Blogs

Hello,

I was looking a library book this past long weekend - Amy's Bread - and this one piqued my interest. We've had some drizzle and it looks like we're going to have a wet week ahead here in the Pacific Northwest - I thought it might be nice to bake a little sunshine.

This recipe actually made three loaves. I took pictures of two of the three baked loaves; I think the last one turned out the nicest as I got some foil on top before it browned too much. The dough has a nice yellow color from the durum flour. The boules are misted then rolled in medium-grind yellow cornmeal before shaping. Love all that yellowness, and the apricots that taste like sunshine to me... I'm also thinking of Daisy_A's Sourdough Wholemeal Lemon Bread and wondering how this dough might be with lemon zest and other fruits and/or herbs.

I am learning so much reading other people's posts on this site and am grateful to all of the writers and the website manager who contribute so much.  Regards, breadsong

Hi All,

I seem to be baking a lot these days...  It's still hot though here in NYC so things are rising fast around here...  Last night I was reading Local Breads by Dan Leader, page 105 which talks about the Poilane bakery loading their breads into the oven every 2 hours...  I wanted to see how quickly I could make a pain au levain, assuming the levain was ripe and ready...  Also, a have recently converted my storage sourdough starter from liquid to very stiff (50% hydration).  Here's what happened:

Stiff Levain Recipe:

400g Stone Ground White Whole Wheat Flour (King Arthur)

200g Water

80g Stiff Sourdough Starter (50% hydration)

680g Total Stiff Levain

Final Dough Recipe:

1374g AP (King Arthur)

926g Water

32g Kosher Salt

680g Stiff White Whole Wheat Levain (approx 50% hydration)

3012g Total Dough Yield

Method of Madness:

9/6/10

5:30pm - Mix stiff levain, knead into ball, cover and let rest.

5:45pm - Knead stiff a few times until smooth, lightly coat with extra virgin olive oil, place in covered plastic tub, refrigerate at 40F 23-36 hrs.  If you are going to make the dough within 12-16 hours, and it's not too hot, then you can probably leave it out on the kitchen counter...

9/7/10

6:35pm - Come home from work, get settled, take stiff levain out of fridge, measure out all ingredients using a digital scale.

6:55pm - In a large mixing bowl, pour in exact amount of water, then cut up the stiff levain into small golf ball sized pieces and place it into the bowl in the water.  Then add all the flour on top, then the salt.  Start mixing with a large rubber spatula until a shaggy dough forms.  Then using wet hands, squish the dough until the levain is well combined, knead for about 10 minutes.  Do all kneading in the bowl without adding any extra flour.  If your hands get sticky, use a plastic scraper to scrape the dough off your hands, then dip your hands in water and continue kneading.

7:10pm to 7:30pm - cover and let rest for 20 minutes.

7:30pm - Turn dough in bowl, and knead for about 15-20 seconds, cover and let rest.

8:00pm - Turn dough in bowl, and knead for about 15-20 seconds, cover and let rest.

8:30pm - Turn dough, cover and let rest.

9:00pm to 9:10pm - Divide dough into 4 pieces, preshape into boules, place them seam side down on a proofing board with no extra flour.  Cover and let rest for 20 minutes.

9:30pm - Final shape into batards, place them seam side up in a very lighty floured couche, cover with tea towels and plastic bag, proof for approx 1 hr and 30 minutes.

10:20pm - Place 2 baking stones in oven on 2 different levels along with steam pan, preheat to 550F with convection.

11:10pm - Turn off convection.  Turn out loaves onto peel/flipping board, slash as desired, place into oven directly on stone.  When all the loaves are in, place 1 1/2 cups water into steam pan, close door, turn oven down to 450F, bake for 45 minutes rotating batards halfway through the bake between stones.  After 45 minutes, check weight and internal temp.  They should be about 15% lighter than their pre-baked weight, and the internal temp should be between 205F to 210F.  I prefer 210F.  Turn oven off, and place batards back into oven for 5 minutes.  After this, let batards cool completely before cutting...

12:00am - Done...  Time for sleep...  Pics up tomorrow sometime...

8:50am - Upload pics...

Tim

Hi All,

Just wanted to share with you my bake from Monday, 9/5/10...  I had some friends in from San Francisco, who have never had my bread, so I wanted to make them something special to take home with them after brunch...

Here is a pain au levain, that I will call my 5/10/20 pain au levain...  It was inspired by JT's 85x3 bread that Farine blogged about here: http://www.farine-mc.com/2010/04/jts-85x3.html

I did not have any T85 flour, but I could make 3 starters...  This bread is basically 95% AP (king arthur) 5% rye (hodgson mill), approx 66% hydration, 2.4% kosher salt.

Starter 1 (Rye Sour): All of the rye flour (5% of total flour) prefermented at 83% hydration for 24hrs at room temp.  Use 4% sourdough starter.

Starter 2 (Liquid Levain): 10% of total flour (AP) prefermented at 100% hydration for 1 hour at room temp, and 23 hours at 40F.  Use 20% sourdough starter.

Starter 3 (Stiff levain): 20% of total flour (AP) prefermented at 55% hyrdation for 1 hour at room temp, and 23 hrs at 40F.  Use 20% sourdough starter.

I'll continue this if anybody is interested...  The result I think speaks for itself...

This is the walnut raisin pain au levain using the same dough as above but adding buttermilk powder, a little sugar, butter, toasted walnuts and raisins...  I think it turned out really good...  Note to self: Mix this dough separately...  Trying to knead in powdered buttermilk is an excercise in futility.  Some of it combined OK, but the stuff that didn't clumped in the dough, and I had to spend about 15 minutes kneading and picking out the clumps before kneading in the butter, walnuts and raisins...

Cheers!

Tim

I am finally proud of my bread...It looks gorgeous. My special thanks for the web

 tutoring go to Australian Baker WARWICK QUINTON.

Porridge:

600 h whole-wheat flour

260 g whole-rye flour

100 g buckwheat flakes

850 ml cold water

Mix and flours and water and place in  a box with lid and leave them in the fridge overnight. This method softens the whole grain flours.

Sourdough:

10 g whole-wheat starter (100% hydration -from the fridge)

100 g  whole-wheat flour

60 g water

Let to ferment for12-14 hours.

Remove the box from the fridge and add:

240g altus ( 60 % rye, 40% wheat)

160 g stiff sordough

Mix it through with your hand for a few minutes.

Allow to rest for 30 minutes.

Add the salt (24 g ) and work it through the dough. Let to rest for 30 minutes.

Give it turn and allow to stand for 30 minutes.

Continue the process allowing about half an hour between turns until  your  achive silk consistency.

Let to ferment for 4-6 hours 

Shape your bread into cylinder, using the flats of your hands.  Brush with water, and dust with buckwheat flakes. Put into the  proofing basket.

Proof the bread for 3 hours . Slash diagonally 4 times.

Set your oven to 500F and bake:

•  15 minutes with steam in 480F.
•  20 minutes in 450F
• 15 minutes in 400F.

Recipe adapted from: http://www.sourdoughbaker.com.au/recipes/desem-sourdough-recipes/wheat-and-barley-bread.html

Finally the first blog entry:

I made these empanadas for a potluck over the weekend and they are well worth the effort. Easy to follow directions and the recipe was flexible enough to be modified. Substituted sweet potatoes, regular 'ol button mushrooms and poblano peppers for the filling and left out the broth. Added some Latin spices too, e.g. oregano, cumin and cinnamon. I made extra filling to use up all the dough. Speaking of, I reduced the butter amount down to 3 sticks which still produced an unbelievably flaky, buttery and tender crust. This dough is fantastic--one of the most stress-free times I've ever endured while rolling out pie dough. Love this dough because it will definitely love being rolled out!!! Makes a great fruit pie too--just tried this, blog entry to come. Lightly brush the dough before baking with a beaten egg wash for a nice golden hue.

As they say in Spanish, Delicioso!

Here's the web address for the recipe:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mushroom-and-Butternut-Squash-Empanadas-107182

Bake well TFLers,

evth

Have an excess of zucchini blossoms in your garden?  Here's what I did with a little leftover dough (Hamelman's French bread) thin sliced mortadella, fresh mozzerella. I tossed the zucchini blossoms with a little olive oil and S&P and tossed them on the pizza for the last minute or so in the oven.  Shaved some parmegiano reggiano on at the end and bellisima!  

I love this tart.  The fresh prunes are simply tossed with a little sugar (1/3 cup) and then baked in a tart shell for about 50 minutes.  

Hello everyone,

This bread is Whole Wheat Bread, from Eric Kastel's Artisan Baking at Home with the CIA.

This is a straight dough which includes whole wheat and honey. After shaping the boule, it was sprayed with water, gently picked up, turned over & rolled around in a bowl full of sesame seeds; then gently placed seam side-up in a cloth-lined banneton for final proofing.

After proofing & turning out onto a parchment-lined peel, the boule is misted & left to sit for a few minutes, scored, then misted once more before loading into the oven. (When misting, be careful not to get the parchment wet - I learned tonight that damp parchment doesn't slide well when trying to load the stone!).

I think the sesame seed crust is kind of pretty - and the loaf smells sweet and wheaty. We're going to slice it tomorrow for breakfast so I'll try to take a crumb shot then.

Regards, breadsong

Tonight I needed a quick loaf for sandwiches and I had a bit of free time, so I made this loaf from Bernard Clayton's new complete book of breads.  After making so much sourdough lately, it was nice to get a completely different smell in the kitchen.  This is a standby recipe;  when I opened the book, this was bookmarked already.  

I forgot all about it while making it;  its supposed to be a single rise bread but I left it in the mixer while helping the kids with piano lessons.  After about an hour, it had risen in the mixer nicely.  (I had meant to mix for 5 min, let rest 20 min, then finish kneading for 3-5 more).  Instead, I loafed it (it was very sticky for some reason) and let it rise.  And proceeded to completely forget about it AGAIN.  At one point, I looked up and saw the loaves, so quickly preheated the oven (425 for 35 min, no steam).  The crust is nice and dark.  They smell great.  Toast for breakfast.  Mmmmmm.

Nothing rustic about it.  Just some good quality bread.  Very yeasty aroma when I opened it up.  Nice even soft crumb with a hard crust.  Lovely.

The Quest for Great Buns

Friday morning I mixed the Biga for Italian Sourdough, per David’s recipe (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/12485/sourdough-italian-bread-and-sandwich-rolls) The goal: perfect buns.

Friday afternoon, once the Biga had doubled, I massaged it with a dough scraper and decided it was too stiff and gummy/sticky to mix into the dough by hand.   I have no stand mixer, but I staved off panic.  I talked my little KA hand mixer into giving it a go.  Following David’s instructions, I cut the Biga into the dry ingredients.  This  took several comical minutes with a kitchen shears and spatula (think Lucille Ball trying to divide a one pound wad of bubble gum).  It might have worked better with a mini-chain saw (except for the Biga splotches on the ceiling).  Once the Biga was cut up, the hand mixer worked pretty well, and after about 10 minutes with the mixer and 20 or so S&Fs, I had something fairly uniform.

After the primary fermentation with periodic S&Fs, the dough doubled on schedule, and I had a nice silky mound of bread-to-be, the nicest dough I’ve worked in all my (10) days of baking.

Making a split batch of rolls and a batard gave me a chance to try (and maybe even improve) my shaping skills.  Of the 5 rolls, 3 are pretty much the shape I was going for.  I should have re-shaped the other two, but I was tired and didn’t want to break every last bubble.

The loaves proofed faster than expected and they had to go into the oven before the stone had preheated enough.  So I didn’t get great oven spring (see http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/19452/my-model-great-oven-spring).  Though they were fully baked, the bottoms are blond.  I also forgot to rotate the loaves and my oven heat is apparently pretty uneven.  That said, they looked pretty good on top, and the crumb is nice.

]

]

]

The texture of both crust and crumb is pretty close to what I remember (and like) from David’s previous bakes of this bread, though not quite as airy.  I am happy with the outcome, and happy to have learned the lessons—start pre-heating the oven before you think you need to, and don’t forget to rotate the loaves.

Because the Italian Sourdough got done start-to-finish on Friday, we were able to get to the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market Saturday morning.  Made quite a haul of stone fruit, strawberries, corn and very photogenic vegetables.

For dinner Saturday, the buns were excellent brushed with garlic-rosemary-infused EVOO and grilled for sandwiches of Teriyaki-marinated local King Salmon, heirloom tomatoes and lemon mayonnaise.  I guess, with the Teriyaki and the Italian bread, we should call these “Orientalian Salmon Sandwiches”.

And the Batard made great toast Sunday morning, accompanying “Spanish” omelet.

The main Sunday event, of course, was the lamburgers that started my quest for great buns (hold the snickers).  (See http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/19399/iso-easy-great-and-recipe-hamburger-buns).  Using an ancient Greek lamburger recipe I made up—ground lamb leg mixed a day ahead with minced onion, flat leaf parsley and garlic, and oregano, salt and pepper—I charcoal grilled the burgers and the buns (brushed with the same rosemary and garlic-infused EVOO) and layered with feta, heirloom tomatos and lettuce, with a dab of the lemon mayonnaise.   They were even more delicious than they look.

The quest was worthwhile and the buns were excellent, but I think these are a bit dense for burger buns.  Good thing lots of bun recipes came to light.

Other Weekend Bakes

In addition to the Italian Sourdough, on Saturday I mixed the dough for, and Sunday I baked, Susan’s Ultimate Sourdough for the third time…and with the best results yet.  Even with less proofing and a very well pre-heated oven, I still didn’t get great oven spring. 

The Bread Professor (DMS) thinks maybe my oven vents too much, or I don’t have enough thermal mass to keep the steam going.   He suggests lava rocks, but didn’t say what I should do with them [smileyface].

But I’m happy with the progress.  The texture and flavor are delightful.  My chief bread enthusiast loves the chewiness and the flavor.

And Saturday night I mixed up the liquid levain for Hamelman’s Vermont Sourdough; and I mixed the dough Sunday morning and baked two batards Sunday night.  I made sure they were proofed right, and in addition to the usual cast iron skillet for steam, I spritzed them with water after about 10 minutes. 

My shaping skills have improved some (I keep watching Floyd’s great batard-shaping video).  And I got better, if not really good, oven spring.

Still, not a real open crumb.  But mighty tasty.

To top the weekend, this morning we had the famous Salmon Hash with a toast medley.

Since the learning experience for a novice baker is enjoyable in itself, the (mostly) good bread is just a bonus.  I had the chance in one weekend to try three different sourdoughs, one with a Biga and one with a liquid levain, and different formulas, and different flavors.   I got better at shaping batards, and at reading the dough’s signals.  I do need to figure out how to get better oven spring; I’d love to get a more open crumb.

Some time this week, I’ll have to make Sourdough Pizza dough, for a Greek Pizza with the leftover lamburger and Feta.

Thanks to TFL (especially David) for all the great tips, and the fun.

Glenn

Today, I baked Hamelman's "5-grain Levain" from "Bread."

Various TFL blogs have featured this bread. They can be found by searching the site. The recipe was posted by fleur-de-liz here: Eric: Hamelman's Five-Grain Levain. She was a very active contributor to TFL at the time I joined and an inspiration to me. She encouraged me to bake this bread for the first time way back when. It is, indeed, among the most delicious breads I've ever made or tasted.

David