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pmccool

A few months ago, I was given a one-pound package of einkorn grain.  While I've been interested in einkorn and other primitive wheats, the high cost (relative to modern wheats) has put me off.  I don't have any compelling health issues that would militate against using modern wheats, so my curiosity hasn't been enough to override the high price point.

Since I was at the point of needing to make bread again, and since the einkorn was sitting on the shelf, I decided it was high time to mill the grain and use it in a bread.  I spent quite a bit of time noodling through the archives here on TFL, looking at einkorn posts.  The bulk of those were levain-based breads.  Since I wanted to get a sense of the einkorn's flavor without other influences, and since there was so much commentary about einkorn's weak gluten, I went in search of a yeasted version.  What I eventually settled on was a recipe from Jovial Foods for an Easy Einkorn Whole Grain Bread.

The recipe produces a fairly straightforward no-knead bread.  The one tweak that I made was to bump the salt content up from 3g to 8g.  After combining the water, honey, and yeast, I milled the flour straight into the bowl, added the salt, and stirred everything until all of the flour was absorbed and a rough dough formed.  The dough was left in the bowl, covered, and allowed to ferment for 30 minutes. 

At the end of the short bulk ferment, the dough looked puffy and was perhaps 50% larger.  At that point, the dough was scraped from the bowl into a well-greased 8x4 loaf pan.  I smoothed the top of the loaf off with wet fingers.  The loaf was covered and allowed to ferment for another 30 minutes.  The oven was preheated while the loaf fermented.

At the end of the final ferment, I ran into a snag.  The loaf had expanded nicely and was domed about half an inch above the rim of the pan.  The dough lived up to einkorn's reputation for stickiness and did not want to release the plastic wrap that had been draped over the pan.  I used a bowl scraper to gently coax the dough loose from the plastic but still wound up with a scalped loaf.  Once again, I wet my fingers and smoothed it out as much as I could without causing further injury.

Fortunately, baking went off without a hitch.  At the end of 40 minutes, the internal temperature was between 195F and 200F, and the bread was a lovely shade of brown.  The dough was allowed to cool in the pan for 15 minutes and then turned out to cool on a rack. Once cooled, the loaf was placed in a plastic bread bag.

I used the bread the next day to make a ham sandwich for lunch.  The bread is delicious, without any hint of the bitterness that some people have noted in einkorn.  Does it taste significantly better than whole wheat bread made with modern wheats?  Not that I can perceive.  And certainly not enough to justify paying multiples of the price for modern wheat if flavor is the primary selection criteria. 

If you look closely at the crumb, you'll notice that the bread was just slipping across the border between well-fermented and over-fermented.  The crumb in the upper part of a slice is rather coarse and open while the crumb at the bottom is showing signs of compression.  Overall, if I were to use this recipe again, I'd reduce the yeast content from 7g to 4-5g.  I'd also dial the hydration back to about 70%, since the bread is extremely moist at the recipe's 77%.

Here are a couple of pics that show the loaf:

Barring the tussle with the plastic wrap, it would have been quite pretty.

Paul

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pmccool

Go Chiefs!

Ahem.  Well.  Yes, that needed to be said.

Tomorrow's Super Bowl festivities will feature pulled pork sandwiches because Kansas City.  A superlative sandwich requires a superlative bun.  For superlative buns, it's hard to improve on Portuguese Sweet Bread (this one compliments of Mark Sinclair.)  Although Ian, bless him, continues to experiment.

These are all suited up and ready to play:

And, since Mardi Gras is drawing near, some king cake, too:

Paul

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pmccool

It's a Brod & Taylor lightweight sheeter that my wife bought for me.  Due to various commitments, like our oldest grandson graduating from Missouri State next week, it will probably be three weeks or more before I get to play with it.  That may be a temporary reprieve for my waistline but I’m concerned about the long-term risks.  

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pmccool

This is what 14+ pounds of PSB dough looks like after it is turned into sandwich rolls and a loaf.  The loaf was egg-washed, the rolls were not.  The rolls are for a church picnic tomorrow. 

I used Mark Sinclair’s Back Home Bakery recipe to make a double batch.

Paul

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pmccool

The trip was a gift to our oldest grandson for his high school graduation--two years after the fact.  Yup, COVID got in the way of that, too.

Since it was Josh's trip, we built it around his interests.  Much fun and lots of great memories but bakeries didn't figure into the mix.  In spite of that, my wife and I were both blown away by the bakeries/patisseries that we did notice in our perambulations.  The creativity and craftsmanship of the bakers who turn out such beautiful loaves and pastries is beyond impressive.

Since most of our dining was done in restaurants, our exposure to baked goods was limited to what was available with our meals.  Overall, quality was pretty good, some even very good.  Even the French version of a cheeseburger that I had in one bar came on a bun that was delicious in its own right.

Assuming that we get back to Paris at some future date, I definitely want to devote part of our time there to a bakery crawl, or two.

Paul

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pmccool

Although my overall baking activity is less than it used to be, I have made some breads recently.

First up, cranberry-orange cream cheese braids. These were donated to a fundraising cookie walk that our local Friends of the Library held.

I also baked some small sweet vanilla challot yesterday that will be gifted to friends:

Paul

 

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pmccool


This bread arose from a “What if…?” musing.  Specifically, what if I used oat flour in place of barley flour for the Barley/Wheat Bread I made previously?  As it turns out, it's a pretty good idea.  

The formula was:

350g whole oat flour

50g whole rye flour

400g whole wheat flour

400g bread flour (I wound up using King Arthur all purpose flour)

60g honey 

900g water

20g salt

10g active dry yeast

After milling the oat, rye, and wheat flours, I autolysed them with 850g of water and all of the honey for about 45 minutes.  The other 50g of water was used to hydrate the yeast.  At the end of the autolyse, the yeast and water were mixed into the dough, followed by the salt,  Finally, the bread flour was mixed in.  Since the resulting dough was still quite loose, an additional half cup of bread flour was mixed in.

The dough was manually kneaded for 10 minutes, then covered and allowed to rise.  Since the kitchen temperature was about 75F, the dough took about 50 minutes to double in bulk.  

The dough was portioned and shaped into two loaves, then placed in two greased 9x5 loaf pans for the final fermentation.  As with the bulk fermentation, the final fermentation also moved briskly and the loaves were ready to go into the oven in less than an hour.  They were then baked at 375F for 55 minutes.

The crumb (sorry, no pic), in spite of the loaves having expanded generously in final fermentation and while baking, is fairly tight; more so than the barley version.  It is also slightly more prone to crumbling while slicing even though the baked bread is quite moist.  

The bread has a mild, pleasant flavor.  The honey, while not enough to make the bread taste sweet, rounds out the flavors of the whole grains.  It is very enjoyable, whether eaten with a smear of butter, or in a sandwich, or toasted.   

This bread, whether made with barley or with oats, is a winner.  I could see it going off in several different directions: maybe bump up the rye percentage, maybe add some molasses, maybe add some butter or oil, maybe add an egg or two, or…  Of course, it's pretty darn good as is.

Paul

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pmccool

I've been intrigued by several recent posts that feature a 100% whole-wheat Hokkaido milk bread, such as this one by Benito.  So I decided to try my hand at it.  Almost.  The "almost" being that I changed it from a sourdough bread to a yeasted bread.

Actually, there were two variations from the bread that Benito posted.  First from sourdough to yeast, as mentioned above.  Second, I had no vital wheat gluten on hand, so subbed in flour in its place so as to keep the hydration more or less in balance.  The second change was the one that concerned me more since I wasn't sure how much the bread relied on the VWG for structure.  As you can see in the lead photo, it turned out quite nicely.

Rather than repeating the formula and process here, I'll refer you to Benito's excellent post.  My adjustments were quite simple.  I moved all of the levain ingredients to the final dough ingredient list, including the flour and water that were part of the 100% hydration starter for the levain.  I added 6g of active dry yeast in the final dough ingredients, too, since it was needed in lieu of the starter for leavening the bread.  My flour was home milled from hard red wheat.  Fermentation times had to be shortened, since the ADY moves quite a bit faster than the wild yeasts in a starter. 

The dough was very wet.  I realized, too late, that I hadn't followed Benito's advice about reserving some of the milk and had simply added all of it.  After a bit of thought, I added some more flour, perhaps 20g or so.  It was enough to turn the dough into something manageable but not so much as to require additional salt or yeast.  Between the dough consistency and the extended kneading that the bread requires, I decided to let the KichenAid mixer do all of the work.  Because I had to stop the machine occasionally to scrape down the dough from the walls of the bowl, I extended the mix duration about three minutes past the recommended time.  That developed the gluten in the dough very well.  The dough was about 85F coming off the mixer.

The dough was given 30 minutes for bulk ferment; it had expanded perhaps 50%.  After that, it was set out in our screen porch for another 30 minutes to firm up.  The temperature out there was in the 25F-30F range, so it cooled down quickly.  Then I followed Benito's process for shaping and placed each of the rolls in a greased Pullman pan for the final fermentation.  When the top of the bread was about 1cm below the pan rim, I started the oven preheating and egg-washed the top of the loaf.  A second coat of egg wash was applied just before the bread went into the oven.  The bread was baked in the pan and then an additional 10 minutes out of the pan, per instructions.  While I don't think the bread required the last 10 minutes to keep the sides from caving in when it cooled, it certainly helped remove some of the moisture.  I elected to forego brushing the top of the loaf with butter at the end of the bake.

There's a lot to like about this bread.  The finished loaf is about treble the height of the just-shaped loaf, so plenty of expansion between final fermentation and oven-spring.  As expected, the crumb is very fine-grained with evenly distributed and evenly sized small bubbles throughout. In spite of its loft, this is a substantial loaf of bread.  It isn't what I would describe as airy or cottony.  Though it yields easily to chewing, the crumb is firm and moist and feels almost cool in the mouth.  You can sense the presence of the bran, even though it is finely ground.  The sugar offsets the natural bitterness of the red wheat.  It is delicious with just a bit of butter, and toasted.

For a future bake of this bread, I'd be interested in trying an autolyse to see if that might have a positive effect on dough consistency and the ultimate tenderness of the crumb.  I'd also like to see how the flavor would shift when using honey as the sweetener.  One thing is certain: I will make more of this bread.

Paul

 

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pmccool

This is a bread from Stanley Ginsberg's The Rye Baker.  It caught my eye as I was casting about for something to use for the current rye bread Community bake. 

It is about as simple as a rye bread can be.  There are no multi-stage levain builds, no scalds, no soakers, no seeds, and no spices.  The only components are rye flour, potato, water, and salt.  My sole departure from the formula was to use whole rye flour, rather than medium rye flour.

The initial sour build the night before the bake incorporates rye sour, riced potatoes, rye flour, water, and salt.  That last was a bit different from many levain builds in that all of the recipe's salt goes into the levain.  Once mixed, the sour is covered and allowed to ferment overnight.

The next morning, the rest of the water and flour are mixed with the sour.  The stiff dough/paste is fermented until it the volume increases about 1.5 times.  Then the paste is tipped out onto a floured countertop and shaped into a loaf.  The loaf is placed on a lined baking sheet and allowed to ferment until cracks begin to show on the surface.  For this bake, I could have allowed the final fermentation to go longer but I could see that there was some sideways expansion in the loaf even though the top was still relatively smooth.

The bread is baked without steam.  When it comes out of the oven, it is brushed with boiling water to soften the crust, then cooled.

The photo at the top of this post shows the finished loaf.  And here's a picture of the crumb:

Not surprisingly, the crumb is close and dense.  Some 40 hours after the bake, the bread cuts cleanly without leaving a film on the knife.  It is moist and pleasantly chewy.  Thanks to the boiling water application, the crust is somewhat leathery, rather than armor-plated.

Flavor-wise, it is all rye.  The potatoes don't lend a discernible flavor note.  While I had expected some sourness, it is surprisingly subdued and very much in the background.  It will make a very good foil for cured meats, pickles, mustard, and other strongly flavored foods.

Outside, it's cold although this morning's low of 4F is much better than yesterday's low of -13F.  There's an ice-fishing derby out on the lake today.  A few of the participants and their shelters are visible from the front porch:

There are many more outside the frame of the above photo.  I took a walk around and spoke to some of the contestants.  My impression is that my bread weighs more than anything they were catching.

Paul

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pmccool

One of the things I enjoy about Christmas is the opportunity to bake without having to ask myself “How are we going to eat all of this?”  I can have fun baking and give the finished goods away as Christmas presents.  Yes, I know, bread can be gifted any day of the year; it somehow seems even more enjoyable this time of year.  

Whole Wheat Cranberry-Orange Country Loaf

This bread from the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking cookbook went to my brother and my sister who live nearby.  It is fragrant with orange zest, orange juice, dried cranberries, and toasted pecans.  It smelled so good in the dough stage that I pinched off a small piece for a bun before shaping the loaves.  That gave my wife and I a chance to sample it, too.  

Honey Oatmeal Sandwich Bread with Cinnamon Swirl

Granted, my list of favorite breads would probably require a couple of pages, but this bread would be there.  The cinnamon swirl makes for some delightful toast.  Two of my nieces will receive these this afternoon when they arrive for a cookie baking extravaganza.  This bread is also from the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking cookbook.

Frisian Black Bread

This one from The Rye Baker is for us.  I've been hankering for some rye bread lately and this one looked interesting.  It's 50/50 rye flour and bread flour.  Flavor for this bread is entirely from the flour and fermentation; there are no inclusions such as spices or seeds.  The first sponge matures overnight.  The second sponge moves faster during the morning of the next day.  The final dough (batter, really) is fermented in bulk, then again after it is poured into the bread pan.  One different feature of this bread is that the bake begins in a cold oven.  

Unfortunately, I let the final proof go 15-20 minutes longer than it should and wound up with a cavern at the top of the loaf.  Docking wasn’t called for but it might have helped.  Maybe.  Anyway, the bread tastes wonderfully of rye, which is exactly what I wanted.  

Paul

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