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Hello to everyone,

Sorry I haven't posted anything in the past month, beeing busy with work and outside work. I would like to share these pictures with you guys, this were the selection of breads I used to bake for the restaurant I was charge of.

There were always minimum of four breads can include: lemon, tomato, olive, bluecheese & walnut, pain de campagne, savoury brioche, focaccia, fougasse aux lardons, plain white, 50/50 wholegrain. 

The day started early in the morning to make up a few batch of loaves for lunch then again for dinner. Sometimes I needed to bake fresh bread for banqueting events for up to 500guests. I am not a baker, just a very passionate cuisiner.

Pain de campagne

Selection

mini rolls

brioche rolls

See you guys soon,

 Happy Baking,

I had a really great success in scoring the sourdough batards I made over the weekend, and wanted to share.  They were made using the "experimental" sourdough baguette formula I concocted awhile back, although I screwed up in several places -- added salt to the liquid levain, and far too much water to the firm levain/pate fermente.  I managed, though, adding more flour and omitting the salt from the firm levain.  The dough was I think a little wetter than the 65% I intended, but everything worked out nicely nonetheless.  The results were quite pretty, though the lighting in the picture doesn't do it justice:

I think the higher quality results were more to do with improved shaping than improved scoring per se.  Since I switched over from the Hamelman-recommended "fold over the thumb" approach to the Back Home Bakery "roll and tuck" approach, I've been getting much better results from my batards and baguettes.

Taste, texture and crumb were also quite nice:

I finally made a baguette that I am happy with using my oven. =)

These are 10ozs. Allowing the preshaped baguettes to rest before shaping definitly is worth waiting for. I shaped the first 2 pieces w/o rest and they turned out very...odd.

I've been in total love with 1-2-3 bread since discovering it on this site.  What could be easier than using discarded starter in a 1-2-3 ratio with water and flour.  (Weigh starter, x 2= water, x3= flour).  I always get fantastic results, great flavor, and no pre-planning.  Here's the original post

1-2-3 Bread

It has made me a little lazy though w/ my bread baking.  So, I've started experimenting with inclusions.  Since I've had a ton of raw cashews in the fridge forever, I figured I'd roast them, and add some cut up dates to today's bake.  This might be the best bake I've done since starting 18 months ago.  I mixed up the dough without inclusions and added the nuts and dates in during the first stretch and fold.  I learned this technique from Shaio Ping with her chocolate sourdough.  It really works well for adding in delicate inclusions.  You basically spread a layer of nuts/dates on the counter, then stretch the dough over the top and press it down into the nuts, then add more nuts/dates on top and fold it all in.  With a couple subsequent SF's it incorporates the stuff really well without breaking up the nuts/fruit too much.

Made some spelt crossaints today using the straight dough formula from Suas' Advanced Bread and Pastry, except I used spelt flour. They tasted great. I'm really liking spelt flour and am trying to put it to all uses.

Sorry I don't have a shot of the crumb.

Background:

David Lebovitz, the celebrated American food blogger based in Paris has raved about Eric Kayser's Pain aux Cereales on numerous occasions, even proclaiming it to be perhaps the Best Bread in the World. A lot of bread aficianados from all over the world have made the pilgrimage to Paris to sample it and have posted photos as well as detailed description of this particular bread on the internet.

  Kayser's Pain aux Cereales from Lebovitz's Blog

I have the Eric Kayser's '100% Pain' bread book and the recipe for his Pain aux Cereales is included. However the photos, the ingredients and the formulation listed do not match the descriptions of the bread sold in his stores. After all, his bread empire is built on the originality and quality of his products, so who can blame him for not divulging all his secrets?

A couple days ago, I decided to formulate my own interpretation of Kayser's Pain aux Cereales based on my compilation of information gathered on the internet and relying loosely on the recipe in his book.

Formulation:

Flour Mix:

- 250 Gms KA Organic Artisan Select AP Flour

- 250 Gms La Milanaise T90 High Extraction Flour

Liquid Levain Build:

- 25 Gms ripe Liquid Levain (100% hydration)

- 50 Gms Flour Mix

- 50 Gms Spring Water

Seed Mix:

- 2 Tbs Golden Flax Seeds

- 2 Tbs Brown Flax Seeds

- 2 Tbs Yellow Sesame Seeds

- 2 Tbs Millet Seeds

- 2 Tbs Poppy Seeds

Final Dough Mix:

- 450 Gms Flour Mix

- 325 Gms Spring Water

- 125 Gms Liquid Levain Build

- 1/4 tsp Instant Yeast

- 10 Gms Grey Atlantic Sea Salt

- 1/3 of Seed Mix (toasted in a non-stick pan)

Procedures:

1- Prepare Final Levain Build and let ferment at room temperature until triple in volume.

2- Mix Flour and Water and autolyse for 30 mins.

3- Add Levain, Yeast and Salt and knead in mixer w/ dough hook on low speed for 4 mins.

4- Add the 1/3 toasted seed mix and incorporate into dough with dough hook for 30 secs.

5- Partially ferment dough at room temperature for 2 1/2 hours with stretch and fold in the bowl every 30 mins.

6- Retard dough in refrigerator for 18-24 hrs.

7- Divide dough into 2, preshape into ball and let rest 1 hr. Shape into batard and proof on couche for 1 hr.

8- Transfer loaves to peel, lightly mist with a vaporizer and sprinkle with remaining untoasted seed mix.

9- Score and bake at 440 degrees F with steam for 12 mins and 20 more mins at 390 degrees F on convection without steam.

I kept the dough hydration higher than normal at about 77% to compensate for the seeds absorbing some of the moisture from the dough during fermentation. The dough was very responsive with just the right amount of elasticity and extensibility. I got good oven spring, the cuts opened up nicely and the crust was thin and crackly and had beautiful caramelization. The roasted seeds on the crust were colorful and fragrant and glistened from their oil.

The crumb was cream colored, translucent, soft and slightly chewy and speckled with crunchy seeds. The flavor was complex from the interplay of the nuttiness of the seeds and the slight tang of the levain.

Was it the Best Bread in the World? I would not say so but a darn good bread nonetheless.

Happy Baking!

Don

For those who might be interested.

I have posted an article on NowPublic about the award given for the best baguette in Paris. You can link to it from my blog. The name and address of the baker can be found on my blog and in the article.

http://turosdolci.wordpress.com

This boule of about 2 pounds is adapted from various published formulae that have been reproduced here. I prefer the taste and challenge of pure sourdough.

A loose white starter (Hamelman) of relatively small proportion was built into a white levain that was also relatively loose, about 75%, I'd guess. This was mixed with whole wheat and rye flour, and a soaker composed of about 8 ounces of various seeds, among which the sesame and sunflower were toasted. Bulk fermentation took place at about 80 degrees for nearly two hours, with two folds. The shaped loaf was retarded overnight in the fridge, and given about two hours on the counter before light scoring and loading. It was baked at 500 degrees, under a stainless steel bowl, with an injectioin of steam from a home steam cleaner, for 20 minutes, then turned down to 425 until it was done, about another 20 minutes.

The crust was thick and crackly, while the interior was light, springy and very tasty. There may have been the littlest bit of starchiness at the base. Overall, very pleasing and delicious.

Inspired by Lindy,  here's my try on the bagels.  But obviously mine didn't turn out as nice as hers.
As I can't find high gluten flour - I used Japanese stong bread flour - 12% protein level.  Without diastatic malt powder,  i left that out.  Without malt syrup,  I used honey and brown sugar instead. Here's a description of how I did it.  see post here. 
Without these key ingredients,  I guess I can't say I've made Jeffrey Hamelman's bagels.  The bagels did turn out very chewy and my son gave me a verdict of 6/10.  
I'm still trying to sprout my wheat berries......to get malt powder. The next time I'm in US,  I'll make sure I get some....

It's from "A Blessing of Bread", and many TFLers here have tried it with great success, I will just list the following two here (recipe can be found there too):

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/14803/sourdough-challah-quota-blessing-breadquot

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/4200/sourdough-challah-photos-recipe

Since sourdough challah takes a long time to rise (a 5 hour proof), I was able to try a more complicated braiding shape without worrying about overproofing. This Hungarian Celebration Bread shape is also from "A Blessing of Bread", basically two 4 braids at the bottom, with a 5 braids on top. A bit time consuming to divide, round, roll out, and stretch out 13 pieces of dough, but well worth it.

Light and open crumb, so soft, so rich. I absolutely love sourdough enriched breads. Contrary to some may think, sourdough taste doesn't get masked by all the eggs and oil, it lingers in the background and provides a "tang" note, emphasize and complement the rich flavor perfectly. Ever since the sourdough Pandoro that took me forever to make, my DH just can't eat any enriched breads without missing the sourdough flavor. He's finally satisfied again with this sourdough challah.

I proofed for 5 hours as the book instructed, but maybe another hour or two would've been better - the slight tearing between braids is a sign of underproofing.

We loved it enough that I made another one immediately after we finished this first loaf!