount of harvested reddish Hawaiian clay.  You can reference this website: http://www.saltworks.us/alaea.html for more info.  The salt has an interesting clay/mineral taste to it.

I decided to make a simple pain au levain and try the stuff out… 

Ingredients:
900g AP (King Arthur)
50g WW (King Arthur)
50g Rye Flour (Mix of Hodgson Mill and Arrowhead Mills Organic)
250g Liquid Levain @ 100% Hydration
660g Water
26g Alaea Sea Salt
1936g Approx Dough Yield

Method:
10/4/10
7:00pm - Feed storage starter 100g AP and 100g water.  Starter should double in 2-3 hrs.
10:00pm - Weigh out all ingredients, grind the salt with a mortar and pestle.
10:15pm - In a large mixing bowl, add in the following order, liquid levain,  water, flours, salt.  Mix with rubber spatula until a rough dough forms, then with wet hands squish dough until there are no dry lumps.  This should take about 3 minutes.  Place bowl in large plastic bag, rest.
11:00pm - Turn dough, cover and let rest.
11:30pm - Lightly oil a large plastic container (4L).  Turn dough (stretch and fold in bowl), place in plastic tub, place in refrigerator.  Go to bed.

10/5/10
8:45am - Take dough out of refrigerator, turn dough in container, cover, return to refrigerator.  Go to work.

6:15pm - Divide dough into 2 equal pieces (975g), preshape into boule.  Let rest 15 minutes seam side down.
6:30pm - Final shape, let proof in floured linen lined bannetons seam side up.  Place bannetons in plastic bag to prevent drying.
8:45pm - Arrange baking stone and steam pan (loaf pan with lava rocks.  Fill halfway with water).  Preheat oven to 500F with convection.
9:30pm - Turn off convection.  Turn boules out onto a lightly floured peel, slash as desired, place into oven directly onto stone.  When last loaf is in the oven, close door.  Turn down to 450F.  Bake for 50 minutes.  Remove steam pan 15 minutes into bake.  Rotate loaves halfway through bake.  At end of bake, check internal temperature and weight.  Should be between 205F to 210F, and weight approx 15% less.  Return loaves to off oven for another 10 minutes.  Let loaves cool overnight before cutting and eating…

Notes:  I should have let the boules proof for 3 1/2 to 4 hours.

10/6/10
8:45am - Cut, take picture of crumb, eat...

Sent to Susan @ Yeastspotting on 10/6/10

So this is my last bake of the week...  Rustic slabs...  These are very large loaves weighing between 790g to 830g after bake and are about 15" long x 6" wide x 3 1/2" tall .  The total dough batch was about 4kg...  They contain 5% rye, 10% WW and 85% AP at 70% hydration.  I also used a 10% of my storage SD starter.  Enjoy!

Tim

Sorry for the late update of this post...  This is my attempt at a no knead ciabatta a la Jim Lahey.  It's basically his same ciabatta recipe at 87.5% hydration but with a little more salt, and some improvisations with technique.  I am very happy with my result except that I should have squished them down with my fingertips during the initial stages of the final proof to prevent the cavern that you will see in one of the crumbshots.  This result though is the most aerated crumb that I have ever gotten...  Ever...  I got a 28% water loss after bake...

Recipe:

400g AP

350g Water

10g Kosher Salt

1g ADY

761g Total

Method:

9/23/10

11:07pm - Mix all ingredients in bowl, cover.

11:54pm - Stir again, cover.  Go to bed...

9/24/10

8:15am - Dump dough out onto well floured surface, turn dough, place onto well floured iinen couche, cover and let rest.

8:40am - With a bench knife, cut the dough in half lengthwise, flour more, pull up couche to separate the two loaves, cover and let proof for 1 hr.  Arrange baking stones in oven along with steam pan.  Fill pan with water and lava rocks, Preheat oven to 500F with convection.

9:40am - Turn off convection.  Turn loaves carefully onto floured peel and place them into the oven directly on the stone.  When last loaf is in, pour 1 cup water into steam pan, close door.  Bake for 10 minutes at 450F, no convection.

9:50am - Take out steam pan, close door, bake for another 30 minutes, rotating loaves half way through bake.  Loaves are done when the internal temp reaches 210F, and are about 15% lighter than their pre baked weight...

Note: Here is my kitchen set-up.  I have a gas/convection oven, which vents out.  In NYC, we don't have exhaust systems that exhaust to the outside.  Instead, they exhaust into your face...  Fortunately my stove/oven is near the window.  I have a big fan that I point towards the outside.  When I start preheating the oven, I turn the fan on full blast...

10:10am - Let loaves cool before cutting...  At least 1 hour or so...  Notice the crackly crust, and the slug like shape...

Here are a bunch of crumbshots...

Oops!  That hole is big enough to put a sausage into...

Playing with bread...

Notice the crispy crackly crust...  This was so messy...  But really yummy...

Some more parting crumbshots...  Enjoy!

Tim