leslieruf's blog

Following on from reading Trevor's Crumb Mastery I continue my quest to improve the crumb on my bread and up my skill level with wet dough and shaping.  We had eaten the Hamelman 5 grain levain so the freezer was nearly empty of bread.   Trevor had mentioned his "Premix" method so decided to have a go at Champlain sourdough, a 70% hydration.  should be a piece of cake!  yeah right! 

I made enough dough for 2 x 800 g loaves & 1 x 600 g loaf

 So 7:30  pm I weighed the flours 

Bread four 1055 g, wholegrain spelt flour 102 g, freshly milled rye flour 51 g, added 25 g salt.  added  827 g water and mixed to a shaggy dough, covered and refrigerated. 10:15 pm removed from fridge and left on bench overnight.

Levain also mixed at 7:30 pm 64 g bread flour, 64 g water and13 g refreshed starter. covered and left overnight on bench.

the final dough has only 5% fermented flour! 8:30 am add levain to premixed dough, dimple it in and fold dough gently until levain incorporated .  After 10 minutes, rested dough for 10 mins then did another round of gentle folds, then rested 10 minutes then the last set of folds.  the dough did tear at the end of first mixing so was extra careful after that.  I did hourly gentle folds over next 6 hours. Dough quite sticky but not slack.  Gently tipped dough onto floured bench to scale and preshape and this is when I had problems.  It was really sticky, even sticking to bench knife and I stuggled to get good preshape.  rested 30 minutes only!  final shaping was difficult, the dough was quite slack and my initial tuck and fold did not give enough strength so I did an extra roll and some more cloaking.  The 2nd loaf went a little better, and the 3rd (600 g loaf) a little better again.  Room temperature was 24°c.  After an hour, i turned on oven and put DOs in to preheat.  Just as well, an hour later dough was ready.  I popped the 600 gm loaf into fridge. The first loaf unmoulded spread a bit and 2 scores were not good. loaded it lopsidedly into DO and into oven.  2nd loaf I thought do it easy, so 1 single score, into DO and oven with the other at 250°c for 20 minutes lid on, 25 mins lid off at 240.  bold bake!  reheat oven, unmould last loaf, score into oven and bake only 15 mins lid on, 16 minutes lid off at 230.  a better bake!

I was really disappointed with the shaping, proof and scoring. Quite down in fact.  Before bedtime I gathered my courage and sliced 2 of the loaves. Wow, way better than expected (top slice) and even the double scored, lopsided loaf (lower slice) is not too bad.   Went to breadwerx website to look at Trevor's crumb.  mine is not at open as his, but for a first shot at this method, not too bad. I am encouraged.

 Visitors for lunch tomorrow so we will defrost and cut the 3rd loaf and see how it is.

Leslie

After reading Trevor Wilson's Crumb Mastery, I think I have to rethink a lot of my processes.  His explanations are so good and a lot of it makes a great deal of sense.  I don't understand quite all of it but hopefully this will come as I keep working on improving my bread.  

 So this week's bake was going to be just a 1:2:3 using sprouted grain, milled with  my new Mockmill 100.  But hubby stirred a bit and so I ended up making Hamelman's 5 grain levain.  Well, I had already mixed my levain about an hour earlier so I sat down calculated out how much of everything I needed.

Levain:

8 pm Wednesday: Took 30 gm refreshed starter and added 90 g water and 90 g flour.  So now I added another 3 g starter + 115 g water + 74 g flour and left overnight on the bench.

Soaker:

Added 267 g boiling water to 60 g cracked rye+60 cracked flaxseed + 50 sunflower seed + 50 g rolled oats and 4 g salt. covered and left overnight on bench

Main dough:

11 am Thursday: Milled 113 g sprouted wheat & 51 g nonsprouted wheat. 

11:30 am To the freshly milled wheat I added 320 g bread flour, 7 g gluten flour (to hopefully approximate hi gluten flour) and 11.9 g salt.  Added 169 g water planning to autolyse for a while. I then realized there was insufficient water to do this so went back and read the recipe.  ok now I see why it was too dry.  Recipe says to add everything and mix. So added 368 g levain and 493 g soaker and hand mixed until well mixed. Room temperature was 20 degrees C.  left to rest

11:50 am Gentle stretch and fold

 Re read recipe - Did I develop gluten enough? 

12:05 pm check gluten by gently trying to make windowpane in dough.  Think it is ok, dough was relaxed.  gentle stretch and fold

 13:15 pm. Another gentle check of gluten (I am nervous as this is quite a wet dough and Hamelman says moderate gluten development needed) followed by gentle stretch and fold

 14:30 pm very gentle stretch and fold, dough is getting puffy

15:00 I think I need to preshape as dough definitely puffier but I will have coffee first (fingers crossed, this is a lot less bulk fermented than I usually do so I think I will let it go a bit longer)

15:30 Tip out of bowl, scale and preshape into 2 boules using bench knife (a first for me)  Turn oven on to preheat along with DOs.

15:45  Dough seems to have some strength (this is what I was trying to achieve in this wet dough based in my reading of Crumb Mastery) .  Pat out into rectangle, fold in half then try do stitching.  Darn, its too strong, I could definitely feel that so I changed my mind and just folded over again so now (as he said) I had 4 layers of dough, pressed seam closed with base of hand, gently cloaked a bit and put into the banneton.  2nd loaf I just fold twice and gently rolled and cloaked too.  Gee, I got a whole lot of new expressions to use, and I understand what they mean! yay!!  Placed bannetons in large ziplock bags to proof. 

16:45 They had nicely proofed so turned out, scored and popped into DOs and into oven at 250 degrees C for 15 minutes lid on and 22 minutes lid off.  Internal temperature was 210 degrees F.

 One of these was for a friend so after dinner popped over with it.  They wouldn't wait and ended up eating the whole lot that night!  Crumb was moist and they just loved it.

I sliced and froze my loaf but we have had it for lunch several times since and it is really delicious.

 I learnt quite a lot from Trevor's book, lots still to learn.  I had the feeling that my doughs often lacked strength (without knowing that that was what was lacking) and spread more than I wanted.  This was a wet, sticky dough and normally I would have struggled mightily with shaping.  I did have to use more flour than Trevor seems to, but shaping went much better.  I will need to re read the book but from me it will score 5 stars!  his explanations are simple and readily understood.  Putting them into practice will be the thing though.

 Really happy with first step and a huge thank you to Trevor Wilson

Leslie

Very exciting to be grinding my flour with my new mill.  I decided to go simple for the first bake.  I had some sprouted rye and sprouted wheat that needed to be used up so I decided to make 1:2:3 loaf using bread flour, 20% wholemeal spelt (already in pantry) 20% freshly ground sprouted wholewheat and 10% freshly ground sprouted rye.

 Built levain overnight and refrigerated until ready to use in the afternoon.  In the morning setup the mill and tried a half a cup rice grains and then a small handfull of whole wheat kernels to see how it went.  It went like a charm, so quick and easy it was unbelievable.  I love it! can't wait to do more but that will come.

 Mixed dough just before lunch and left to autolyse for an hour.  Added levain & salt, rested 15 minutes before doing 1 stretch and fold.  Felt this dough was a bit dry so added another 30 gm water incorporating it during the next 3 stretch and folds every 30 minutes.  Bulk ferment at 4:30 ish and it took until 9:30 pm to have doubled.  I was expecting this to go faster but that was ok. Preshaped, rested and did final shaping before retarding overnight in the refrigerator.  

Baked at 250 degrees C for 15 minutes with lid on DO and dropped temperature to 235 when I removed lid as I have been getting slightly overdone bottoms :( lately!

 Left to cool before slicing and freezing.  Happy with how it went, I am trying a different way to shape my batards and it is a little easier.

Looking forward to using mockmill, it was so quick and easy after my very slow painful efforts in the past using a coffee grinder!  The sprouted flour looked just like a comercial flour so I will experiment more with fineness of grind as well making my own kibbled grain :)

Happy baking all

Leslie

This is my first attempt at Isand66 recipe last weekend.

Friday night mixed levain and left it overnight on the bench then refrigerated

36 g starter + 114 g flour + 32 g spelt

 Saturday morning mixed & cooked porridge ingredients then allowed to cool

45 g rolled oats  (extra here as no flaked barley), 25 g oat bran, 19 g kibbled rye and 362 g water.

Diced potato and roasted until tender and allowed to cool

 13:00 weighed out flours.  64 g whole grain spelt flour, 45 g finely reground durum, wholewheat flour 127g and my attempt to get something like a french style flour - a mix of 90 g white cake flour(plain flour) and 76 g bread flour.  Added 144 g water.  It was way too dry so I added 45 ml extra water.  It was still too dry but I was too scared to add extra until all ingredients incorporated.  Left to autolyse for about 15 - 20 minutes. Tried to mash potatoes, no good, too rubbery so I blitzed them and ended up with very small chunks..  I added the 89 g potato, all the porridge, 16 g oil, 146 g cream cheese and 14 g salt.  I was really struggling to incorporate the ingredients as the autolysed flours remained in very firm solid chunks.  Transferred dough to mixer bowl and attempted to use dough hook but it wasn't much help so I changed to the paddle.  It helped a bit and so I changed back to the dough hook and added all the levain and mixed for a few minutes.  It was better but not great. Tipped dough (if you could call the wet, sticky mess that) out onto the bench and the hand kneaded trying to squish all the dry dough lumps.  It was just a sticky gooey mess and was soooo wet and sticky that I added 60 g bread flour, something I very rarely do.  It helped.  

Finally after working the dough for a total of 30 - 45 minutes I could leave it 15 minutes to rest, then did 3 lots of stretch and fold every 30 minutes then  at 4:30 pm left it to bulk ferment.  It puffed up beautifully so at 7:15 pm I preshaped into 2 approx 750 gm batards and rested 15 minutes before shaping and popping into the refrigerator over night.   

 Sunday morning I scored and baked in hot oven 250 degrees C for 15 minutes lid off the DO, dropped temperature to 235  then baked for a further 15 minutes lid off. Internal temperature was 209 degrees F.

 Not a huge oven spring but crumb is really soft with a thin crust and it is lovely. will try again someday soon. 

not sure what caused the denser line at bottom of loaf - underbaked? underproofed? any ideas appreciated.

Should I have just baked the potato whole then diced and mashed? I have used mashed potato but not roasted a mashed so think I got it wrong.

Leslie

Memories - 10 days ago my one of my much loved Swiss sister-in-laws sadly passed away.  We were not able to be there for her funeral on Friday so I baked the Herz Rosen Kuchen in her honour.  This was something I have so many memories of her making when we visited that I felt that little bit closer to the family. I will always associate this recipe with her.

Leslie

This sounded so good when Ian postedit I couldn't resist. I only made one 750g loaf so recipe is scaled. I couldn't get barley flakes so I used an additional portion of rolled oats. As I only had jumbo rolled oats I roughly chopped them before making the porridge. I used frozen cherries, defrosted & drained.

The levain was mixed up on Saturday night and left overnight on the bench. Sunday morning weighed out everything carefully.  I made the porridge and left to cool.  Soaked the remaining cranberries in the water, then drained them offreserving water for the dough. Just after 1 pm I mixed the flours and water and left to autolyse. Added levain, olive oil, salt and mixed by hand. Added chopped pecans, quartered cherries, and cranberries and kneaded, stretched and folded until well incorporated. Funny, dough doesn't look big enough for 750 g......

Around now I mixed up the other loaf I was making with remaining levain.  This was a simple 1:2:3 but my mix of flours was as follows:

bread flour 55%, spelt flour 15%, wholewheat flour 10%, rye flour 10%, 5% barley flour, 3% potato flour, 2%soy flour. 

the dough was firm and I added an extra 20g water. 3  stretch and folds were done at 30 minute intervals then left to bulk ferment.

Back to the pecan cherry loaf! wait a minute, whats that over there? oh darn! its the porridge! so tipped dough back onto the bench and carefully worked the porridge in.  Right, now it looks about right! 3 stretch and folds at 15 minute intervals and then left for 2 hours before refrigerating overnight. phew, nothing more tonight on this bread.

After dinner it was Back to 1:2:3 loaf - pre shaped, rested 20 minutes, shaped and popped into fridge overnight.  

I am exhausted - why did I do this to myself? I slept like a log!

This morning, 06:30 am take pecan cherry cranberry loaf out to warm up. 

7 am turn on oven and preheat DO

7:15 preshape pecan loaf

7:30 final shape, leave to proof in plastic bag at room temperature.

8 am Bake 1:2:3 loaf straight from fridge 15 mins lid on at 250°C, 18 minutes lid off

reheat oven and DO

9:15 bake pecan loaf - I think it has proofed enough - 15 mins lid on 18 minutes lid off. turned oven off, removed from DO returned bread to oven for 3 minutes with door cracked open.

Left both breads to cool. Tonight sliced ready for freezing but someone had other ideas.  We couldn't resist the pecan loaf. it is very moist, hints of thepecan nuts and delicious bursts of flavour from cherries and cranberries.  the righthand loaf is the 1:2:3 and I haven't tried it yet. It was a bit overshadowed!

I will definitely make this again.  Not sure if it bulk fermented or proofed enough but it is delicious!!!  thak you Ian for posting this recpe.

Note to self! don't make more than 2 doughs at a time!!  lol

just a little crazy

Leslie

ok, so this weekend I decided that I had to try Ian's pecan cherry cranberry porridge bread. I would build some  levain but I would have a bit more than needed so decided to add in a 1:2:3 loaf using up some flours in the freezer. Ok I also decided to have a go at hamburger buns, and then at the last minute decided to add baguettes to the mix! as I say - rocks in my head...

This post is about the baguettes and hamburgers (will do a sepatate one for the SD loaves).

Yesterday hubby was out for the day, it was raining (nonstop) so I could just play as much as I wanted.  

About midday mixed up the basic dough (txt farmers recipe) for 6 x 275 g baguettes

958 g flour

719 g water

19 g salt

Instant yeast 4 g

mixed to shaggy dough then rest 3 hours with stretch and fold every 45 minutes. Divide, preshape rest 30 minutes, then shaped &?proofed about 35 minutes. first 3 were scored, then into hot oven with lava rocks for steam for 10 minutes then 15 no steam.  Repeat with 2nd 3 baguettes (lead photo) all finished by 5:30 pm.

This is first batch

shaping was borderline, better in the 2nd batch but blowouts are a feature!  scoring not good!!!

crumb - still needs work I think.

So alongside this prep were the Hamburger buns as per bwraith April 2007. Started at 1 pm autolysed 20 minutes

550g flour

100 g spelt

290 g water

200 g milk

worked in instant yeast (recipe was 1 package active dry yeast so i may have got this amount wrong) 5 g, salt 13 g and 30 g olive oil. Bulk ferment  with folds at 1, 2 and 2.5 hours. this was then ready while was in the middle of shaping baguettes - talk about stress!  finished baguette shaping then started shaping the buns. 2nd batch baguettes and buns were proofed in the conservatory where it was quite a bit cooler in an effort to slow proof a little. 

As soon as baguettes were backed, I brushed buns with milk, sprinkled sesame seed and baked for 15 minutes with steam for about 6 minutes. 

I was happy when the bake was done but looking at photo today, buns are a bit anaemic.... :(   All went into freezer

The SD loaves were slotted in as well so it was a frantic day and by the time dinner was done I was absolutely done in!!

This bread making is just soooo adictive

Leslie

ps. edited to correct spelling....

 Alfanso's post reminded me that I hadn't made this bread in quite a while so I took a leaf outta his book - no, not a baguette - and made Hamelan's Vermont SD but used my new swiss born rye starter and made the levain mostly rye. I started early as I planned to bake before bedtime.  It was a little slow but I did refrigerate for an hour and a half so that it slotted into my baking schedule.  Quite happy with the look of these 2 loaves while they were still snuggled up in the "DO"s . They sliced up very nicely today as well!

Almost always do a double bake, so the other bread is based on FWSY Field blend #2. it is a hybrid dough. This was really going great and was finished bulk ferment 2 hours before Vermont even though I started the Vermont first. I left it an hour on the bench after shaping and then retarded 3 hours so it would bake before the Vermont.  It nearly overproofed and overflowed the bannetons so I think I baked just at the last minute.

Crumb shot - a good sandwich crumb!

I have been holding back about 50 gm water with FWSY recipes and finding shaping so much easier.  On the other hand, I have added about 50 gm extra water to the Vermont sd recipe as it just felt too dry, and I think the crumb is better for it.

This time I also tried using a 50:50 mix of rice flour and AP equivalent on the bench when shaping and found that helpful as well.

All in all a bake I was happy with.  Thanks alfanso for the push, and while baguettes are not quite my thing I was happy with the look and taste of this Vermon SD.

Happy Baking

Leslie

For this bake I wanted to use the Bob's Red Mill hot cereal mix that I had in the freezer.  Inspiration from Danni3113  who has made some great porridge mix breads.

8 am mix

Hot cereal mix  117 gm 

170 gm boiling water.

Cover and leave on bench until I got home 

2 pm autolyse 1 hour

466 gm bread flour

203 gm water - too dry so added another 50 gm, total 253 gm

Edit: include cereal mix in autolyse

3 pm

Add 12 gm salt and 

 262 gm 100% hydration rye levain and knead. 

A bit worried about sticky dough so added scant tspn gluten (a questionable move I think) and a good tspn honey as I thought maybe dough could do with a touch of sweetening.  

Dough was sticky and slack but I continued with 4 sets slap and fold/stretch and folds every 30 minutes. Room temperature 22°c at start of Bulk ferment

8 pm dough doubled so divided in two, preshaped and rested for 15 minutes.  Final shaping then into fridge overnight.

7 am today popped them into preheated DOs in the oven 15 minutes lid on at 230°c 18 minutes lid off.

At same time did a 1:2:3 loaf (back loaf in photo) with a mix of bread flour 70%/ multigrain flour 20%/spelt flour 10%. similar time frames except it used a bread flour levain and took longer to bulk ferment. Dough required 50 gm more water and was a pretty firm dough.  Baked after the porridge loaves.

Well, that gave me 2 totally different looking loaves.  Were the porridge loaves over fermented?  they spread and didn't get the oven spring I hoped for! or was dough strength just not enough to support ovenspring?   

 Crumb shot  comparison

the other two loaves

Crumb is good, so I just don't know....... 

Leslie

I was trying to come up with something different when I realised that I some left over mashed potato in the fridge.  So based on dmsnyder's recipe from 31 May 2009 I came up with this:

Bread flour 629 gm

7 grain flour 240 gm

Spelt flour 30 gm

Mashed potato 145 gm

salt 18 gm

water 521 gm

SD levain 198 gm

Friday night refreshed levain and left overnight on bench. Saturday morning added another 50 gm water and 50 gm flour and left to mature. Probably used it a little early but at 11:30 am mixed levain, mashed potato and water so the levain and potato dispersed. Added flour and mixed to shaggy dough but it was really too dry so I added an extra 50 gm water. Left to hydrate for 1 hour, added the salt and kneaded until well mixed. It was quite firm so over the stretch and folds (4x about every 40 minutes) I incorporated another 50 gm (total now 621 gm). It was a lovely dough to work with and at 2:45 pm left it to bulk ferment. It wasn't fast! but at 8:30 pm divided then preshaped dough and rested for 15 minutes. Did final shaping and into fridge for overnight cold retard.  This morning 8 am, un- mould loaves, slashed, spritzed and placed in DOs. 16 minutes lid on at 250°C 20 minutes lid off. It is really great being able to bake 2 batards in DOs at the same time.

Wow! As I took the lids off that is all I could say!  As I write this I am waiting for bake to finish..... I am soooo excited...    post photo is hot out of the oven.  interestingly, my new DO is only just big enough for 900gm dough and it has prevented the spread you see in the front loaf and given much more height.   Crumb shot later....

Leslie