The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Blogs

Chausiubao's picture
Chausiubao

Gluten is the name for one of the two main structural components in any wheat dough or batter; the other being starch, something much more important in rye doughs.

It is a protein based material made from the bonding of two structural proteins in the wheat kernel, that I'll call G1 and G2.

In the presence of water G1 and G2 link up in a chemical bond that is both strong and stable, limited only by the amount of water available to G1 and G2.

In addition to water, the more a dough is agitated (mixed), the more links form between chains of G1-G2 (gluten), ultimately leading to a network, think power lines or traffic intersections

 

Knowing that gluten formation depends on water, leads us to a few conclusions

1.) Gluten formation can be prevented by greasing gluten with fats and oils

2.) Gluten formation can be maximized by giving gluten strands access to as much water as possible

 

Since fats and oils prevent gluten formation, you could conceivably make an extremely weak dough by preventing gluten formation. But, I have no idea why you'd want to do that.

Alternatively, recipes with lots of fat and oil in them like brioche (butter heavy to be sure), can produce strong gluten networks, all you have to do is develop the gluten first, then mix the butter in at the end.

 

On the flip side, removing all water-stealing ingredients from the mix (temporarily at least) can maximize the formation of gluten. This is the basis for the “autolyse” technique.

During an autolyse, flour and water are mixed and the flour is allowed to absorb the water fully (anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes). Despite limited agitation a strong network is formed due to the absorption of the water.

 

Similar to the autolyse and brioche methods of bread mixing is the concept of holding back sugar. Sugar, like salt, is a strongly water-stealing ingredient, and when added to a dough in large quantities will pull away water that might otherwise be used to help form gluten.

In any breads with these large quantities of sugar, some have taken to adding the sugar at the end of the mix, in the same manner as how butter is added at the end of the mix in a brioche dough.

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Now my preferred mixing method is to hand mix to the short stage, where the dough just comes together, and is still very rough in texture. Then over the course of 3 or 4 hours of slow bulk fermentation, give the dough the requisite folds it needs to become strong.

Folding a dough involves first stretching it (agitation) then folding it in on itself, usually as one might fold a letter (in thirds). Over time, the necessary strength will be a result of the stretching as well as in some small part to the acidity in the dough from the fermentation that is happening simultaneous to the folds.

 

That's gluten. It is not a protein, exactly. But it is definitely protein-like, and can be manipulated as such. There exist ways of convincing the gluten to behave in the way you want, depending on whether you want a dough with great elasticity, extensibility, or tolerance.  

squarehead's picture
squarehead

 

Hey all I just wanted to post a couple pics of a daily sourdough that I've been practicing. The recipe and shaping advice came from a fellow TFL user and I am quite happy with the results. The bread is 20%whole wheat, 70% hydration, developed using Stretch n Folds, and is shaped, then retarded overnight and baked cold in a hot dutch oven at 450 with lid on for 13 min and then lid off for 25 more min. 

 

 

Chausiubao's picture
Chausiubao

It's true I have neglected the blog. Certain friends (Taiwanese software engineer that you are) have commented on it, and so I have decided to re-launch with a two-part tutorial. This part will be an over-all review of bread making as I understand it.

 

Anyone that has tried to learn baking, either from a text or from a teacher has heard of the “steps”, the twelve steps of baking. I think of these steps in four movements; mixing, fermentation, shaping, and baking.

 

Mixing

mise en place

mixing

 

Shaping

dividing

pre-shapes

bench rest

final shapes

 

Fermentation

bulk fermentation

folds

 

Baking

final proof

baking

resting

eating/storage

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Mixing:

 

Simply, be organized. That means to be pre-emptive and ready with your ingredients, tools, and equipment. Measure your ingredients in advance, preheat your ovens, and have your tools close at hand.

 

Then, mix your dough! And there are lots of ways to do that, just follow your recipes.

 

Fermentation:

 

Bulk fermentation, primary proof, first rise; this step has many names. You allow your yeast to ferment your dough for the purpose of flavor development. Like anything else, theres plenty of ways to do this, but what it comes down to is understanding that you're trying to develop flavor and little else, so you should do whatever it will take to maximize that.

 

Additionally though, it is this step where folds are made on the fermenting dough. More on that later.

 

Shaping:

 

All bread has shape, in some sense or another. And there are steps to get there.

 

Divide your dough into an appropriate size (I weigh each piece).

Pre-shape it roughly into whatever shape you want it to become. Oblong shapes are shaped into round balls of dough. Longer shapes are formed into cylinders.

Bench rest the pre-shape once it is made. Dough is elastic (as well as extensible) so you need it to let it rest so it doesn't resist the final shape.

Final shapes are easier to make once the dough is shaped into a pre-shape that more closely resembles the final shape.

Shaping can have a lot of subtleties and there are lots of books and websites that have that information, but it just takes practice.

 

Baking:

 

Before actually loading the oven, its important to let the yeast recover from the rough handling of shaping.

Final proof is the step that allows the yeast to ferment and swell up your final shapes (all the way through!) before they go into the oven.

The mechanics of actually baking the bread will differ from bread to bread and oven to oven, refer to your recipes and experience to fine tune it.

Also, once your bread is baked, it should be properly cooled before serving.

(That's more of a artisanal/love of bread thing, hot bread tastes good, but cooled bread has layers of flavor for those that look for it.)

 

I've always felt that understanding how something works is the key to excelling at it. So hopefully this enables someone.

Next time I'll write about some less understood concepts.

Lap's picture
Lap

I recently purchased a King Arthur baking steel with the thought to replace my baking stone for both pizza and bread baking.

How does it perform with breads? I typically create steam in my oven cavity for the crust, by sometimes placing a tray of water or using a sprayer. Does this effect the steel?

Thanks.

WoodenSpoon's picture
WoodenSpoon

Hey yall!, yesterday and today I made this sourdough with kalamata olives and rosemary.

The formula is as follows. 592g bread flour, 29g whole wheat flour, 29g whole rye flour, 452g warm water, 98g olive juice, 130g chef (100% hydration), 72g kalamata olives, 33g rosemary and 13g salt.

First I whisked together my flours and in a separate bowl I whisked together my chef and warm water. I poured my olive juice onto the flour then added the olives and rosemary then added the water/chef slurry. I did my best to pull it together with a bowl scraper then with a mixing spoon, mixing just until the flour was hydrated and then giving it an hour autolyse.

After the autolyse I gave it a stretch and fold, spread the salt on the counter and gave it six minuets of slap and folds each time slapping it on the salt so it grabbed a bit every time. after that I let it rest for three or five minutes then gave it three more minutes of slap and folding, another rest and another minute of slapping and folding. I then put it in a bowl with a cover and let it sit at room temp for an hour, during that hour I gave it three evenly spaced sets of stretch and folds. then I put it in the fridge overnight. an hour after I put it in the fridge I gave it one set of stretch and fold, then another a few hours later.

Today, I removed the dough from the fridge and let it warm for an hour or so at room temp. then I divided/pre-shaped /shaped and proofed it at room temp tented in a damp towel for right around three hours, I popped it onto the preheated stone in my 550 degree oven and splashed a bit of hot water on my preheated sheet pan. after a minute or so I added a bit more water and after another minute i turned the oven down to 470, I baked at 470 for fifteen minutes or so, then rotated the loaves and baked at 460 for maybe fifteen additional minutes then baked at 450 until the loaves were done.

ElPanadero's picture
ElPanadero

My first crack at this very traditional Spanish sweet bread.  Also known as "King Cake" this is traditionally served at Christmas.  I have some good Spanish friends coming for dinner in a week's time so this was my practice run.  It's not Christmas but hey,  some things are too good to only have once a year !

This is a yeasted dough infused with flavours of orange and lemon zests, orange blossom water, apricot brandy and vanilla.  The top of the "crown" is adorned with glace fruits, candied orange peel, stem ginger and flaked almonds and a sprinkling of sugar dampened with more orange blossom water.

The crumb is soft and shreddy, on the way to being like a panettone but sufficiently not,  so as to have its own identity.   It is usually served with whipped cream, nata, custard or other cakey fillings and in my opinion, being a bready cake, one of those is definitely needed.

I only used half the quantity of the recipe I used and was very surprised how big this came out.  Looks like we'll be eating this daily until it disappears !

 

MostlySD's picture
MostlySD

Mostly Sourdough Brioches

Total weight: about 1600 g

3-build starter: 250 g @ 65% hydration

All flours: 732 g (100%), which breaks down as follows:
- 348 g unbleached bread flour
- 232 g unbleached all purpose flour
+ 152 g in starter

15 g sea salt (2%)
353 g eggs (48%)
100 g sugar (14%)
303 g unsalted butter (42%)
3 g fresh yeast (0.4%)
25 g flavours (alcohol: eau de vie & orange blossom water)

-------------------
This part is not important. Calculated for fun.

All liquids: 497 g (68%), which breaks down roughly as follows:
- eggs water content: 229 g (total eggs input: 353 g in the form of 3 whole eggs + 2 egg yolks)
- butter water content: 50 g
- milk: 95 g (not part of the formula, but was added in panic mode - will explain below)
- flavours: 25 g
+ 98 g filtered water in starter

--------------------

Mixing was done in two stages, using a Bosch Compact. One big mistake: I forgot to remove about 20% of the dough flours for the second mixing. Thus when the first mixing turned out on the dry side, I quickly added some milk to prevent the formation of lumps in the dough. That turned out all right. So maybe I will include milk in the formula next time, or better still some cream.

FIRST MIX

Using the whisk, eggs are beaten & the 250 g of starter is broken into pieces and gradually added to the mix. Everything is mixed to a smooth consistency.

The whisk is removed & replaced with the dough hook. All the dough flours was added and mixed (here I should have used only roughly 80% of the flours, keeping the rest for the second mix. Naturally the mix was crumbly and that's when I added some milk to help the dough come together.)

That dough is transferred in a loosely covered bowl and allowed to ferment for about 4 hours at room temperature (next time, I would put it inside the lit oven instead for a somewhat higher ambiant temperature, about 28º C)

SECOND MIX

Fresh yeast is mixed with a little warm water & a tiny bit of the sugar. (Water not accounted for in the formula.)

In another bowl, butter and sugar are creamed and put aside.

Flavours are weighed and put aside.

The first dough is transferred in the mixing bowl. Using the dough hook, the fresh yeast mixture is added and incorporated in the dough. (speed is at level 1)

Gradually, over the next 15 minutes or so, the creamed butter and sugar is added to the dough in spoonfuls. Each spoonful is allowed to be fairly well incorporated in the dough before the next one is added. (Speed is at level 1)

Speed is switched to level 2 and the dough mixed for about 5 minutes. During that stage, the flavours are added.

Dough is transferred to a clean bowl & allowed to ferment overnight in cooler at about + 10º C.

The next day, the dough is transferred to the working board and while still cold, is patted down to a rectangle and folded. That is done three times, at 10 minutes interval. The 1st time is a bit hard, but it gets better as the dough starts to warm up. At some point, it is possible to use a rolling pin to flatten the dough before folding.

Next came the divide and weighing part. This dough was divided into two, one for the brioche pan (which went to a friend) and a smaller portion for the loaf tin for us.

Both went into the lit oven for 8 hours to rise and then baked at 180ºC for about 45 minutes.

 

CeciC's picture
CeciC
Original Formula     
Wholewheat and Rye Levain     
SourceTartine    
      
Total Weight1985    
Serving1    
Weight per Serving1985    
      
Total Flour 1075   
Total Water 925   
Total Hydration 86.05%   
Multi-grain % 65.12%   
      
      
 Build 1Build 2Final DoughAdd-InTotal
Levain     
White Starter (100%)75   75
Wholewheat Starter75   75
Rye Starter    0
Yeast Water Levain (100%)    0
     150
Flour     
Extra-High Protein Flour (>14%)    0
Bread Flour    0
AP Flour  300 300
 15003000300
Wholemeal Flour     
Wholewheat Flour  100 100
Rye Flour  200 200
High-Extraction Wheat Flour  400 400
 007000700
Liquid     
Water  850 850
     0
     0
 008500850
Others    0
Yeast    0
Salt  25 25
     0
     0
     0
 0025025
ADD-IN     
Wheat Gem  70 70
Caraway Seeds   2020
Corriander Seeds   2020
 00700110
      
      
Direction     
Autolyse all ingridient
 (except Salt & Seeds)
60 Min    
Add Salt Mixed with Pincer Method     
S&F 4 Times @ 30min interval     
Total Bulk Fermentation4h 0m    
- Refridgerate /16:00    
Bake - Cover20-25    
Bake -Uncover25    

Since high extraction wheat flour isnt available, I have used sifted wholemeal flour instead. It supposes to be a overnight retardation, but it ended up in the fridge for 16+ hours. When it came out of the fridge it looked like fully proof. But I slash it anyway. It didnt give me a sky rocket oven spring. But its crumb is still acceptable but not as open as I have hoped. 

 

 

ph_kosel's picture
ph_kosel

I had some eggnog in the fridge approaching it's ""sell by" date and nobody in the house is a big eggnog fan.  

I looked at the ingredients list on the bottle (milk, cream,sugar,corn syrup,skim milk,egg yolks, and a bunch of mysterious flavoring and additives).  It sounded like the stuff somebody might put in sweet rolls or coffee cake.

Rather than throw the eggnog out I decided to try making sweet rolls out of it.

Lacking a recipe, I resorted to experimentation to produce a reasonably nice dough.  My initial attempt turned out too stiff, so I poured some more eggnog into the stand mixer.  I overshot and a dough that was too soft so I weighed in an extra 50 grams of flour.  Finally I got a dough consistency I liked - moist, soft, but workable.  A taste check indicated it was pretty nice, not in need of extra sugar.  I checked the proportions by weighing the final dough and got the following:

500 grams all purpose flour

500 grams eggnog (approximate) [ I used "Southern Comfort" brand eggnog. ]

1.5 teaspoons instant yeast

1.5 teaspoons salt

I hadn't brought the eggnog to room temperature so the dough was cold.  I put the covered mixing bowl in warm water from the kitchen tap to warm up and proof.  Two hours later the dough was well risen.  I formed it into 6 rolls and left them on a sheet pan  with a towel over them until dinner was on the table, then baked them 15 minutes at 450F which turns out to be too hot & long.  They turned out very dark, almost black on the bottom.

Despite being overcooked, the rolls were edible and actually quite tasty except for the singed crust.  They were nice and soft inside with excellent flavor and texture.  My wife and a guest agree on this.

I think that with a little work this would be a very nice recipe.  I'm not sure if it will work with other brands of eggnog or not.  The eggnog I used seemed quite thick and flavorful.  Tentatively what I need to do is work out a better baking time and temperature.  My wife thinks it would make a nice braided loaf.  I think it might benefit from adding some raisins and maybe a sugar glaze on top.

I have some eggnog left.  I'll try again tomorrow or the next day.

Jsnyder's picture
Jsnyder

Crumb 

Blueberry braid with fresh blueberries

Cinnamon raisin rolls utilizing the same dough as the braid

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - blogs