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I have 2 hobbies... Sourdough bread baking and BBQ.  If you are curios about how my loaves look or what a Big Green Egg is, take a look.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/food_pictures/?details=1

Some different breads. The one in the foreground is a cherry tomato and oregano. It turned out quite good but would go with less hydration next time to compensate for the tomato juice. The one before last is a rasin and pecan an the others are plain. The technique is as described in the other blog:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/33632/blueberry-and-white-chocolate-sourdough

I'm visiting my sister in New York and decided to make these last night for today's breakfast.

I have not yet tasted them (I'm still waiting for everyone to wake up) but I think they turned out pretty at least.

The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen, although I omitted the poppy seeds.

I started on a silpat

but then changed to parchment. Baked for 10 minutes at 450F with convection.

I didn't use a pizza stone or a hot baking sheet.  Two rather large ice cubes provided steam.

Our family traveled to Spain this past Spring, and Sevilla was our favorite city on the trip, we were there during Semana Santa.  We particularly enjoyed the Tortas de Aceite- yeast-leavened olive oil wafters laced with sesame and anise.  This version is a little different than the standard torta in that it is leavened with sourdough and uses star anise instead of anise seed.

A view of the courtyard in Sevilla's Alcazar, the Royal Palace.

Tortas de Aceite Recipe

Night Before:

Mix levain, allow to ferment ovenight at 68-70F.  It should rise but not yet be fully mature.

Next Morning:

Weigh flour into mixing bowl and coat a 3-4 cup bulk ferment container with olive oil.

Use spice grinder to grind toasted sesame seeds, salt and main dough sugar until fine.  Stir into flour.

Add 32g levain (the rest is for perpetuating the culture), water and oil to the flour mixture and mix until combined, then knead by hand about 10 minutes.

Transfer to oiled container and cover. 

Ferment until dough has doubled, about 5 hours at 81F.

Using olive oil to grease work surfaces and dough, stretch and fold 3 times in first 3.5 hours, then allow to rise.  Ready when rounded peak reaches a little past 2 2/3 cups.

Afternoon:

Divide and pre-shape into 12 rounds.  Place on oiled sheet pan and rest one hour, covered.

In spice grinder, grind star anise with 2 tsp sugar until fine, then scrape into bowl.

Preheat oven to 450F, placing rack in middle of oven.  Prep a half sheet pan with silpat or parchment.

Spread 2 Tbs granulated sugar on a plate.

Flatten dough balls slightly, then sprinkle the top with 1/4 tsp of the anise-sugar mixture.  Spread mixture over dough disc with fingertip.

Shape six discs into pizza-like tortas about 3 1/2 inches in diameter, then turn face down in sugar plate to coat with sugar. 

Place six tortas on one half sheet pan and bake 8 minutes, then rotate and bake 3-5 more minutes, until nicely caramelized.

Repeat with remaining six tortas.

Editing to add notes:  

Don't be tempted to add the anise into the main dough- it has potent anti-bacterial and anti-fungal qualities and will kill off every discernable trace of sourdough culture (did this with my first go at these).

These re-heat and re-crisp beautifully in the toaster.

Dough Rounds:

Flattened Discs with Anise-Sugar Mixture:

The Shaped Tortas:

Plaza Nueva at Sunset:

Sevilla's Cathedral:

Torta Crumb:

More Tortas:

Looking for Tapas:

We are now officially on the summer baking schedule.  No more large loaves.  Only 1 small one or possibly 2 if baked on the same day.  All bred baking is done in the mini oven outside.   This particular bake came in at over 1,300 g so it will have to be baked as 2 loaves one after the other to fit the mini oven.  Lucy isn’t quick with basic math.

My apprentice quickly forgets just about everything and the size of a loaf that fits in the MO is something she never knew to begin with - like every thing else worth knowing.   I have noticed that she is really good at hunting geckos, eating them and then upchucking the gooey mess on your summer bare feet.  Amazing really…. so don’t think you can catch a gecko with your bare teeth like she can.

This bread is what I would call our almost everyday bread that we would like to eat if we ever made the same bread more than once and had a favorite one dominating our bake list.  Thankfully, my apprentice forgets what that last bake was much less what her favorite might be other than knowing DaPumperizing any bread is way better than not doing so.

.The only thing missing is a dried fruit, I had a variety of them laid out and ready to be included but Lucy forgot all about them.  When I asked, she said that with the molasses and honey already in the mix, the sweetness of the fruits wasn’t needed.  Odd how these recipes come together especially after traversing torturously through such a tiny brain as hers.

We were going for multi grain sour so we used 10 g each of our rye and whole wheat starters and used all the whole grains in the 3 stage levain.  The whole grains ended up at 36% if you do not include the wholegrain soaker and the levain was 20% of the total weight.  We like to use a larger levain when making a bread that is jam packed full of add ins.

We refrigerated the levain for 24 hours after it had risen 25% after the 3rd stage feeding to increase the sour.  It rose another 25% in the fridge before being warmed up and allowed to finish its 3 stage doubling the next morning.  The whole grains in the levain included, barley, farro, spelt, wheat, and  rye.  Lucy tries to keep the whole grains in the levain so they have a really good chance of softening up as much as possible.

We added some corn, oats and potato to the AP dough flour because we like the flavors they bring to the party.  We scalded; whole wheat, rye, barley, farro, and spelt berries before putting them in the fridge overnight to soak and soften up.  They were well drained before being added to the dough.

The add ins included home made red and white malt, honey, molasses, ground flax and ground sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and pistachios,. We tossed in some Toadies since they are nearly required to enhance the flavor of every bake and a little VWG to bring up the gluten to an acceptable level .

Bake day breakfast.

The autolyse included everything except the pumpkinseeds, sunflower seeds, pistachio nuts and the whole berry scald.   The autolyse was done while the levain warmed up and finished doubling in the morning - about 3 hours.

Once the levain and the autolyse came together we did 10 minutes of slap and folds to develop the gluten and then let it rest for 15 minutes in an covered and oiled bowl.  We did 3 sets of S&F’s on 15 minute intervals where the scald and remaining seeds and nuts were incorporated on the first one and thoroughly distributed by the third set.  After a 1 hour ferment on the counter, into the fridge it went for its 16 hour bulk retard.

After taking the dough out of the fridge we divided it in half and then refrigerated half.  This way we could maintain a time window of 45 minutes between the 2 loaves.  This accounted for one loaf to bake off, the oven come back to temperature with steam in place and be oven be ready just in time for the 2nd loaf.

We shaped the dough cold into small ovals and for a little excitement, the first one we proofed seam side down so it would bake seam side up without slashing and the 2nd one we placed seam side up and slashed it.  The bread was ready to into the oven 2 1/2 hours after coming out of the fridge.

The mini oven was pre heated to 500 F and (2) of Sylvia’s steaming Pyrex cups, half full of water with a dish rag in each, were heated in the microwave.  We overturned the bread cross wise onto the top of the vented broiler pan covered in parchment paper.  The bottom of the broiler pan was preheated in the mini oven.

This bread made a fine balogna and brie sandwich with veggies, fruits and cheese.

A half a cup of water was put in the bottom of the broiler pan right before the broiler top, with the bread and steaming cups was placed on top of it.  The small space where the bread takes up 25% of it and the mega steam applied usually makes the mini put crust on bread like a commercial bakery oven.   Our best breads have always come the mini oven.

How did that stir fry from last night's dinner get in there? 

Once the bread went in, we steamed for 2 minutes and then turned the oven down to 450 F for 13 more minutes.  At the 15 minute mark, the bottom of the broiler pan came out with Sylvia’s steaming cups and the bread was left to bake on the top of the broiler pan at 400 F, convection this time.

We turned the bread 180 degrees every 5 minutes and flipped itnover on the top for the last 10 minutes of baking to get the bottom as brown as the top 20 minutes after the steam came out the bread tested 205 F on the inside at 35 minutes total baking time. 

Once removed to the cooling rack we noticed that the bread had not cracked mightily along the seam as we thought it would.  It wasn’t a lack of steam, possibly 98% proofed?   It did brown nicely, was crunchy with very small blisters and it smelled great.

The 2nd loaf was slashed before it went in the mini oven and baked the same way. It to did not spring or bloom much and did not bake as dark on the outside.  It too softened a little as it cooled but the crust was still crunchy and very tasty. 

With the crumb not as open as our usual, maybe the bread was under proofed?   The crumb was soft and moist like always.   Maybe there was just so much stuff in this bread it had a hard time getting lift?  Usually we would put YW in these kinds of breads to open the crumb and probably should have this time.  It passed the poke test and it looked like it had nearly doubled though.

The great thing about this bread is that it is a fine tasting bread.  My daughter said this is the only bread I should make.  The flour mix, corn, potato, scald, Toadies, ground flax and sesame seed, pistachios pumpkin and sunflower seeds really make this a tasty treat.

Formula

The bread was a bit dense not very sour either

M

This morning I baked a sprouted wheat loaf.   I had made my first one the other day and it was an ugly duckling but delicious, so my plan was to make a prettier bigger one.   I succeeded on the bigger.

I will say this though - this loaf rose very nicely both in and out of the oven, and I didn't use any VWG.   I did however use lots of rye sour and starter which had the effect of obscuring the wonderful taste of the sprouted wheat.   Good but not ready for prime time.  Back to drawing board.   Ideas?

No sooner was my sprouted loaf out of the oven when it hit me that I had a pain de mie biga timing out in the refrigerator.   I had not been planning to make a second loaf today but didn't want to lose it, so I gave up on what I was supposed to do and made the pain de mie.    This time, again following Janet, I decided to make a 100% whole white wheat loaf.   I had made one with high extraction flour earlier which tasted terrific but was somewhat disappointingly flat.  

This one was much better behaved.   After mixing my last one for 45 minutes it was still a liquid although a particularly viscous one.    Here, after 20 minutes or so of intensive mixing, the dough came together in a ball, but didn't windowpane.   I gave it a 10 minutes rest, then mixed around 10 more minutes.   This time it was definitively done.

Much to my delight, it did not come out of the oven looking like a cornfield flattened in a tornado but had a pretty nice loft (see above.)   Comparing it to my last (same size) white pain de mie (see below) it wasn't shaped all that differently.

Crumb shot:

Formulas, Methods:

Sprouted Wheat Loaf

Whole Wheat Pain de Mie

When I was a kid, thats what you used to say to each other!

Strange kids....

Without any further ado.....

What more can I say?

Beautiful…

Beautiful…

Beautiful….

Where to start?

These tasted like nothing I can describe…

Fresh, tasty, light, bready, doughy, yummy, warm and delicious!!

I don’t like to blow my own greedy trumpet but they simply were fantastic!!

Gone within 2 hours of making them…

I was even tempted to make more the night before going to work and getting up early to make them before work!!

That is how good they are.

Only alteration would be to make the poppy-seed and cheese ones, a little smaller, more like the fruity ones, that had the perfect bagel shape:)

Even though it’s a 2 day process, its simple really and the 2nd day part is over really in an hour…

Baked, all done!!

Ready to scoff….

Bagel sponge..

Split in 2, ready for flour and spices etc…

Cranberry dough

Plain dough…

Spiced pre bagel…

Plain pre bagel..

Slight rest…

What do I need?

Sponge:

2 tsp dried yeast
4 cups bread flour

2 tsp sugar

2 & 1/2 cups warm water

Dough:

4 cups bread flour
3 tsp  salt
2 tsp malt powder

OTHER:

1/2 cup of muscovado sugar

1 cup of cranberries

3 tsp mixed spice

1/2 cup of grated cheese

1/2 cup of poppy seeds

1/2 cup of fine polenta.

A bit of this…

Plain rested ):

Fruit rested

The Night Before CHRISTMAS…..

Just kidding.

Take your sponge ingredients and mix the yeast into warmed water along with the sugar.

Cover and allow yeast to become frothy, usually 10 minutes, then add in the flour.

Mix well and cover with gladwrap and then a tea towel and rest for 2 hours.

Stir in the 2nd lot of flour, malt powder and the salt.

Make sure it is well blended and knead for 10 minutes.

Cut dough into pieces  (I did 12 BUT next time I will do 14-16).

Roll each piece into a smooth tight ball (as above) and place on lightly floured bench and allow to rest for 30 minutes, covered with a tea towel.

Holey…

Holey moley…

Holey guacamole

Cover and into the fridge…

When rested, poke your thumb into the middle of the ball and then rotate round using finger and thumb until the shape is reached.

Its easy peasy…serious, do one and you will be sweet!!

Place on a lightly oiled baking paper/tray, allowing lots of room between the bagels.

Cover with gladwrap, ( I used 2 foodtown plastic bags on each tray ) and pop into the fridge overnight.

Boil, Boil, toil and trouble…

Ready….

Polenta….or very fine semolina flour is ok too.

NEXT DAY!!!

Are you excited????

I am….

Pre heat your oven to 250 Celsius.

Bring a large pot of water to the boil, salted well.

Remove bagels from the fridge.

Get your toppings ready, I had my poppy seeds and grated cheese..

Also some polenta to scatter on the baking tray.

The fruit beasties well already to go:)

Boiling…

Getting fruity…

Poppied!

cheesy too…

Ready to bake….

Carefully place 2-3 bagels in the boiling pot at one stage.

Allow 1-2 minutes cooking on one side, then turn over and allow the same on the other side.

Remove from the water, a slotted spoon is good, and place on your baking tray that is sprinkle with polenta that will go in the oven.

Top whilst the bagel is still damp.

Place in the oven for 5-6 minutes and then rotate the tray round, also turning the heat down to 220 Celsius and baking for a further 5-6 minutes.

A slight goldy tinge is good:)

Remove from the oven and cool (if you can wait that long) slightly and EAT!!

I made the plain bagels a little larger than need be so that is why above is I suggested 1-2 more bagels.

Dig in….

Cheese???

Mmmm Fruity

Underneath…

Yummmmm

Lovely Texture

Inner Cheese…

Almost all gone…

Tasty…

ENJOY, ENJOY, ENJOY!!

Recipe adapted from the lovely folks @ the fresh loaf.

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/bagels

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https://www.facebook.com/greedybread

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So I wanted to try a no-knead bread again;  Just very plain and simple. Just white wheat flour, water, salt and some yeast. 
1 kg total dough weight, 70% hydration. About a 1/4 tsp of IDY and 12 grams of salt. 

Just mixed it all together and left for a night. Then did some S&F and left to proof. First time in an oval banneton, second time in a round banneton (though that one was a bit too big for the amount of dough).

After proofing I turned on a shooter, slashed and baked at 250 degrees C. 

First version was nice, but the second one got a much more open crumb. I guess because it got a more heaped 1/4 tsp IDY, and fermented a bit longer for the first proofing. 

Oval version:

Round version:

All thumbnails are clickable.