breadsong's blog

Hello everyone,

                              
                …pretty daisies on the exhibition grounds, greeting me as I arrived for the Baking Congress

Summer arrived this week – I’m happy for all the people who have travelled to Vancouver (at this time of beautiful weather!), to participate in the Baking Association of Canada’s Baking Congress, held yesterday and today.
I was able to attend yesterday, enjoyed the company of many really nice people, including TFL’s Floyd, running into him unexpectedly :^)
Floyd's post about the event is here - great coverage and lots of really good photos!


Craig Ponsford, Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie gold medal winner (1996) and former chairman of the Bread Baker’s Guild of America (BBGA) conducted bread-baking demonstrations, ably assisted by Tracy Muzzolini, a member of Team Canada 2008 and the BBGA. Both taught at BBGA's WheatStalk event last summer in Chicago but I didn't have the opportunity to take their classes - so it was wonderful to seem them at this conference. Thanks to them both for the instruction, and their hard work putting together the demo!  

A nice variety of 100% whole-grain breads were prepared – baguettes and Red Fife and barley pretzels (baked that day) and I was able to see Craig shape pumpernickel, braid challah and mix Danish dough to be laminated the next day.

Craig has published a collection of whole-grain and gluten-free recipes for the California Raisin Marketing Board – formulas for delicious-looking pumpernickel and pretzels are here:
http://www.calraisins.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/WholeGrainGlutenFree-Ponsford_W.pdf
http://www.calraisins.org/professionals/processors-manufacturers/baking/spotlight

Craig shared lots of interesting information during the demonstration I saw.

 
(display of how the wheat berry components can be separated during milling, part of the lovely display at Nunweiler's Flour booth - the gentleman there very generous, sharing information about milling, and samples of their organic, whole-grain flour)

On whole-milled flour:
- the components of the wheat berry are never separated when flour is whole-milled; flour labelled as whole-wheat could have the endosperm, germ and bran separated and re-combined
- how to tell if the flour you have has been whole-milled: the flour will never sift out white, as the germ ‘smears’ when milling and gives color to the flour; the flour will have similar particle sizes so you won’t see large pieces of bran
- whole-milling stabilizes the germ
- you can use 2/3 less yeast when using whole-milled whole-wheat flour as this flour provides more food for the yeast


On mixing:
- 2nd speed mixing too aggressive for whole-grain flour
- recommended less mixing time and using folds, to preserve flavor
- add salt later on intensive mixes; if you add salt too soon, dough can build strength too fast and potentially break down before it’s fully mixed


On sweeteners:
An interesting thing Craig does to cut down on white sugar is to substitute agave syrup or fruit puree (applesauce, banana or prune puree, raisin paste, hydration may need adjusting if using a really wet puree). He mentioned he includes applesauce in his Pumpernickel bread – wish I could have been there to taste the baked bread!

On shaping:
Craig used wet hands and roughly air-shaped the pumpernickel paste, placed it in a tub of coarse pumpernickel meal, making sure it was completely coated in meal before placing in a greased pan, and noted you can keep the rye paste super wet as the coarse rye will keep on absorbing.

 
...really coarse pumpernickel meal, and a toss into the pan

And when braiding the challah, he demonstrated how you can braid ‘up’ instead of braiding on a horizontal plane; I think he said it was easier to see what you were doing. It was like he was braiding a little tower - I wish I could have captured that braiding method on video.


On pretzels and lye:
Craig sprayed the pretzels with a 4% lye solution, using a regular spray bottle. I thought this was a wonderful idea - no splashing or dripping as might happen when dipping, no distortion of the shape because you’re not moving the pretzels, and you might not have to mix as much solution?

Here’s the baked baguette, super flavor!:

and the crumb... 

These are pieces of the pretzel cut up for tasting

(I was preoccupied taking the picture and regret not taking a piece, to sample)

A short seminar on sprouted grains was presented by Everspring Farms.

The lady presenting (I regret not catching her name) discussed the nutritional benefits of sprouting, and some variables to consider when sprouting - time and temperature (germination times of 12 to 48 hours were mentioned), and the variety of wheat (as germination weakens the grain).
The lady presenting also mention the duration of germination would affect the amount of sprouted grain you blended into your mix (the longer the length of germination, the lower the inclusion of rate of sprouted grain flour); and that using sprouted flour can give a softer crumb and slow staling.
She also said sprouted grains can be used as a wet mash, but to mill into flour, are the sprouted grain is dried down at a low temperature.
Here’s a picture of a wet mash:
(ground with the Kitchen Aid grinder)

I tried making a sprouted grain bread with that mash, along with additional sprouted whole-wheat flour once, and really liked the bread! The seminar was a good reminder to get organized and try this again.

Here are some pictures of Artistry, on display:

                                                        



                                  

 (this bread was really good)

Dogwood flowers crafted by a young lady from Vancouver Island University, above in color, below, au naturel



This Spring, I've tried to take pictures of dogwood blooms and I'd say the ones above look very realistic!

  

It was a very enjoyable day at the Baking Congress, so glad I attended - met many helpful and kind people, saw some beautiful baking and got the chance to taste delicious things.

Happy baking everyone,
:^) breadsong

Hello everyone,

January’s Bread Baking Day theme is “A Bread Fashion Show”, with a call for decorated crusts.
What a lovely idea!

                                                                                

A Fashion Show seemed to call for fabric – how to use fabric to decorate bread?
I was reminded me of a photo I saw once, of one of Roger Gural’s beautiful breads, stencilled with a lacy pattern.
Off to the fabric store I went.

This is Mr. Hamelman’s Unkneaded Six-Fold French Bread, using a big piece of lace to stencil, for this month’s baking challenge. I wish I could say I used fancy French lace – this was more likely drapery material :^)    

Many thanks: to Mr. Gural for the inspiration, to Mr. Hamelman for his delicious recipe, to Jenni at The Gingered Whisk for a wonderful idea for this month’s challenge, and to Zorra for her Bread Baking Day event.
I’m so looking forward to seeing what other bakers will create for this month’s ‘decorated bread’ baking theme!

*Update to this post - one more entry for the Fashion Show :^)

I was going through some photos and remembered this bread I baked a long time ago (2011).
This bread was inspired by a fashionable, floral, felted hat, made by a very talented lady I met at a bread-baking class -
I wanted to add this bread to this post!
This sourdough bread's crust was covered with decorative dough 'flowers', that had been colored with white flour, cocoa and cornmeal; the 'leaves' were colored with green pea flour. Had fun with cookie cutters, for this one :^)
                               

Happy baking everyone,
:^) breadsong

Hello everyone,

I saw a beautiful post on stirthepots.com last February – 
Jeremy’s lovely take on a Swedish seed bread (Svenska frö bröd).
The ‘mosaic of a crumb’ Jeremy described; all those beautiful seeds! That bread looked so, so good.
It took me awhile to look up his friend Martin’s blog, and bake this bread – I’m so glad I did! - here's a slice... :^)

                                    

There’s so much I like about this bread!

Tons of seeds (pearled barley too)  ;
rye sour and a decent proportion of whole grain flour; easy mixing and process;
the delicious flavor and keeping qualities.

There were some interesting things in Martin’s formula and process.
Martin recommended a cold soak for the seeds, to soften them but not so much that they disappear into the crumb after baking.
Bread syrup was one of the ingredients. I wasn’t sure what bread syrup was but Jan Hedh had a definition in his book Swedish Breads and Pastries (syrup is 25% sugar). I thought I’d try molasses, and for another try, barley malt syrup from the brewer’s, as a substitute.
The mixing was really quick; no dough development, just long enough to combine the ingredients, then the dough panned and retarded.
Reading through Martin's post, the timing for this bread seemed so convenient, the process easy; and they were! :^)

For this bread, I wanted to emphasize barley, since barley is one of ‘seeds’ in this bread.
Barley malt syrup (a dark, thick syrup found at a brewshop) was used in place of bread syrup, and barley flour in place of whole rye called for in the original formula, for the final dough.

                                     The baked loaf

The formula for the bread picture above:

I liked this bread so much I experimented a little bit with the flour and syrup, making a couple of other versions -

whole barley flour, regular molasses at 24% of flour                         
(a bit of sweet carried through in the flavor - factoring in seeds, too, dough may have had about 10% sugar overall)
(scaled approximately 1400g dough for 9"x4"x4" pullman pan)

whole rye flour in final dough, blackstrap molasses at 12% of flour
(a bit of extra water added to compensate for the decreased amount of syrup)
(scaled 768g dough for 8.5"x4.5" bread pan)

In terms of flavor and texture, these breads were moist, chewy, hearty, rich and full of flavor.
Thank you so much to Martin in Sweden for this beautiful bread, and to Jeremy for his gorgeous version of it!

Happy baking everyone!
:^) breadsong

Submitted to YeastSpotting :^)

Happy holidays everyone!

This is a take on Guro’s lovely Caucasian Bread – a Christmas version, colored red, with sun-dried tomato pesto
for the filling :^)

There was a lovely round-up of Roses in this post (so many pretty breads featured!, which got me thinking about savory fillings and flavors for this bread).

Here's the recipe for the sun-dried tomato pesto (makes more than you will need for the rose bread):
Place in food processor and process until you have a smooth paste:
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes (preserved in oil, but drained)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 cup sliced almonds
2 Tablespoons chopped parsley
1/8 to 1/4 cup grated asiago or parmesan cheese

Add 1 Tablespoon olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, 3 drops Tabasco sauce, and 1/2 cup real mayonnaise.
Process again until smooth. Adjust salt to taste. Transfer to bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
The recipe called for a bit more olive oil, but I held back, not wanting to make the pesto too thin (concerned it might run out during proofing and baking).

This is my interpretation of Guro's formula. I kept hydration to 63% as I liked how that worked when making
Julia's rose bread, and reduced the yeast as I was going for a longer, overnight fermentation.
I used half of the dough to make the rose, and saved the other half to make something else.

Flour counter; roll dough to 15"x20".
Cover dough with 190g of sun-dried tomato pesto, leaving a clean border (about 1/4").

Roll up from long side;  brush flour off of dough as you roll

Cut in half lengthwise (used a serrated knife).   
Fold open to expose the layers. Pick up one piece and lay over the second piece, forming an 'X' shape, keeping the cut sides facing up.

Twist the pieces to form one long rope  Coil the rope to form the rose

Proof for about one hour. Some of the olive oil might leak out during proofing

Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes, or until 195F internal temperature is reached, turning loaf for even browning or covering with foil to prevent overbrowning, if needed.

 a colorful, flavorful crumb! :^)

Thank you, Guro! This was a fun and very delicious bread to make. It had the aroma of a really good pizza,
while it was cooling.
I was regretting not having any fresh oregano to add to either the dough, or the pesto!
Something to look forward to, for next time, although the bread had wonderful flavor as is.

Happy baking everyone!
:^) breadsong

Submitted to YeastSpotting :^)

Hello,

I participated in World Bread Day in October, and wanted to bake an “Overnight Bread” for November’s Bread Baking Day.

I have a new, beautiful bread book (Flour Water Salt Yeast, by Ken Forkish), with a formula for an 82% hydration,
75% whole wheat levain bread (there’s a tiny bit of instant yeast, too). I wanted to try this one, adapting it for a long, cold overnight fermentation, encouraged by the lovely result David achieved recently.

The dough was hand-mixed after a 90 minute autolyse; three sets of stretch-and-folds in the bowl with 10 minute rests in between yielded a gluten window like this (tried to stretch a gluten window with one hand while holding the camera in the other):

Dough temperature was 73F prior to mixing and had cooled to 69F, at the start of bulk fermentation. Bulk ferment was two hours at room temperature with a fold after one hour. The dough showed signs of movement after the two hour bulk ferment; it was then refrigerated overnight.

The dough was removed from the fridge after 18 hours (the dough had doubled at this point). The dough was warmed at room temperature for one hour, then divided, preshaped and rested for 25 minutes. After shaping, proofing was at 80F (humidity added) for one hour, prior to baking.  
In the Professional Baking class at Kneading Conference West this past September Jesse Dodson mentioned that for whole wheat breads, proofing has to outpace the loss of gas and so recommended a warm, fast proof for breads for these types of breads. Phil’s comment in David’s post reminded me of this.

David and Phil certainly get wonderful results with their bakes! so I was curious to see what might happen if I attempted similar fermentation and proofing temperatures/times.

I was thinking of Eric Hanner’s beautiful version of Katie’s Stout and Flaxseed Bread when I shaped this loaf, the natural, organic opening of the seams that was so pretty after baking. I tried proofing seam-side-down, for this bake, grateful for Eric’s example.

Baking started at 460F, in a reducing oven, final bake temperature 435F and loaves left in oven for 10 minutes with door ajar at the end of the bake.

The baked bread, and crumb (crumb shot is from the loaf on the right)
 

 
In his book, Mr. Forkish writes about bringing his bread back to the place where it was born.
It was nice to read that, as I was using locally-grown whole-wheat flour, baking one of these loaves 
for my local farmer and his family :^)

Very grateful to Mr. Forkish for his lovely book (full of so many gorgeous breads), and to Eric and David for their inspiring posts; and happy to have baked this for November’s Bread Baking Day (we loved the flavor of this one)!

Happy baking everyone!
:^) breadsong

Hello everyone,
I caught an episode of "Mexico: One Plate at a Time", on TV - hosted by Chef Rick Bayless.
Fresh flour tortillas were the subject - very quickly made, using a food processor.
The recipe is available online at rickbayless.com  -
(I used the ingredients posted online, and the method demonstrated on TV, to make these tortillas). 

                         Here's one cooking...

Fresh flour tortillas...0h-so-delicious! They puffed up nicely while cooking:
   

                  This one ballooned just like a pita!:

My adaptation of the recipe and method:

I wouldn't hesitate to make these flour tortillas again - they were fabulous; enjoyed freshly-cooked, a delight!
Thank you, Mr. Bayless!

Happy baking everyone,
:^) breadsong

Hello everyone,

We visited Terra Breads recently and sampled their apple focaccia (loved it! – a really delicious, seasonal bread for fall).
A friend of mine and I were talking about salted caramel awhile ago...a flavor I adore.
Here is what I came up with, trying to re-create Terra Bread’s delicious apple focaccia, with salted caramel, 
here at home :^)

For the apples, I used the Honeycrisp variety; for the bread, an enriched, slightly-spiced dough; and finished with a salted caramel sauce.
This version is sweet! - sweeter than the bakery’s, the caramel sauce being a bit thicker.
On the apple focaccia we tasted from the bakery, sesame and thyme leaves were used as garnish. I did the same, sprinkling on top, when baking was finished and after the caramel glaze was brushed on.
The white color of the sesame was a nice contrast to the rich color of the caramel, and the green thyme leaves added another touch of color (and flavor!). I love fruit and herb combinations and really, really enjoyed the combination of apple and thyme, along with the caramel.

Some were baked as individual ‘focaccie’ and I baked one ring-shaped bread, in a trois frères mold: 
  

The formula and method (based on a Bara Brith dough I made awhile back - less spice and minus the dried fruit):

... the pre-cooked apple slices:

...individual focaccia before baking;                                             close up of overlapping slices, ring mold, after baking:
       

... the baked focaccia, before glazing: 

The crumb of one of the focaccie:
(had to force myself to put the knife and fork down, in order to be able to pick up the camera, to take this picture! :^)    )

 
Yum, I thought this bread quite rich and delicious and was happy to indulge with the salted caramel, a special treat!

Happy baking everyone!
:^) breadsong

Submitted to YeastSpotting :^)

Hello everyone, and Happy 'World Bread Day'!
Here are some breads baked over the last while, lovely flavors from different countries :^)

                                                                                     



For Canada (Victoria BC and Manotic, Ontario),
Cliff Leir’s 50% Whole Wheat (with thanks to MC-Farine for her post), baked with Watson’s Mill Flour,
a lovely flour kindly sent to me by Franko (his post on Watson's Mill is here):
 

***

For the United States (San Francisco, CA), SFBI Miche, a formula posted by dmsnyder - thanks so much, David!:
 

***

For the United States and Sweden, two breads presented at WheatStalk 2012 (Chicago, IL):
Richard Miscovich's 100% Sprouted Whole Wheat       Solveig Tofte's Vort Limpa Rye (Orange, Anise, Fennel)
    

***

For France, Roasted Garlic Fougasse, from Jeffrey Hamelman’s book Bread, and MC-Farine’s Pain de l’Abbaye Saint-Wandrille:
 



***

For Germany, a variation of Jeffrey Hamelman’s 80% Rye with a Rye-Flour Soaker (honey, walnuts, spice):
 

***

For Russia, Andrew Whitley’s Borodinsky (from his book, Bread Matters), flavored with beautiful coriander:
 

There was a world of great flavor with these breads - very happy to remember how good these breads tasted,
for World Bread Day :^)

Happy baking everyone!
:^) breadsong

Day 3 - The last day of the Conference - as I arrived, was happy to be greeted by dew-kissed apples in the orchard,

and another beautiful, sunny breakfast :^)

 

There were also fresh, wood-fired bagels – my goodness, we were spoiled with all of the fresh, lovely food we were presented with!:
 

***

The morning passed quickly, being very absorbed in Scott Mangold’s class, “Test Baking with Local Wheats for Home and Bakery”. Scott is a very good teacher and gave very practical advice on the testing process, and conveyed his considerable level of skill and experience as he assessed locally-grown wheats, whose properties could be unknown or vary from season to season.

MC (farine-mc.com) has (so kindly!) written a detailed post about Scott's class, found here:
http://www.farine-mc.com/2012/09/scott-mangold-test-baking-with-local.html

Assessing rise and spread of doughs made with two different local, whole-wheat flours:
                              

The baked breads: I got to taste two of them – both were good, and but my favorite was the bread made with Red Russian wheat - I sure do hope I come across that variety of wheat someday, for baking ; its flavor was exquisite :^)

 
Four varieties of local wheats tested: Renan, Hedlin Farm's Bauermeister, Camas Red Fife, and Red Russian

A close-up of one of the loaves:

***

After the morning class, one last walk along the colorful path from the Sakuma  Auditorium; so many pretty flowers :^)
               

***

We were treated to another great meal, a lasagna lunch (yummy and from Patty Pan catering), before saying our good-byes or departing for tours that had been scheduled for the afternoon.

This year’s Kneading Conference West was, just like last year, great fun and a fantastic opportunity to get together with so many other generous people, interested in bread and grains, and willing to share their knowledge and experience; I sincerely hope this Conference continues as an annual event at WSU.
Many thanks to the hard-working organizers, instructors/presenters, volunteers and caterers for making it such an educational and enjoyable event to attend!

:^) breadsong

Previous posts: Kneading Conference 2012 - Day 1
                          Kneading Conference 2012 - Day 2

Another gorgeous day for the Skagit Valley, and a sunlit breakfast waiting for us as we arrived for Day 2 :^)
 

…and, if you wished, you could have pie for breakfast!

***

After breakfast, Andrew Whitley, co-founder of The Real Bread Campaign in the UK, led the day with his keynote address “Bread Matters”.
MC-Farine has a really good summary of Andrew’s talk here:
http://www.farine-mc.com/2012/09/andrew-whitley-bread-matters.html

Andrew described his realization that for some, tasting bread can take them back to a place where bread mattered.
It was very interesting to hear Andrew describe what motivated him to become a baker, write his book, and to co-found the Real Bread Campaign, in efforts to improve the state of bread in his home country. I’m sure Andrew’s efforts have brought much joy to people, firstly by baking good bread for them, and then by teaching how people to make it for themselves :^)  

***

During the day, I popped in an out of the Professional Baking Class taught by Jesse Dodson (first picture below), Michael Eggebrecht and Martin Philip (second picture below). 
 

A wealth of knowledge with these three, and I tried to jot down interesting and helpful things they mentioned:

Whole Grains:
- whole-milled flour lasts longer (is more shelf-stable?) than flour that has been re-combined
- whole grains like to ferment a little warmer that white dough
- proofing for whole grains has to outpace the loss of gas; mix whole grains to 80F dough temperature, so the warmer temperature will promote faster gas production, resulting in shorter final proof/fast to the oven
- with whole grains, colder temperatures will amplify acetic flavors, warmer temperatures will amplify lactic flavors

Dough Temperature:
                               
- a good dough temperature for a French bread (baguette dough) is low 70’s (F); mixing too warm will
result in a tighter crumb (wish I’d thought to ask why!)
- dough temperature and effect on duration of bulk fermentation (assumed to be happening at 70F room temperature):  as a guide, you can expect a change of 7 minutes per degree per hour of fermentation; for example, ciabatta that might bulk ferment at 75F for 180 minutes (3 hours), if mixed to 78F instead of 75F, would have a 63-minute reduction in bulk fermentation time (7 minutes x 3 degree temperature difference  x 3 hours original bulk fermentation = 63 minutes) – so your dough would bulk ferment 117 minutes instead of 180 minutes
- if trying to use environmental compensations (fridge, or a warming device) for dough temperature that didn’t hit the target, your dough will ferment unevenly around the perimeter)

Masters of shaping and scoring:
It was a pleasure to see these talented bakers working with the dough, shaping and scoring!
This is pre-shaped baguette dough:

Jesse demonstrating blade angle, batard scoring:

Cutting épi de blé:
 

Steam:

                                            
- too little steam affects crust color and how cuts expand, but too much steam will also affect how cuts expand
- smaller loaves jump in the oven more quickly that larger ones, and so require less steam than larger loaves

Rye:
- the coarseness of the rye grind affects hydration but also the accessibility of the endosperm – what I understood Jesse to say was if the endosperm’s accessibility was reduced as a result of how the rye was milled, less starch could be converted to sugar and that would affect fermentation
- Jesse mentioned when baking dark rye, they tried steaming a second time, 8 minutes into the bake, and got another ½” of height in the baked loaves
- Andrew Ross noted, you can adjust the acidity in your dough if you know the amylase present (represented by falling number) in your flour, for a particular harvest

Baked!:
 

 

***

I would have loved to have caught Naomi Duguid and Dawn Woodward’s class “A World of Flatbreads” but did manage to get these pictures (flatbreads baking, tasty samples, and a happy dough, bubbling and fermenting away in the sunshine):

                      
                                         

***

There was also an enormously fun demo by Mike Dash of Rolling Fire Pizza, with gorgeous and silky Caputo 00 dough for shaping and baking…
 

Guess which slice had my name on it? :^)

***

There was an afternoon tour of the Bread Lab and demonstration of the various pieces of equipment used for testing flour properties – what wonderful tools to have to help determine the baking properties of the beautiful grain being grown at this WSU extension.

***

Later that afternoon, Naomi Duguid and Dawn Woodward, along with Gary Moulton, presented “Sensory Analysis of Cider, and How the Descriptives Relate to Bread”.
             

It was very interesting to consider the aroma and flavor descriptions that typically apply to wine, beer and cider and consider how those descriptions translate to the aroma and flavor of bread:
                       

***
Then, more Skagit Valley Tastings! More delicious cider (apple, and a gorgeous blackcurrant from Finn River), accompanied by some beautiful barley bread, made by Andrew Ross (who taught a barley class last year at KCW), and Hannah Warren:
  

 

***
Also so enjoyable, the beautiful, sweet bouquet of sweet peas,

intensified by the warmth of the late summer sun...

***

Then, a delicious BBQ dinner provided by Bonanza B-B-Q,  as the sun started to set on this second, wonderful day :^) …

Previous:  Kneading Conference West 2012 – Day 1
Next: Kneading Conference West 2012 – Day 3