dabrownman's blog

The last bake of 2012, panettone, was supposed to cap off a year (actually 11 months) of usually decent individual and different bakes with different formulas that numbered well over 100 – quite an achievement that deserved a year end spectacular panettone.  But alas, it was not to be.

Sadly, baking gremlins worked their evil spells as soon as the fine looking, up to that point, panettone, hit the oven.

The conversion from rye sour to white Italian levain went well over several days.  The first dough more than tripled in volume in 12 hours. The gluten development of the second dough was very good with an extremely fine window pane.  The second dough build rose very well too.  All looked good as we loaded the dough balls into the home made panettone moulds.

The dough rose well in the (2) moulds that held over 800g of dough each and then the glaze went on when they were fully risen after 6 hours.  They were just right for baking when they went into the 350 F oven.

Then the first of several catastrophic disasters struck.  First off, the bottom of the moulds blew out one side under oven spring and the panettone took on the look of a tower in Pisa- only leaning over to a greater degree than the famous tower.

The recipe said to bake for 45 minutes until the inside read 185 F they didn't look quite done so we baked them for an additional 10 minutes – but forgot to check the inside temperature – never ever do this.

We took them out of the oven and hung them upside down from my wife’s clothes drying rack.  My wife didn't like that at all, since it was in the living room with carpet and said to get a towel under the two bat like hanging panettone.

By the time I got back with the towel, the panettone had separated in the now clearly, way underdone, still liquid centers and plopped the bottom half of each onto the carpet.  My apprentice wanted to fix this problem in her normal way so it was all I could do to keep her from wolfing the fallen ones down with her being a short legged wolf descendant.

Here is the other one that managed to fall on it's liquid center so the glaze is still intact.

I un-hung the remaining half of the panettone and stuffed what I could of the now carpet fuzzy half back in on top and sent them back into the heat to bake to1 85 F - as they should have been baked originally.  It was another 30 minutes before they read 185 F and were taken out to cool on a rack – no hanging upside down this time.  It seemed pointless since no right side up could be discerned after careful perusal from all angles.

Oddly, even though they were deeply brown on the outside and the right temperature on the inside, they were still not done in the center and looked like they needed to bake to 205 F like other breads.

Remember, this all took place on New Year’s Eve and I could say that my apprentice was already snockered and responsible for this ridiculous baking feat.   But No!  Even though she was still totally responsible for the catastrophic outcome, she hadn't had a thing to drink with it being before 5 PM and is just a near worthless baking apprentice.

So 2012 ended on a gooey, messy, carpet fuzzy kind of note but, the panettone sure tasted good after being toasted for 7 minutes to finally get it done.  Use your thermometer and bake until done in 2013.  Also use a tin for panettone if you don't have proper moulds :-)

Happy New Year.

We made these the same way as always but these I would have to call a failure compared to: 15% Whole Wheat Bagels with YW and SD Desem Combo Starter   Use that post for the method with the changes listed below.

We had about twice the whole grains this time, and all the whole grains were in levain last time and this time all the whole grains were in dough flours.  Half the white flour was bread flour last time and this time it was all AP.  We build the YW and SD levains separately last time and this time we built them together.

The hydration was the same but the temperature in the kitchen was 20 degrees cooler this time.  Last time the retard was 20 hours and this time it was only 10.  Lat time we let the dough develop 2 hours before forming and 1 hour after forming. This time we let the dough develop for 1 hour before forming and 2 hours after forming.

Last time the bagels doubled in volume but this time they did not.  They floated immediately when they hit the water last time and this time they never ever floated. Last time the bagels were near perfection this time they are hardly worth eating.  They aren’t terrible but comparatively its like night and day.

It just goes to show you that you need to watch the dough and not the clock and dowhat it tells you to do.  The main problem was the temperature.  It’s not August the 7th here when the kitchen was 84-86 F.  It’s the end of December and the kitchen is64 F.  Things now take at least 3 times longer and my apprentice should have known better!

The bagels should have never gone in the fridge at all and left to double on the counter no matter how long it took and then refrigerated for an hour or two before hitting the hot water.   The extra whole grains also required more water in the mix at least 2 to 3% more hydration wise.

Te best thing about them is the taste but even that is not what it should be.  Toady Tom’s Tasty Toasted Tidbits did their part taste wise.  The crust was crisp but no big bubbles the mini oven and shlvia’s steam is noted for putting on crusts of all kinds.  The crumb never opened as it should have and as YW does regularly so it was denser than we were shooting for and expecting.

This happens every time you don’t let the dough develop properly and rise as it should when it is cold.  Patience comes to those who wait and it takes a lot of it in the winter time.

Thank goodness we won’t end the year on this bake and still have a shot at one of Michael Wilson’s panattone’s

I forgot to put the 15 g of Barley Malt Syrup in the add in secion in the formula below - Donit for get it!

Ihe been 6 weeks since we wrapped up the stollen in a cotton tea towel and put it on teh back patio to age gracefully in a tin here:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/30996/not-so-stollen

and here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/31088/not-so-stollen-thanksgiving-take

We buttered it, put the GMA's cream cheese, powdered sugar and lemon juice drizzle on it and then frosted it with powdered sugar just to make sure the sugar gods were pleased.

Have to wait till after dinner to see if it tastes as good or better than the un-aged one at Thanksgiving.

Our take on Breadsong’s fabulous Christmas Rose was to make it Green with basil pesto and Red with home made sun dried tomatoes.  We used our combo yeast water, rye sour and Desem sourdough starters with our 30% whole gain multi-grain mix of Kamut, dark rye, spelt and whole wheat.

As has been the norm lately, we added some red and white malt, Toady Tom’s Toasted Tidbits (wheat bran, oat bran, wheat germ and other middlings from various sifted flours), oats, potato flakes and flax seeds all ground up together as a fancy and festive bread enhancement all purpose mix.

We had a little less than 900 g of dough compared to Breadsongs’s 1,200 g that she split in half and she only used half.  We split this in half too,  to make 2 ropes – one basil, almond, walnut, Parmesan and olive oil and the other sun dried tomato, oregano, salt, pepper and olive oil.  We decided not to use any garlic and hoped we wouldn't miss it with all the other stuff in this bread’s fillings.

Each rope was split in half and combined with the other colored half and then braided to make (2) each red and green braids that were wrapped around each other to make a rose.  The ropes were smaller so we ended up with a more shallow Frisbee like, Italian Flat Bread Rose, but it was still very fancy do and Christmas festive looking.

The SD and YW levains were built separately over 8 hours now that it is winter time and refrigerated overnight.  The flours and all the other ingredients were mixed with the water and allowed to autolyse for 3 hours as the levains warmed up to room temperature the next day.

We made a little proofing pad with a heating pad on low covered with kitchen towels to get the temperature to hover right at 82 degrees.  The levains were not built on it but they were warmed up on it and the dough was fermented, developed and proofed on it too.  What a handy little contraption it turned out to be.

Once the levains hit the autolyse it was 12 minutes of French (2) slaps per fold in order to get this dough stretched, silky and smooth with a high degree of gluten development.  Normally we would have easily been over 75% hydration for a dough like this but, with the olive oil coming in later for both fillings, we decided to hold the water at 73.5%.  

After the French slap and folds were complete, we let the dough rest for 30 minutes and then 2 sets of S&F’s were done 30 minutes apart.  The dough was rested for 20 minutes, divided in half, rolled out with a pin and the filling spread on before rolling up into a log.

Each log was split in half and then braided with the opposite colored half and then the two green and red braids were coiled up on parchment to make the rose. 

The rose was allowed to ferment and develop on the proofing pad in a plastic bag for 1 ½ hours before being retarded overnight for 8 hours.  After removal from the fridge in the morning it was allowed to final proof on the proofing pad for 4 hours where it doubled in volume.

We had some lemon infused olive oil, balsamic vinegar, cracked black pepper and Parmesan cheese to dip the bread into for lunch.

The mini oven was fired up to 425 F with steam in the bottom of the broiler pan.  The bread was loaded and allowed to steam for 10 minutes before the steam was removed.   The bread baked at 350 F, convection this time, until it hit 200 F in the middle.  It was rotated 90 degrees every 5 minutes until it was done and removed to a cooling rack - about 30 minutes total baking time.

My daughter said this was the best tasting bread I have ever made but she, being away for college, only gets to sample about 10% of the bread baked around here.  My wife wants to have it dipped in olive oil, with grated Parmesan, rosemary and black pepper for a Christmas dinner appetizer.

My apprentice just wants to eat all right now with butter and not have to share it with anyone including her master!  I think that this is one of the best higher whole grain focaccias I have ever tasted.  Just delicious.  The mini oven put mini blisters on the crispy brown crust and the YW made the crumb moist and tender with that hint of SD that lingers with the herbs and tomato.

We were struggling with our normally robustmRye sour and Desem mixed SD starter.  It had been left for dead after its last feeding and storage about a month ago.  I had baked 4 loaves of bread from the 80 g stored and had 40 g left and it was looking the worse for wear.

We tried building a levain using 5 g and 1:10:10 but after 20 hours there was no visible change.  The kitchen temperature was 65 F and we though the low temperature might be the problem.  So, we added 5 more grams of starter, put it in a 78 F environment that the microwave provided with one of Sylvia's steaming cups.

Sure enough 6 hours later, the levain and finally nearly doubled.  You for get how nice the AZ summers are for over proofing just about anything and everything.  Now with winter temps of 65 F yeast just doesn’t like to be aroused and put to work.

We took the remaining 30 g of starter and fed it but kept it on the counter to double which it nearly did in 24 hours.  We decided it and feed it again to get it back up to speed and saved the other half for some panettone bake possibly for Christmas but more likely for New Years.

We decided to use our revived starter to make a variation of one of our favorite breads; fig, pistachio, sunflower and pumpkin seed bread.  But, we decided to try and bake it like you would pumpernickel - long, slow and low and see if the crust and crumb would turn a dark brown color like pumpernickel does baked this way.

The question was which way to do this; the Norm Berg way, the Andy way, the Mini Oven way or the Jeffrey Hamelman way - or some combination which could be a dangerous meeting of the ryes.  My apprentice wanted to use our Wagner Ware Magnalite Turkey roaster since nothing puts a dark brown crust on bread like it does – nothing even close.

The trivet on the bottom allows extra water to be placed in the roaster so that it doesn’t touch the bread itself.  We hoped that the steam in the roaster with an oval shaped chacon would substitute for the aluminum foil covered tins normally used for pumpernickel. 

It was worth a shot and, if it wasn’t turning out right, my apprentice could always save the day, as she has taught herself to do in out kitchen, by taking the lid off and bake the bread to 205 F on the inside at a higher temperature – none the worse for wear - if you are like my apprentice and will eat anything.

The levain was build with one build over and agonizing 26 hours.  Everything except the levain, barley malt syrup, figs, pistachios, seeds and salt were autolysed for 2 hours.  Once the levain, barley malt syrup and salt were added to the autolyse, we did 10 minutes of French slap and folds which were nice to do at 75% hydration.

The dough was rested 20 minutes in an oiled, plastic covered bowl when 3 sets of S& F’s were done on 20 minute intervals.  The figs, pistachios and seeds were added in during the 2nd set of S& F’s.  Half the seeds were held back for a ringed topping around the knotted roll.

Inside at the crack of dawn you can see the holes in the crumb better.  Haven't had lunch with it yet but the sunset was nice.

Once the S&F’s were complete, the dough was allowed to ferment and develop on the counter for 1 hour before being shaped into a single knot chacon and placed in a rice floured basket.  The basket was placed in a nearly new trash can liner and allowed to develop for another hour before being retarded in the fridge overnight for 8 hours.

The next morning the dough basket was retrieved from the fridge and allowed to come to room temperature and final proof for 4 hours when it had doubled.  Now came the time to decide which way to bake it – what turned out to be a difficult decision.

After much thought, careful deliberation with my apprentice and talking to rye experts worldwide we decided that Mini Oven’s way of baking it was the way to go.  Baking in the specialized turkey roaster at 320 F until it registered 205 F on the inside was the simplest most efficient way to go in order to have the oven empty by 2 PM when the girls needed it to bake Christmas cookies.

After a half and hour the bread has spread out rather than up probably due to the low temperature but it was a slightly darker color.  We put it back in the oven for another 50 minutes at 320 F.  When we checked the temp was at 203 F and the color was still pale.

So we cranked up the oven to 425 F, convection this time and took the bread out of the turkey roaster and baked it directly on the oven rack for 15 more minutes.  At that time it registered 205 F and it was a blistered weird brown color not usually associated with this kind of bread.  So off went the oven and we let the bread crisp on the oven rack with the door ajar for 10 minutes.

This has to be the strangest and longest way to make a Frisbee that my apprentice has ever managed.   Thank goodness she is a professional! Can’t wait to see what it looks like on the inside.  Hopefully it will be a darker brown color than it would otherwise be and taste way better too - or this bake will go down as total and complete apprentice failure, if well meaning.

The bread, while flat, had a nice open crumb for so much stuff in it.  The crumb was much darker than normal and it was moist and soft.  The taste was enhanced like a light caramelization on anything will do.  I was really shocked how deep the flavor was and how nice this bread tasted - toasted it was outstanding.  Can't wait to try some pate on it.   When we do this again, we will start the bread baking at 450 F for 20 minutes so it wouldn't spread out and spring instead.  Then turn the oven down to 230 F like Andy does for his pumpernickel and get in the low portion of the bake until 205 F registered on the inside. 

You learn from each bake, like we did this time, so this one was not a total loss - and the bread that came out of it was quite unlike any we managed to bake to date.

Formula

Continuing on with her Puff Paste adventure, my apprentice decided to do a take off on rugelach.  Rugelach has cream cheese in the dough and are just fantastic with any filling imaginable.  If you aren't making them for the Holidays then the Holidays where will be slightly less festive than they should be ;-)

While we love rugelach,we much prefer the ones my apprentice makes with puff pastry - by far!  They are so light and just plain overkill in a really decadent, if sinful, way.

We were trying out a new filling that has cocoa, brown and white sugar, chopped chocolate chips and chopped Heath Chocolate Toffee Bits.  Yummy!

Rugelach are supposed be rolled out as a circle before cutting them into triangle shapes with a pizza cutter.  We had square shapes of puff paste left over from our square snowflake  experiment yesterday.  No worries!  Just roll them out thinner, say a little less than 1/8", brush them with melted butter, sprinkle in he filling, cut them into 8 pie shaped pieces and roll them up, croissant like. from the large end to the point.

Brush them with an egg wash and sprinkle on some Turbinado sugar.  Bake at 400 F convection for 6 minutes, then turn the pan 180 degrees and bake for another 5 minutes or so until golden brown and puffed.  These weighed between 8 and 12 grams each after baking and were just as tasty as tasty could be for one bite.

Now that the AZ weather has turned off the 6 month oven time bake, we can get back into puff pastry and other laminated dough like croissants – Yeaah!!

I took some paper and cut squares with scissors until I got a shape I liked.  You fold the square corner to corner first.  Then you make 4 cuts from the long folded edge toward the opposite point but don’t cut all the way.

Open the square back up.  You put your filling down the uncut middle from end to end.   Mine was chocolate chips dark brown sugar and cocoa.  Then  fold the inside square corners up to a triangle pointing skyward.

The take the inner most cut pieces and fold them over themselves to the opposite side.

Then fold the outermost cut pieces over themselves to the opposite side just like the inside ones.  This encapsulates the filling and after some egg glaze and turbinado sugar makes a weird puff paste shape like this.

I sprinkled turbinado sugar on mine.

I baked this one at 400 F in the mini oven until it was nice and golden. 

The last two bakes were a lower and then a higher percentage of whole grains  and more complex that this one at 48% whole grains.   We also used the KA mixer on speed 3 to knead the dough for 8 minutes instead of using French slap and folds and we baked the bread in a DO instead of on a stone with steam.

The rye sour and YW combo levain consisted of dark whole rye and water that was built over 10 hours with (2) 1 hour stages and one of 8 hours. After the levain had doubled we refrigerated it for 12 hours and then let it come to room temperature the next day for 2 hours as we autolysed the flours.

The AP, spelt, whole wheat, rye, potato flakes, oat flour ground flax seeds, baked potato, malts and Toady Tom’s Toasted Tidbits were autolysed with the Baltika #6 Porter and home made red wine vinegar for 2 hours before combining with the salt and the levain in the KA for kneading.

The dough was rested for 20 minutes and then 4 sets of S&F’s were done on 20 minute intervals.  The caraway and coriander seeds along with a new ingredient; caraway leaves and roasted re=hydrated onions were incorporated on the 3rd set.

The rye, spelt and ww sprout chits were incorporated on the 4th set.  Don’t forget to start your ww sprouts 48 hours ahead and the rye and spelt seeds 24 hours ahead to make sure they all chit together and are ready when needed.  Also take the 1 T of dried onions and roast them for a couple of minutes at 350 F to get them dark, not burned like I did the first time,  and then re-hydrate them in 3 T of water 4 hours ahead of time.

After the 4th set of S&f’S the dough was allowed to develop and ferment for 1 hour before being pre shaped and shaped into a boule and placed into a rice floured basket inside a trash can liner where it was allowed to ferment for another hour before being retarded for 8 hours in the fridge.

The dough was then allowed to come to room temperature and ferment and develop some more on the counter the next day for 6 hours since the temperature in the kitchen is only 67 F. 

The oven was preheated to 450 F.  The basket was upended into the cold DO, poorly scored (can’t seem to ever do it right in a DO), and placed into the hot oven that was immediately turned down to 425 F where the bread steamed itself for 25minutes.  Then the lid was removed and the bread baked for another 20 minutes.

10 minutes after the lid came off the bread was removed from the DO and continued to bake directly on the oven rack.  The bread was also rotated 180 degrees every 5 minutes until it reached 205 F on the inside.  The bread was allowed to crisp on the oven rack for 10 minutes with the oven off and door ajar before being moved to the cooling rack.  It sure smells tasty.

The crumb came out open and moist with a great chew due to the sprouts.  The taste was very good.  Instead of the dominate onion taste like last time, we had a caraway flavor that came through due to the caraway leaves and not the caraway seeds.  This is what Americans would call rye bread even though rye only makes up about 27% of the flours used in the bread.  We really like the way this bread tastes.  It is complex and earthy.  The combination of whole rye being twice as much as whole spelt and WW and the whole grains making up 50% of the flours is one we like very much.  The YW and SD levain combination also helps to lighten the crumb and open it up thanks to the YW while still getting a SD taste to come through too.

Formula

This is another take on a multi-grain bake we did not s long ago that you can find here;

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

This time we upped the whole grains to 75% and the hydration to a little over 85%.  We dropped the chops and added multi-grain sprouts.  The whole grains and sprouts were rye, spelt and whole wheat.  A combination we like very much as long as the rye equals the other two grains.

We also decided to make this bread a little more Russian by using their Baltika #6 Porter for a majority of the liquid in this bread and all of the dough wetness if you overlook the barley malt.

We were overcome by guilt and also knowing that The Hempster would not be her kindly self if we left out the seeds so we tossed in some caraway and coriander to perfume this dark bread in a traditional way - but not too much.

Hanseata, probably in a fit of non-hempness, is also the creator of her very fine wild rice bread that we like so much.   Thinking she would still be upset that there are no hemp seeds in this bread, we plunked in some cooked wild rice hoping to appease Her Hempness with one last gesture of jester.

Keeping with the black theme this bread was calling out for, we also added in some caramelized onions, quite a lot actually, with its deglazed reduced juices as Eric, Andy, Ian and so many TFL bakers are wont to do out ofa  honed professional education and experience for many of them that know what they are doing and a playful, inquisitive wonderment of the strange for Ian and myself.

One last shot at anti-establishment went to the Combo YW and SD rye and Desem starter and levain we cooked up over two builds.  As we contemplated the dark path we were about to trip along, in total disregard of anything sane or normal, my apprentice became edgy, quite uncomfortable really and took on the look of one sick puppy. No, it wasn’t Toady Tom’s Toasted Tidbits at fault here even though we put 15 g of them in the mix.

It is a look that I see most often right before she upchucks - which she did... then murmuring under her lowly growl something about death to all dark baking masters or another…….. It seemed she got sick after noticing that the bread lacked nuts.  She recovered quickly after the upheaval when she realized there were already plenty of nuts out of their shells in the kitchen as it was - so no extra nuts were required for this Holiday bake.  

After all of what would pass for bread 101 on Empress Ying’s home planet, we hoped that this bread would be a shade darker than a dark one should be and also one that we could be proud to pair with the fine Pate Maison that we had baked and smoked up for the Holidays the day before.  Hopefully, both will pair well with a nice Malbec from Argentina, if one could afford it and a plate of various exotic cheeses from other places even more expensive.

Hey, it’s the Holidays and who needs another pair of Santa socks, snowflake ties and Snowman stocking caps anyway.  So, as an option, save enough bread by not getting those things and splurge on some foreign hooch and cheese to share with family and friends instead - all while making the bread and pate that much better.

The crust came out dark, shiny and crispy but, after a 24 hour wait before slicing, it went soft with a slight chew.  This bread cut ¼” slices easily without crumbling.  The crumb was not heavy, slightly open, soft and very moist with little gloss.

The taste was where this bread really shines.  Subtle coriander and caraway flavors combine with a stronger caramelized onion taste and the chew of the wild rice and sprouts to go with the complex flavors of the porter, cocoa and coffee.  Very tasty indeed. 

We have now eaten it plain, toasted with butter, as a sandwich and toasted with pate – just delicious and the perfect pate platter mate.    

Method

The method was straight forward if you remember to start the WW sprouts a day before the spelt and rye sprouts since they take 48 hours to chit instead of 24.  The levain was built over (2) stages of 8 and 4 hours each with an overnight retard of 12 hours following the 12 hours on the counter

The flours, salt, Toady Tom’s Toasted Tidbits, ground flax seed and the red and white malts were autolysed with the Baltika  #6 Porter for 1 hour after my apprentice had tasted about 205 ml of the 500 ml bottle to make sure that it wasn’t a covert left over cold war poison of a 3rd kind.

Once the autolyse and levain came together, we did 10 minutes of French slap and folds and then 3 sets of S&F’s on 30 minute intervals where the seeds and rice were incorporated in the 2nd set and the sprouts on the 3rd set. 

The dough was allowed to ferment and develop for 1 hour before being shaped into an 800 g and one near 500 g loaf and panned. The dough was allowed to proof for 1 hour in a trash bag on the counter before being retarded for 12 hours in the fridge. 

Once out of the fridge the small loaf was allowed to proof for 4 hours on the counter.  The larger one proofed for 4 hours on the counter at 65 - 68 F and an additional 1 ½ hours at  85 F in the make shift microwave proofer that had a cup of boiling water in it. 

Both of these should have been baked in the mini oven but Big Betsy was preheated to 500 F instead with 2 of Sylvia’s steaming pans and a 12”cast iron skillet full of lava rocks on the bottom rack.  The stone was put on the very top rack of the oven to project radiant heat downward to the top of the loaves.

As soon as the small pan went in the temperature was turned down to 450 F for 15 minutes of steam. When the steam was removed the temperature was turned down to 350 F, convection this time.

After 5 minutes the bread was removed from the pan and finished baking directly on the oven rack.  The bread was turned 180 degrees every 5 minutes until the internal temperature reached 190 F. Total baking was 30 minutes when the bread was removed to the cooling rack.

The larger loaf was baked the same way through steam but took an extra 15 minutes at 350 F to reach 190 F internal temperature.

Formula

This lunch plate has some thin sliced sliced pate with 100% whole spelt bread, aged super sharp crumbly cheddar cheese, a pickled Serrano pepper, half a Granny Smith apple, some carrot coins, half an avocado, black and pinto re-fried beans, cabbage salad with black raspberries on non fat yogurt. 

This chacon is a tribute to Eric Hanner.  His gifts to the world were many and his passion for balking was great.  His fine character attributes included his generosity that made him willing to help and teach others what he knew.  Eric’s legacies are many and this bake commemorates them.  He was a giant and this chacon is especially large to recognize his largess.

The white portion of the dough is a 6 strand zolablue SD Challah that we converted to a poolish from SD.  The 4 braided ends were not tucked in to give the chacon more of chance to crack making a pretty design on the top.

The dark portion is Eric’s Favorite SD Rye – his Jewish Deli Rye was used as a monster bialy to cover the braids of the challah in the bottom of the basket.  This is the largest bialy we have ever attempted and flipping it over was sight to be seen.

The 5 recipe changes I made to Eric's Favorite were minor ones.  First one was to use 95 g of the challah poolish in place of yeast in Eric’s dough.  We only had 2.5 g of caraway so I added a like amount of coriander.  We added 1 g each of red and white rye malts to improve enzymatic action, the rye flavor and color – while Eric wasn't looking.

My apprentice used caramelized onions and the water from it and the deglazed pan instead of re-hydrating minced onions as Eric recommended.  The flavor and color of caramelized onion should make this as exciting as Eric wrote about using onion and the water from it in this bread.  He wanted everyone to give this option a go!

I also didn’t have any first clear flour and have never seen any, so we tried to replicate it using David Snyder’s ideas on how to do so from another thread by using some WW mixed with AP and bread flour.  We don’t know what it should look like but David’s advice is usually spot on.  I don’t think Eric would have minded theses changes.

Method changes included using French slap and folds for both of the breads - for about 12 minutes.  Eric’s Favorite Rye was a two slaps and one fold process since the dough was so stiff and required the extra slap to stretch it out enough to fold over.  Eric was the one who got me doing French slap and folds and my breads have been greatly improved as a result.

2 sets of (4) S&Fs were also performed on 30 minute intervals for the first hour of development and then the dough was rested for an hour.  After shaping and putting the dough in the rice floured basket ,we let it proof for an hour before putting it into the fridge for a 15 hour retard.

This is not part of Eric’s method but we just ran out of time to bake it off and this was the best we could manage.  We fired up Old Betsy to preheat at 450 F with 2 of Sylvia’s steaming pans and a 12” iron skillet with lava rocks inside like David Snyder  sort of uses- while the dough warmed upon the counter for 40 minutes.  This is huge lump of dough, 3.8 pounds of it and it need lots of steam.

Once the dough went in and we threw a half a cup of water on the lava rocks as we shut the door and turned the temperature down to 370 F.  We decided to steam for 20 minutes instead of 10.  At the 10 minute mark the cracks had barely opened on the huge loaf and more steam was needed.

At the 20 minute mark, the steam was removed and the bread continued to bake at 370 F, convection this time, for an additional 26 minutes rotating it 70 degrees every 7 minutes until it registered 190 F in the center.  We left it on the stone for another 10 minutes with oven off and door ajar to crisp the skin before removing it to a cooling rack.

It browned up a dark mahogany color that was so nice I decided not to coat it with the corn starch and water mix.  Even the challah portion was the same color.  It blistered very well on the challah portion but not on the rye side for some reason?

It bloomed while cracking beautifully and at least looks the fitting tribute to Eric that we had hoped to achieve - at least on the outside.  Well, coundn't wait 24 hours to cut into it since showed promise and smelled tantalizing.  The crumb was soft nice and moist and medium open especially on the rye side. 

The taste would be straight Jekyll if there wasn't a Hyde Side.  One bite is a fine Jewish Rye with subtle caraway and coriander hints, the next a straight Shabot Challah and then comes a half and half combo bite.

Here are the formulas should you want to make a Chacon for Eric.  I sure enjoyed doing so and we learned much from this baking experience. It was great time to reflect, day dream a little and think about the past, present and future.

The sunset was very niuce the day we baked this bread.  I think someone really important knew a nice one for Eric was in order.

Eric’s Jewish Deli Rye – Eric’s Favorite Rye