I was moved to post this after seeing dab's lovely nut apricot bread. This is a riff on isand66's date nut SD that he posted in the past. Here is quick review of how to put it together. I find I simplify more and more and the bread is just as good . Here goes !
528g 100% hydration starter
autolyse for 1 hr:
100g spelt flour
250g durum flour
250g AP flour
422g whey ( or use milk if you have no whey)
after autolyse add all levain from above, 35 g soft butter, 35g sorghum syrup.I added ground cinnamon/cardamom/cloves to taste, zest of one orange, 16g salt. Mix in KA mixer on low with dough hook 2 min . and #2 for 2 min. May need to sprinkle tiny amounts of AP flour...dough should barely clean bowl. Remove from bowl to oiled or lightly floured counter and do 2 s and f's to incorporate 228g chopped dates ( do not soak ) and 100g chopped nuts ( I used pecans) . Rest and repeat 2 more s and f's at 15 min. intervals. Let rest in oiled container for 2 hrs. Retard 24hrs in fridge. Remove next day and shape cold in 3 boules, place in floured banneton and let rise till double..will take a 2-3 hours. Preheat cast iron pots to 500 degrees for 30 min. Place boule in pot, mist lightly with water close pot and place in oven, reduce temp to 460 and bake covered 15 min. Remove lid and bake 15 min to 210 or so degrees. Dough is supple and lovely to work with . Tastes like a wonderful pastry ! If you can wait to cool it will slice nicely...we couldn't wait on the first loaf and ate 1/2 as soon as it came out of the oven :) Makes incredible toast.
We left Vienna on our bikes with our group of 50 on May30th. We have been in a different town each night. We stay in hostels, inns and a college dorm so far. We are in Linz tonight. It is almost 10 PM here now. Very full days of cycling the Velo 6 route. Here are some pics of the lovely bakery goods from the center of Linz. A very very busy place. On a Tuesday at 5 PM almost everything was gone from some shops. Ice cream is incredible here as is everything we have eaten so far. Love the coffee also ! Since we are burning so many calories I can indulge as I wish :) Lovely. Miss all the posts on TFL but will get back to it when I take my starters out of hibernation in mid August when I return to the US. Hope you enjoy...c
lovely ice cream...only 1Euro for a large scoop ! I had caramet today :)
What an interesting and tasty experiment. I usually don't bulk ferment my dough but I decided to try it due to time and space constraints. I made the dough and did a couple s &f's q 20 min .then rest for 1 1/2 hrs then in the fridge it went. I removed it this AM and shaped cold. I always shape cold when I make Ian's buns and love the way the cold dough feels and handles. I made 3/650g boules. It is incredibly easy to shape and get the "free form" burst when the dough is cold as it doesn't really want to stick terribly well. Into the banneton and rising time of 2 1/2 hrs. Lovely..but then I had to go out again ! So back in the fridge for a couple hours. Home and preheat pots 500 degrees. Into the hot pot...down to 460/15 min covered and 15 uncovered. Lovely shape, great rise and wow...the color of the crust and very blistered and nice crunch. Then there is the crumb...oh...my....tender doesn't even come close. The AYW makes magic of the crumb while leaving the crust very crisp and thin and oh so caramelized. The crumb is quite cool and more sour than usual. I am sure it is the extra time in the fridge, the flour combos, the amount/type of levain etc. Whatever...it is so good and I love the very soft fine texture. It went perfectly with the vegetable curry, Basmati rice and toasted almond/pineapple/coriander chutney/raisins/siracha sauce.
I have been feeding my starter durum and AYW, nothing else. Love the way it is responding. 544g AP King Arthur 100g Sprouted spelt 100g Semolina 163g whole wheat 510g whey from my cheese making 14g EVOO 14g honey 22g salt 453g kamut AYW levain 100% hydration mix auto lyse add oil/honey/salt. speed 1 for 1 minute and speed 2 for 3 minutes. s & f as needed..this dough was so responsive out of the mixer that it could have done without any additional s&f so these were token gentle shapings. Rest at room temp for 2 - 2 1/2 hrs. Into fridge overnight. Shape cold...rise 2 or so hours..watch the dough. Bake as noted above. Enjoy ! c
It is Friday and pizza was in order. I wanted to try a different crust from last time . I made up a batch of Sullivan Bread dough yesterday. This AM it was full of bubbles. I divided it into 4 pieces and tossed them with Durum flour and placed them in containers in the fridge. At 3 PM I took two out, just as we got back from our 25 mi bike ride. At 5 PM I put the oven on with the steel in place 6 " below the broiler. Temp set to 550. At 5:45 I turned on the broiler to high/550. The dough balls stretched so easily I thought there must be some mistake :) I topped with a smear of sauce a bit of pepperoni and some fresh mozz and asiago. Into the oven they went ..I turned off the broiler and put it on surround ( a Miele setting that resembles the brick oven...their description) at 4 minutes the first pizza was done ! I took it out and R cut it while I topped #2 and placed it in the oven. I didn't turn the broiler back on till the last minute...perfection. The bottom crust has the best char and it is crisp !!
And...the best part...the Durum flour was so perfect as a non-stick surface that I was able to slide those babies right from the peel to the steel and no swearing or mess ensued !! Amazing. There are two balls aging in the fridge. I am going to do them Sunday night for Chef son and see what he thinks :)
I bought 5/500g bags of Italian Chestnut flour a number of years ago. Somehow I never found anything that I liked to use it in so it sat in the freezer in its vacuum packs waiting...and waiting..and....well you get the idea. I have been cleaning out and sorting and using up . I decided to only cook from my larder for 2014 , at least as much as possible.
I fed my starter with rye and apple yeast water. The dough was made with equal parts chestnut/whole wheat /durum. Dough water was 1/2 whey. The flavor is remarkable. Very full of complex grains and earthy. Sweetness as you chew. Crumb is very tender and a lovely crunch to the crust. It is easy to get a bold bake with the chestnut flour , I have found. Baked at 500 in hot pots for 10 min and then 460 for 5 min and lid off for 20 min. I am really pleased with this bread.
Ian had posted a date SD and I thought I would go with that basic idea. I added 100g toasted almonds and 2 tbsp grated orange zest. Levain was my rye starter fed with apple yeast water. I used whey for 292g of the dough water and AYW for the rest . I soaked the coarsley chopped dates in warm whey but didn't cook them down. I divided it into 3 boules. Great fragrance and very tender crumb. Sticky goodness when you get a date chunk. Baked in 500 degree pots for 5 min. and then 10 min at 460 lid removed and 15 more min. Bold bake and nice ears.
My husband is an artist when it comes to pasta. Always wonderful . Tonight homemade tagliatelle and a shrimp topping based on one that our son , the Chef , makes frequently. Preserved lemon and capers are the key...oh...and the homemade hot cure peppers. If you want the recipe just ask...I will be glad to forward the gist of the idea .c
I hadn't baked in a while and hadn't used my AYW in weeks! Got my odds and ends of partial bags of flour out and voila....lovely bake. Fed my 100% hydration rye starter with spelt and AWY 2x a few hours apart...it was SO active I had to refrigerate it overnight. Used up 65g Semolina, 42 grams Italian Chestnut flour, 86 grams Kamut, 123 grams sprouted Rye and 458 grams AP KA. Mixed and autolysed with 640 g water without salt for 1 hr. Added salt and used speed 2 for 5 min . Very slack dough but responded well to s&f's. Fermented room temp for 2 hrs with s&f q 30 min x4 and then 1 hr more at room temp. Shaped 2 boules and immediately retarded over-night. Baked cold this AM in 500 degree pots for 20 min. covered...sprayed 10 x in pot with filtered water then covered....uncovered and 20 min open. The fragrance is wonderful. Will post crumb shots later.
first of Spring...asparagus quiche. I use buttermilk for the crust and in the filling...broiled the asparagus first. Delicious.
crumb shots added. I couldn't be MORE pleased with this bread. What a crust and crumb. Full body flavor...very very wheaty. I am impressed with the caramelization of the crust and note how uniform the crust thickness is all the way around the slice. Chewy and almost candy-like. Rich brown color to the crumb and exquisitely tender due to the AYW. Love the glisten to the crumb . My camera doesn't want to catch the dark crust but it is way darker than in the pics. I baked it to 212. What else to say....if I never made another SD loaf but this one I would be more than content.
What a lovely bread! As has already been said this has a tender cool crumb and a pronounced wheat flavor and pleasant faint sour. I didn't get quite the large holes as in Franco's bake but I altered the formulas a bit. I doubled the amounts that Franco posted. So I had about 2000 g of dough. I shaped this into 3 boules. Thus more handling. I used the 2 starters and the only thing I altered was the whey I fed the starters. I have a lot of it as I make a lot of soft curd cheese. I put all the dough flour in all but 10% of the water and let it autolyse overnight. I have done this with all my bakes lately and really love the way the gluten develops the next day. I also used sprouted rye flour for all of the dark rye called for . I baked it in preheated 500 degree iron pots. Straight from the fridge. I wasn't sure about rise times so I let the dough rise for 1 hr in the banneton before I retarded it. No counter time prior to bake. 5 minutes in covered pot at 500, 15 min at 460 and then uncover pots and 15 min at 460. Internal temp 212.
I got a lovely caramelized crust and small ears :) I will definitely make this again. Look forward to seeing how the flavor profile changes over the next days. just out of the fridge:
