dabrownman's blog

We have been eating lunch well the last day or two with our last Pretzel Roll bake for sandwiches - P and J and Baja Grilled Chicken with Grilled Veggies.  The J is caramelized Minneola Marmalade.  There is part of a croissant, some nice red pepper hummus, cucumber salad and fruits and veggies of all kinds.  All very healthy and my assistant cleaned herself up for a photo with her new bow!

Baja Grilled Chicken, squash and eggplant and some new Kosher Dill Pickles - Medium Hot. 

We were inspired, even though the wrong time of year for laminated doughs with it being 8o F inside and 105 F outside in AZ, by txfarmer's croissants and Danish pastries. 

Hers are just fantastic to look at and professional in every way - unlike mine.  But, I thought we would give it a go now and get back to them later next winter.  Her posts can be seen here:  http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/22677/poolish-croissant-pursuit-perfection and here http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/26777/cheese-danish-sourdough-all-american-beauty

We needed to change her recipe from yeast to sourdough and yeast water since I no longer stock any commercial yeast.   I didn't expect my first attempt at laminated dough to be anywhere near txfarmer's and I was right.  Freezing some of the croissants and Danish didn't help any either I suppose :-)  But I did learn many important things about lamination which will help my assistant out later. 

A very nice grilled; Amish Swiss and pepperjack cheese with grilled chicken sandwich made for lunch with this fine white sandwich bread.  Love the chia seeds.   The sweet potato and the pickled tomato, red onion and cucumber salad were also nice.

We made this enriched dough (can't believe it didn't have cream in it too) into 3 variations with various flavors; a non -laminated white sandwich bread (half of the dough split off before lamination), 3 kinds of Danish (blueberry, strawberry and dried apricot) and 2 kinds of croissants (plain and with a sweet home made mince meat filling made with beef shanks - those are the fat ones that didn't have 7 steps).

Used 27.5% of the total dough weight in roll-in butter (180 grams),  txfarmer recommends 30% but we had a few more add ins than her recipe that upped the total weight.  Txfarmer also said to hold the hydration down al little and I managed to somehow up it slightly,at least a couple of percent, if I calculated properly.  We used dried apricots and they burned on the top and I should have reconstituted them in bourbon or water.  We wanted to take them out of the oven at 25 minutes but by mistake took them out at 22 minutes and they could have used another 3 minutes in the oven.  If you live in AZ it is best to do this in the wintertime. 

My wife summed it up best.  They don't look too good but they taste OK.  I give the sandwich loaf a solid B and the rest a C only because it was a first attempt - my apprentice is worried she will soon be replaced since she said she was a lamination freak - well, at least the freak part was right:-) 

The formula and method follows the pictures.

Method

 Build the levain over 3 - 4 hour steps.  I mixed the YW and the SD together from the beginning as is our usual now a days.  Mine had more than doubled over 12 hours and then I refrigerated it overnight.

The nest morning, mix everything except the levain and the salt together in the mixing bowl and autolyse for 1 hour.  Add the levain and the salt and mix on KA 2 for 4 minutes and KA 3 for 1 minute.  Remove to an oiled bowl and rest for 15 minutes.  Do (4) S &F’s every 15 minutes.  At the 1 hour mark let the dough develop and ferment for 1 hour.

At this point I split off half the dough and formed it into a boule and let it ferment for another hour.  Then it was formed into a loaf, placed into a Pyrex loaf pan and refrigerated for 4 hours.  It doubled in the fridge.  It was then removed and allowed to final proof for 3 hours.  When it tripled in volume from when it initially went into the loaf pan, we slashed it and put it into a425 Fmini oven with steam for 10 minutes.  The steam was removed and the temperature turned down to 375 F convection this time.  The loaf was turned 180 degrees every 4 minutes 2 times.    At this point the loaf was removed from the Pyrex and allowed to finish baking turning 2 more times at 5 minute each.  When the loaf reached 205 F the loaf was allowed to stay in the off oven with the door ajar for 10 more minutes to crisp the crust..  It was then removed to a cooling rack.

 The other half of the dough was used for lamination and I followed txfarmer’s method and procedure.  I used180 gramsof roll-in butter for 645 g of dough (27.5%).  The croissants and Danish were retarded overnight in a plastic bag in the fridge where the back half of them froze – no harm done though.  In the morning, they came out of the fridge for final proof – this took about 2 ½ hours.  Then they were placed in the 425 F oven for 22 minutes (should have been 25 minutes) rotated half way through and the temperature turned down to 375 F convection.  When done they went onto a cooking rack from the parchment covered baking sheet.

Formula

A nice lunch for two featuring store bought (inside out and grilled) and home made ciabatta, beer can and teriyaki chicken.

With some Mojo de Ajo (with achoite and chili flakes) and the apple strawberry and ginger crisp.

We haven’t made SD ciabatta in a long time and wanted to make one that included some YW in the levain, had some semolina, rye and WWW for flavor while using mostly AP and a little bread flour for the rest of the dry.  We added some VWG to up the gluten of this dough and improve its crumb.  We also took some of our standard pizza dough ingredients; the mix of herbs, garlic and sun dried tomato and added them with some chia seeds.

 The crust came out nicely browned and crunchy and softened as it cooled.  The crumb was open, soft,glossy and moist.  The herbs, garlic and sun dried tomatoes came though but were not over powering.  The SD tang was there in the background but it was subdued due to the YW and no retarding of the dough or starters to bring out the SD flavor.  We didn’t do two separate levains this time but mixed the YW right into the SD starter from the beginning.

 This might well be the best tasting ciabatta we have ever made – just delicious!

 It looks to be some fine sandwich bread for paninis by putting the crust of the bread on the inside and grilling the inside of the bread on the outside of the sandwich. Formula and Method follow.  Here is a nice beer can chicken sandwich with lettuce and Amish Swiss, chips, berries and some salad and a chocolate sandwich cookie. 

Method

Make the YW and SD levain in 3 stages each 4 hours apart for a total of 12 hours.  The levain will triple in volume

The next morning autolayse the flour with the water for 1 hour in the mixer bowl.  Add the levain and knead with dough hook on KA 8 for 8 minutes or until the dough releases from the bowl.  Add the salt and chia seeds and knead on KA 8 for 1 more minute.  Place in a well oiled plastic covered bowl for 15 minutes.  Do 4 S & F’s every 15 minutes in the bowl.  Add the herbs garlic and sun dried tomato and do 2 more S & F’s.  Let ferment and develop in a well oiled bowl until the dough at least doubles.  This will take about 3 hours

Turn out onto a well flowered counter, shape into (2) 8”x14” rectangles with an oiled dough scraper, dimple top with fingers, spray top with oil and cover with a dusting of flour and plastic.  Let rest 60 minutes.

After 60 minutes, preheat oven for 45 minutes at 500 F regular bake with steam and stone in place.  With 2 dough scrapers, transfer ciabatta to a floured parchment paper on a peel by flipping in over at the same time.  Reshape as necessary.  Slide onto stone and steam for 6 minutes.  Remove stream, turn loaves 180 degrees and bake another 6 minutes at 450 F convection this time.  When the internal temperature reaches 205 F it is done but not finished.

Turn off oven, leave door ajar and bread on the stone for another 8 minutes to crisp the ciabatta crust.  Move to a cooling rack to cool to room temperature.

home for the summer means 2 lunch sammys every day.  Something to look forward to!  One was semolina SD with brie, chicken and pepper jack grilled cheese with home made Dijon mustard.  Made another batch of mustard today but it tales 6 weeks to mature - not that it lasted that long :-(  The other sammy has two different SD and YW starters mixed in the same bread but each slice is a different variety.  It is served with our vapor aged white cheddar and pepper jack Mac and Cheese that is modestly flavored with Thai red curry paste. - Yummy!

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We were inspired by Varda’s recent Priests Hat  Altamura Style Bread Revisited here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/28663/altamura-style-bread-revisited 

and thought we would convert it to our new, nearly normal, 3 day, multi-grain with sprouts and seeds process – no nuts this time.  We reduced the semolina and added some; rye, 6 grain cereal, white WW, AP and bread flour. 

 I suppose we like the way the dough was shaped the most and what drew us to this take onAltamurastyle bread.  With our college age daughter home for the summer, she wanted to learn how to bake and cook so when she moves off into her apartment next year she won’t starve.  So she learned some French slap and folds and regular S& Fs on this loaf.   But didn’t make it out of bed early enough to do the unusual Altamura Priest’s Hat shaping.

 The dough rose well during the 20 hour retard period in the refrigerator and, after coming to room temperature the next morning, it nearly folded itself into the hat shape.  At about 2 ½ hours it was ready for the oven having passed the poke test.

 The crust browned very nice and dark, the way we like it, the seeds and sprouts were popping out here and  there.  Best of all the crust was very tasty. The crumb was fairly open with all the whole grains, seeds, and sprouts but the taste and texture were just great.  We really like how this bread tastes.  The SD tang was deep and complex so the 3 day process worked.  Can’t wait to taste it tomorrow.  Formula and methods follow the lunch shot.

It took years of genetic engineering to get a home grown heirloom tomato color to match Green Rooibos, Honeybush, 4 Fruit Tea but even longer to get the same tonato to match the shape of Altamura 'Priest's Hat' Bread.

Method

Start the sprouts by soaking the berries in water for 5 hours then spread them out on a damp paper towel, cover with another paper towel and then cover in plastic.  Set aside to sprout until needed – about 1 ½ days.

Start the SD levain build by following the 3 builds 3 hours apart and then refrigerate overnight.

Start the autolyse by combining the flour and water in the mixing bowl, cover with plastic and refrigerate for 24 hours.

Remove the levain and autolyse from the fridge and allow them to come to room temperature - about 90 minutes.

Mix with a dough hook, the levain and the autolyse in the mixing bowl on KA 2 for 4 minutes add salt and continue kneading for an additional 2 minutes .  Place in a well oiled bowl to rest for 15 minutes.  Do a few minutes of French slap and folds and let rest for 15 minutes, then do 4 S&F on 15 minute intervals.  Add the sprouts and seeds on the 3rd S&F and allow to rest for and ferment for 1-2 hours after the 4th.  Form into a boule and refrigerate overnight.

 Remove from refrigerator and allow dough to come to room temperature – about 90 minutes.  Flatten gently into a 8 x 18 rectangle and form into a priests hat by folding in half  from the short end and sealing the top edge.  Then fold up from the short end again but only go ¾ of the way up sealing the top and sides.  Allow to proof on parchment paper, on a peel, inside a trash bag until it passes the poke test about 90 minutes.

 Preheat oven to 500 F with steaming method and stone in place for 45 minutes.  Slide hat onto the stone and turn the oven temp down to 425 F after 4minutes.  Allow to steam for another 12 minutes.  Remove steam, turn down to oven to 425 convection this time, and allow bread to bake turning every 8 minutes, 120 degrees, until center reaches 205 F.  Turn off oven and leave on stone for 10 more minutes, with the door ajar, too allow skin to crisp up.  Move to wire rack to cool completely.

For breakfast we had a nice YW Buckwheat Apple Pecan Pancake loose based on sweetbird's bread but using YW as leaven and milk to thin it out to pancake consistency.  Very nice!

Then for lunch we used a couple of left over SD and SD YW breads to make a grilled chicken and brie sandwich with lettuce, tomato, homemade Dijon, mayo sstrawberries, mango, a dill pickle and Pink Lady Apples.  Why are there no Brown Men apples I still wonder.

Using the same filling and frosting as the YW Cinnamon Rolls, you can make a nice banana bread cake by substituting your favorite banana bead recipe for the dough - and you might need some sprinkles too!  Much better than plain old banana bread and 3 times as fattening too :-)

Dabrownman’s Banana Bread or Cupcakes

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 Dry Mix:

 1 ½ C plus 2 T flour

¼ tsp salt

1/8 tsp each ginger, cloves, allspice

1 tsp each cinnamon and nutmeg

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp baking powder

1 C chopped walnuts

1 C chopped chocolate chips

 Bourbon Fruit – add bourbon to below dried fruits in a Pyrex 1 cup measuring cup covered with plastic wrap.  Microwave on high for 30 seconds and set aside 15 minutes to plump up fruits.

 2 T bourbon

¼ C raisins or sultanas

¼ C dried cranberries

¼ C dried apricots cut into raisin size pieces

 Wet Mix:

 3 mashed up ripe bananas

1/8 cup sour cream

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

½ C vegetable oil

½ C each brown and white sugar

 Add ½ C sugar, ½ C brown sugar and Bourbon fruits to wet mix and stir until sugar is dissolved.  Mix the wet into the dry and stir 50 times with spatula until the flour is incorporated.

Quickly fill cupcake paper liners 3/4th full or put into PAM sprayed large bread loaf pan.

 Bake cupcakes for about 12-16 minutes until wooden toothpick comes out clean.  Loaves will take 45 minutes or more for wooden skewer to come out clean. 

 After 20 minutes remove from pans and let cool completely on wire racks.  Ice both with cream cheese vanilla icing and put sprinkles on each to decorate per the holiday or special occasion.  Makes about 21 cupcakes or 1 large bread loaf pan.

 Cream Cheese Frosting

 Ingredients

 1/2 C butter, softened

1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, softened

1 (16-oz.) package powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

 Preparation

 Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating at low speed until blended; stir in vanilla.

 Cut recipe in half for 20 Cupcakes or 9x13 sheet cake .

This bake was meant to be a one day bread from start to finish that was still a tasty multi grain bread with soft white wheat, spelt, rye, WW, WWW and AP flours, 2 levains SD and YW, a WW berry scald, some fennel, anise and pumpkin seeds with ¼ tsp of ground cumin.  It has a 4 hour autolyse while the levains are being built, a short 1 hr fermentation and then final proof in a floured basket that took almost 3 hours.  It was a lovely looking bread since I didn't use a cloth for this basket.  The crust is crunchy crisp and nicely browned but we will have to wait for it to cool to see how these 2 quick levains worked together.

The crumb came out moderately open, very moist due to the YW.  The taste and texture was very nice with the pumpkin seeds and WW scald.  The normal 3 day developed SD tang was not there but just a hint of sour to go along with the light anise, fennel and cumin taste.  Ummm.... the smell was devine.  Very nice bread overall.  Had it for breakfast toast this morning - great with butter and apple ginger jam on another slice.

Formula and method after the pix's.

Soft White Wheat, Spelt, Seeded SD YW Bread

 The SD and YW levains were built over 2 stages of 2 hours each.  During this 4 hour period the flour’s, cumin, malts, VWG and water were autolysed in the mixing bowl.  The WW berries were also scalded and reserved on the counter to soak for 4 hours until needed.

 At the 4 hour mark all of the ingredients were incorporated in the mixing bowl with the exception of the seeds and scald.  The dough was mixed for 9 minutes on KA 2 .  Then the remainder of the ingredients were added  and mixed on KA 2 for 1 minute.

The dough was placed into a plastic covered oiled bowl to rest for 15 minutes.  4 S&F’s were performed at 15 minute intervals on a floured work surface with the dough returned to the covered oiled bowl in between each S&F.

 Let rest for 1 hour then form into a boule and place in a floured basket to proof in a plastic bag for 2-3 hours until it doubles.

 Preheat oven at 500 F for 45 minutes with stone steam in place.  Overturn basket onto parchment on a peel.  Slash as desired and slide bread into the oven.  After 4 minutes turn down to450 F.  After 12 more minutes, remove steam and turn down oven to 425 F convection this time.  Turn boule 90 degrees every 5 minutes and  bake until temperature in the middle of the bread is 205 F.  Turn off oven and crack the door to allow the crust to crisp for 12 more minutes.  Remove bread from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.

I've been searching for a a nice sesame and poppy seeded hamburger bun that would stand up to our monthly, stacked,  piled high burger by not falling apart while still having a soft moist crumb that toasted up well.  I took Sylvia's bun recipe for a starting point and converted it to YW from commercial yeast.  Then we thought we would make some retarded cinnamon rolls out of the same dough since it seemed like the thing to do and a nice fit. 

The YW levain was strong after the 2nd build at at the 8 hour mark.  Right after the 3rd build I refrigerated it overnight.  The YW levain was stronger than we thought and it tripled in volume in the fridge.  Amazing beasts they are!

The next morning we mixed everything together in the KA, it is a sticky wet 77% hydration dough and then developed and fermented the dough doing S & F's on a floured work surface which cuts the stickiness and makes the dough managable at the end of the S & F's at 68% hydration.  It was 85 F in the kitchen when we got to the point of splitting off the 2 hamburger buns from the rest of the dough.   The buns were raised on the counter in the  4" ramekins they would be baked in - eventually.  The steamed mini oven at 400 F to start was perfect for them.  There is a formula and method to follow the pictures.  They ending up being just what we wanted.  The seeded Buns tasted great, didn't fall apart and toasted well.  The fix'ins included; wedge sweet and regular potato fries, caramelized onions and mushrooms, baked BBW beans, roasted poblano pepper, tomato and lettuce.  Why no bacon ?

Coat that Pyrex with non stick spray first or you will be sorry !

The remainder of the dough was rolled out to accept the filling and then rolled up from the short side to make a log that was sliced into 12 pieces.  The rolls were placed into a 9x13 Pyrex baking dish and placed into the fridge for an 18 hour rise.  I expected them to double and they did at least that - no worries.  Baked them off at 350 F straight out of the fridge with some butter smeared on top before they went into the oven.  When they were nice and browned, out they came to receive a nice cream cheese icing to gild the lily.  They were delicious - the best ever.  Now the same dough makes hamburger buns too.  A 2'fer.

 Method

 The YW levain is built over 3 stages  the first 2 stages are 4 hours each.  After the third stage is added at the 8 hour mark the levain is refrigerated overnight.  It will triple in volume while in the fridge.

 In the morning mix the rest of the ingredients with the levain in the mixing bowl.  Knead with a dough hook on KA 2 for 8 minutes.  Then increase speed to KA 3 for 2 minutes.  move to a plastic covered, oiled bowl.  Do 6 S & Fs at 15 minute intervals on a floured work surface returning the dough each time to a plastic covered bowl to rest.   This wet dough will firm up nicely.  Let rest on the counter for 1 hour after the last S&F.

 At this point I cut off enough dough to make 2 hamburger buns in4”ramekins.  These were allowed to rise on the counter until doubled in size.  A milk, water and egg yolk glaze was brushed on top and sesame and poppy seeds were sprinkled on.  They were then baked in a 400 F steamed mini oven for 10 minutes. The steam was then removed and the oven temperature turned down to 350 F convection this time.  After 5 minutes the ramekins were turned 180 degrees and baked another 5 minutes.  The buns were then removed from the ramekins and finished baking in 5 more minutes turning 180 degrees at the 2 and half minute mark.  The buns were then allowed to cool on a wire rack.

 The remainder of the dough was rolled out to ¼” thick rectangle and brushed with soft butter.  The filling was then added and the dough rolled up from the wide end.  

 Filling

 ¼ C each brown and white sugar

¼ C each dried apples, apricots, cranberries and raisins reconstituted in 1 T each of Bourbon and water.

¼ tsp each of allspice and cloves

1 tsp each nutmeg and cinnamon

1/2 C each chopped walnuts and chopped chocolate chips.

After rolling, the dough log was cut into 12 equal pieces and placed into a 9”x13” Pyrex baking pan, covered with plastic and put into the fridge to retard overnight.  It should double in volume overnight.  Remove from fridge and brush tops with soft butter.

 Bake off straight from the fridge at 350 F until nicely browned.  Spread cream cheese frosting on top

 Frosting 

8 oz powdered sugar

4 oz each cream cheese and softened butter

½ tsp of vanilla.

 Mix everything together with a hand blender and spread on top of the warm cinnamon rolls.