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dschal's blog

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dschal

I had some Sir Lancelot flour to use up, and have spent hours, if not days, deciding how to make bagels.  I ended up following the recipe in Hamelman as closely as I could.  when I was at KA earlier this week, they told me to buy non-diastatic malt powder for bagels, so that's all I had.  

I also didn't have quite enough Sir Lancelot, so about 1/4 of the flour was KA Bread flour (blue bag).  The ingredients were mixed In my DLX for 3 minutes, then I kneaded by hand on the board for 10 minutes.  The bulk ferment was one hour.  I tried shaping both ways, and got better at the rope method after the first few, but the poke method produced better, more uniform results.  I retarded overnight on oiled parchment paper.  For boiling I put 2 Tbl non-diastatic malt powder in a gallon of water, and boiled for 30 seconds, then flipped for another 30 seconds boil.  I'm happy with the chewiness, so I'll keep this boiling time.  I baked on cookie sheets with oiled parchment paper for 16 minutes at 500F.  I rotated the pans at 8 minutes.

Compared to the wet doughs I usually use, this was quite a change!  I'm happy with the results, and will get another bag of Sir Lancelot when I'm back in Norwich in three weeks.

 

 

dschal's picture
dschal

 

 

I finally tried the famous San Joaquin sourdough formula by dmsnyder.  This is version 2.0, scaled to 750 gram loaves because the 500 gram loaves just got eaten too quickly!  I find the pound and a half size about right for our typical usage.  I followed the formula given here:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/24078/san-joaquin-sourdough-update

I proofed one loaf as per the instructions, and the other in a brotform, to see if there would be any benefit to more support for the sides of these larger loaves. In my photos, the loaf on the left was in the basket, the one on the right was proofed in a linen couch with the sides supported by linen folds and props.  Perhaps you can see from the photo that indeed the loaf from the basket had more vertical expansion than the linen proofed loaf.  The next time I will put both loaves in the brotforms, which is also a bit easier for me to manage in my small kitchen.  The loaves were baked for 44 minutes at 460F, with steam for the first 15 minutes (just 2 cups of boiling water in a preheated roasting pan).  I will try to edit in a crumb shot after the loaves cool enough to slice.

Next up will be the San Joaquin sourdough baguettes!  Thanks to dmsnyder, who has long been an inspiration for my baking through his posts here!

Dave

 

 

dschal's picture
dschal

Back to basics for this bake.  This is my go-to, everyday bread.  I follow Hamelman's formula by the book.  I thought it would be warm enough to bulk ferment on the counter, but not much had happened by the time of the first stretch and fold, so I put it in the oven with the light on for a while.  At two and a half hours, the dough was still not where it should have been, so I did another stretch and fold and continued to ferment in the oven with the light on and off.  In another hour it looked good, so I shaped and then did the final proof in the refrigerator as usual.  I'm happy with how it turned out.  A good save.

 

Dave

dschal's picture
dschal

I had to try another big honking loaf.  My interest was piqued this time by wassisname's recent post:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/34256/big-ol-rye

I followed his procedure exactly to the best of my ability.  With cooler ambient temperatures in the kitchen, I used my oven with the lightbulb on, at times, for proofing my starter and bulk ferment.  The final proof was on the counter at about 65-68F, and it overflowed my largest round brotform.  So the sides are a bit unkempt.  But this is a great bread!  The sour is noticeable with all of the rye (I used KA Pumpernickel) in the preferment.  I will definitely try this again, but do my final proof in a larger linen-lined bowl.

Dave

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