Chausiubao's blog

Last month was SFBI's Artisan 2 class, and I was there! I have no idea if there were any other TFL people in attendance, but there was one group who decided to name themselves, "the loafers" so I did wonder. Then again, nobody mentioned anything about an internet forum, so who knows.

At any rate, I came out of the class and made this,

 72% hydration, 25% pre-fermented flour, and 0.08% yeast, with a retarded final proof.

I was motivated to make it partly because I wanted to put my starter back to good use after spending so many days away from it as well as to try some different feeding schedules and feeding percentages for said starter. I'd always stuck to a 10% seed for feedings with a once daily feeding schedule, but armed with a few new perspectives I played around a little. 

Starter:

100% Flour

100% Water

40% Seed

Total

100% Flour

72% Water

2% Salt

50% Starter 

The starter was ready, at 8 hours compared to my previous feedings, so it got a 6 hour retardation until I was ready for it; as far as I can tell, that worked out fine. I must say though, it smelled amazing during the mixing and folds, it had plenty of aroma. Even at 72% hydration, the dough was a bit dry, this is perceptible in the crumb as well.

While nice, the crumb is just ever so slightly dry and crumbly, though that might be due in part to a lack of strength in the mix 

 While not a particularly dramatically beautiful bread, the crust, flavor, and aroma are all pleasant and appealing. Yet the texture of the crumb is somewhat lacking, and that is one of the things to love about bread.

 Since school there was one nugget of sourdough wisdom that had always been drilled into me, “firm starters produce acetic acid and liquid starters produce lactic acid”, the lesson continues that breads made from the appropriate starter will also produce breads of following acidity, with lactic acid being the weaker of the two. Yet, recent discussions of the topic point to the opposite, which does make some sense, with less water to move around in, bacteria would be less able to access appropriate nutrients, therefore, energy, with which to grow and reproduce. So the by-product of their existence, acid, would be lower in quantity, regardless of the relative strength of their specific acid. 

 Two of Hamelman's sourdough formulas, the “Vermont Sourdough” and his, “Pain au Levain” are virtually identical but for two procedural discrepancies, the Vermont Sourdough uses a 125% hydration starter and is retarded for the final proof, whereas the latter utilizes a 60% hydration starter and has absolutely no retarded fermentation whatsoever. This being the perfect experimental set up for proving the truth of this question to myself, I decided to mix these two formulas, and conclusions come what may.

The main question here could be summarized as, “What differing flavor profiles are a result of extending the bacterial fermentation compared to relatively limiting their growth?” A secondary question was, “What is the optimal final proof time of a sourdough loaf?”

Vermont Sourdough

90% Bread Flour

10% Rye Flour

67% Water

1.9% Salt

15% Pre-fermented Flour

Pain au Levain

95% Bread Flour

5% Rye Flour

67% Water

1.8% Salt

15.5% Pre-fermented Flour

Both doughs were mixed to an improved window and medium soft consistency. They were also both bulk fermented for approximately 3 hours with a single fold at 90 minutes. After shaping, the procedure diverges when the Vermont Sourdough is retarded overnight and the Pain au Levain is not. The loadings of both doughs were staggered, with the first half of the batch being loaded when I felt it was appropriate, the second set, after that.

Results:

Interestingly enough, neither dough was particularly acidic. The Vermont Sourdough had some acidity on the back end with particular emphasis on the after taste, but not unpleasantly so. Comparatively the Pain au Levain had no discernible acidity. Despite the rumor that naturally leavened breads are sour, this was an exception to the rule. In both cases the oven spring was greater then desired. This was true in both the first and second loadings of both doughs. Even at a three hour final proof, there was excessive oven spring. There may have been complications with the shaping of the loaves exacerbating any underproofing here; but the second loadings had less spring then the first sets.

Next:

Dough fermented with a liquid starter and retarded overnight produced a more acidic flavor then a dough fermented with a firm starter and no retarded fermentation. This much is clear, which of these two variables contributed more to the acidity is still uncertain. This with a longer final proof will have to be explored next time!

I've made quite a few batches of pineapple buns by now. So much so that I've got my own nicely formatted excel spreadsheet with all the relevant information about the latest particular incarnation of the pineapple bun (including the topping, though that is on a different spreadsheet). I will attempt here to explain it in as much detail as possible. And God willing, it will actually come out, seeing as how I've only just mixed it to rest, and have yet to finish mixing it, let alone doing all the other bready type things it still requires before I can eat it. Let us begin!

One nice thing about my method is there is no need to measure any water temperatures! With the addition of pre-gelatinized flour, I cook it before I start mixing and generally my final dough comes out around 80F, which, while a tad bit warm, is quite workable. That being said, there are three stages in my method for pineapple buns; mixing the pineapple topping, cooking the pre-gelatinized flour, and finally the actual mixing and preparation of the bun dough.
So we start with the topping,

Butter 81 g

Sugar 111 g

Egg Yolk 40 g

Sweetened condensed milk 60 g

Evaporated milk 60 g

Bread flour 252 g

Milk powder 14 g

Baking powder 20 g

Mix up by the creaming method. So basically, cream the sugar and the butter, then fold in the eggs, followed by the liquids and then by the dries. Then wrap it up and chill it while you finish up the second and third parts.

Onto the pre-gelatinized flour (PGF); I've been following convention and doing 6% PGF, so that amounts to this formula,

Bread flour 58 g

Milk 290 g

This is pretty simple, just heat up the flour in a pan with about equal parts of flour and milk, then as it heats and as the flour dissolves, add successively more milk until all the milk is in. You will be cooking the flour until it forms a thick paste, in other words when it has obviously gelled.

Now for the bread part of the equation, you can scale all the ingredients, except for salt, directly into your mixing bowl, I have a planetary mixer, so I throw all the ingredients into there, being careful that ingredients that shouldn't touch don't (like eggs and sugar, hot flour paste and yeast).

Bread flour 907 g

Sugar 183 g

Butter 77 g

Salt 10 g

Yeast 15 g

Milk powder 24 g

Eggs 145 g

PGF 350 g

And because of the personality quirks of the planetary mixer I have my liquids in the bottom of the bowl, as much as possible at the very least. The mix starts off with the paddle for incorporation, then I switch to the dough hook for three minutes, the point at which all the ingredients seem equally distributed. Now I've thrown the salt in, and allowed it to rest for 15 minutes.

Another 3 minutes on first speed is for mixing in the salt, then it needs to be developed on second speed, however long it takes is however long it takes. Here it is after 7 minutes.

And again after 18 minutes on second speed. Needless to say it takes a long time to mix. When you combine the butter, sugar, and milk, it is quite the hydrated dough, but with time it will be properly developed.

At 80F it will be about 45 minutes to bulk ferment, give it a fold out of the mixer. Once this is completed, the dough was divided at 75 grams, rounded and placed eight to a papered sheet pan. Once proofed the rounds were topped with the pineapple bun topping, a flattened round about two inches across and baked at 375F for about 12 minutes.

I think I've narrowed down the bake to 375F fom 10 to 12 minutes. The mixing as well was spot on, with a 15 minute pre-development rest done without the salt and an 18 minute development phase on second speed. What still confounds me is the placing of the cookie dough on top of the dough prior to the bake. Sometimes the oven spring grows the round so that the cookie dough grows on the side of the round rather then right on top. That may mean that I need to use a thinner piece of cookie dough, but not so thin that it tears as the round grows. Quite the conundrum.

Having flipped through Hamelman's “Bread” many, many times since it came into my hands I've always wanted to do the roasted potato bread. But rather I busied myself with other breads. Most notably, the 40% rye. This was mostly because I'd both mixed and eaten the 40% rye before and knew that it was within my abilities and within my tastes as well. Then my focus shifted from the lean doughs to the enriched pain de mie and I spent many a bread excursion dedicated to teasing out the secrets and the nuances that were required to make that bread that I had grown up with from the Chinese bakery. But having seemingly discovered the keys to both the mixing and the shaping of the pain de mie I've discovered it is entirely possible to explore further and so I began the journey down the road of the potato bread.

Firstly, I didn't have any whole wheat flour, so I replaced it with whole rye flour, which I had on hand anyway. Secondly, I added a 30 minute rest period between the incorporation and development phases of the mixing. Other then that, I followed the recipe to the letter.

Next, the results; not bad, I got a pretty decent opening, but found that that was entirely dependent on my scoring. It is essential that I score deep enough, or else there isn't enough allowance for the oven spring. On the other hand, my loaves were a bit flat, its possible that can be remedied with a squatter shape.

For next time, I'll have to tighten up my shaping and score deeper. Also, the potatoes need to be properly incorporated at the end of the mixing.

Hamburger buns, finally; again

My last journey into the recesses of my memories of pride and egotism brought out many a story of my declarations with respect to hamburger buns. “White bread is easy,” I declared to the world, but my heart having been shattered into a million pieces I return here to accomplish now what I could not then! That subsequent attempt resulting in a consecutive shattering of my heart, I return again undaunted in my quest for a good hamburger bun!

What I will say about my last attempt at hamburger buns via pain de mie was that the buns were both improperly proofed and slightly overbaked. The final product was both dense and tough. It is also possible that skinning over of the dough during the oven pre-heat cycle also hindered oven spring, contributing even more to the problem. That in mind, I've made a few changes to both my formula and my approach.

Here is my hypothesis: enriched white bread doesn't rely on fermentation for flavor, therefore focusing on flavor in the production of aforementioned enriched white bread is wasteful. Rather, these breads rely on the ingredients they contain, namely sugar, dairy, and other additions, so these ingredients should play first fiddle in the formula and the method of preparation. I have doubled the yeast in this particular incarnation of pain de mie to this end, no doubt I will need to refine this change over time.

In my previous attempt I was cold proofing the final shapes. I was hoping the sealed space of my oven was enough to facilitate the proofing of the buns. I believe I was wrong! So I'll throw in a boiling pot of water and see how that helps things along. Additionally, I baked the hamburger buns for 18 minutes at 400 F. This might have been excessive, considering the dough has much higher surface area compared to before, the dough will bake much faster. Perhaps, 400 F for 12 minutes, or 350 F for 20 minutes. Then again, I would imagine, a lower temperature would dry out the dough, so a fast, hot bake seems like the better option. I'll try 400 F for 10 minutes and see where that takes me. A secondary note to add to that is that a full bake doesn't mean the dough should be fully colored, as you could see in the last batch of hamburger buns. Ultimately what I am saying is, more yeast, warmer proof, and a shorter bake should give me better results compared to last time!

After an hour of bulk fermentation, division, rounding, and a rest, the shapes are flattened, maintaining the round shape.

This is about 30 minutes of final proofing in my oven with a steaming pot of water to provide heat. In the end, the dough was proofed about 45 minutes before they went into the oven.

A little less then 10 minutes in a 375 F oven, baked with steam, and double panned to prevent overbrowning on the bottoms.

And the final product, once out of the oven, brushed with heavy whipping cream and allowed to cool. Much better then last time, the first picture posted.

I admit, 3% yeast might have been overkill, and it was. But the results were quite attractive. Somewhere between 2% and 3% will get me where I want to be. Additionally the proof temperature definitely helped a lot, as did avoiding the skin from forming on the dough while it was exposed to the dry air outside the oven. This time, it took a mere 10 minutes to bake at a temperature of 375 F. I had to double pan the buns in order to prevent excessive browning on the bottoms, but it was well worth it. I declare this a success! I'll have to make burgers tomorrow.

More then a few times now I've stroked my ego and declared, “grilled burgers with handmade hamburger buns!” Each time I might add, it has been in front of the eyes and stomachs of my friends. Whatever they happened to think of my attempts and the results that they ate, I knew the truth. They were horrible! Not surprising, considering my experience up until this point has not been in straight doughs, has not been in hamburger buns, and I really didn't know what I was talking about. Give me some dough to laminate, some brioche to mix. I can make several different types of hearth bread shapes, but more “American” type breads I am ashamed to say I am somewhat ignorant.

That last statement would be true up until about two months ago when I started working at an establishment that focused on making hamburger buns and dinner rolls. Sure there are some other types of breads, brioche pullman loaves for example (brioche toast for breakfast?), but more then anything else, we make thousands and thousands of rolls and burgers. And it really blew my mind, one of those steps. It makes sense though, if you want a wide, squat, cylindrical bread, your bread shape has to be wide, squat and cylindrical. You take a nice well rounded roll, let it proof up, then you smash it flat. I must admit, it hurt to flatten my little burger babies.

Sure at the other bakery I worked at we did the same thing. But we didn't do it anywhere near to the same extent. We didn't let them proof up, but more like like them rest. We didn't flatten them completely either, seeing as how they weren't particularly relaxed after being rounded. Just a gentle love tap all across the top. They were slightly flattened, and it was visible in the final product, a somewhat squat, yet quite tall, “hamburger bun”. But what they have me doing now, its totally different. Everything gets smashed flat. All the burgers that is. Kaiser rolls too, and the result is just like at the grocery store! Which is not necessarily a good thing, or a bad thing for that matter. It is different. A different shape for a different job I imagine. So tonight, having gotten out of work early armed with the knowledge working at an American bakery has equipped me with, I will be having hamburgers tonight.

The last time I made a lean dough, the results were dissatisfying. A small opening, poor flavor, and a lusterless crust having none of the virtues of oven venting. Truly, it was my own fault. I neglected the mantras of pre-ferments and long fermentation cycles. And it is very likely I under-proofed it as well. Taking the time I've been given, I've decided to try and rectify those oversights. I went about making my preferment, calculating the proper water temperature. But it was all for nothing! I overlooked the need for cold pre-ferment and cold water, and as a result, lost control of the fermentation process. But in the end I achieved one of my goals of getting a more open crumb.

If it isn't too vain of me, I really want to make attractive bread. Then again no matter how beautiful your bread, that first bite solidifies that love that sets in when you see a particularly pretty loaf, so you need both. But if structure is function, a beautiful baguette is a well made baguette. Part of the reason I mixed this formula was to get a little experience making bread with a more open crumb. As a home baker, that goal has been elusive; but I also want to make tasty bread!

The pre-ferment had to go through the night without over-proofing so I mixed it dry at 60% hydration with one third of the formula's yeast, bringing the pre-ferment to 0.5% yeast. It was mixed just enough, then allowed to bulk ferment overnight. The mix itself was a straight mix, and was developed to just shy of an improved window, three periods of 45 minute bulk fermentation followed, each period was punctuated with double letter folds. Ultimately two, one-kilogram rounds sprang from the dough and were shaped into batards. Baked at 450 F until done, they were vented around eight minutes.

My, my that was boring. But it got the job done. I made a number of mistakes this time, on top of the mistakes that I made the last time. But luckily, those mistakes I didn't make again, except for the possibility of over-proofing, rather then under-proofing. But these things happen. I probably should have put the pre-ferment away after it got some momentum, better results would have come from letting it go long and slow in the cold. I also should have put my water pitcher in the refrigerator so I'd have the option of cold water for mixing. Since I did neither of those two, I couldn't control my dough temperature. With all my temperatures in the low 80s, 15 F is the water I needed. The best I could do was 78 F water. Ultimately the dough came out at 82 F, a bit higher then the 75 F sweet spot. All manner of other troubles befell my bread, I'll list them for you; lack of tension in my finished shape, perpendicular scores of varying lengths, and skinned over shapes.

The flavor was definitely less robust then I'd like, I'm certain this is a result of the fast fermentation the dough went through. 0.6% yeast and it was probably doubled in size within 60 minutes. The water was too hot, something I could have avoided. And that is the easiest error to fix. If I had but remembered to put away the pre-ferment or put away my water pitcher. No bigger problems lie in the smaller mistakes. I must shape tighter, score more consistently, and wrap my mind around some type of proofer. I cannot have my shapes skinning over! And I don't have a couche, and even if I did, the air is so dry here in Colorado. I'll have to figure something out to fix that. It is by far, the largest of my problems. I will put it beside my mind until my next day off; farewell!

Hello!

With respect to hydration, I think I've decided to tell myself, “You know what hydration you want, go get it.” Having set out to make challah, I dutifully followed a formula, as the ingredients rumbled about in the bowl, ploddingly worked by the dough hook (which I may say is doing a mighty fine job at mixing bread doughs, it is quite a surprise I must say. I'll have to put away the elitism of hand mixing for the present.), it was nothing but a pie dough without the liquid. Quite surprised I certainly was. After a few revolutions I decided to add some water, and if I were called to account, I'd probably say I brought the water up to around 50-55%. Not even having taken into account the oil and eggs that go into the mix!

I also discovered I am in desperate need of a spray bottle. That is, if I intend to practice my braiding and gain the practiced hands to do some decorative pieces for work. That was the intention for all this after all! But I'll say no more about that. All these braided doughs require a rather stiff consistency, which means dry, which means unfavorable conditions that are certainly accentuated by the climate I've found myself in. The air is a good deal drier here at 6000 ft above sea level. What was I talking about? Probably something unnecessary.

I've found without milk powder, or buttermilk powder or whatever I can find really, the white bread formula I did last week just didn't cut it. It wasn't toothsome like I like; like Chinese bread is. Not that I have any legitimate Chinese bread recipes, but that is why I have to feel them out until they're passable. So I go from one extreme to the other, from the soft white bread of American wonder bread companies to the not so American, super strandy challah, which I know is a good toothsome bread.

I just poured myself some Santa Cruz brand limeade. And as I was doing so, I was thinking to myself, “Well hasn't this been a little digression! We should get back to talking about challah.” But as it turns out, the few sentences I put down before said glass of limeade happened to be about challah! Fancy that.

Well the challah is in the oven now. It has got a whopping 3% of yeast! That is substantial, considering the aforementioned white bread formula, so called, “pain de mie” has only 1.6%, so challah is about twice as well yeasted as that loaf ever was. But one can't simply scan over numbers and make blind comparisons. There is something to be said for understanding, conceptual especially; when we take into account pain de mie is at 50% hydration, while comparatively, this particular mix of challah is at 50% or so. Hydration facilitates fermentation; while yeast is more abundant in this challah formula, the rates of fermentation might very well be equivalent! There is proportionally more fat and sugar in challah as well, so the slight differences in the yeast percentages after taking hydration into account are probably hand wavingly explained away by that. Actually scratch that, those are all lies. They're both at about 50% hydration, although there is more fat and eggs in pain de mie, so it might could be true, but the percentages are actually quite similar. So it appears that this particular challah formula is just well yeasted.

If I might drift back into a nostalgic haze, you know I actually can't remember why I was going to do that. But I was going to glow a little about how I egg washed the challah. I did it three times! The first time because I wanted to keep the dough from drying, the second time because it did, and the third time because I wanted it to dry before the loaves went into the oven. And thats very important! You should have seen how glossy the dried egg wash was on the unbaked loaves. It was positively the most spectacularly shiny dough I've ever seen.

Well I've probably rambled enough. My this limeade is delicious. Perhaps you've gleaned something of value from my meandering through the afternoon whilst mixing, shaping, and baking up a storm. At the least, you've seen a glimpse of, well of something.

 My my, it looks like the challah got overbaked. Well you can see it anyways, but next time I'll have to amend the baking time, I'm going to say its closer to 15 minutes rather then 20 minutes.

This time last week I had just started a new responsibility. Having been in Colorado a solid week and a half and started working at an old bakery in an institution of a hotel I came to find my days off horribly split across the weekend. Friday and Sunday off? What would happen, pray tell, to my Saturday? Fortune has turned her most beautiful face my way and I came to find that I would have two days off, in a row no less! It was simply cause for celebration. That being said, I decided to bake bread. Having accumulated some of the essentials of the kitchen, however not all the essentials as you will see in my ingredient list, I put myself to work fashioning a loaf of bread. I deliberated at length in whether to enrich the dough or not, it was a question of dairy and sugar or none. But my vacillation was easily concluded at the discovery of a lack of butter in the apartment, so I soldiered on and went about designing a straight dough, mixed directly! At upwards of six thousand feet above sea level I'd been told there was a need to increase hydration, decrease leavener, and decrease baking temperature in order to avoid overproofing and the consequence therein, collapse of the dough. Was I surprised that temperature, leavener, and hydration all seemed to work out without a hint of adjustment? Why sure I was! But not unfortunately so. I said to myself it was better to not complicate matters and risk confusing myself. So with a firm nod to my good fortune I finished my mostly unnecessary calculations and went about scaling my ingredients. Both the flour and the air temperature in the apartment was ~75 F! It was quite amazing. Using 69 F water that brought me to a dough temperature of 74 F, so it would make sense that I can start a new base temperature for this recipe at 220 F. From this air and flour temperature can be subtracted until I arrive at my desired water temperature! It was to be glorious.

But if I may step out in audacity for just a few minutes, it is clear to me that the dough was most likely undermixed, overproofed, or some other problem. The opening on top was certainly just a little too small. Alternatively the sides of the loaf were nice and tell. In the middle of the bulk fermentation it got a bit of a fold and I did pull a decent window after the mix. So I will conclude that the dough was overproofed with a dough temperature and air temperature approximately 75 F, and a proof time of 90 minutes. Next time I do this, all conditions remaining about the same it may be beneficial to reduce the final proof time. I will bring this gushing, somewhat bubbly exposition to a close with a simple statement; there is nothing more satisfying, then taking a loaf of bread out of the oven and hearing it sing to you in its own crackly way. The end.

French dough made with poolish is a wonderfully extensible and easy to shape. Unfortunately for me this particular batch was a bit on the short side.

As a home baker I always have trouble getting a nice open crumb, usually whatever I was making whether enriched or lean would always be tight. Which is not to say that it was "bad" but it was a really troubling condition of my bakes. Baking in a bakery on the other hand is quite the opposite. Achieving a tight crumb in a spiral mixer requires intentionality, an oddity when we consider the fact that its one thing to mix doughs by hand and quite another to mix them in a machine. Mixers are rough, unyielding, and can go on as long as they have the power to; hand mixing with kneading or folding, depending on your bready sensibilities, is comparatively gentle and definitely not a process that you can do forever. So you would think that mixing a dough by hand would always give you a good open crumb. But my own experiences seem to invalidate that hypothesis. So stepping back, we say that your cell size is dependent on the level of gluten development (also dependent on how strong your flour is) because mixing, in addition to incorporating all your ingredients, primarily develops gluten, by hydrating flour.

So if there are additional factors besides pure gluten development and flour strength, what are they? The first and most obvious is the proof. It has to be, its the period of time when you allow your yeast to fill up cells with gas, and the more gas, the more these cells are stretched and thus bigger air cells. Which brings up another point, dough extensibility allows maximum volume. I would imagine bulk fermentation also plays a minor role in this, as without good fermentation (and momentum), a good proof will be longer and more difficult. A good hot oven as well promotes maximum oven spring as the yeast are introduced to so much heat.

The one thing I don't understand is the effect of shaping on air cells. I'm reasonably confident good shaping will facilitate an open crumb, but then again to a certain extent a "good" crumb is what you make of it. If you want a tight crumb, you will shape it such that your finished product has a tight crumb, and vice versa for an open crumb. It would make sense for the orientation of your air cells to be effected by the shaping. If you shape a baguette and overhandle it such that its twisted and uneven, the air cells you get are probably going to be destroyed or torn up.

Shaping and proof have a fundamental impact on the crumb of your bread, so lets stop worrying about gluten development and worry about the whole process instead!