justkeepswimming's blog

I decided to see how the new "outdoor kitchen" would do with an artisan loaf, instead of a pan loaf. I followed this recipe, with a very few tweaks below. (Thanks, @SunnyGail, for your recent post of this bread, which gave me something new to try out. 😁)

A few of my notes:

350 gm KAF AP flour

100 gm home milled hard white wheat

50 gm home milled hard red winter wheat (was using up a bag of berries).

350 gm water

100 gm starter (100% hydration, very active, might have been just past peak?)

11 gm salt

Mixed flour and water, left covered at room temperature 4 hrs while we went to lunch with family and ran an errand (which was not supposed to take so long, lol)

Hand mixed salt and starter into the autolyse. Bulk fermentation 5.5 hours with hourly coil folds as he recommends. Aliquot was at approximately 60+% and dough was a little jiggly. I didn't want it to go much longer m, so shaped, placed in cold banetton (had pre-chilled it), placed in a bag and refrigerated overnight. 

Banetton out of fridge after 14 hour retard. Toaster oven preheated for 30 min with a cast iron skillet inside. It JUST fits, lol. Lightly spritzed the dough and the inside of a stainless steel bowl with water. Baked at 450F covered with the stainless steel bowl for 20 min, then uncovered for additional 20 min.

Observations:

What a goofy shape, lol! 😂 This was shaped as a batard. It spread out more than up while baking, so half of it took on the shape of the bowl. Now it looks like a boule on one side, with a flat edge on the other. There wasn't much clearance between the bowl and the bread. So when I went to take the bowl off, part of the bread had started sticking to the bowl. I had to quickly work with a butter knife to pry them apart, which left a little scar, lol. The baked bit tasted nice. 🤭 Note to self, grease the bowl a bit if I do this again. And I neglected to notice if it was the front or the back of the loaf that changed shape.

Like my previous bake, the side of the loaf closest to the back of the oven baked faster than the front. Rotating the loaf during baking helped even it out.

And this little oven does a great job maintaining a steady temperature, even after getting the bread in and out a couple of times. Likely the cast iron skillet helped even things out as well. Still, it seems up to the job overall. 

Edit - crumb shot added below, and clarification of a process step above.

A former owner of our home had this BBQ enclosure built by the back patio. We never wanted to use it for it's originally intended purpose, because we didn't want bbq smoke etc accumulating on the painted ceiling of the patio cover. My very talented husband ran power out to it, and now I have an official summer kitchen. Just the thing for baking in the hot AZ summer! I did a test bake today. 

Toaster oven is a Hamilton Beach XL model. It has the ability to bake in convection mode, but I chose to not turn on the fan since this was my first attempt at this. 

Bread is a simple straight dough recipe from KAF (recipe here) though I did change the flour a little:

75% whole wheat (200gm home milled hard red winter wheat, 100 gm home milled hard spring white wheat)

100 gm KAF bread flour

238 gm h20

50 gm oil

85 gm honey

2.5 tsp IDY

28 gm dry nonfat milk

1.25 tsp salt

Hand mixed, (edit, cold rest in frig for 30 min, initial dough temp was 92F, down to 76F after rest), kneaded 10 min

Bulk 90 min

Proof 50 min

Baked at 350F x 20 min, loaf turned 180 degrees and covered w foil, baked another 18 min to internal temp 192F. It's still cooling, crumb shot tomorrow.

Some day I will figure out how to shape a loaf that isn't so short on the ends and tall in the middle. 😂 I even pat it down a little in the pan, trying to get it to be more even end-to-end. Ah well, it tastes the same. I did notice when I spun the loaf that it had baked more toward the back of the oven than the front. The side with the oven spring was towards the front at the beginning of the bake. Next I'll have to make sure it's positioned evenly front to back, and see if it happens again. I may be getting more heat loss through the glass door than elsewhere.

Overall I think this is going to work really well. It kept the kitchen from heating up, and I suspect used much less power than heating up the oven. Thanks to @minioven, you were part of the inspiration for this project. 

Mary

This is my first time making a porridge bread. They always looked more challenging than I was ready to tackle. After reading the entire previous CB that featured this bread (read it several times, lol), I decided to go ahead and give it a try.

Levain:

75 gm, half bread flour, half WW, 100% hydration (9 gm seed culture)

Oat soaker:

125 gm oats (home flaked)

250 gm h2o

Pinch of salt

Dough:

350 gm bread flour

150 gm whole wheat (home milled, hard white wheat)

375 gm water - held back 25 gm

75 gm levain

11 gm salt

Added levain to mixing bowl, then added water and mixed til levain dissolved.

Added flours, mixed to shaggy mass, then rested (covered) 1 hr. 

Boiled water and poured over oats, allowed to soak x 10 min. Much of water was soaked up - added10 gm of held back water and cooked oats slowly (about 12 min), covered and cooled to 85F. Oats were more of a thick paste than creamy, wondered if it was a mistake to not use commercial oats. 

After 1 hour dough rest, added salt and 10 gm held water, mixed til sticky.

Transferred to bulk container and rested 30 min. Folded porridge in slowly (was certain my oat choice was a mistake and no way they would disperse evenly - and then they did). Rested 10 min, then began first S&F sets every 30 min.  

S&F every 30 min. X 6, then rest 1-2 hrs. (Me, bulk may finish fast w warm temp and fresh milled flour). After 2 sets of S&F, swapped ti coil folds x 3 sets total. Dough was extensible and not as slack as I had been reading. It wasn't tight either, but would firm up sine with each set of folds. Total bulk time 3.5 hours. Dough was getting puffy but wasn't jiggly yet, I think it would have benefitted from a little longer bulk. But it was getting late and time for bed.

Turned dough out onto floured surface, sprinkled top with flour and preshaped. It oozed outward somewhat but then stopped. Covered and rested 15 min then shaped, flipped onto towel covered with oats, and put into the banetton seam side up. Seam was sticky and needed extra stitching to get it to stay together. Banetton placed into plastic bag and into frig overnight. 

After 11 hr cold retard, oven preheated with DO at 475F x 1 hr. After preheat, banetton out of fridge, dough flipped onto parchment (it didn't stick ?), scored, sprayed, then loaded into hot DO. Bake covered 20 min at 450F, then uncovered 40 min. 

So far I m pretty happy. After reading some of the hydration issues and trouble getting the dough to cooperate after adding the porridge, I count myself lucky to have it all go this well on my first try. Fresh out of the oven - the proof will be in the crumb shot tomorrow. ?

Update with crumb below. The crust is still crisp but not overly so, with a very soft and moist crumb. It leaves a little gummy residue on the knife, but neither of us notice any gumminess in the chew. Hubby really loves this one, which fits. He's a big fan of any bread with seeds or decorative toppings. All in all, a successful bake. (Note to self, scale this down a little for loaf pan.)

After reading Benito's recent bake, I realized it's been years since I made a simple white bread. Life finally gave me a little room to bake something reasonably quick, so I went with this KAB small Pain de Mie. (Benny, looks like you inspired several of us.... ?)

I followed their recipe and things went just they said.... until it came time to proof the loaf. A last minute change of plans came up, so after bulk and shaping, it went into the fridge for final proof. Six hours later, I put it on the counter while the oven preheated. It rose in the fridge, but only to about an inch below the pan edge. My choice was to wait longer, or cross my fingers and see what oven spring might do if I tried a cold bake (which I have never tried before). I went with the cold-ish bake. Baked in a 9x4 in Pullman pan with the lid on for 25 min at 350F, then lid off for 10 min. The crust was still a tad under baked, so I added another 5 min. bake time. Internal temp 197 when I took it out to cool overnight. 

Not too bad! I think if I had let it warm up and rise a bit more before baking, I would have gotten the square top. It has a very soft crust and crumb, and tastes like - plain bread, lol. I have a personal preference for the various flavors SD and whole grain breads offer, so I am not likely to make this very often. Still, it's worth having as something to do when a basic white bread (or rolls?) are needed.

Mary

I used the same recipe as last time (see blog with details here), but used DanAyo's procedure for baking artisan bread in a loaf pan (his helpful thread is here). 

A "Cliff's Notes" version of what I did, beginning last night (started levain build before bed) thru today: 

Built levain, mixed dough, kneaded 10 min, rested dough 10 min (during clean up), shaped, rose in pan 3.5 hours (Aliquot at ~ 70% increase), baked at 425F (edit, in a 8 in x 4 in pan) for 40 min to internal temp of 208. Now it's cooling, crumb shot tomorrow. 

It was certainly easier and required less babysitting or watching. For everyday sourdough sandwich bread, this couldn't be much easier! My freezer needs replenishing, I may do a whole wheat loaf in a day or so. And next time I may  score it to control where it opens a little better. (That split at the top of where the pan was goes all the way around the loaf.)

And for anyone interested in trying spelt flour, I am currently using this sprouted spelt flour. I found it at our local Sprouts market. I usually prefer to mill my own but decided on a whim to give this a try. My starter really loves it! 

Edit to add crumb shot. Not too bad, though I think the hearth bake for this recipe that I did a few days ago had a little better crumb. The crumb on this one is kind of smooshed on the bottom and a little up the sides of the loaf.

My guess (from the split around the top of the loaf, and the top crust is drier than usual) is the crust set before oven spring was finished. It tastes great - a nice chew, not crumbly at all, and made our late PB&J lunch quite nice. I will definitely do this again, it really simplifies things. Next time I'll try spritzing it with water, &/or scoring before baking. All in all, a successful experiment!

Mary

My first entry in the No Comfort Zone community bake: Berry focaccia with meyer lemon olive oil.

I have never made focaccia, mostly because I haven't been sure what to do with one after I bake it. There is just 2 of us, and we already are on the outer edges of how much bread we can eat without needing to buy larger clothes.And then I got inspired by watching this Italian Grandma make focaccia. Whether or not you ever make focaccia, she is well worth watching - she's the real deal, lol.

I started to write out my recipe/process, but then realized it is the same as many other focaccia recipes. The main differences are that I chose to use frozen berries. And instead of EVOO, I used this meyer lemon olive oil . (They are local to me, and their in store price when I bought this wasn't this high. I am not affiliated with them, we just shop there once in a while.). Dusted with a light dusting of powdered sugar just prior to serving (no photos).

The frozen blueberries held up very well. The raspberries kind of disintegrated and got mushy in the oven, but still tasted great. The crumb photo looks like it came out gummy, but that didn't seem to be the case for most of the focaccia. It may have been an artifact of the juicy raspberry or photo. And the berry flavors combined with the meyer lemon oil made my mouth do quite a happy dance. It is a more rich flavor than lemon zest would have provided. After we grazed our way through half the pan between last night and brunch this morning, I froze the rest. I'm not quite ready to go out into the real world and try on clothes, lol.

Mary

After enjoying a few days away, I’m glad to be home and do some baking. This one has been on my list for a while – 100% spelt, based on this recipe. I think I’m finally starting to see progress in my ability to apply the various things I have learned over the last 6 months.

Tweaks I made:

I found this flour at our local Sprouts, which prompted me to finally try this bake. It was actually cheaper than buying spelt berries and milling my own, which is unusual for me. (Usually the whole grains I find are less costly than milled flour, and they last better.) I scaled the levain build so it was enough for this bake, rather than making enough to put in the frig for another bake the way George does. I am only keeping 1 starter right now, and not a very big one at that. George mentioned his bread fermented really quickly, and I wondered if it was because he only used 6 gm of salt, so I increased salt to 7 gm. And I’m not sure what dark honey is…. I had some buckwheat honey that’s dark, so I used that. It had started to crystalize, so after I weighed it out, I heated/used some of the recipe water and stirred it into the honey. After a few minutes, the crystals melted and it was good to go.

Details of my bake: 

Day 1, evening – Begin 2 stage levain build, at 66% hydration:

Spelt 30 gm

Water 20 gm

Starter 15 gm (I used my 100% hydration starter). Mix well and knead into a smooth ball of dough. Ferment overnight (I left mine on the counter).

Day 2 – continue levain build:

Spelt 30 gm

Water 20 gm

Levain from day 1 (65 gm)

Mix well and knead into a smooth ball of dough. Ferment 3-4 hours or until active. Mine nearly tripled in 3 hours (kitchen temp 74-75F)  > stirred down and it nearly doubled over the next hour.

Final Dough: 

Levain 115 gm

Sprouted spelt flour, 388 gm

Water 263 gm (I added an additional 25 gm for this flour, the dough was pretty dry) 

Dark honey 10 gm 

Mix everything except salt. Knead 10 minutes. I added the additional 25 gm water here, dough improved and was smooth and elastic. Dough covered and rested 45 min. 

After rest, salt added and mixed well. Performed 4 coil folds, 20 min. apart. Dough covered and placed inside microwave “proofing box” (it eliminates drafts from the air conditioning) for 3.5 hours (from time salt was added). Dough temp 79F. Aliquot rose about 80%, and dough was approaching ‘jiggly’. Not as jello-like as some, but per the comments in George’s thread it is easy to over-ferment this dough. Shaped dough into a batard, placed into banneton dusted with rice flour, banneton into a plastic bag and placed in frig overnight (13 hours in frig). Frig temp (measured liquid already in frig) 37F. 

Day 3 – bake day:

Banneton out of frig and on counter while oven preheated to 450F. (I misread George’s instructions, he used a convection oven and mine is not, should have preheated to 475F. It worked anyway…) 

After oven preheated, dough turned out > scored > baked covered at 450F for 30 min. Oven temp lowered to 425 and baked at 425 for 10 min (still covered). Cover removed and baked additional 10 min at 425F. 

Results: 

It may have fermented a tad too long, but it turned out much better than I expected. We had some with lunch today, and my husband loved it! He always enjoys fresh bread, but for some reason this one really tickled his taste buds. I will play with the fermentation a bit to improve the crumb (I think I can coax it into a little more open crumb), but this one will go into my regular rotation. 

This was on my list of things to bake. It was good, though the anise flavor was a bit srong for me (and I like anise!). It overpowered everything else. It was a new jar, and likely more fresh than the fennel and caraway I had on hand. 

I followed the recipe as described, but made it in a small pullman pan instead. So much easier for sandwiches and toast! It was fantastic toasted with butter and marmalade.

The dough was pretty wet and sticky, and I almost didn't score it. It would have been fine without, I suspect, still learning when to just let that go.  A few slices made it into the freezer for another day. Next time I'll try a little less seasoning and a bit more orange zest. 

I have been getting much more relaxed about my bakes these days, a welcome improvement. My current mindset: it's bread. Nobody is dieing, nobody needs CPR, and the world will not come to an end if it doesn't come out the way I expected. And who knows what I may learn from the experience. 

I decided to make a really simple no-knead yeast bread that I have made before. It's a gift for a friend who really loves this bread. The recipe calls for a long, 12 hour bulk rise. Apparently the instant yeast didn't get the memo, didn't read the recipe, lol. I did 4 sets of stretch and folds in the first few hours, with the last one right before we ran some errands. We got home at about the 10 hour mark. The dough was pushing the cover off the bowl and threatening to ooze over the rim. We burst out laughing.... "It's the dough that ate NY!". ? 

It was very jiggly and full of huge bubbles. I was certain it was spent, over fermented. I thought about just shaping it for a loaf tin just in case the dough still had something left to offer, but opted to make a (somewhat wobbly) batard. The final proof  took an hour, with the poke test saying "nope, not yet" til I was running out of time. It went into the oven at 450F with the lid on 20 min, then lid off 30 min to internal temp of 208. There are several spontaneous burst points at one end and along the side (not all pictured). I suspect there was not enough steam to keep the crust from setting and allow the score to do it's job? The crust was crackling away while it cooled, and we went to bed.

This morning I cut a couple of slices off the end so my friend can dive into this at work, and I could have a crumb shot. ? Much better than anticipated, and exactly what she likes. I'm glad I didn't give up.

Just bake it. ?

 Edit > bread delivered. She just went back to work after having covid, and was touched by the gesture. It's easy to forget how a simple loaf of fresh bread can bring comfort, connection, encouragement. Perfection not required. ♥️

Today's bake - 100% whole wheat SD, baked in a small graniteware roaster.

Hard white spring wheat (home milled) 450 gm

Water 405 gm

Starter (100% hydration) 130 gm

Salt 9 gm

Bulk proof 7 hours (might been a tad too long)

Final proof in banetton 45 min. 

The kitchen went from 68F this morning to 75F by early afternoon, and I wasn't watching closely enough how rapidly the proofing accelerated. Spring weather in AZ, lol. 

I have been enjoying playing with different techniques, both in working with the dough and trying different baking containers. This was the first time I tried my hand at coil folds, and they really seemed to strengthen the dough better than the stretch and folds have done for me in the past. 

I baked it in a mini graniteware roaster I discovered at a local thrift store. (The yardstick is for photo scale purposes only.) It worked pretty well! 450F for 25 min with the lid on, then 15 min lid off. I attempted to bake without a sheet pan on the shelf below, that was a mistake. I knew better, this oven only heats from the elements on the bottom. The bottom burned a bit, hopefully I will be able to just cut that part of the crust off if needed.

 Edited to add crumb shot:

I'm so happy with this, it's my best loaf yet. Really good with some hummus and the salad we had for lunch. 

This is the most open crumb I have ever achieved. I think the 2 bigger bubbles on the sides are an artifact of my shaping more than anything, there weren't a lot of those. It has a very thin crust, and the bottom didn't taste burned, as I had feared. The crumb is so soft, and it feels like I am slicing a pillow.

The aliquot had risen about 50% during BF, and the dough was quite jiggly before shaping. It was a little wetter and stickier than some I have made. The final proof was going so fast I was afraid I may have let it go too long, but that's not the case.

I'm amazed to have this result with 100% whole wheat. Thinking about it, in the past I had used hard red winter wheat. This hard spring white wheat seems to do much better. I'll have to whittle down my winter wheat, experiment with coil folds with that as well, and consider using this wheat more often. So many ideas to pursue... ☺️