Blogs

This is upgraded recipe for Purely Rye Sourdough from the book Brilliant Bread by James Morton. This is pretty nice loaf packed full of great flavor and really rich in taste. It goes very well with some fruit on it as a healthy afternoon snack! Scroll down for a photos...

Recipe:
400g Wholemeal Rye Flour
300g Water
200g Sourdough Starter
100g Cooked Rye Grains
40g Honey
10g Salt

1. Mix together all ingredients into wet dough and leave to rest for 30 minutes;
2. Knead well for 20-30 minutes by hand, the best is slap and fold method, but use the method you like until gluten is well developed and dough is nicely sticky and coherent;
3. Cover the bowl and rest for 12 hours at room temperature. Dough should rise a little or nearly double in size;
4. Turn it out on to a heavily floured surface and shape it into a loaf tin shape. Move to well greased tin, spray the surface with water and cover to proof for 3-6 hours at room temperature or until double in size. Keep an eye on it and regulary spray with the water. Dough must remain nicely wet all the time during this proof;
5. Preheat the oven with baking tray inside at 240C at least 30 minutes before baking;
6. Slide the tin on the preheated baking tray and bake for about 30 minutes until the top is nicely brown in colour. Keep an eye on it and steam regulary with fresh water. It is the best to spray the top of the bread every 2-3 minute and keep it constantly wet for the first 15 minutes of baking. When the top is nicely brown, remove from the oven and bash out of the tin. Replace the bread on the baking tray and bake for another 20-30 minutes until a dark brown colour;
7. Immediately after baking place the loaf on cooling rack and properly greas it all over with sunflower or rapeseed oil. When the bread is completely cooled down to room temperature, wrap it to the baking sheet and leave to rest about 24 hours at room temperature;
8. Take the wrapped loaf, pack to the plastic bag and chuck it to the fridge overnight;
9. Slice with pretty sharp knife (but not serrated!!!) and ENJOY!
10. Store well packed in the fridge.

________________
My sourdough starter is 100% Hydration, contains 50% basic white bread flour and 50% wholemeal rye flour. Feeded on regulary basis at 12 hours intervals. I am usually using it after 5-8 hours after the last feeding.

Aaaand yes, the third one is the Tartine basic whole wheat..
So far this one has proven to be the best whole wheat I have baked and a good ratio of whole wheat around 73%.

I will be baking this one going forward for sure!

As I said, I have three breads that I keep baking, with different results really...

Hopefully I'll get there and I will get them consistent in every way.

This one is Hamelman's - Pain au levain.

Hi everyone,

I am still baking these days, but just not enough time to share all my breads and tries with you...

I thought I'll just share some photos of the breads I've baked lately.

I am baking three breads over and over again these days, trying to get them consistently good...Sometimes I struggle ;).

This is the first one: the seeded white bread - the recipe can be found in the posts below.

Yesterday I shared my recipe for Bronx bagels. I also make bialys, which might make me one of the last 4 or 5 bialy bakers left.  For some reason bialys never became as popular as bagels. One reason might be that they get very stale and hard quickly. If not frozen and then toasted, it's like eating a hockey puck. The process is less complicated than that for bagels. Making bialys is like making cocktail size pizzas. The onion "schmear" prevents the entire piece of dough from rising.

So, expats in my small village in northern Thailand have access to both fresh bagels and bialys, where in NYC it is almost impossible to find both. That is unless you want to make the trek down to Kosar's, Russ and Daughters or a few other specialty delis. 

Also, is civilization as we know it coming to an end when spell check doesn't recognize "bialy" and"schmear"?

Bialys

13-14 x 70 gram bialys.

Onion Schmear

2 1/4 teaspoons vegetable oil
12 tablespoons (3 ounces, 90 grams, ¾ C) onion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon poppy seeds

1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Black pepper to taste

Final Dough (65% Hydration)

600 g  Bread Flour

390 g Water

12 g Salt

1 tsp. Instant Yeast

 Added 50 gms of the dry ingredients to the water in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix the ingredients on speed 3, using the whisk attachment, until a light froth is obtained, about 1 minute. 

Used spiral dough hook and add the remaining dry ingredients. 

Mixed at the lowest speed (“Stir”) until all the ingredients are incorporated, about 3 minutes.  

 Increased to medium/high speed 3 for 6 minutes until the dough is mixed to full development.  The desired final dough temperature is 76-78ºF. (The dough will weigh about  980-1000 gms)

 Placed dough in a lightly oiled, covered container and allowed to ferment at 78ºF for 1 hour and 40 minutes. 

 Made 65-70 gm rolls. Proofed for 2 hours. Flattened rolls twice during proofing. At one hour and at 1 ½  Hours.

 Placed on baking sheet lightly dusted with flour and cornmeal. Flattened into 4″ in diameter, resembling mini pizza shells.  Pressed center hard with cap from a prescription bottle.and made a few hash cuts with a knife (To prevent center from rising during baking) Put 1/4 teaspoon of the onion schmear in the center of each dough piece. :

Placed the baking directly on hot oven stones (I use non glazed ceramic floor tiles). Baked @ 450-475 F degrees for 15 minutes. Had a nice mottled brown color.

Let cool for 15 minutes. Sliced and froze whatever I wasn't going to eat immediately. 

   This is a pretty simple bread using a starter with some rye and bread flour.  The main dough includes freshly ground Whole Wheat, Spelt, Kamut, Rye and KAF Bread flour.

I added some cherry balsamic vinegar and walnut oil for some added depth and it did just the trick.

The final dough had a nice crust and crumb that was not too open but just right for this amount of whole grains.  The taste was excellent and made some real tasty sandwiches.

Levain Directions

Mix all the levain ingredients together  for about 1 minute and cover with plastic wrap.  Let it sit at room temperature for around 7-8 hours or until the starter has doubled.

 Main Dough Procedure

Mix the flours with the main dough water for about 1 minute.  Let the rough dough sit for about 20 minutes to an hour.  Next add the levain, cherry balsamic vinegar, walnut oil and salt and mix on low for 4 minutes and speed #2 for another 2 minutes or by hand for about 6 minutes.   You should end up with a cohesive dough that is slightly tacky but very manageable.  Remove the dough from your bowl and place it in a lightly oiled bowl or work surface and do several stretch and folds.  Let it rest covered for 10-15 minutes and then do another stretch and fold.  Let it rest another 10-15 minutes and do one additional stretch and fold.  After a total of 2 hours place your covered bowl in the refrigerator and let it rest for 12 to 24 hours.  (Since I used my proofer I only let the dough sit out for 1.5 hours before refrigerating).

When you are ready to bake remove the bowl from the refrigerator and let it set out at room temperature still covered for 1.5 to 2 hours.  Remove the dough and shape as desired.

The dough will take 1.5 to 2 hours depending on your room temperature and will only rise about 1/3 it's size at most.  Let the dough dictate when it is read to bake not the clock.

Around 45 minutes before ready to bake, pre-heat your oven to 550 degrees F. and prepare it for steam.  I have a heavy-duty baking pan on the bottom rack of my oven with 1 baking stone on above the pan and one on the top shelf.  I pour 1 cup of boiling water in the pan right after I place the dough in the oven.

Right before you are ready to put them in the oven, score as desired and then add 1 cup of boiling water to your steam pan or follow your own steam procedure.

After 5 minute lower the temperature to 450 degrees.  Bake for 35-50 minutes until the crust is nice and brown and the internal temperature of the bread is 205 degrees.

Take the bread out of the oven when done and let it cool on a bakers rack before for at least 2 hours before eating.

5/14/14.  I am a novice bread baker.  Made "Rustic Bread" (recipe on this site) today.  Tastes good.  Beautiful holes in crumb.  But need advice on two issues:

1.  Following the formula, the dough was VERY wet, sticky.  I could not shape it well.  .  Would not hold boule shape before baking.  Flattened out before baking.  Did not flatten out more once in the oven.  If I addressed this problem by adding more flour doesn't that make it more difficult for the crumb to form large holes?  

2.  Never achieved the beautiful dark crust in picture.  Only reached golden brown when done. 

Thanks

 Dough rose too fast after I sandwiched the three layers together, so I couldn't manhandle it into ropes as planned. Instead just twisted the strips around and tied them up as gently as I could so as not to deflate them too much. Came out looking quite strange but surprisingly edible nonetheless. 

Next time guess I'll chill the Briouche dough at some stage, keep it from proofing before I roll ropes.

 SD Sweet Potato Spinach Nyetzel Rollz

I remember the old fashion bagels from my youth. Today's bagels, even those in NYC, are much larger, paler, and not as dense as the ones I remember. Contrary to popular belief, the original bagels were much smaller than today's. They were 2-3 ounces. I make mine around 3 1/2 ounces (90-95 grams after baking). I grew up in the Bronx and use to watch the union bagel bakers from local shop 338 forming and baking bagels at the Nelson Avenue bagel bakery. The guy who formed the bagels would cut a two inch square section from a large block of dough. His left hand would roll the piece into a cylinder shape, wrap the dough around his right hand snap off the right size piece and roll it into the proper shape. I don't have their skill. However I use the rope/dog bone method (described in the following recipe) and get quite good results. The hole is large after forming and after the boiling. It shrinks during bakes as the bagel expands during baking. I find the hole necessary for proper baking. I also bake the bagels on wooden slats. I use 1/3" (1 cm) teak wood which fit into sheet pans. The original wood used was redwood. I find this prevents the bottoms from becoming flat, harder and browner than the tops. I turn the bagels over when they reach the proper color. If I put on toppings, I dip the bagels into the desired topping right after boiling and place them with the topping side down until I put them on the wood, right side up. This helps the toppings stick. The results I get are bagels with dense and crisp surfaces and a slightly softer interior.  The process is a bit complex, but the results are excellent. Luckily for the diaspora who have decided to retire in my small village, smoked salmon and Philadelphia cream cheese are now available at our local market.

24 BAGELS 

 1500 Gms +3/4(70 gm)  C          Bread flour

       2                              T          Wheat Gluten (Much better texture)

  900                               Gms      Water    (57.6% Hydration)

      2                              T          Diastatic malt powder  

      2                              T          Salt      

 100                               Gms.     Sourdough Starter

     1                               t           Yeast

Combined all ingredients including salt. Autolyzed  for 15 minutes

Mixed for 8 minutes.

Dough was dense and smooth. Good window pain.

TOTAL WEIGHT:     2675 gms.

Let rest for 90 minutes in refrigerator Dough was very smooth.

Divided each batch of dough into two pieces (4 batches altogether).

Left half in refrigertator to keep cool.

Weighed out 12 bagels @ 110gms.

Formed rolls and then formed into logs.

Rolled into 14 inch dog bone shaped rope.

Formed bagels by wrapping rope around my hand and rolling the thicker ends until they blended into each other.

Placed in pans, with moderate dusting of cornmeal. Covered with plastic

Let rise for 20minutes.

Repeated with other batch

Refrigerator was at very cold setting. Dough was very chilled, solid, but not frozen.

NEXT DAY:

Placed trays into freezer for 20 minutes to get full chill and make dough more solid. 

Added 2 T blackstrap molasses (To help with coloring during baking) and 4T baking soda (To produce a tougher surface).

Boiled, starting with flat side down.Removed as soon as they floated to the top.

Put on toppings and set them face side down.

Turned them face side up and placed on boards.

Keeping Bagels extra cold had very positive effect on maintaining the proper shape and density.

Baked @ 400F+ degrees on middle shelf.

 Turned trays around after 5 minutes. Maintained 400F Degrees.

Baked until bagels turned medium brown. About 10 minutes. (Times may vary depending on oven used)

 Turned turned bagels over...top side down. 

Turned trays around after 7 minutes (19 minutes total time).

Baked additional 12 minutes, for total time of  34 minutes.