Blogs

Having made a 60% Whole Grain foccacia last week, this week I incorporate DABOWNMAN ideas adding sun dried tomato and herbs into the dough during the initial mixing. This gives it a nice hint of tomato flavor, adding 1 tsp each of dried basil and dried oregano doesnt seem to be enough (as they are a year old by now, i should probably get some new herbs when I head to the market)

This is my very first time of achieving an ear!! Excited!! 

Crumb is not too bad, its moist and light but I was hoping for a more open crumb. Some more work to do next week.

I haven’t posted a blog for some months.  I have been baking regularly, though not every week.  And not much that’s exciting for a blog post (since when did that stop me, you say?).  Plus life has a way of shifting my familiar patterns every so often.  And bread-blogging has given way to other things.

But this weekend is quiet.  My spouse is on a long business trip around Asia.  I’m spending a quiet evening trying to provide for a kitty who’s used to two laps.  Listening to the rain (a blessed sound in the midst of our long drought).

The big news in our San Francisco kitchen is we replaced the burner elements in our old stove, and it now really works well.   I’ve been baking various simple sourdoughs and Hamelman’s 5-Grain Levain and bagels and challahs, all of which continue to be very satisfactory but not novel in any way.  My skills are holding steady; I think real improvement takes weekly baking at least.

But today, for the second time, I tried Bernard Clayton’s Blue Ribbon Bread, which ehanner (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/4329/po-boy-victory) and Txfarmer (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/24960/new-orleans-poboy-bread-it039s-all-eric039s-fault) have blogged about as the right bread for po-boys.

I used the formula and method Txfarmer recommended, except I made two different shapes, one short baguette and one long batard.  The texture is nice, and close to authentic, but the crust is not as crispy as it should be and the crumb is a bit heavier—less airy--than it should be.  It was good for French Dip sandwiches, but a po-boy with this bread would be too bready.

Here’s a couple photos.

S’long as I’m posting photos, here’s one from our trip to Edinburgh last October.

Hope all the TFL Gang is doing well.

Glenn

Just finished making dozens of yummy 100% whole wheat chocolate chip cookies. This recipe came from a young friend who made the adaptations (http://www.goodfoodworld.com/2013/06/kates-in-the-kitchen-whole-wheat-chocolate-chip-cookies/).

Sharing for those bread bakers who are tempted to make something sweet today too!

The dough doesn't look like the "usual" chocolate chip recipe, but the finished cookies are just right.

We have wanted to smoke some flour ever since we saw Evon from Malaysia using it in her breads that seemed always have interesting and unique combinations of ingredients.  Why we haven’t gotten around to it till now is a mystery but it finally got to the top of Lucy’s formula list.

Trying to get our heads around what smoked flour might be like in bread is sort of like trying to understand our normal Wednesday routine.  We always start out early in the morning building the SD levain for our usual Friday bake.

This usually takes about 9-10 hours but, before we get it going, Lucy has to decide what the bake will be so we can get the levain going in the right direction.  We only use whole grains in the levain or the sifted out hard bits from a 78% extraction.

Sometimes, but not this time, these are the only whole grains in the mix so we feel it is best to get them wet for as long as possible.  We usually do 3 progressively larger builds at 100% hydration that will eventually total around 20% of the total flour and water weight of the dough. We let it double after the 2nd build and than let it rise 25% after the 3rd feeding before refrigerating it for 24 hours.

On Wednesday we also grind any other whole grains that might be going into the dough flour, in this case 140 g of equal amounts of whole; spelt, barley and wheat.  We also get any sprouts or scald going that might be in the bake on Friday.  In this case, 100g of whole spelt berries were soaked for 3 hours before being spread out on wet paper towels and covered with more damp paper towels and plastic wrap so that they could chit in 30 hours.

On Thursday the rest of the ingredients are assembled mis en place and the autolyse started - in this case for 4 hours.  We got some frozen prune soaking water out of the freezer for this bake to add to the left over spelt soaker water and water to make up the dough liquid.  At the last minute we decided no to smoke the spelt berries since this bread was too expensive to do experiments that might ruin it.

The salt was sprinkled n top of the autolyse dough ball so we wouldn’t forget it.  Then we got the levain put of the fridge to warm up and we stirred it down to give the wee beasties a little bit more to eat.

Both the autolyse and the levain went onto the heating pad.  We thought that 81% hydration would be OK for this 58% whole grain bread once the wet Turkish figs fruits were folded into the final dough.

 Once everything came together, less the spices, ground seeds, sprouts, nuts and figs we did 3 sets of slap and folds of 5, 2 and 1 minute each  and 15 minutes apart. We followed them up with 3 sets of stretch and folds from the 4 compass points on 15 minute intervals.  All the intervals were done on the heating pad.

Then we let it rest for 30 minutes before pre shaping and then shaping into a boule that was placed seam side up in a rice floured basket, bagged and placed in the fridge for a 12 hour retard.

This morning we checked the bagged boule and saw that it had proofed 84.7% in the fridge so we got it out to warm up as we fired up Big Old Betsy to 550 F.  We readied the large Pyrex pan with lava rocks half full of water along with 1 of Sylvia’s steaming pans for extra mega steam.

Once Betsy beeped she was at temperature, we inserted both steamers and set the timer for 12 minutes which would allow the top and bottom stones to get to temperature and long enough for the steam to be billowing.

We un-mold the bread onto parchment paper on a peel, slash it twice, if you don’t count the first or last one, and slid it onto the bottom stone with the steam burning out face.  To pay Betsy back for the face burn we threw a half cup of water onto her bottom out of spite and for extra immediate steam.

After 2 minutes we turned the oven down to 500 F and 2 minutes later we turned it down to 475 F where it stayed until then steaming phase was done - at the 14 minute mark.  We removed the steam and turned the oven down to 425 F with convection heat this time.

We rotated the bread 180 degrees every 8 minutes until it read 203 F on the inside when the oven was turned off and bread left on the stone till it hit 205 F and was removed to the cooling rack.

One is an orange and the other a Minneola but the Minneola is more orange than the orange!

The boule sprang, bloomed and blistered OK under the mega steam and browned well after the steam came out up.  It took on that prune juice inspired beautiful mahogany color we love so much.

How did that smoked beef cheek get in there - unctuous is the word that fits.

We will have to wait on the crumb shots till after lunch.  Well it si after lunch and crumb came out about as open as we suspected for such a high whole grains bread with tons of add ins.  The crumb is soft and moist and the crust stayed a little crunchy.  What we were not ready for was the fine flavor of this bread.  It's nutty for sure, but the whole grains give it a deep flavor too.  The sesame and flax seeds add to the nutrition while the aromatic fennel, anise, caraway and coriander are subtly there adding their fragrance.  Then out of the blue, you get the sudden sweetness of the figs coming to the forefront when you bite into one.  This is one hearty, healthy, nutritious and fine tasting bread.  Lucy is pretty proud of herself even though she doesn't get any of this fine bread.

The winter wheat crop is starting to turn brown as the volunteer spring daisies are starting to bloom.

Formula

 And don.t forget the salad

Being an insomniac I got up at 4 AM this morning with the firm intention of cleaning out my baking gear...of course after 10 minutes of diligent work a number of small metal moulds caught my eye, I had once purchased those thinking they'd be perfect for small cakes but didn't use them yet.  Looking at them I thought 'pity they're not true madeleine moulds' (should be really shell-shaped, mine have only a slightly convex bottom).

The night before I had been reading Proust and his immortal ode to the classic French madeleine cake in 'A la recherche du temps perdu' came to mind:

"No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory – this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me it was me. ... Whence did it come? What did it mean? How could I seize and apprehend it? ... And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray (because on those mornings I did not go out before mass), when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom, my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane. The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it. And all from my cup of tea."

(Note:  you can't tell from the English translation but in French it can be interpreted slightly differently...suffice it to say that Madeleine is also a girls' name)

Anyway, I decided to bake some.  You can find recipes all over the net, most are based on a simple 4/4 butter cake recipe but imo that's a bit too heavy.  Here's the version my grandmother handed down to me.  It's lighter in texture yet still soft and moist.  These keep well for 2-3 days in a hermetically sealed tin.  For the flavouring I used lime zest but obviously lemon or orange are also very nice.  It's imperative to use a really fine rasp though.

Recipe:

- 110 gr. of pastry flour (sometimes the flour type does' matter but here it does, trust me, it has to be pastry flour)

- 50 gr. unsalted butter, just melted

- 85 grams fine sugar

- 2 medium sized eggs

- Finely grated zest from one small lime

- 4 gr baking powder

- bit of vanilla extract

- pinch of salt

Method:

- Sift flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl

- In another bowl, melt the butter until it's just melted, do not heat it, add the sugar and mix with a whisk, add the loosely beaten eggs, vanilla, lime zest.

- Add the liquids to the flour and whisk lightly until you obtain a smooth batter, do not overmix.

- Let rest 20-30 minutes, meanwhile....

- Preheat your oven to 220 centigrade, convection

- Apply a slight coating of butter to your madeleine moulds

- Using a spoon or pastry bag, fill to 3/4, do not overfill

- Put on a preheated* oven rack/baking tray and insert in hot oven

- Bake for 8 minutes or until cooked, watch that they don't burn.

- Remove from oven, unmold after 3 minutes, place on wire rack and let cool for at least 2 hours before eating or storage.

Remarks:

* It's very important that the tray on which you place the moulds be hot, you want to give the batter a 'heat kick' as fast as possible. Whatever you do, do not place them on a cold silpad, that's the worst possible option.  Obviously it's also possible to use other shapes, provided they're small and relatively shallow such as for financiers for instance.  Metal works a lot better than silicone though.

 Yield: Approx 11 pieces.

but you remember how it was... the leftovers will go on forever! Not really, this really made me wonder why there were leftovers back "in the day"... these meals were really well received and not much ended up repurposed. To end the month we made "roast beef with potatoes and vegetables, plus desserts... The lead in rolls are Barb's. She made a nice yeasted dinner roll, and was pleasantly surprised at the light texture and the fluffiness, after becoming such a tartine, sourdough bread guru... nice change for this dinner... Here is her crumb.

  and her dinner plate. She had ice cream and cookies for dessert!

This is a great looking meal and the rolls... yummmy!  

Helen's dinner plate looks amazing also... 

she has some Jello with bananas, and a pretzel roll... looks like honey butter for the rolls.... YES! I can see why leftovers are missing here. This is what the roasting pan looked like at the beginning...

  Good start and great finish... Well done!!! my sisters!

Mine is being stashed away to bring out later for heat-ups... I am in to making my own TV dinners, sort of...

  and Dessert... 

Good old Jello with fruit cocktail and homemade Hershey's old-fashioned fudge... into the freezer goes the TV dinners.   

In addition to these lovely dinners, I made raisin bread, Barb made Tartine loaves and Helen made Alaskan sourdough... just wanted to let you know we are on to another theme for next month... just haven't figured out what yet... any suggestions????

Happy Baking, Helen, Diane (me) and Barbra

Hello

I have been reading many blogs in the last few months and what a great resource this website is with all the experts who regularly contribute.

I have learnt loads from you all and tried many different recipes (mainly sourdough).

Today I made some krentebollen from my native Netherlands and I thought I will share this with you all. They are very much like the English teacakes but I think they are slightly different.

Below is the recipe in Dutch. If anybody would like me to translate let me know and I will.

So, here is a pic of the bread this time letting the levain go 48 hours after a feeding and using 40% preferment. The acid smells were just a bit more pronounced. Still no real tart flavor to the loaf.Taste is really nice though. Im building my levain in stages and plan on baking another loaf ina couple of days with 50% preferment. Soon I will be at the 100% preferment point. What an interesting bake that will be. I will just be baking my starter, but isnt that what we do now?

I received a copy of Tartine for Christmas last year and have been making the basic country loaf regularly since then.  The quantity of dough the recipe makes is perfect for my three 25cm oblong bannetons.  I scale the dough to 650 grams a piece and retard in the refrigerator for up to 18 hours.  The above loaves were only retarded for 12 hours.  

I pretty much do everything as per the recipe except that I add all the water at once.  In other words, I don't hold back 50g to add after the resting period.  It saves an extra step and prevents very messy hands from trying to squeeze the water into the dough. My other variation is that I do knead.   I don't have a stand mixer so I knead by hand.  About 400 slap and folds or until the dough is moderately developed.  I like to think this gives the loaves better volume and height but I have never done a side by side test so I can't be sure.  Anyway I like kneading dough and it is a difficult habit to break.

I bake at 230C on a baking stone with steam for 15 mins (no convection) and then for a 25 mins without steam with the convection on.  I'm not sure how this relates to the baking instructions in the book but this is what works for me and my oven.  I know in the book they use a Dutch oven or a combo cooker but I am not certain of the baking times.  

A cross section of the crumb.

And finally, my favourite use for this loaf: grilled cheese!  This one is just a basic cheese and tomato.  The tomatoes are vine ripened organic and beautifully sweet!

Bagels, pretty good ones

Description: The original recipe asked for barley malt syrup. I found that did not help the recipe. In the year 2013 I read about diastatic malt powder and non-diastatic malt powder and how to use these in bagel making. Now I can produce nice crunchy crusted bagels with soft chewy interiors. I make plain, sesame topped and poppy seed topped and onion bagels. I egg wash them for a nice sheen and the wash allows the toppings to adhere.

1 1/2 cups spring water, warmed to 105-degrees

1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 Teaspoon diastatic malt powder

1 teaspoons vital wheat gluten

4 cups bread flour

2 1/2 tsp kosher salt

FOR THE BOIL; a large pot, able to hold 4 boiling bagels comfortably and deep enough to flip without hitting bottom. About a gal. of water. 2 tablespoon white sugar 4 tablespoon non-diastatic malt powder

FOR THE TOPPINGS; whole egg mixed with a little water for egg wash. Poppy seeds, sesame seeds, dry onion flakes reconstituted with water, drained and placed on a dish.

FOR THE RETARDED COLD RISE IN THE REFRIGERATOR; 1 jelly roll pan 17.25 X 11.5 X 1 inches (may use parchment paper or non stick aluminum foil on pan, I think it makes removing the bagels easier if they are cold, than not using) Plastic wrap to cover bagels as they rise.

AFTER THE BOIL;  EQUIPMENT; Cooling rack set over a towel.

Pizza peel covered with large parchment paper the size to fit onto the hot oven stone.

INSTRUCTIONS: This recipe requires a 10 hour slow cold rise in a refrigerator, so, plan accordingly. Place 1 1/2 cups spring water in Pyrex measuring cup and bring to 105-degrees. Pour into bowl of a powerful standing mixer with the pigtail dough mixer in place. I have a 6 quart Kitchen Aid Professional stand mixer. Sprinkle the yeast into the water. Let it sit. Into another bowl measure 4 cups bread flour and 1 tsp vital wheat gluten, the Kosher salt and the 1 tsp diastatic malt powder. Using a whisk, stir this dry mixture. When you see the yeast has started to foam turn on the mixer to 'stir' setting and add the flour mixture one cup at a time. When all the dry ingredients are wetted increase speed to 2. Knead for 10 minutes. Remove dough from bowl. It should be a nice dough and not adhere to your hand or to a wooden board. Knead it into a ball then pat it into a thick disk. Cover with plastic wrap or place into plastic bag for 5 minutes. Remove from bag or uncover and using a long knife, mark the dough into half. Then into quarters and then into 8th' s. Recover. If you are using plastic wrap you can mark the dough thru the plastic. Cut off 1/8th of the dough and cover the remaining dough. Flatten the 4 ounce piece of dough and elongate it into about a 4-5 inch segment and flatten it slightly by patting it. Then gather it up from along a long edge and using your finger tips press it into the dough and keep rolling it up and sealing it. Then when all rolled up, using the heel of your hand seal it up finally. Then place one hand atop the other and both hands in the center of the log of dough roll it out into an 11 inch rope. Wet the three fingers of your right hands with water from the faucet and wet the right three inches of the rope. Now wrap the rope around your hand with the ends overlapping in your palm and then rub the overlapping ends on the table top and form a seal. Place this bagel onto the jelly roll pan and cover it. Do the same with the remainder of the dough. You should have 8 equal size 4 ounce bagels. I have a kitchen scale and measure 4 ounces. Cover the bagels well and place in the refrigerator for 9 hours. Remove and leave at room temp. for 1 hour. Place your oven stone/pizza stone on a rack in the upper oven. Turn the oven on to 450. Allow the stone to preheat for the hour. Place the water in the pot and add the non-diastatic malt powder and the sugar and bring to a boil. Place the wet onion flakes into a dish. Have your sesame seeds and poppy seeds ready and your egg wash and brush ready. Have a skimmer at the ready as well. Allow the pizza stone to heat up to the oven temp for 45 min. to a hour. This is when you do the boiling of the bagels. When the water is boiling place 3-4 bagels into the boiling water and boil for 30 seconds then flip over for 30 seconds then remove to a rack set over a towel. When all the bagels have been boiled paint with the egg wash. Sprinkle the seeds onto those bagels you want seeded. Pick up the ones you want dipped into the wet onion flakes and dip them. If the onion flakes don't adhere just pick the onions up and place them onto the bagel. These bagels will need an extra 5-10 minutes of baking because of the water in the onions. My pizza peel is the size of my pizza stone. I lay a piece of parchment paper on it and I place the boiled onion covered and seeded bagels onto the parchment. When all the bagels are finished being seeded, I slide them onto the hot stone and allow the oven temp. to recover to the 450 mark and then I turn the temp down to 425 and bake them for 20 minutes or until they are golden brown. The ones with the onions take an additional 5-10 minutes because the onions are moist. Then remove them to a rack to cool and enjoy. Inside The Jewish Bakery says to set the oven to 460-degrees and bake the bagels for 15 minutes. Serves: 8 Serving Size: 4 ounce bagel Yields: 8 Prep Time: 30 min. Idle Time: 9 hours Cook Time: 30 min Total Time: all day.