dabrownman's blog

After losing the beet pink in our Valentine Rose bake we decided not to give up and try another method hoping the red or pink would stick around in the crumb somewhere.  This time, instead of using beet juice and pulp we used roasted chopped beets.  We didn’t expect the crumb to stay pink but we hope that there would be some red blotches that hung around.

After reading Ian’s post on his fine looking cream cheese butter and milk enriched rolls we decided to use that as a base.  Instead of the milk we used this time, we will use buttermilk next time of the pink does not remain.  We cut the sugar and added more whole grains (30%), some potatoes, the chopped beets.  The hydration came in at 78% if you ignore the cream cheese and beets.  We made enough for 5 rolls of about 140-1455 g each wet - a good size for hamburger buns.

I know that hamburgers don’t sound very romantic for Valentines Day but, if you only get to have them once a month and you really go all out with  the fixings; bacon, caramelized onions, mushrooms and various peppers with lettuce, tomatoes and grilled steak sweet and white potato fries its not so bad and better than nothing.  Especially if you have some kind of Pink Valentine Buns with some sesame seeds on top.

While the SD levain, where all the whole grains ended up with the exception of the malt, Toadies and oat flour,  was building itself up to speed we autolysed the flours and everything else except the beets and cream cheese.  Once the autolyse met the levain we did 10 minutes of French slap and folds.

This is a wet and sticky dough and bits will fly everywhere but stick to it and the dough will come together nicely,  After resting for 15 minutes the first of (2) S& F’s were done 15 minutes apart and the beets were incorporated on the 2nd set

 After another 15 minute rest the cream cheese was added and incorporated with Slap and folds until it disappeared.  Little red bits of beets will fly everywhere and stain what ever they hit so care is required if you care – but I couldn’t care less.  The dough was allowed to ferment on the heating pad for 90 minutes before being bulk retarded for 14 hours.

The next morning the dough was put on the heating pad for 2 hours to warm up before the rolls were shaped and placed on parchment supported by the mini oven’s vented broiler top.  After 2 more hours the mini oven was fired up to 425 F with the bottom of the broiler pan inside with 1 C of water for steam.

The rolls were brushed with melted butter and covered in a seed and salt mix thenan egg wash was applied.  The buns were loaded into the hot bottom of the broiler pan in the mini oven.  After 8 minutes the bottom of the broiler pan and steam was removed.  The temperature was turned down to 350 F, convection this time.

Every 5 minutes the rolls were rotated 180 degrees to ensure even browning.  After 15 minutes the rolls reached 205 F and removed from the oven to a cooling rack.  Total baking time was 23 minutes.

The rolls sprang nicely and spread perfectly for hamburger bun shape.  They browned nicely due to the butter and egg wash, they were slightly crispy too with the seed mix helping.  The crust did go soft as they cooled.  The pink went away on the outside again but to a lesser degree than last time so we have hope there might be some on the inside. 

Valentine Pink Chocolate Rose Left                                                               Pink Valentine Hamberger Bun Right

Well it wasn't pink on the inside but the crumb was tinted a yellowish brown from the beets and there were were more pink/red splotches throughout.  The crumb was very soft, moist glossy and open.  It smelled like a buttery croissant!  Can't wait to taste them tomorrow  They are gorgeous on the outside and in - perfect for the holiday

Caramelized onions, mushrooms. poblano and Hatch chillies, smoked  brown sugar and maple cured bacon, pickled jalapenos, dill pickle spear and aged white cheddar.

Lettuce, tomato, Beauregard, Japanese yams and russet  wedge baked fries.

Formula

I joined in on The 3 Twisted Sister’s GMA bake this week to do a Valentine Rose.  The premise was to do Vienna bread dough and make it into a Valentine Rose somehow.  The GMA’s posted their fine examples yesterday so this was a tough act, all 3 of them, to follow.  But, we had the last of our left over panettone to use up and on our side.

There were all kinds of new things for us on this bake.  We have never made a Vienna bread before and was sort of taken back by the sugar, egg, fat and milk in most of the recipes on the Internet.  It was sort of Challah like when it came right down to it.  There are some recipes out there without all of these enrichments but if you can use them all – why not?

We wanted to put our own twisted outlook into this bread so we decided to take it pink and savory only to change our mind later, after the savory was in, to take it sweet too.  The pink came from slicing ¼ of a beet and putting it into the mini chopper with 50 g of water and having the mini chopper do its best to liquefy it.  After straining, we were left with some really beet red juice and some red beet pulp.

We mixed the beet juice with the water for the dough and it ended up making a pretty as pink dough.  The beet pulp we sautéed with some beet greens and a clove of garlic to use for the filling in the rose roll-up thinking savory was the way to go and the red and green filling would be nice in this bread.

Then at the last minute Red Velvet Cake into my apprentices brain somehow and she thought that the dough was more sweet than savory and some cocoa powder and sugar added to the filling would make it taste more red velvety.  She also thought that some chocolate chips would also be a good addition to the filling since she and most ladies know roses and chocolates are the bare minimum for Valentines day.

I went ahead with Lucy’s recommendations wondering how the savory beet greens, beet pulp and garlic would jive with the chocolate and sugar.  We added a mix of whole grains, to the leavain only.  It was our usual rye, spelt, Kamut and whole wheat  and got the whole grains up to nearly 20%.

While the last feeding of the levain was ongoing, we autolysed the rest of the ingredients sans filling for 3 hours.  Once the autolyse and the levain came together we did 10 minutes of French slap and folds and then let the dough rest for 20 minutes before performing 3 sets of French folds on 20 minute intervals. 

After the last fold we allowed the dough to rest 10 minutes before dividing it in two and rolling each out to 10” x 18” rectangle.  We brush each with melted butter first then sprinkled on the beet green and pulp, sugar and cocoa mix followed by the chocolate chips.

We then rolled it up from the wide end, pinching the seams and ending up with a rope 18” long.  After finishing the 2nd rope, we split each with a paring knife down the middle ending up with 4 rope halves.

Two of the rope halves were crossed in the middle and then braided each direction making sure to keep the cut side up.  Once the other 2 half ropes were braided together, each of the 2 braided ropes were placed on a baking sheet covered in parchment by coiling each in a snail shape, one following the other, again trying to keep the cut sides up.  The result was one fairly big pink rose.

We let it proof on the counter for 90 minutes in a plastic trash can liner before refrigerating it for a 12 hour retard.  The next morning the rose was allowed to warm up and final proof for 4 hours before being brushed with an egg wash and going into the 425 F baking stone for 10 minutes of steam.  We used a combo Sylvia’s steaming pans and David’s 12” Iron skillet with lava rocks for the steam.

The rose had expanded nicely while doing its final proof but it also sprang very well in the oven too.  After 12 minutes the steam was removed and oven turned down to 350 F, convection this time.  The bread was turned on the stone every 8 minutes to ensure even baking.  The rose reached 205 F and we turned off the oven with the door ajar to allow the crust to further crisp on the stone for 8 more minutes.

The rose was removed from the oven to the cooling rack.  Total baking time was 30 minutes – 12 minutes of steam and 18 minutes without plus 8 minutes resting on the stone for 38 minutes total.  The rose browned nicely due to the egg wash.  It is nice looking rose where we hope the pink survived under the crust but, we will not know for a couple of hours.

This bread turned out to be shocking 3 ways.  One, the pink dough went away with just some red where the beet pulp and leaf saute was incorporated - I was robbed!  Two, you can't taste any beet either - not a trace - nor the garlic either.  Three, this bread tastes wonderful as a sweet chocolate bread. So if you want the pink to stay, put in some red food coloring :-)

The crumb is so soft, moderately glossy and fairly open.  Where the yellow tinge in the crumb came from is strange since it is  coming from a definite pink.  I guess the egg and butter finally won out ?  I love the taste of this bread but I also want tomake a straighten up Vienna bread without the goodies added in.  It also has to be a fantastic bread on the sweet side.

Formula

This is another ‘Post Panettone Levain Build’ bake.  It is amazing how much wasted starter you can; will, end up with when making the Italian levain for panettone!  Not to worry….we came up with another bake that used up all of left over SD and YW levain; 392 g worth, with the exception of 100 g of SD levain we are saving for the Valentine Rose Vienna Bread bake with the Three Twisted Sister GMA’s on Monday.

These near white levains had been in the fridge for a few days and were a little sleepy so we gave them 108 g of our whole Rye, spelt and WW mix with 125 g of water and let it sit out on the heating pad to warm up and get perky again.

While the huge, now 625 g YW/SD levain. was waking up, we autolysed the dough flour; half WW and half bread flour with the salt, Toadies, VWG, malts, honey, molasses, and Guinness Black Lager for 2 hours.  The only thing left out were the pumpkin and sunflower seeds.

The huge levain ended up being 45% of the total weight if you discount the 100 g of seeds.  This is about 3 times as large as normal for our baking.  Ian uses large levains per Peter Reinhart but I’m not sure he has gone this big!  We have tried this before but forgot what is was like so my apprentice thought this was the perfect time to continue our 'try it and see if we like it' method - our Mikey Technique of bread discovery.

Once the autolyse and the levain came together, we did 10 minutes of slap and folds to get this 80% hydration dough to come together.  I wasn’t at all difficult since we had 60% whole grains, most of it whole wheat, which really soaked up the beer.  After 10 minutes the dough had a great feel, was smooth supple and exhibited fine gluten development for higher percentage whole grain bread.

 After resting for 15 minutes we did 3 sets of French Folds to incorporate and distribute the seeds and further develop the gluten.  We then let the dough ferment on the counter for an hour before retarding it in the fridge for 12 hours.  It more than doubled in the fridge just like John01473’s  did yesterday.

We allowed the dough to warm up on the heating pad for 2 hours before gently shaping it into a batard, loafish, oval shape that would fit nicely into the non stick sprayed, Romertopf, clay baker we got at Goodwill many months ago but never used it to make bread.  It made a fine Sunday Chicken though.  We had soaked the Romertopf in a 5 gallon bucket on the patio for a couple of days waiting for a good time to use it.

This bake was also inspired by Raluca’s boldly baked 65% whole wheat bread and lamberta72 buying a Romertopf and Bobkay1022 posting pictures of a very nice bake in his Romertopf  that healso  got at Goodwill like I did!  So it was time to put these additional inspirations together with Ian’s big levain and long bulk retard in the fridge.  It is not too odd, as odd things can go,  how things can come together for a bake with a little Fresh Lofian help.

After 4 1/2 hours in the Romertopf for final proofing on the heating pad, the bread was ready to be slashed and baked.  Slashing was made with my favorite French bread slicing knife,  We put the Romertopf in the very cold Old Betsy and fired her up to 460 F.  When she beeped that she was at temperature, we set the timer for 20 minutes of steam.  After 20 minutes we removed the lid and turned the oven down to 425 F, convection this time.

After another 10 minutes, rotating every 5 minutes, we removed the bread from the Romertopf and placed it on the stone and continued rotating it every 5 minutes to ensure even browning.  15 minutes later we turned the oven down to 400 F; convection and tented the top with aluminum foil to keep it from browning too much.  The bread reached 205 F 15 minutes later after a total baking time of exactly 1 hour after the oven beeped when reaching the original 460 F.

There was no reason to crisp the crust on the stone for 10 minutes with the door ajar and the oven off as this bread was very brown and crust crisp as all get out.   It was certainly a looker from the outside and the rise and spring were very good indeed.  We are impressed with the Romertopf, as much as we are impressed with Ian’s large levain, bulk retard, warm, shape and proof method.  If the inside is as good as the outside this should be one of those bakes we look forward to doing again.

The crumb wasn't as open as the rise, spring and bloom would have us believe but the crumb was light and moist with lots of smaller holes that must have added up to the rise and spring we saw on the outside.   Sometimes bread can fake you out.  It also tastes well rounded and has a deeply flavorful profile.  There is a slight SD tang that was muted by the YW.  The seeds came though nicely too.   All in all, it is  a very nice WW sandwich bread which is what we were after.  I'm sure my wife will love this for her lunch sandwiches - I know I will.  It is good be nearly out of panettone levain too - only  100 g to go:-)

It's a grilled pepper jack,  brie with pastrami cheese sandwich.  Great bread makes great sandwiches!  And don't forget the salad and fresh fruit, citrus, melon and veggies with a home made pickle.

If you eat right you can have some lemon cheese cake with chocolate sandwich cookie crust once in a while.

Formula

This is yet another bread, and one still to go,  that resulted from the panettone bake where huge excesses of levain waste was required to build the Italian starter.  In this case we had some YW and SD levain hanging around in the fridge.  But the first thing we did was boil the scald for 5 minutes stirring all the time before covering and allowing it to cool on the counter.

The levain build was like a French casserole where any veggie in the fridge goes into the pot.  The two leftover levains, some more AP flour and some more YW and SD seed went into this levain casserole.   We’ve never zombied a levain like this before so it was fun, if not eventful, from a risen dead perspective.

The levain sat on the heating pad as we autolysed everything including the cocoa and instant coffee, except the scald and seeds, with the Guinness Black Lager- a beer we hadn’t tasted before.  This ended up being a 58% Whole grain loaf not including the whole grain scald and soak.  After two hours we deemed the autolyse ready for its zombie levain.

After mixing with a spoon to get things acquainted, we did 10 minutes of French Slap and folds to develop the gluten sufficiently.  After a 20 minute rest we incorporated the multigrain scald using a few S&F’s and a few slap and folds to get the dough back into shape.

The addition of the wet scald, that took the hydration up to what felt like about 82% or more, made the dough much slacker than its old self.  After another 20 minute rest, the aromatic seeds were incorporated into the dough with some more S&F’s and a few slap and folds which were more interesting with seeds and wet dough flying all over the place.

After another 20 minute rest we did one last set of slap and folds to get some shape into the dough and immediately  panned it into a large loaf pan that had been de-stickified with spray. We coverd the top with wheat adn oat bran and let it sit on the heating pad for about 3 hours until it had grown 3/4th of the way up the tin and then we retarded it for 12 hours.

When we retrieved it from the fridge it had risen to within ½” of the top of the tin rim.  We let it sit on the counter, no heating pad this time, for 2 1/2 hours before heating up the mini oven with Sylvia’s steaming cup.

The dough had risen to the rim by the time it went into the mini for 12 minutes of steam at 450 F.  It sprang about 1/2 “under steam.  Then we removed the steam and turned the heat down to 375 F, convection this time.

We continued to bake the loaf until it reached 205 F on the inside rotating the loaf 180 degrees after 10 minutes and also de-panning it to ensure even baking.  After 10 minutes we rotated the de-panned loaf again.  A total of 45 minutes and the loaf was done.

It browned up nicely but we will have to wait for the crumb shots.  Once cooled we will let this bread sit for 24 hours before cutting into it for lunch tomorrow.  Here it is the following morning and I couldn't wait for lunch since there was breakfast first :-) 

Plain, toasted with butter or with cream cheese... this bread is tasty - just plain delicious.  The crumb is open, glossy and very moist with chewy bits.  The crust went soft overnight which allowed for very thin slicing without crumbling.   I could eat this bread every day and if stranded on a desert isle, it would be one of the 50 breads my apprentice would lug along.  Can't wait to try it toasted with pate.

Formula

It's is hard to believe that a year has passes so fast.  It has been a great baking and blogging experience thanks to all Fresh Lofians that make this community a unique, fun and fine forum for learning about way more than just bread.  Thanks from me and my apprentice to all of you.  I have learned much from so many here and so has my apprentice - even though she is cute as all get out she is still dumb as a stump and nearly worthless in the kitchen except for her ability to taste and smell better than anyone who has a shorter nose.

We baked way more than 100 different bread recipes.  Don't know for sure how many but we stopped counting a t 100.  A few were white, classical and more simple, not easy mind you, and many more that darker, more complex yet still classic.  Then there were those that were...different and sometimes inspired by Ian's classic walks down the aisles of the auto parts store.

In any event, here is our blog index for the last year.  We also managed to use up our total allotment for photo megabytes on the site too and will have to consult with Floyd about that small problem.

The Ravens managed to hold on to the Superbowl win in spite of near darkness .  A classic game for sure.

2013 The Fresh Loaf Dabrownman Blog

1/4/2013 - Panettone - The Last Bake of 2012

1/4/2013 - New Year's Day Pizza and Banana Bread Cupcakes

1/5/2012 - Hanseata’s Sausage Filled Puff Pastry with Cheese

1/7/2013 - Multi-grain Cream Cheese Sourdough with Multi-grain Scalded Soaker

1/11/2013 - Multi-grain Sourdough Chacon with Olives, Sun Dried Tomato, Garlic, Rosemary and 2 Cheeses

1/16/2013 - Multi-grain Sourdough with Sprouts, Scald, Seeds, Nuts and Prunes

1/17/2013 - Multigrain Yeast Water Bread with Sprouts, Scald, Seeds, Nuts and Prunes

1/23/2013 - White Whole Wheat with Combo YW, Poolish, SD Starter, Water Roux and Wheat Berry Scald

1/25/2013 - SD, YW, Biga, Rye, Spelt, Tang Zhong Bread with Scald, Seeds and Nuts

1/30/2013 - Practice YW Slash Bag

1/31/2013 - Origami Sourdough and Yeast Water Panettone

1/31/2013 - Another Batch of kjknits English Muffins – 12.5 % Whole Wheat

2/1/2013 - Fun With Short Crust and Puff Paste

2/1/2013 - Phil’s Savory Pumpkin and Feta Pie

2/2/2013 - A Born Loser Tells a Tale of Too Many Two’s and the Evil Twin

2/3/2013 - Superbowl Pizza – Great Pizza For a Lights Out, No longer a Blow Out Game

2012 The Fresh Loaf Dabrownman Blog

2/3/2012 - My first bread after joining TFL - DSnyder's San Joaquin

2/3/2012 - Brachflachen Mehrere Vollkombrot

2/3/2012 - Loaded Pizza

2/3/2012 - Pierre Nury meets DSnyders SFSD

2/3/2012 - Putting the Rye in Pierre Nury's rustic Light Rye

2/3/2012 - Too Many Red Pears and Blueberries

2/3/2012 - Make your own Greek yogurt

2/4/2012 - Minneola / Apple Yeast Water Semolina Bread

2/4/2012 - Raspberry SD Pancakes

2/4/2012- 1930's Magnalite Wagner Ware Roaster Used As Cloche for Multi-grain SD Challah

2/5/2014 - Sourdough English Muffins

2/5/2012 - Southwest Hummus Anyone?

2/5/2012 - I have some miscellaneous baking and foodie

2/7/2012 - Brachflachen Mehrere Vollkombrot - Version 4

2/7/2012 - Baked off PiPs (Phil's) new post on 40% Sourdough Rye w/ Caraway today

2/9/2012 - The Chellos - that don't play music.

2/9/2012 - PiP's 40% Rye w/ Caraway Meets Hanseata's Seeds and a Restless dabrownman

2/9/2012 - Whole Wheat Crusted Apple Caramel Galette w/ fresh ginger and assorted bourbon dried fruits.

2/9/2012 - Blueberry SD pancakes this time,

2/10/2012 - How to Make Yogurt - 'So Your Muffins Taste Betta'

2/10/2012 - isand66's SD Avocado Bread Meets Its Sunflower Seeded Guacamole Heart

2/11/2012- I Confess My Deepest Darkest Baking Secret

2/13/2012 - isand66's Bacon, SD, Potato, Onion with Cheddar Bread Meets Pork Jowls, Aged White Cheddar, Potato Flakes and Caramelized Onion

2/13/2012 - Shiao-Ping's Orange Turmeric Pain au Levain with Yeast Water

2/14/2012 - Happy Valentine Cupcakes w/ Strawberry Hearts

2/16/2012 - PiPs Walnut and Sage 100% Whole Wheat.

2/17/2012 - Let's Make Some Fresh Cheese

2/17/2012 - Birthday Chocolate Crusted Orange Cheese Cake with Ganache, Truffles and Chocolate Shavings

2/18/2012 - David Snyders' SD Pugliesi Capriccioso With Some WW and Rye

2/22/2012 - teketeke's Japanese Yeast Water White Sandwich Bread - 'This Bread Is Not Your Slimy Old White Slice'

2/23/2012 - Pips Vollkornbrot - Nearly 100% Rye with A Tiny Bit of Spelt

2/24/2012 - teketeke Bread

2/27/2012 - Rustique Pain Comté de San Francisco

3/1/2012 - Chad Robertson's Country SD - Modified

3/1/2012 - I've been working on a new home made Gas Regeneration BBQ /Smoker

3/3/2012 - Miscellaneous stuff at the end of the week

3/5/2012 - Pain Rustique au Levain du Sud-ouest

3/6/2012 - Pain Rustique au Levain du Sud-ouest - Retarded

3/7/2012 - Yeast Water, Rye, WW, Garlic Chive, Onion, Cheese and Chorizo Bialy’s

3/12/2012 - Tartine Everyday Rustic Country Sourdough

3/14/2012 - St Paddy's Day Dutch Oven Sourdough - Tartine Method

3/14/2012 - Corned Beef and Cabbage - 2 ways - possibly more

3/15/2012 - Just look at the pictures my new old camera takes!!

3/17/2012 - Yeast Water, Glazed, Spiced, Walnut, Bourbon Fruit, Chocolate Chip, Almond Granola Streusel Polish Babka

3/23/2012 - Making Red Rye Malt

3/24/2012 - Gingered, Tres Apple, Almond, Vanilla Granola Crisp with Bourbon Dried Fruit

3/29/2012 - A Blend of Seigle d’Auvergne and Borodinski

3/29/2012 - Jam and Bread Crust and Crumb Color

3/31/2012 - Revising isand66's Bacon, Potato, Onion with Cheddar Sourdough Bread

4/1/2012 - Getting Ready for Tomorrow's Sweetbird Buckwheat Apple SD Bake with Buckwheat SD Pancakes Today

4/2/2012 - Dabrownman Butchers Sweetbird’s Lovely Buckwheat, Apple and Apple Cider, Buckwheat Groat Bread with Insane Thoughts and Deeds

4/9/2012 - Super-grain Challah w/ Whey Water, Sprouts, Potato, Lentil, Sunflower Seeds and 2 Starters - SD and YW

4/10/2012 - Retarded Super-Grain Challah

4/14/2012 - Lemon Curd and Cream Cheese Puff Paste

4/14/2012 - Italian Corner - Cellos with Squash Lasagna and David Snyder's Pulgliese Capriosso

4/15/2012 - 20% Rye and WWW Potato SD Baggies Meet the Same Made with YW

4/15/2012 - Weekday Springtime Yeast Water Breakfast at Dabrownman's

4/17/2012 - Apple and Pear, Bourbon Dried Fruit, Ginger with Apple Jam Cream Cheese Puff Sleds

4/19/2012 - Sweetbird's Apple, Buckwheat with Groats, Insanely Modified, Makes for a Fine Toast or Lunch

4/20/2012 - SD Hemp Bags - txfarmer method with Hanseata's Seeds

4/20/2012 - Tired Monday's - YW 20% Whole Grain Bag Lunch

4/30/2012 - 50% Multigrain SD W/ Rye Scald, Rye Sprouts, Borodinski Altus and Pepitas, Caraway and Flax Seeds

5/2/2012 - Yeast Water Fake Pretzel Rolls

5/4/2012 - With Cinco de Mayo Yesterday - Hope You Had a Happy One! Cinco Sunset, Moon Rise and Dinner

5/8/2012 - Multi-grain SD w/ Multi Sprouts 2 Nuts and Seeds Somewhere

5/9/2012 - Yeast Water Hamburger Buns with Cinnamon Roll Same Dough Kicker

5/11/2012 - 1 - Day Multi-Grain Bread, Soft White Wheat, Spelt, Scald and Seeded with SD and YW Combo Starter

5/12/2012 - Banana Bread Cake

5/14/2012 - Mothers Day YW Apple, Pecan Buckwheat Pancakes with a Nice Chicken and Brie Sandwich for Lunch

5/15/2012 - Altamura Shaped Semolina Multi-Grain SD with Seeds and Sprouts

5/16/2012 - Having the daughter

5/18/2012 - Semolina, Rye, WWW Ciabatta w/ Chia Seeds, Herbs and Sun Dried Tomato

5/20/2012 - Apple Strawberry Ginger Crisp, Teriyaki and Lunch for Two

5/22/2012 - txfarmer's Croissant and Dainish Converted over to SD and YW - 3 Ways with Chia Seeds

5/24/2012 - Pretzel Roll P&J and Grilled Chicken Lunch with Pickles

5/25/2012 - Hanseata’s Wild Rice SD w/ Yeast Water, Multi Seeds, Prunes, Beer and Sprouts

5/26/2012 - Brown Plate Special with a Little Green, Brown Ale and Brown Bread

5/28/2012 - T-Rex Meets Floyd’s Sweet Potato Bread & Brownman’s SD & YW Combo Starter

5/29/2012 - Bread Baskets - A Serious Illness Revealed

5/31/2012 - Recent Breads for Lunch, Last Jacaranda Bloom and Desert

6/1/2012 - 40% Whole Multi-grain SD and YW Altamura Style Chacon

6/1/2012 - 24 Hours of Not Baking Bread

6/8/2012 - The SD / YW Chacon Revisited – 90% Whole Grain, Multigrain Sprouts, Walnut and Sage Paste, Pumpkin Seeds and Whey Water

6/9/2012 - Friday night P & P - Pizza and Pide

6/12/2012 - Let's Have Some Lunch and Other Stuff

6/15/2012 - Jasmine Tea, 50% Whole Multi-Grain SD & YW Durum Atta Bread with Wheat Germ, Flax and Chia Seeds

6/19/2012 - Buckwheat 60% Multi-grain YW / SD Bread with Walnuts, Sage, Flax, Wheat Germ, Apples, Prunes and Groats

6/21/2012 - Sourdough Durum Atta Bread – Pharaoh’s Mastaba Style

6/24/2-12 - Twisted Sisters Chacon : 67% Whole Rye & Wheat with Sprouts & Seeds.

6/28/2012 - Franko finally got to the top of the list

6/29/2012 - English Muffins - kjknits Converted to YW and SD Combo levain

6/29/2012 - Without Cheesecake For Desert - There May Be No Need for Bread

6/30/2012 - SD and YW Semolina Cheese Bread and Pizza with Sun Dried Tomato, Rosemary, Mojo de Ajo and Garlic

7/4/2012 - SD and YW Multigrain Bagels - The Stan Ginsberg Method

7/4/2012 - Catching up on some lunches and other stuff

7/4/2012 - Lunches and Other Stuff Continued - Happy Birthday America!

7/5/2012 - YW Naan with Paneer, Green Onion, Cilantro, Garam Masala and Garlic - Plus a Loaf - Added Lunch Shot

7/6/2012 - Joe Ortiz Pain de Champagne with Rye and WW Sprouts

7/10/2012 - Dinner in Houston

7/15/2012 - AZ Monsoon and Breakfast

7/17/2012 - Mocha Chocolate Chip Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches.

7/20/2012 - What To Eat With That Rustic French Country Sourdough Bread -Smoked Etouffee!

7/22/2012 - SD YW English Muffins - Some Fried As Donuts Per gmabaking With Apricot, Nectarine Ginger Glaze

7/24/2012 - Herbed Bialy's – Multigrain, Caramelized Onion, Chorizo and 4 Cheeses

7/27/2012 - 50% Rye SD Knotted Rolls With Wheat Germ, Barley Scald, Caraway and Sunflower Seeds

7/27/2012 - hanseata's Wild Rice Bread Revisited - 'The Wild One' - w/ Beer, Sprouts, Seeds and Prunes

7/30/2012 - Parade of Sandwiches and Other Stuff

8/5/2012 - YW vs Desem SD - Caramelized Onion, Basil, Bacon, Parmesan Rolls

8/7/2012 - 15% Whole Wheat Bagels with YW and SD Desem Combo Starter

8/11/2012 -YW / SD Olive Bread with Rosemary and Bulgar Scald

8/17/2012 - 100% Whole Grain Rye with Rye Sprouts – YW & SD Combo Starter

7/19/2012 - 25% Whole Wheat English Muffins Revisited - Over and Over Again - kjknits

8/22/2012 - Chacon Catastrophes Moka - Ian’s Mocha Disaster Chacon

8/24/2012 - Multi-Grain SD & YW Combo with Chicken Stock, Soaker & Seeds

8/27/2012 - 35% Whole Grain YW & SD Semolina, Durum Atta White Bread with Soaker

8/29/2012 - Rewind - YW & SD Semolina, Durum Atta, W. Germ, Malts & Honey - Deja Vue

9/2/2012 - Spelt, Rye and Whole Wheat Soudough Boule with Flax Seed, Honey and Malts - A Simple but Tasty Bread

9/5/2012 - 100% Hydration, 100% Whole Grain Kamut Flat Boule with YW and SD Combo Starter

9/7/2012 - Andy’s Roasted Brazil Nut and Prune Bread - Sourdough Variation with WW Scald

9/9/2012 - 8 Hour SD YW Saturday Night Pizza and Friday Shrimp Kabobs

9/14/2012 - 100% Whole Spelt Sourdough at 100% Hydration

9/15/2012 - Happy Rosh Hashanah!

9/20/2012 - 17% Whole Multi-Grain SD / YW Bagels – The Stan Ginsberg Method

9/21/2012 - 57% Whole Grain Multi-grain SD with 20% Seeds and Whey

9/25/2012 -15% Multi-grain Bread With YW and SD Combo Levain

9/28/2012 - 15% WWW Fat Bag with Desem SD Starter ala Ian and Phil

9/28/2012 - English Muffins- YW and SD Levains - 16% Whole Wheat

9/28/2012 - Banana Nut Bread with Seeds, Chocolate and Bourbon Dried Fruits

10/2/2012 - Judy's 45 % Whole Multi-Grain Sandwich Bread

10/6/2012 - 16 % Whole Multi-grain SD Baguettes – txfarmer’s Method only 40 Hours

10/9/2012 - Name Change - Gussied Up Franz Joseph's Emperor Rolls With Seeds

10/13/2012 - Parade of Sandwiches and Other Stuff - Partola Uno

10/14/2012 - Parade de sandwichs et d'autres choses - partie 2

10/14/2012 - Parade of Sandwiches Continues - Part 3

10/15/2012 - Desfile de Sandwiches - Parte 4

10/15/2012 - Parade der Sandwiches - Teil 5

10/17/2012 - World Bread Day - SD Multigrain with Figs, Anise, Pistachios and Sprouts

10/18/2012 - Pierre Nury's Rustic Light Rye with Whole Grain Multi-grain YW / SD Levains and Coffee

10/24/2012 -Tuesday Pizza Night - Crust 3 Ways with 25% Whole Grains

10/25/2012 - San Franciso Sourdough - 15% Whole Grain

10/27/2012 - Extended - SD Starter Experiment - 24 hour Countertop SFSD and a Seeded, Fig and Pistacio

10/30/2012 - Two DO Chacons Couldn’t Be Any Different

11/2/2012 - Two Weeks of Food for Thought - Week one

11/2/2012 - Two Weeks of Food for Thought - Week Two

11/2/2012 - 26% Whole Grain YW / SD Bagels with Sprouts

11/5/2012 - 24 hour 10% Whole Grain SFSD & SD Seeded Fig Bread with Pistachios - 1 g of Starter - No Levain

11/9/2012 - 60% Whole Grain SD / YW Bread With Caraway, Rye Chops, Coffee and Cocoa

11/9/2012 - Prune & Brazil Nut Sourdough with Bulgar Scald, Pumpkin & Sunflower Seeds

11/14/2012 - Not So Stollen

11/16/2012 - Thanksgiving Multi-Grain Marble Chacon

11/20/2012 - SD Stuffing Bread

11/21/2012 - Poolish Stuffing Bread

11/23/2012 - Not So Stollen - Thanksgiving Take

11/23/2012 - Daughter Does French Slap and Folds for Her Poolish Thanksgiving Rolls

11/27/2012 - A Chacon for Eric

12/7/2012 - 75% Whole Grain YW / SD Caramelized Onion, Wild Rice, Sprouts & Baltika Porter Bread

12/14/2012 - Multigrain SD / YW Porter Bread with Roasted Onions, Sprouts, Malts and Seeds

12/17/2012 - Puff Paste Experiments

12/18/2012 - Puffy So Not Rugelach

12/21/2012 - Christmas Sourdough Chacon - Figs, Pistachios and Seeds

12/25/2012 - Christmas Bi-Color Rose - 30% Whole Grain, Pesto and Sun Dried Tomato

12/25/2012 - Not So Stollen - 6 Weeks later

12/29/2012 - 25% Whole Grain Multi-grain Bagels

This crust was super for the Super Bowl.  Our best and most simple one to date – here is the recipe.

Biga

1/8 - tsp of active dry yeast

1/2 - tsp of sugar

120 g- AP flour

100 g- water

Mix yeast with sugar and water and let it sit for 5 minutes.  Then mix in the flour and let the biga sit on the counter overnight – 10 hours

Dough

300 g- flour

185 g- water

7 g– salt

This makes for 68% hydration dough with 1.5% salt.

Do 10 minutes of  French slap and folds and let sit in an oil covered bowl for 1 hour,  Do one set of S&F’s 4 quarter turns, and let it sit for another hour before refrigerating.  2 hours before you want to use it, take it out of the fridge and let it warm up.  We always par bake out crust for 3-4  minutes at 500 F on a stone before yaking them out to load them up with toppings.

I told Ian that I would tell him where the word crust comes from one day and since this was such a good crust, now is the time.

There is an old bread joke that Americans learned to bake bread from the French and the Brits.  The French and the Brits learned all they know about bread from Romans and the Romans learned all they know about baking bread from the Greeks.  The Greeks learned bread baking from the Egyptians and the Egyptians learned all they know about bread from a small artisan Jewish Bakery run by a Chinese baker in Jerusalem.

Paint with Mojo de Ajo and dock before par baking for 3-4 minutes.

There is way more truth to this than most want to admit.  An example is toast.  The Italians will tell you they invented garlic toast (and pizza too but that is another story), what we call bruschetta today , but this isn’t really accurate and historically correct.

There was a really famous Greek baker, at least as famous bakers could be before television, named Paximos who baked bread long before there was a Roman Empire for Greece to be conquered by.  He invented toast by roasting sliced bread on an open fire – a fairly simple recipe even then.  Paximos found that his sourdough toasted bread not only sold well but kept for an unusually long time, even for sourdough.  This allowed the Greek people people to travel with a food that was light weight and just the perfect road nosh.  It allowed the Greeks to open up over land and sea new trade routes to far away places.  Toast changed the world. 

Paximos called his toast Paximadi, after himself.  To this day you can travel all over Greece where in nearly every bakery, or outside it, you will see a sign proudly advertising Paximadi - toast.  Some is sweet for breakfast and some has garlic on it for warding off conquering Roman hordes and vampires  no doubt.

So, when the Romans finally invaded and conquered the Greeks, they discovered to their horror, that the Greeks had been making garlic toast – for centuries.   Something as good as Paximadi just couldn’t have a Greek name in the vast, all consuming Roman Empire.   So the Rimans changes the name of Paximadi; Greek garlic toast, to something way more Roman – Crustulum – the Roman word we take our word for crust from today.  But, we really should be calling crust Paxim if you ask me.

As a further note, when the Roman Empire fell, Italians stopped speaking Latin and picked up Italian as their daily vibe, they changed the name of Paximadi again - this time from Crustulum to Bruschetta.   Americans too use this modern word for Greek garlic toast today but Americans prefer an even more ancient Egyptian name for wheat and yeast based sustenance on Super Bowl Sunday - Brewskies!

That’s right.  I’m one of the few people who can truthfully say they were born losers.  I am a twin and the second one born.  So, I managed to lose the first race I ever ran and was born in 2nd place – the worst kind of loser.  Luckily, I can’t remember much about my horrible awakening to the outside world that day so long ago, another loss I suppose.  Maybe I’m double, double born loser though.

That’s right a second time.  It is not the end of the terrible two’s that day.  I was also born on the 2nd day, of the 2nd month in a year that was 2 years past 1/2 a century.   I mean there ought to be a law that limits how many two’s a twin can be stuck with on one day don’t you think?

I would love to have back all the money I have bet on 2 and 22 over the years - roulette, lotteries, sports, etc.  #2 has never been kind to born losers like me, but that doesn’t stop us from trying to make it our lucky number.  We are eternal optimists and think things will change after all these years of suffering.  We think we will wake up from this bad dream and be born first and the number 1 has really been kind to us.  But no – it isn’t so – at least not yet.

So to celebrate, at lunch today, my wife and I split a 2 cheese, 2 bread and 2 meat panini with 2 homemade kosher dill pickles and 2 hot condiments, salsa verdi on chips and pickled jalapenos sans seeds.  The 2 breads can be found here :  

White Whole Wheat with Combo YW, Poolish, SD Starter, Water Roux and Wheat Berry Scald

Multi-grain Sourdough Chacon with Olives, Sun Dried Tomato, Garlic, Rosemary and 2 Cheeses

We split one of the 2 sandwiches in two to make 3 sandwiches since I was going to eat 2 of them and there was no really good reason for my wife to go hungry again this time.  . My wife lit 3 candles, one on each sandwich representing one for my brother and 2 for me since I am twice as good him on my worst day – which can be pretty bad come to think about it.

He always was and still is - the Evil Twin.  Most people don’t even know there is always an Evil Twin but, take it from a real Born Loser, you are twice as likely to be the Evil Twin if you were unlucky enough to be born first on that day - a day of too many twos.  Yes, I guess I’m saying my twin is a real Double Doofuss of the Twofuss! 

Happy Birthday Brother - still thinking of you often and kindly but why…. we can’t remember, even though we do forget and forgive at least as easy as any other Born Loser is likely to do – when celebrating the worst day we can remember J

Tonight we will have the panettone birthday cake that is oddly cut in two, with 2 candles.  One candle is for the Evil Twin; the Double Doofuss of the Twofuss and the other is for the Born Loser.

I suppose there could be a sadder tale out there somewhere but, it I think will be difficult to duplicate The Tale of Too Many 2’s for Twins.

We knew that we would have to get around to making some version of Phil’s (Pip’s) Savory Pumpkin and Feta Pie.  As soon as we saw it we knew that it would be just about as great as regular pumpkin pie – just a little different.

But we couldn’t leave well enough alone.  So we caramelized the onions, added some caramelized shitake and button mushrooms and some Mexican grey squash too.  Then my apprentice mixed up a spread of herbs that included thyme, rosemary and basil and I’m sure she put in some super sharp, aged white cheddar and Manchego along with the feta.

Then we really mixed it up with some whole wheat puff pastry instead of short crust.  Even with all the changes we couldn’t mess up this fine recipe. 

It was absolutely delicious and well worth the effort even though it isn’t an easy recipe like American pumpkin pie that is basically a pump and  dump sweet custard that is also delicious - just different as Phil says.

It would be better with short crust, just a s Phil makes it (whole wheat instead)  is our final take of this recipe -  even though puff paste is usually so much better.

We had some left over whole wheat short crust pastry from our granola crisp topped, apple, pear, snockered dried fruit galette and decided to turn it into some WW puff pastry by laminating it with a little butter.

We usually use half the butter called for and do one more turn with the dough.  It has always seemed to work well and with whole wheat it is almost healthy and nearly non fatting to eat compared to regular puff paste

The galette came out nicely as did the puff paste that we filled with vanilla cream cheese, and sugar macerated blackberries and strawberries with a little corn starch.  We glazed the puff paste with an egg and sprinkled turbinado sugar onn the egg wash.

We don’t have a name for this puff paste shape since it wasn’t big enough to braid and we really filled it up.  It did make a nice something- a - ruther that we will eventually get around to naming.  Right now we will call it  'Not Varda’s Sled.' 

We love these English muffins and try to make them a little bit different each time we make them.  This time we used some of the left over SD levain for the panettone.  We made them the thickness that is called for in the recipe at 3/4” for the first time.  Normally we make them thinner since the puff so much. 

This is a levain, flour and milk on the counter overnight then sugar, salt and baking soda in the morning is added, 4 minutes of kneading and then shaping, I used a plastic drinking glass, followed by a 45 minute proof and then dry fried.  Ian used an electric skillet for his earlier this week.  After not even being thought about for decades, I saw our electric skillet in the garage the other day and it seems time to put it some good use for a change.

This batch came out the best yet but will make them ½” next time.  The EM’s made a great sandwich for breakfast this morning toasted, with butter, marmalade, sausage and egg on top.  Yummy!

If you haven’t made these yet, put then on the list - they are just too good to pass up and one of the few recipes we make over and over again – like bagels.