varda's blog

Tzitzel is to Borodinsky as Comfort Zone is to Total Lack of Comfort Zone.   But still, it's out there.   It has a cool name.   I like rye.   So why not.  I followed Andy's Borodinsky formula here as much as possible given different flours and malt.    To make myself feel more comfortable I made Tzitzel at the same time.   In making what is for me a very complex formula,  I felt similar to how I felt the first time I made Hamelman's Pain Au Levain - over my head.   Yesterday when I was making the rye sour for Tzitzel, a different rye sour for Borodinsky and my first time ever scald, I got everything built and put together.  Then I happened to glance at Andy's formula and realized that I had misread the amount of rye sour, by looking at the result of his first build instead of his second.  This necessitated a lengthy interaction with my spreadsheet, while I tried to figure out how to make the necessary adjustments.   Bottom line was I had enough sour for only 40% of the scald.   I'm glad I caught it in time before I mixed more than twice as much scald as required in with the sour.    I thought that I would be able to mix the scald and sour together last night to make the sponge before I went to bed, but I was waiting for the rye sour to froth - see Juergen's excellent picture here.   I know from having made Russian Rye that if you don't wait for the froth, you might as well just use the result for its cementatious properties, instead of wasting the energy to bake it.   So I let it go overnight, and then mixed the sour and scald in the morning.    Since I had a fairly small quantity of paste (this stuff is not dough)  relative to the pan, the result after baking for over an hour looked like a brick, and of course nothing like Andy's beautiful samples.   However, it did not taste like a brick.   To go back to my years of absorbing ad copy through the ether, I would say that this bread is BURSTING WITH FLAVOR (Juicy Fruit Gum - circa 1967).   No really, absolutely bursting with flavor.   I would hope to be able to make more photogenic loaves as time goes on, but for now, I'll be consoled by the taste.  I ate a piece of this with peanut butter for dinner.   Nothing else required. 

Crumb shots:   Tzitzel and Borodinsky

Tzitzel Rye Sour just before mixing the dough:

Borodinsky sponge just before mixing:

I used whole rye for the Borodinsky and for the small amount of wheat flour used Sir Lancelot high gluten because I ran out of KA Bread Flour while mixing up the Tzitzel.    I used malt syrup to replace Red Malt - best I could do for now.  I followed ITJB Old School Jewish Deli Rye as modified for Tzitzel (page 74.)  

Today I went back to Andy's Pain au Levain with Light Rye which I made last spring.  At the time I didn't know there was a difference between light rye and white rye.   I know it now, but I still have access only to White, so that's what I used again.    This bread acted like a balloon all through the preparation - I was very careful not to puncture it, and quite worried that it would deflate instead of rise in the oven, but it didn't.   Just spring and more spring. 

When it was time to shape, I didn't really - it's hard to shape a balloon -  just kind of pressed it a little and then folded it up and flipped into a lined basket.   I didn't think it would score, so I just ran my razor over some lines that had opened up during proof.   So not a tidy bread.  

After it came out of the oven, the sun was out and it was sort of pretend warm, so I took it outside to photograph.   When it hit the colder air, the loaf started singing like crazy.   I set it on the table and a hawk flew overhead.   I wasn't fast enough to catch it on the wing, but then it settled down in an oak to rest.

Then walked back through the garden, which is looking more like a garden in waiting this time of year.

My oven is waiting too it seems.   When will it be spring?

Didn't have to wait long to cut into the bread though, as it cooled quickly what with its trip outside.

When I was complaining the other day that I couldn't catch up with Andy, I didn't mean that I would never be a professional baker and turn out staggering numbers of authentic, healthy, artisan loaves, because of course I will never do those things.   I meant that I can't even catch up with trying to bake some of his formulas.   And he just keeps making the situation worse.    Back in November he posted wholemeal pain au levain.     I have been meaning to make it, but got distracted with mixed levains and other things and didn't get to it.   After my January croissant waistline debacle I decided that I have got to start baking more lean wholegrain breads, so that brought me back to Andy's formula.   Frankly I never expected such loft and lightness out of a 60% wholegrain bread.   But then I've never made a bread out of starter and soaker before which is what this is.  

True I was unable to follow the formula 100%.   I was a bit short of whole wheat flour so substituted in some whole rye to the soaker, and I didn't do the overnight retard immediately after the mix because it didn't fit into my schedule.   Short of those (hopefully not critical) deviations, I followed directions, and I'm glad I did.   This has a delicious crunchy, nutty flavor, and the crumb isn't the least bit gummy (ok that's how I tend to think of high percentage whole grain breads - it's my problem.)

Some baking notes: 

1. Andy's instructions call for mixing the starter, soaker, and additional flour.   Then retarding overnight.   Then Bulk Ferment for 3 hours which of course includes some warm up time.   I did not do the retard and was concerned at 1.5 hours into the bulk ferment that the dough would overferment.   I decided to end  after 2 hours, which seemed to work out.  

2. There was no call for additional water to be added to the final dough.   However, I was unable to mix the raw flour into the soaker, starter combo without a little bit of water.    Thus my hydration is 73% rather than Andy's 70%.    For a 73% hydration dough, it wasn't even slightly wet which I assume is attributable to the high percentage of whole grains.  

3. When I realized that I was short of whole wheat flour, I was scratching my head about what to add to the overnight soaker.   My husband strolled into the kitchen just as I reached this conundrum and suggested whole rye.  Despite my surprise (he's not a baker and doesn't like rye) I had to agree with his suggestion, as I thought the key point was having something that could stand up to an overnight soak without turning into gum.   Should I have done something else like whole spelt?

4.  I used King Arthur All Purpose to substitute for Carr's Special CC Flour and King Arthur Whole Wheat to substitute for Allinson's Strong Wholemeal. 

Formula and Instructions as Modified

Some time ago Franko did a great post on Tom Cat's Semolina Filone.   I pretended to make it but in fact I didn't because I used starter instead of poolish and whole durum instead of extra fancy.   Now following Karin's excellent no-discrimination policy I decided to cook from books lying under my nose, and what book could be greater (or more underutilized by  me) than Maggie Glezer's Artisan Baking.    This time I followed directions to the letter (see page 124.)  This bread is so good that someone should post on it every few months or so.   With this post, I've done my part.   

Bonus bread lessons:

1.  Different flour,  different bread.

2.  If you bake bread from a formula without following directions you haven't yet made that formula. 

After several tries at croissants, I decided that for the sake of my waistline (and those of my family) I should give it a rest.   I was thoroughly frustrated with trying to sort through multiple approaches with multiple rationales, and decided that what I really needed to do was try something else that didn't require deep study.   So I pulled out my rye and wheat starters, built them up the way I wanted to - no books in sight - and the next day mixed up some dough.   I made enough for two big loaves but decided to refrigerate one of them after shaping so we could eat both fresh instead of one fresh and one day old.   I was also interested to see if there would be any difference between them.    The short answer is a little.  

The loaf pictured above was baked with no retard.   Even though I've been working hard at developing dough and I thought I'd got it after 25 minutes on low speed in the kitchen aid, some may say it is not quite there.

I don't know.   What say you?  

The second which was in the refrigerator for 20 hours before coming out for a three hour proof had a less appealing crust, but perhaps better crumb.   So development continues in the refrigerator?

In general I was very pleased with the taste and texture of this bread which is quite light and airy, with a crisp crust (both loaves.)   The retarded loaf has just a hint of sour while the one baked same day has none. 

Here is the formula:

Today I was planning to make Vermont Sourdough with Whole Wheat as part of a return to good healthy eating, but it was not to be.    I had added the starter to the dough and mixed it up, when my nose was assaulted by something NOT RIGHT.   In the past I've ignored these warnings figuring that whatever was not right would disappear in the baking.   But I've learned.   So out with the old dough, in with the new.   I mixed up another liquid starter, but I really wanted bread today, so after 3 hours, I decided to improvise.   Instead of nice, lean Vermont Sourdough,   I started the year with something sweet:   Cinnamon Swirl. 

The last time I made something like this, both my husband and son informed me that I'd skimped unduly on the cinnamon, sugar, and butter.    So this time I didn't.    To say the least.   I threw in the unfinished starter, and then some yeast for good measure.   It rose like gangbusters.   Here is what I came up with. 

Take firm starter and build as above.    Leave at warm room temperature.    Scald milk in microwave for 1.5 minutes.   Add butter to it and let cool.    After starter has ripened for three hours, mix all ingredients.   Let double (this took 45 minutes.)   Press out into a long flat rectangle with short side in front.   Brush with melted butter.   Sprinkle very thickly with cinnamon sugar.   I used two sticks of cinnamon that I ground in a coffee grinder mixed with around 3/4 cups of sugar.   Roll up without pressing in the sides while shaping.   Place in bread pan with seam down.   Brush top with remaining melted butter and cinnamon sugar.  Let rise to over top of pan (this took around 45 minutes.)   Bake at 370 with no steam for 45 minutes.    Then remove from pan and bake for 15 more minutes.  Then enjoy and follow through on resolutions tomorrow. 

The many nice bagel posts lately have spurred me on toward bagel making.    I was excited to see that In The Jewish Bakery has a recipe for Montreal bagels.   I grew up on New York Bagels which had made their way to St. Louis by the 1960s.    It was a revelation when I stopped for a snack in the Ottawa Airport one day to find a bagel that was completely different but quite delicious.   That was almost 20 years ago, and since I stopped working in Canada,  Montreal bagels have been few and far between.   That is set to change.

Ok.   My shaping needs work, but that doesn't interfere with breakfast for lunch. 

These are quick bagels - from mix to plate in around 2 hours, and so not as much flavor as their overnight retarded New York cousins.   But delicious all the same, a tasty treat. 

Not quite two years ago, when I joined TFL, I had a simple goal:   I wanted to figure out how to make Tzitzel bread which was a favorite when I was growing up in St. Louis Missouri.   I had recently started baking bread, and I figured how hard could it be.   When I searched the web, I found nothing for Tzitzel, but plenty of recipes for rye bread - many of which I tried.  Nothing was even remotely like what I remembered, and given my level of expertise, it was pretty poor eating.   I joined this site where I had been lurking for awhile and asked the question.   Again, no one seemed to have heard of it.   I did get a lot of great advice for baking Jewish Rye, and settled on "Jewish Corn Bread" which was a combo of some points in a comment by Norm (nbicomputers) on a David Snyder post, and one of Greenstein's recipes from Secrets of a Jewish Baker.   This kicked up the quality several notches, but still wasn't right.   When I started my quest, I had emailed the retiring owner of the St. Louis bakery, Pratzels,  where my father had bought Tzitzel.   Early on she told me that it was "just" a Jewish Rye wrapped in corn meal.   Later, when I knew more, I asked her again, and she told me that it was made with medium rye and bread flour.   It wasn't until a few weeks ago, when I got my latest shipment of King Arthur flours, that I had some medium rye to play with.   At the same time, admiring a gorgeous Challah posted by dawkins, I gave up my resistance  and bought a copy of Inside the Jewish Bakery.   And there was the answer - I was off base using the corn bread recipe.   I should have been baking Jewish Deli Rye.   On page 74 the authors include a paragraph saying that to make Tzitzel one should modify their Jewish Deli Rye thus and so, and voila - Tzitzel.   And so ---- Tzitzel.   Thank you Norm and Stan!  

Several months ago there were a slew of great posts on breads with rye starters - Khalid, Arlo, Syd, Lumos and I've probably missed some.   I didn't have a rye sourdough starter, so I bookmarked a bunch of these posts and forgot about it.  Then I made a rye sourdough starter so I could make Whitley's Russian Rye, but it was only when Joyfulbaker posted on Hamelman's mixed starter formula (p. 162 of Bread) that I realized I could make it with my new rye starter.   In doing so, I found I had extra high hydration wheat starter, which looked so nice I didn't want to throw it out.   So I adapted the Pugliese recently posted by Sylvia to use starter instead of poolish.  

Although it changes the character of the bread, I think the adapted version works pretty well. 

The Hamelman is a delicious, balanced formula.   I tweaked it by swapping out a little of the bread flour for whole wheat.   Other than that I followed instructions.  

Formula for Sourdough Pugliese:

 Method:

Mix all but salt and autolyse for 40 minutes.   Add salt.   Mix for several minutes in the bowl by scooping dough from the edges to the middle.  Stretch and fold on counter 3 times in half hour intervals.   Continue bulk ferment for 1 hour after last stretch and fold.    Shape into boule and proof upside down in bowl.   Bake at 450 for 15 minutes with steam, 30 minutes without. 

White sandwich bread may not be as exciting as many but it sure is delicious.   Especially following Syd's poolish formula.    I have made this several times but never felt I had the proper pan for it.   Fortunately my  husband came through for my birthday.    I completely stopped buying bread and bagels from the supermarket after I started baking two years ago, with the exception of sandwich bread - industrial varieties of which can be quite good.    That may have to stop.   This bread is bursting with flavor unknown even to Pepperidge Farm.   Syd's instructions are clear and simple.   Thank you Syd (wherever you are.)