Epsilon's blog

well. It's only been 10 years since I last posted something. Or maybe more. Let's post something nice?

This is a plain ol' sandwich loaf that I made. I used a preferment (a poolish by definition, I believe?) at roughly 40%, just because.

The loaf pan I used is a Pullman pan, and I used it covered. From the product description: "External Size: 8.5 x 4.75x 4.375 inch, Interior size: About 7.25 x 4 x 4.25inch"

I haven't used measuring cups in years - everything's in grams. Sorry. :P

Preferment:

250g King Arthur bread flour

250g water

2-3g yeast

Let the preferment sit on the countertop, covered, overnight. I ended up putting it in a 4-cup Anchor measuring cup, and letting it bubble for probably 16 hours or so. I had to stir it down twice, and when I finally used it, it had a nice tangy smell to it.

Loaf:

400g King Arthur bread flour

225g milk (I use Parmalat because I don't use a lot of milk in general - YMMV if you use regular milk I think?)

8g salt (Again, I use smoked salt - not required, but it makes for a nice extra little flavor.)

Mix all the ingredients together. I used a stand mixer with a dough hook for about 8 minutes, but there's no reason you couldn't hand-knead.

Once it's all kneaded, shape it into a loaf that's about the right size to go into the loaf pan, stick it in, cover it with plastic wrap (or something that'll work similarly,) and let it rise to about a half-inch to an inch below the surface of the pan.

Pre-heat your oven to 375F in the meantime. Once it's nice and toasty, cover the pan with the Pullman lid and stick it in for about 40 minutes. Ovens vary, of course, but if you've got a probe thermometer, you want an internal temperature of 190F.

Take it out, remove it from the pan, and put it on a cooling rack.

Slice and enjoy!

Thoughts after baking:

I think I might've wanted to use a little less flour overall. Total content for the loaf is 650g because the recipe was originally for an 9x5 loaf pan, and I got a really good rise out of it with the preferment. I could probably use 500g (which is what's suggested for the pan) and get a slightly more open crumb (which I like, even for a sandwich loaf)

I might want to also let the preferment go a little longer next time - I developed some tang, but it's not really all that noticeable to me in the finished loaf - though the flavor's nice and complex all the same.

I've decided that I'm gonna start sticking these on a blog rather than the forums. Mostly because this is the first -really- successful bread I've made. Like, I'm making another two loaves of it right now, just with a bit less rising time. :P

The ingredients:

4c AP flour
1/2tsp salt
8oz medium cheddar cheese, diced
1/4c VWG
2oz grated parmesan
1/2tsp ground chipotle pepper
2c water
2 1/2tsp ADY
1tsp liquid smoke flavor
1 egg, beaten with some water to thin it out (for a wash)
1 sugar cube (to proof yeast)

Put the yeast and 1/4c of water into a measuring cup with a sugar cube to proof. While the yeast proofs, put the flour, salt, VWG, chipotle pepper, and parmesan into a bowl. Combine thoroughly, so you don't need to worry about mixing it. If possible, try and break up any chunks of parmesan - they'll make hard little nodules in your bread if you don't.

Once the yeast is proofed, add the yeast along with the other 1 3/4c of water. Also add the liquid smoke flavoring at this point. Knead the dough until developed (and I'll admit, I still haven't quite figured out what dough feels like when "properly developed," but I've had good luck so far...) and toss in your mixing bowl, and cover it to proof.

While the dough proofs, take your 8oz of cheese and cut it up into roughly 1/4-1/2" cubes. Once done, stick it in the fridge until your dough is ready. Don't rise it too much - you'll get that "beery" flavor, and not everyone enjoys the taste of straight CO2! (although I kinda like it, I admit...)

Once the dough has risen to about 1.5-2x its original size, take it out and stretch it out 'til it's about 1/2" thick. Put the cheese cubes on top of the dough, trying to spread them evenly. Now fold the dough, press it out a bit, fold it, press it out a bit, and just repeat 'til you start getting pieces of cheese breaking through or almost breaking through the outside of the dough. Since there's no egg or anything in the bread, it should be perfectly safe to nom on the cheese that falls off - consider it a bonus. ;)

Shape them as you desire (personally, I went with two batard-like loaves, but I don't see why you can't do a boule, a baguette, etc. shape with this?) and let rise again. Rise them until they're about doubled.

While they're rising, preheat your oven to 500F. Once risen (which should be helped by the heat from the preheating oven,) brush the loaves with your egg mixture, slash the tops however you want (I use three slashes down the long axis of the loaf, though I forgot this time...) and stick 'em in the oven with steam (again, personally, I use an old lasagna pan I keep in the bottom of the oven, and toss a cup of water in there. By the time the cup of water is boiled off, that's "enough steam".) For the love of <your deity of choice>, don't make this on a baking stone unless you -want- to scrape burnt cheese off the thing. If you do, at least cover it somehow.

Drop the oven temperature to 400F, and cook for 50 minutes. Enjoy the smell from the liquid smoke that you mixed into it, along with the slight crispy-burnt cheese smell coming from the bits that should have been hanging off the loaf. Feel free to eat the crispy bits - I think they're the best part of the bread!

Pictures:

Cooling loaves:

Crumb porn:

Very tasty bread. I alluded to this when I was writing the instructions, but the first batch of this I made was overproofed - I had a strong CO2 (i.e. "beery") flavor in the loaf. I've got another batch in the oven (since I'm actually making these for other people) that should be significantly less beery. Still though, the crumb is wonderful, the loaf itself is nice and fluffy, and the taste is awesome.

Edit: Oh yes. MUCH better. So much oven spring out of the loaves this time around. I definitely overproofed it the first time, and I think I know exactly where I went wrong.