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To start out the New Year on a different foot, we decided to do a near white bread since the girls love them the most and we were out of them.  The other added benefit is that we got to use up the last of the panettone YW SD levain left over at the same time.  Lucy hate throwing away left overs.

We just threw this together without a recipe thinking 75% hydration would be about right for a bread that had 23% whole grain in it but, wouldn’t you know it, right out of the New Year’s Chute we really messed up the salt by throwing in 17 g instead of 12 for the 600 g of flour.

Luckily, Lucy caught it and we were able to up the flour and water to get the salt down to killing levels instead of immediate drop dead ones but only after the 2nd set of stretch and folds.  Thankfully we were going to do 4 of them so the last two were there to mix in the added dough.

This extra dough allowed us to call this a miche instead of a boule which was great as we bake so few of them and had to think what difference baking one was compared to a boule - longer times and lower temperatures were in order.

With the new foot forward we decided to mix up our usual methods.  The levain was left over from New Year’s Eve, 3 days old, in the fridge the whole time.  We didn’t do an one hour autolyse for the white flours as we usually would and just mixed everything together and let it sit for 20 minutes before starting a very short 1 minute slap and fold session to get everything thoroughly combined.

The 4 S&F’s were done 30 minutes apart where the gluten was developed very well and the dough was tighter than usual for 75% hydration white bread.   I thought maybe the Gold Medal AP flour I was using was thirstier than my usual store brand variety but I didn’t add any mire water even though Lucy said I would regret it later.

Once the slap and folds were done we let the dough sit on the counter for an hour to ferment before pre-shaping it into a round, final shaping and placing it in a basket inside a trash can liner to proof 40 minutes on the counter before being retarded for 8 hours.

The next morning we took it out of the fridge and let it warm up on the counter for 2 hours before baking.  We used two Pyrex pans full of lava rocks and half full of water for the mega steam.   We put the pans in the bottom of the oven when Big Old Betsy said she was at 550 F.  15 minutes later the dough was un-molded onto a parchment covered peel, slashed in a square and slid onto the bottom stone.

Two minutes later we turned the oven sown to 500 F and then two minutes after that we turned it down to 475 F where it stayed until the 15 minute mark.  Under steam the miche really sprang well, bloomed, blistered and puffed itself up very well nearly blowing its square top right off. 

T^his bread was perfect for sopping up the turkey green chili, chili from the bottom of the bowl.  Yummy!

We then removed the steam and turned the oven down to 425 F, convection this time and rotated the bread 90 degrees on the stone every 6minutes until the bread reach 205 F on the inside – about 25 minutes later or 40 minutes total baking time.  The bread browned well we let the crust crisp on the stone with the oven off and door ajar for 8 minutes before removing it to the cooling rack.

As we were getting ready to cut the miche, a package arrived from Max who sent 2 of Ian's batards all the way from Long Island!.  As you can see, his are no white breads and the the crusts are a deep mahagony color - just the way we like it.and they smell terrific too - a good sign!  Those three loaves make for one fine bread ensemble photo just beautiful and a tough to beat.  Can't wait to finish this post and cut them open to have a taste.  It is such fun to actually get to taste breads made by other Fresh Lofians and see how their flour combinations compare to your own . 

This is one fine looking miche with a very crunch crust when it came out of the oven.  Yeah, I know it only had 7% whole grains but that doesn’t include the WWW which is not a whole grain even though it says White Whole Wheat in the title.   The crumb came out not as open as we thought it would be and there was no sour as YW and SD combo breads tend to be neutral in taste.  The crumb was soft and moist and made a great bologna sandwich  for lunch.  Since the girls aren't big SD fans, they should like this bread a lot!  What a nice bread to start the New Year out on......Happy New Year to all.

Formula

New Year's Day Dinner - Shrimp Kabobs

I followed Reinhart's recipe for "Basic Sourdough" and made 2 loaves (1 to give away to a friend).

I finally got some KAF bread flour which seems to have made a major difference and improvement (got good fermentation rises at all phases, and got a very nice oven spring).

1/8th of the flour is WW, and 1/8th is medium rye flour.

I'm watching my carbohydrate intake (am managing my weight ... have lost 20 lbs in the last year) ... so I had a very thin slice with butter - delicious! (although not sour, which is fine)

As evidenced by the crumb shot, the hydration is "low" at 65% ... I have to say that the dough was extremely elastic. I'm thinking on the next go-around to increase the hydration to 70% to see what happens.

Made 2 of these for Christmas ... one for my family and one for my sister and her husband.

The pastry is a "Swedish Tea Ring" ... I know of a few versions of the recipe. I can post if there is any interest.

Crumb:

This is based on Teketeke Formula

But I sub Water instead of Milk and used Pincer Mixing method instead of Slap n Fold the dough.

Bulk fermentation only last for 1 hour with one S&F. Then I divided it into 4 little muffins and one loaf pan. 

Crumb Shot when cut with knife I

This is nice and chewy and the texture is quite different from using baking soda. Next time im gonna do a English Muffins in 3 different way so I can get a better pic of their difference.

 This Post has been submitted to http://www.wildyeastblog.com/category/yeastspotting

My wife and I had a quiet New Years day. Very mellow, except for dinner. My wife gets pretty excited when I make pizza.

I again used Ken Forkish's formula for a sourdough pizza crust. After my successful experience fermenting my SFSD dough in my proofing box (San Francisco-style Sourdough and dishes made with it), I did the same with the pizza dough. The result was pretty much the same as I had had last Summer with this dough (Pizza Bliss), which is to say it was delicious - very flavorful with a mild to moderate sourdough tang. The rim was puffed up and very crisp. Really good eating.

I made two mushroom pizza. One had olive oil, finely chopped fresh rosemary, sliced garlic and mozzarella. The other had olive oil, tomato sauce (from Floyd's Pizza Primer) and mozzarella. 

Wishing you all Happy Baking and a delicious 2014!

David

I got Hamelman's book as my christmas present I decided to use its 5 grains bread as my New Year Bake. I deviated from the book by

1) sub YW levain with Pete Fermente

2) pre-ferments hydration increased to 75%. 

3) Increase Water to compensate my substitution of WW for Bread flour to increase its multi-grains content. 

Since the room temp has dropped to 66F, I extended the Bulk fermentation to 3:30, but I think its still hasnt fully fermented. Next time I would have give it another hour. 

I baked it in a dutch oven covered 20min and uncovered for 25mins. 

The dough was on the stiff side, Next time another 100g of water should be added. 

Crumb shot:

This post has been submitted to http://www.wildyeastblog.com/category/yeastspotting

I'm seeing more people, for various reasons, take up gluten-free (GF) eating.  I've always been hesitant about trying GF loaves because of head-scratching over the various gums needed to replace the gluten that's not there due to no wheat being used.

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In the latest edition of the "Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" series, there's a new chapter on GF baking.  Based on how much I like the Francois/Hertzberg techniques in general, I thought I'd give this one a try.

First off, the formula I calculated for the gluten-free crusty boule, based on the weights presented in the book:

                             baker's %
Brown rice flour  24.2
Tapioca flour       58.3
Potato flour         17.4
Yeast                     3.0
Salt                        2.6
Xanthan gum*       2.3
Water                103.0
Eggs                   34.1
Oil                       17.4
                          262.4

* - And what, exactly, is xanthan gum?  Bob's Red Mill has the most accessible definition:

Xanthan Gum is a plant-based thickening and stabilizing agent. It is named for the bacteria, Xanthomonas campestris, which plays a crucial role in this description. Technically speaking, xanthan gum is a polysaccharide, which is just a fancy way to say "a string of multiple sugars." To create xanthan gum, the Xanthomonas campestris bacterium is allowed to ferment on a sugar. The result is a gel that is then dried and milled to create the powder substance.

I tried an 800 gram (28.2 ounce) boule as a test.

Brown rice flour  73.9
Tapioca flour     177.8
Potato flour         53.1
Yeast                     9.2
Salt                        7.8
Xantham gum       6.9
Water                314.1
Eggs                 103.9
Oil*                      53.1

* - I used canola oil.

Here's how it looked post-mix ....

.... and post-two-hour proof ....

"Dough", in the conventional sense, it ain't - think more a dense, almost marshmallowy batter instead of a dough.

Here's what it looked like, shaped on parchment, ready for a one-hour proof (you mould it more like clay - or dense meringue - instead of stretch and form like regular wheat-based dough):


Into a preheated 450 degree oven onto a baking stone for 45 minutes, and here's what came out:

It had the feel of a dense meringue, but still crusty. The most unusual aspect was that instead of a wheaty baked-bread smell, you can smell more of a nutty - almost peanut buttery  or roasted peanut - scent.  Different, but still pleasant.

After fully cooled, here's what the crumb looked like:

The crumb is VERY soft and delicate, almost a cross between cake and marshmallow.  The taste was a touch salty, but that's likely because I used a bit more salt than in most of my formulas.   Also, the more delicate flavour of the different flours used here wouldn't mask the taste.  

It's not a white wheat-flour boule, by any means, but compared to some frozen GF products I've seen, it's not a bad bread-esque experience.  Would I eat it day to day?  Occasionally, now that I'm not scared about making it anymore.  And if I couldn't eat wheat bread ever again?  It would be OK.

If you bake wheat bread, and have loved ones or friends who can't eat gluten, this one is worth a try and yields a reasonably good result.  Just remember this is a bit of an analogue, not a replica, of bread.

I'd love to hear from anyone else who's tried this, especially re:  how it stands up to freezing and toasting.

It has been a while since I posted, although I have been baking regularly.  For New Years I made a few breads and thought I would add my voice to those who have had wonderful success with David's posting of the SFBI Miche on TFL.  When I first started baking sourdough breads I was totally intrigued by the photo of a large miche on the cover of Reinhart's Bread Bakers Apprentice.  I spent months trying to master it, with only moderate success.  But an attraction to the miche loaf has stayed with me, and I really enjoy making these large loaves.

Since David posted the SFBI recipe, I have made it half a dozen times.  The picture of a miche that I have in my head, though, is something a bit flatter and more spread out.  I thought I might be able to attain this look by increasing the hydration above the 73.4% in the recipe.  Over my last three bakes, I have worked the hydration up to 78%, and I'm pretty sure it can take even more water.  Still, the 78% results are worth sharing, so here are some photos.  I will continue to try for the flatter loaf, but in the meantime I'm happy to enjoy these.

Like David, I keep Central Milling's Type-85 high extraction flour in my pantry just for the miche.  I made a batch of 3.6 kg of dough that required a 4 hour bulk ferment, keeping the temperature at 75˚F.  I did a total of 4 stretch & folds at 30, 60, 90 and 150 min.  It was divided and shaped into two ~1000 gm batards (see below for a variation) and one 1550 gm boule and proofed at RT for one hour.  One batard and the miche were refrigerated overnight (about 18 hours) and baked on a stone directly from the refrigerator the next day.

The crumb on the loaf is light, airy and transparent.

The flavor is tangy, wheaty, even a little earthy.  The crust had a good chew and the crumb was somewhat soft but with a good mouth feel.

There was one other variation that I made.  Varda's post describing fig and anise bread, with links to several other posts, made me want to try another attempt at a fig bread.  My earlier attempts were not that successful, and I also wanted to add nuts to the bread in place of the anise.  I felt that this dough would lend itself to this so after the first 30 min. of the BF I divided off 1000 gm of dough and folded in 20% each of soaked dry figs and toasted pecans.  Phil made a similar loaf, so I borrowed his technique of final proof in the refrigerator for 3 hours rather than an overnight retard.  The results were quite respectable.  The crumb is not as open, unsurprisingly, which gave the bread a nice chew.  Perfect as a base for a bit of soft cheese.

Happy New Year everyone!

-Brad

Two formulas I've not tried before.

Renato Bosco Panettone

Renato Bosco maintains his madre in water which means it's less acidic and hence why his formula includes it at 50% in the first dough.

first and final doughs risen

Recipe source: http://lacuocadentro.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/panettone-lievitazione-naturale-di_17.html

Francesco Favorito Pandoro

A formula for Pandoro that doesn't include commercial yeast is hard to come by but this is one courtesy of Francesco Favorito. 

final dough after mixing and after rising

Recipe source: http://dolcinema.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/il-pandoro-con-lievito-naturale.html

Happy new year to all...

Michael

Last week, I went to a health food store in Dubai to pick up some Rye berries, and black strap molasses. To my dismay, I could not find any malt syrup in the store, and left to a shopping mall for lunch. Located next to the food court was yet another health store that quickly caught my sight. I went in, and asked for barley malt syrup, and the salesperson said that they do not sell it anymore. I was just on my way out  when I  heard him calling upon me and saying: Wait, I have some barley extract! It was slightly expensive for what it was, a syrup, but I gladly bought it anyway.

Having had two ingredients that would likely make my planned borodinsky as close to authentic as possible,  I decided to refresh my dormant rye starter. Andy’s recipe : here, was followed to the letter, with no deviations at all, except the fact that I replaced Rye malt with Barley extract syrup as I had no rye malt. I milled the rye berries, and mixed the fresh flour with the non organic rye flour I had in store. Everything came together as expected, and I was quite content with the process. The Sponge was mixed and immediately refrigerated for 6 hours and when I returned home, I removed it from the fridge to warm up.

I mixed the final dough, and left it to ferment for 1 hour. It was then divided into 1.3 Kg for the Pullman pan (with lid on), and 5.5 Kg for a smaller Pan. Final fermentation was a scant less than an hour, and the pans went into a 260 C oven for 10 minutes, and at 100C for 4 hours. The aroma of coriander and the slowly caramelizing rye and molasses were very  sweet and satisfying. The tiny loaf in the pan did not grow much in the oven, but I was in anticipation of a good height to the Pullman loaf. After 2 hours I had a peek to register the temperature of the crumb, and slid off the Pullman lid to see a sunken top… Ugh! Ok, what have I done wrong?

It didn’t take me much time to find the culprit behind my sunken loaf. Hydration! Andrew whitely talked about it in his book: Bread matters but I underestimated the importance of it in rye breads, especially those with high % of prefermented flour. I had added more boiling water to the soaker while making up for the loss in evaporation. I have also failed to notice that Andy’s recipe uses thirsty rye flour, while mine is not as absorbent.

Unfortunately, The Pullman pan’s blue steel coating was corroded due to the molasses, and the long moist baking. You may notice the iron oxide patches on the bottom and the sides of the loaf. If I ever bake such breads in this pan again, I’ll have to line it with parchment.

When cooled,  I wrapped the loaves in linen, and waited 24 hours to cut the small loaf, and a 36 hours to cut the Pullman one. The crumb was soft and very moist, but not gummy. The crust was neither hard nor soft. The bread was super delicious, with hints of molasses/ malt. Coriander’s flavor, of course was prevalent.  Perhaps I added too much crushed coriander as garnish.

-Khalid