nmygarden's blog

...into the holidays. A practice pie (okay, so I wanted pie) apple-pear with brandy-soaked raisins and cranberries. The vent hole began as a heart shape and the top crust was a bit thin at the edges, so juices leaked through. But the crust is flaky and crisp - 25%WW, and the fruit held its shape and is quite flavorful, so no complaints.

To all of you who read and contribute to this site, thank you for helping us all take our interests and knowledge to a higher level.

Happy Holidays!

Cathy

After several weeks of whole and sprouted wheat, I needed a break and was seeking middle ground between the Multigrain SD breads I prefer and the soft sandwich type breads my husband prefers. And I missed including rye in the mix, the flavor it brings and even didn't care if the dough is kind of sticky. I wanted a soft, yet open crumb and rich flavor. So, what's in the kitchen to contribute? Rye (25%), of course, cornmeal (12%), caraway seed, a touch of molasses and an extra baked potato (15%). Aside from an overabundance of rice flour on the towel and neglecting to reduce the oven temp toward the end of the bake and nearly burning it, it came out alright.

And it has been a baking week, Fruitcake last weekend, SD English Muffins this morning (WW Date) and later, Cherry Chocolate Stout, slightly modified from one Wooden Spoon shared with us a while back. Really looking forward to the finished bread. I'm in SF's now and each time I uncover the dough, the stout wafts up to me.  :)

Happy Baking, Everyone!

Far from perfect, but significantly improved over last week, this week's bake is not a brick, but a bread!

Basic ingredients remained the same, BF, WW (this week Red Fife from Grist & Toll, in Pasadena), some wheat germ, farro berries (cooked, not sprouted - wanted to keep things simple), about 85% hydration, which should have been higher.

Changes included cooking the wheat berries, autolysing the flours except for the sprouted wheat, and skipping the bulk ferment entirely. Shaped the loaf and into the refrigerator it went for 12 hours, out for an hour while the oven heated to 500F, steamed for 15 minutes (dropping to 450 after 5 minutes), then baked at 425F for 30 minutes and left on the stone for 5 minutes as the oven cooled.

Have tried it and it is tasty, indeed, enough so to keep trying to make improvements. I think I overbaked and it toughened the crust, but I did get a nice dark crust with blisters. The crumb is soft, but not gummy and a bit chewy.I think more hydration would have helped the texture, handling the dough was easy, but a bit too easy.

Many thanks to those who offered suggestions and more...

Cathy

And how!

50% sprouted wheat (commercial) and 50% BF, 80% hydration, 20% starter (100% hydration), 2% salt, 12% sprouted grain. 40 minute autolyse (flours and water only), slap and folds x 6, 1 and 1 minutes, then 3 sets of stretch and folds at 20-30 minutes apart. The dough was beautiful, smooth, supple, elastic.

Covered and into the refrigerator for the night, where it rose maybe 50%. Pulled it out and cranked the oven to the max (500 F+) to preheat while I preshaped, then shaped a tight boule.

An hour later, it had relaxed a bit rather than rising, so I slashed a few cuts and into the oven to steam under my Le Cloche lid for 20 minutes, then 20 more at 450 F.

It did color. It did blister. It did seem to be fully baked. I was hopeful. But the crisp crust began to soften...

Several hours later, I cut it open to find cavernous holes and dense, gummy crumb (which may not even qualify as crumb). Yuck. And into the trash it went.

Disappointed, but not giving up. Will tackle this again soon, but first will read more and revise my formula and procedure, listen to the advice and voices of experience.

Cathy

Okay, so I'm here often, looking, reading, comparing, commenting, but mostly, mostly learning as much as I can as quickly as I can, and putting that knowledge to work. I'm grateful for the skill and generosity of the members - even when thoughts or advice presents differing experience or opinion, even controversy, it's offered in good faith and helpful to so many. Thank you all.

My work and commute combine and leave me with mere shreds of time in the evenings, so practicing and baking are pretty much confined to the weekends. But I'm making progress in a real way, learning to feel the dough, sensing its development, understanding the science and applying principles, judging and adjusting to influence the outcome. Among my most challenging lessons are gluten development and assessing proofing status. I struggle with each of them.

 Like so many here, my focus is artisan style breads made with natural sourdough starter, and though I truly respect those who dedicate themselves to mastering one or a few recipes before expanding to others, I can't do it... must experiment, must create, must make mistakes along the way. It's my nature.

This past week's bake was a two-fer, with one of them revisiting a past failure and the other following inspiration gathered here.

The revisit involved incorporating brown rice in bread. Not so exotic, except rather than cooking the rice, I soaked it in boiling water for a couple of hours. Oops, not good. So this time, the rice was fully cooked and incorporated into a multigrain dough, including 40% BF, 25% each Dark Rye and WW, 5% Polenta and 5% Oat Bran. I paid extra attention to developing the dough and not over-proofing. Made both progress and edible bread!

Here are the bottom and crumb...

With that one in process, it was time to satisfy my creative urge. After seeing a series of fruit-and-nut themed breads here, I wanted to take a turn and assembled my version, Fruited Earl Grey Tea Bread, with dried apricots and cherries soaked in strong Earl Grey Tea (also used as the liquid for the dough), plus toasted walnuts in a dough that included 60% AP flour, 30% Spelt and 10% WW, This one felt risky with all the fruit, so watched closely as it baked, and reduced the temperature in several increments to get a richly colored crust and have it baked through. Alas, the tea is a very faint afternote, but I'm happy with how the bread turned out, far from perfect, but acceptable and encouraging.

Thanks for looking and for your input, they are much appreciated.

Cathy