Sedlmaierin's blog

Well, so here pictures of my first bake as part of the "Bread" challenge. I will have to remember to take pictures of the process in the future, and in the meantime I am apologizing that there are none this time around.

I followed the recipe pretty much as written-the only difference is that I used one tenth of the metric bulk column..so probably a bit larger dough yield. I maybe should have formed 5 baguettes instead of four.The baguettes' final proof was done in a flowered couche made from pastry cloth-then I inverted them onto a baking sheet-which made them have quite a bit of flour on their top sides. I don't know if that was the right way to do it-I had major trouble with getting them to brown, but that could also be due to the fact that I forgot to pre-heat the oven with my steam pan inside and then only added boiling water to a steam pan upon putting the bread in the oven.Scoring the charmers was a joke...........if I feel like I have ample time on my hands(and friends who want Baguettes) I will try Baguette baking again soon, since I was not too happy with the bake. They stayed very light colored, which made me not realize that they were getting way too dark on the bottom.Oh well, live and learn!The taste and texture of the bread was great,though. Very crunchy crust and really lovely,light crumb.

Here are pictures-my camera is also being highly uncooperative and it was nearly impossible to get a well-lit crumb shot close up.

Wohooo,back from vacation and here now I can finally post about my two recent bakes.

Some of you witnessed the strange transformation the Hamelman Vermont SD w/increased whole grains took in my kitchen.Here is a synopsis with pictures:

- due to me being too frazzled to actually do the most sensible thing-using the metric large scale amounts to reduce to home size, I ended up with a way different percentage ratio.

  So, I went by the cup measure in my book for the liquid levain(due to laziness!-first and last time to use cup measure!) levain therefore was 3/4 cups of flour,1/2 cup of water,1.5 T SD

then the baker's % for the dough ended up being the following:

70% AP flour

30% whole grain rye

65% water

1.89% salt

all the levain

I followed the instructions for dough assembly-I ended up baking it in a loaf pan,because the dough felt kinda wet and I was doubting it could hold its shape(yeah, not one of the better baking days!).Of course I did not heed the advice Mini gave me previously of putting the dough into a pan, that would allow it to rise unhindered and therefore my bread,yet again, got stuck on the edge of the loaf pan, since it was too much dough for my pan.Oh well, the bread tasted AWESOME, though!

Am looking forward to making the actual bread from Hamelman's book soon!

Here are pics:

Yummy, moist and very stable crumb(what I mean by that is that the bread could be sliced very thinly-1/4 " or so)-excellent crunchy crust!

And now to the re-vamped "Hannoversches Doppelback"(original recipe by W. Fahrenkamp) bread. I had posted about this bread before and made a few changes this time around:

-I used the SD starter I had fed with old rye bread.It was very active and sour smelling.

-refreshed my Old-rye-bread starter in the morning (a generous 50g of it) with 150 g of rye flour and 100g of water

-let it ferment in the oven with pilot light until about 5.30pm

- I omitted the yeast from the bread and therefore used 50 g more SD than the original recipe called for

- 500 g whole rye flour,500g white whole wheat flour,1 Tbls salt, abt 750g water........I let the water and flours autolyse for about 40 minutes( I have no idea if that helped the dough in any shape or form, but thought I would try it).mixed the rest of the ingredients...let bulk proof for about 2.5 hours......folded the dough-maybe the autolyse was responsible for the fact that I could actually,marginally fold the dough at all, and stuck it into a bowl lined with a floured towel(yes, if I had a Brotform, that would have been perfect). Final proof was about 1 hour, even though I think 45 minutes would have been better-the dough seemed very puffy.And since I inverted the dough onto the parchment to be slipped ont he baking sheet I can tell you that the bottom of the loaf has a few large bubbles.

- I had just bought a baking stone and ended up pre-heating the oven withou it in it, which is responsible for the delay in baking and running the risk of overproofing the dough.

-I pre-heated to about 500 fahrenheit-after 10 minutes down to 475-then after 10 more down to 450-after 10 more minutes down to a wee bit under 400 to finish baking for about 40 minutes. The bread baked for a total of 60 minutes( to that add the double bake time).I took it out,turned the oven to 475 again, painted the bread with a mixture of starch and water and stuck it back in the oven for about 15 minutes.I let it cool until the morning, before cutting it open.

It is definitely more sour than the breads I have made with just regular SD starter.It is getting very very close to tasting like bread from the Munich Hofpfisterei!The crust is super crunchy-just perfect! I don't know if I should expect the bread to have a higher profile, since the orginal recipe calls for it being baked in a loaf pan and I decided to bake it directly on the baking stone this time.I also seemed to me that I could have used just a tad less water............................

Here are the pictures:

Sorry about the unfocused crumb shot-my camera was being uncooperative.

Am working on some Hamelman Baguettes with Poolish right now and am eager to see how they will turn out!

I am so glad I am re-united with delicious bread!

Christina

Ok, first off I have to admit that up until dinner all I ate all day was BREAD (plus an apple). Now, I don't know how I feel about that, but I can tell you it sure was tasty and I hope my husband and son will eat the rest, so that I don't have to be tempted to eat some more bread for dessert.

Let's see.....my husband has begged me to make Foccacia for a while and this weekend the moment had come. I decided to make Foccacia according to the recipe in Hamelman's "Bread" book (which as you can see by my past Blog posts, has become the only book I am using ever since I got it 1.5 weeks ago), which uses the Ciabatta with stiff Biga as a dough.Since the Foccacia recipe doesn't utilize all of the Ciabatta dough it meant, if I didn't scale down the Ciabatta recipe, I would have some dough left over to make one loaf of Ciabatta.

A few notes:

-it says in the recipe that one is to use "bread flour"-which I have never used before but thought, hey, I will actually buy this, this time around

-then after I had already started the Biga I decided to research the difference between bread and ap flour here on TFL and lo and behold I come upon some posts saying that when "bread flour" is specified in theis book that it really should read AP flour (I feel that my way of doing research may be a tad backwards ;p)

-after reading that retarding a dough overnight might weaken the gluten structure, I decided to use bread flour for the dough anyways, since I figured the higher gluten content might stand up better to the retardation(all you experienced bakers out there-please tell me if that rationale makes sense)

This time the bread making timing was all awry due to my duncehood-or maybe I can just say that I am experimenting in how best NOT to follow directions*wink*- here is what I ended up doing:

- once the Biga was ready, I mixed the dough and let it sit at room temp probably for no more than 30 minutes and off in the fridge it went.

-in the morning I did a S&F, then let it proof for about 45 minutes; here I divided the dough into the two pieces for the Foccacia and the one piece for the Ciabatta

-in total the Ciabatta proofed for about 1,5 hours after coming out of the fridge(wiht one more S&F) and that Focaccia for about 2.25 hours

I must not have floured the towel I had the Ciabatta proof on enough, since there were small parts that stuck to it, giving the final crust a strange "seam".

For the Foccacia I decided to make one according to Hamelman's instructions and the other one I baked according to the instructions I found in my italian cookbook by Marcella Hazan. The Hazan version calls for docking the dough after the rising time, with stiff fingers, and then drizzling the top of the Foccacia with an emulsion of olive oil, water and salt-this mixture will pool in the little hollows created by your fingers. One of them was topped with sauteed onions and the other with a little bit of onion and garlic.

The Ciabatta was done baking after 35 minutes-it almost turned too dark. At the bottom it has a very small blowout area-which I think means that I should have let it proof a bit longer after it coming out of the fridge.

The Foccacia had to stay in the oven closer to 30 minutes-they are moist and absolutely charming on the inside, but it definitely needed that extra 10 minutes to acquire some color.

And here are pictures:

Ciabatta

plus crumb shots:

and here the Hamelman Style Foccacia:

And the Hazan Style Foccacia

and its crumb

My camera was being difficult so no crumb shot of the Hamelman style Foccacia. We already devoured the one with the olive emulsion drizzle and the Ciabatta is almost gone, too. Thos are some delicious breads! I will have to contemplate on which of the Foccacia versions I prefer-the olive oil emulsion definitely make the resulting bread very, very moist(but not soggy) in spots and it resulted in slightly flatter loaf.

I am happy with the results overall-the Ciabatta was one of the most heavenly thngs to eat!I definitely need more practice(in everything but also...) in gently laying down the Ciabatta dough-it is by no means a rectangle!

Christina

As some might have seen from my plea for help yesterday, the baking of this Miche did not go according to plan. It being only my third attempt at Miche making I was a bit freaked-I had looked forward to this bread so much!

The bread gods above must have been looking upon my endeavor kindly,though, because I do think it turned out just great!

Here are the points in which I deviated from the orginial recipe from the book "Bread":

-I used mature rye starter as my jumping off point for the levain

-the flour I used was Whole Foods whole wheat , from which I removed the biggest bran particles by sifting

-I built the levain over the course of abt. 20 hours at two different temperatures-one feeding it at 7pm ,leaving it to ferment in my oven with cracked open door and then at 7am out on the counter top

-Due to unforeseen schedule upheaval I had to bulk ferment,shape and then retard in fridge for about 2.5 hours. I was amazed at how far along the dough was when I took it out of the fridge! Wow! I thought I would leave it at room temp for about 2 hours, but after half an hour I hurried to pre-heat the oven and feared it might end up being overproofed.It had good oven spring and I think I just barely made it timing wise.

-I left it in the turned off oven for about 10 minutes

I expected the dough to be a lot harder to manage than it was- I assume that the flour I used really soaked up a lot of water, because it was way easier to handle than the Gerard Rubaud miche(or maybe I am just getting used to it-I LOVE S&Fs)

This is also the first time I tried my hand at stenciling-definitely to be improved greatly! And since I had the shaped loaf in a bowl on a flour dusted towel, the stencil ended up not really sticking,etc. To be continued..........

The aroma of the baking bread was tantalizing and I was really glad it was so late when it came out of the oven, because that was the only reason I was able to refrain from cutting into it right then and there!

Needless to say we all have had some of it for breakfast and it is so delicious! I marvel at how the little flecks of bran are suspended in translucent sheaths of dough(an awkward description, I know)It has a really nice and crunchy crust, it feels light on the tongue but has real great depth of flavor and only a hint of sourness.Definitely a keeper to be made again and again!

Here are some pictures:

Today was an exciting day- I almost kissed and hugged the UPS delivery guy, since he brought me my coveted package of food grade lye! A few days ago I finally received Hamelman's "Bread"book and was very eager to try out his pretzel recipe. I had read some good things about it on a German blog, and sicne my one and only pretzel makign attempt a few years ago, was HORRID, I had high hopes for this one.

There were a few changes that I ended up making to the recipe-one was I had no bread flour so just used all-purpose and the second was, I ended up having to refrigerate the pate fermentee for a few hours before proceeding.

Words cannot describe my elation at the finished product!Knowing that there are many different ways of making a pretzel(and not intending to put down any other methods)- my pretzel desires are pretty straightforward- I want a bavarian Laugenbreze-a lye dipped pretzel.Crunchy, with that distinctive taste made only by the lye bath, slightly chewy in the middle, and the arms need to be crispy.

My shaping still leaves much to be desired-it said to shape them with their bellies being slightly thicker-well, my guys are PREGNANT! But the taste, oh the taste, could not be better.

All I can say, is these are PRETZELS in my book! I swear-this is one of the best days in my US-bound life! I now can make and eat real pretzels!

YIPPIE!

Christina

P.S.: I also made some very yummy sourdough waffles this morning-even my son(who for some strange reason doesn't like waffles) ate them with glee!Oh happy day!

This is kind of exciting-my first blog post EVER!

Tuesday to Wednesday were my serious baking days this week. I tried out a new recipe from my German bread book(which I "wisely" altered on the first go around-even though I don't think any of the troubles I ended up having had to do with my changes-apart from the pyrex bowl) and I undertook the Rubaud Miche again, since the first one was a bust and turned into a pyramid shaped, dense thing.

First to the Holzhackerbrot:the original recipe called for 80g of fresh yeast disolved in a half cup of water with 1 teaspoon of sugar.I omitted the yeast and used just a wee bit extra sourdough instead.It also said that the loaf should be free formed-well, I decided to put it in a pyrex form(maybe not such a good idea)

Here's the recipe, without the yeast:

700g rye flour 1740 (I know this is closer to a pumpernickel flour, but I only had teh Arrowhead Mills Organic Rye flour on hand)

300g wheat flour 1050 ( according to KA that is closest to first clear flour- I used white whole wheat)

350g firm sourdough starter

250 g old fashioned oat meal

about 750 ml  water at 30celcius

3 tbls salt

I hand mixed/kneaded the dough (with wet hands) until it was silky, velvety with just a nice touch of resistance to it. The dough proofed in my oven(with pilot light on) for about 4.5 hours-kneaded it for a wee bit and stuck it in my greased pyrex form, to rest again for about an hour. By the time I found it ready to go into the oven it seemed nice a plump,it had risen again by a very generous quarter. Docked it and off it went into the pre-heated oven(lowest shelf). The recipe says that it needs to be baked with steam for the first 15 minutes, then let the steam come out and bake without steam for the remainder of the time.The crust formation is very important on this loaf, since it contributes greatly to the flavor of the bread.Well, it is meant to be in a 260celcius oven for 75-80 minutes-which mine was.

Here is what I discoverd, though, upon retrieving the bread at the end of the time-it was very very dark on top(which was great) but the bottom of it was almost burnt. AND it wasn't even done yet.So that was my problem-to be solved on the next go around- with this loaf. I turned the heat down after 80 minutes, and left it in there for a bit longer(maybe ten more) and then let it sit in the turned off oven. Of course, it was a hassle to try and get the bread out of the form-since it was still slightly underdone.

So, if anybody reading this has any suggestions regarding the bake time,temp that would be great. I don't know if you still use the term of a "caramelized crust" in a predominantly rye loaf, but it does seem to require something like that.I am pretty sure that the loaf will just have to be in the oven longer and therefore at a lower temp, I just don't know if I need to try to bake it first at a higher temp and then turn down the oven for the rest of the time, or vice versa, in order to have the best crust development.I will also free form it next time and I will probably let it retard overnight-I just have a feeling it could have proofed a wee bit longer. Let me tell, ya, though, the bread is DELICIOUS!!! (if you like dense breads) Wow, the flavor is great, it has kind of a honey, malty taste and the crust is super crunchy(yay!!!).

Pictures of this loaf are here:

And then there was the Miche! So, what did I do differently? I still did the 5 S&Fs as per Shiao-Pings post, but it proofed for closer to 4 hours in my oven instead of about 3 hours. Then I shaped it, wrapped it in a floured towel and stuck it in a plastic bag for overnight retarding. Then next day, shaped it again and let it rise once more for about 3 hours in my oven-scored it. Pre-heated the oven to about 525 fahrenheit, had a steam pan in there during pre-heat, plus dumped ice cube in there when I slid the bread in.Baked it for 50 minutes at about 425-450 fahrenheit.

Well, it turned out way better than the first attempt-I don't know if the more proofing times need to be tweaked-there are some slightly larger holes at the top of the loaf than throughout the rest of the crumb-overproofed/underproofed? I wish I could comment on the taste, but we are all under the weather here and it is way more subtle tasting than my german loaf- I don't trust my taste buds to be very discerning with a plugged up nose. It has really great texture- I think next time I will let it cool off in the  turned off oven for about 15 minutes, since I think I read that will allow the crust to stay even crunchier.

I could have never done this without Mini's help-thanks so much!

I also just ordered Bread-by Hammelman....can't wait! My first artisan bread book-I read the review on here and was wavering between the BBA and this one, but one of the things that I have been enjoying so much about TFL is learning so much about the science behind this art. It seemed like the Hammelman book will make my inner nerd very happy.

Ok, Miche pictures

Yippie!

Christina