The Fresh Loaf

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Mebake's picture
Mebake

I promised myself the other day, that I’ll try Mark Sinclair’s  (TFL member mcs) Potato rolls. My kids desire soft enriched white breads;  and as i watched in regret my wife’s grocery bags carrying bland/cottonty mass produced rolls, this was my chance to try out Mark’s wonderful rolls featured in his latest video.

I have followed the recipe religiously, as I wanted to be true to Mark’s authentic product. I did deviate, however, when it came to overnight refrigeration. The rolls were baked the very same day, and they were absolutely delicious! They’ll have to taste even better refrigerated.

The house was filled with buttery aromas when those rolls were baked. My wife and kids ate them warm. Silky Soft, and squishy,  slightly chewy crust, and a heavenly buttery milky sweet flavor, the rolls were a hit with the family. They loved it, and ask for more!

Thanks alot Mark for the video and the recipe!

-Khalid

CB85's picture
CB85

Well, here they are..the results of my "bread day". Not perfect, especially the scoring, but hopefully an fun gift for someone who doesn't really bake. They are all based on the basic sourdough recipe in BBA. I replaced 25%-33% of the flour with rye, spelt, or semolina, and increased the hydration by about 1 oz.. I also proofed these a little longer than called for, about an extra hour total, as it is only about 67 degrees here, inside and out.

The finished loaves. The three you can see in this picture are the semolina loaves, which I think turned out the best. 

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The rye loaves. I think the biggest one to the right turned out best. Also, I tried to make the crusts on all of the loaves a little softer because I wasn't sure if the recipients would appreciate the extremely chewy crust I usually make with steam. It turned out ok, but the crust on the rye seems a little odd to me. Too smooth or something. 

 

No picture of the spelt exterior for some reason...thought it was pictured in the groups but I guess not. It was not very impressive anyway. Probably the worst scoring I have ever done. Here, though, is the crumb, which is the best I've managed so far. The flavor was also delicious, and more sour than I would've expected considering I did not retard for more than an hour. 

 

The inside of the rye. It was nice, but not as open as I expected. I only went for 25% rye because I can only find whole rye around here. I did add a little caraway seed, but not a whole tablespoon because I didn't want it to take over the whole flavor. That probably wasn't the greatest choice because it only seemed to muddy the flavor a bit. I will taste it again later. 

 

And the semolina. The lighting here is horrible, because it was starting to get darker out and I can't figure out how to get very decent pictures with indoor lighting. Anyway, it was relatively open. Haven't tasted it yet. I cut one of all the loaves in the center to look at the crumb because previously I have had really open crumb on the edges and tighter in the center.

hanseata's picture
hanseata

 

When my husband decided to open up a furniture store in Portland, ME, he found a big old garage in Fore Street. After spending a month with scrubbing, painting and cutting new panes for each of the high windows, he turned the dark and dirty place into a beautiful, light space, to showcase his contemporary furnishings.

Eventually Richard Parks Gallery moved to Commercial Street, and the first floor of the old store became Fore Street Restaurant, one of Portland's foodie temples.

The souterrain was turned into a bakery, and, instead of housing French sofas and bistro tables, it's now home of Standard Baking Co., maker of the best French breads and pastries in Maine!

Richard Parks Gallery on Fore Street in the early Nineties

Whenever we visit Portland, we get Pain au Levain, Seeded Fougasse, Croissants, or, on Fridays, Rugalachs.

Last time we came into the bakery, I saw a pile of books: Standard Baking Company had published "Pastries" with many of their recipes, including those of the croissants and rugalachs we were just about to buy. Of course I didn't hesitate one second, grabbed one of the little books, and, while driving home and munching on a walnut filled rugalach, studied the recipes.

Though I bake (and sell) lots of breads, I have little experience with French baking, and couldn't wait to try making one of those mouthwatering pastries myself.

I was also wondering whether Alison Pray and Tara Smith had dumbed down their formulas to make them "everybody's darling". Or, jealously guarding their secrets, changed them so that the home baked pastries would never taste the same as their professional counterparts at the store (try finding the original Sachertorte in Hotel Sacher's pastry book!)

Worth every penny!

To my utter delight neither was the case. Every piece of pastry I made so far was outstanding - and tasted as good as its sibling at the bakery. (No, I don't get a kickback for my gushing!)

Croissants, with their multi-layered, buttery dough, are the gold standard of pastry baking. I had made them only once before. Those had turned out quite nice, and I was curious how the Standard Baking ones would compare to them.

I found the formula easy to follow, with clear, detailed instructions and explanations for every step of the way. Involved as the process is, it's not rocket science, and you really can do it at home!

You have to plan ahead, though, because you'll achieve your best results when you allow the dough sufficient time to rest. As with most of my breads, time and the refrigerator are your friends, achieving three important goals: relax the gluten (readying the dough for the next turn), keep the butter cold (preventing it from seeping out) and develop the taste.

Therefore, make yourself familiar with the whole procedure before you start! This is your schedule for the 3-day process (no worries, the actual hands-on time is much less!)

Pure buttery, flaky goodness!

 TIME PLANNER

DAY 1 (Mixing the dough)
Hands-on time: 20 minutes mixing           Resting time: 1 hour plus 1 night

DAY 2: (Laminating the dough)
Hands-on time: 2 to 2 1/2 hour                 Resting time: 2 hours plus 1 night

DAY 3: (Shaping and baking)
Hands-on time: 30 minutes                       Resting time: 1 1/2 to 2 hours
            

If you don't want to use all the dough for regular butter croissants, use part of it for Sticky Buns, Pain au Chocolat or Ham & Cheese Croissants. You can also freeze the laminated dough up to 10 days, thaw it in the refrigerator overnight before baking.)

And if you have leftovers, recycle them into utterly delicious Almond Croissants!


BUTTER CROISSANTS   (12)  (adapted with Alison Pray's permission from Standard Baking Co. "Pastries")

Dough
630 g all-purpose flour (4 1/2 cups)
    7 g instant yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
  50 g sugar (1/4 cup)
  14 g salt (2 1/2 tsp)
  28 g unsalted butter*) (2 tbsp), cool, cut in pieces
186 g water, at room temperature (about 70ºF) (3/4 cup)
186 g milk, at room temperature (about 70ºF) (3/4 cup)

Butter Roll-In
280 g/10 oz unsalted butter*), chilled

Egg Wash
1 egg
2 tsp. water
1 pinch salt

*) If you have the chance, get European style butter with a higher percentage of fat (like Cabot's European style butter or Plugra)

DAY 1
For the dough, whisk together flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Using your fingertips, rub butter into dry ingredients until it is evenly distributed and coated with flour mixture.

  
Rubbing the butter into the dry ingredients is easy

Using a stand mixer with dough hook: Combine water and milk in mixer bowl. Add dry ingredients on low speed and incorporate for 3 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.

Increase to medium speed, stopping mixer after 2 minutes to check consistency of dough. It should be medium-soft. (If it feels stiff, add more water, a tablespoon at a time.) Resume mixing for 2 minutes more. Dough will not be completely smooth, but hold together. (Don't over-mix, you don't want the dough to become tough!)

Using a food processor: Pulse for about 2 minutes, or until dough comes together in a ball. (Don't over-mix, otherwise dough becomes more difficult to roll out, and result in less tender croissants.)

 

Place dough in lightly oiled container, turn around to coat with oil, cover, and let rise in a warm spot (ideally 75ºF) for about 1 hour, or until it has grown by about half.

The dough has risen 1 1/2 times its original size   

Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface and pat it into a rectangle about 2 inches thick. Wrap it in plastic and seal it well to prevent it from escaping when it rises. Refrigerate dough overnight (or at least for a minimum of 4 hours.)

(I placed the dough on lightly floured cutting board, sprayed it lightly with baking spray,  put the whole thing first into an unscented garbage bag, and then in the fridge.)

 


DAY 2
About half an hour before rolling out the chilled dough, prepare butter roll-in: cut cold butter into large chunks, and place them in mixer fitted with dough hook. Beat butter on medium speed until completely smooth and pliable, but not warm (about 3 minutes.)

(You can also pound the butter with a French rolling pin until it is flat and pliable, but the mixer works great.)

After kneading the butter is pliable but still cold

Transfer butter to a piece of plastic wrap or parchment paper. Press it into a 6-inch square, 1/2 inch thick. (I measured and marked parchment paper at 6 inches, and folded it into a square, then closed it with the butter inside, and pressed on the package until the butter filled the edges.)

Chill butter square in refrigerator for about 15 minutes (it should be just firm, but not hard.)

Folded parchment paper helps pressing the butter into a square

And now the fun starts: you are about to create something absolutely wonderful, a tender, buttery, multi-layered (laminated) croissant dough.

Room temperature and work surface should be on the cool side, and each step should be done as quickly as possible, to prevent dough and butter from getting warm. Put everything you need (flour for dusting the work surface, roller pin, brush for excess flour, and ruler for measuring) within easy reach.

The butter square covers half of the dough rectangle.

If the chilled butter feels too firm, take it out of the fridge a few minutes before using. Dust work surface lightly with flour. Remove dough and butter block from refrigerator. Roll dough into rectangle twice the size of the butter square: 12 x 6 inches. Brush off excess flour from top of dough. Place butter square (unwrapped) on one half of rectangle, so that edges are neatly stacked.

Fold other half of dough over butter, and press open sides together to seal butter in. Lightly re-flour work surface, if necessary, and roll out dough rectangle into a square, about 1/2-inch thick and twice as long as it is wide (the long side should be facing you.) Brush dough surface to remove loose flour.

Roll out dough into rectangle twice as long as it is wide

Fold dough lengthwise in thirds like a business letter, always brushing any loose flour from the surface before you fold: first fold left third over center, then right side over left. Using a bench knife, straighten and square edges, so that layers are neatly stacked. Congratulations! You just made your first turn (aka envelope fold.)

Wrap the dough "envelope" in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 45 - 60 minutes, so that you and the gluten can relax and cool down. In the meantime, clean your work surface from any remaining bits of dough, and dust it again lightly with flour.

After its workout the dough needs another break in the fridge

Unwrap cooled dough and place it on work surface, the long, folded side facing you. Roll out dough as before into a 1/2-inch thick rectangle. Fold it again in thirds, always brushing off excess flour between folds. The second turn is done! Re-wrap and re-chill dough again for 45 - 60 minutes.

Now you're already a pro, and know how to handle the third and final turn. Unwrap, roll out, fold, and use the brush in between! You don't want flour to keep the layers from adhering.

Brushing off any flour from the top of the dough is important

So, that's it for the day, wrap your (beautifully laminated) dough in plastic and place it in the freezer. Before you go to sleep, take it out, and put it in the fridge so that it can slowly thaw overnight. (Or, if your mouth waters too much, and you need to bake it the same day, give it at least 2 hours chill-out time before shaping.)

TO MAKE AHEAD: You can also freeze the dough up to 10 days, thawing it in the fridge overnight before baking.

DAY 3
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. On a lightly floured work surface, roll dough into 12-inch x 25-inch rectangle (1/4 inch thick.) Re-dust with a little flour, if needed, to prevent sticking. If dough springs back and is difficult to lengthen, let it rest a few minutes, before you continue. When desired length is reached, trim and straighten narrow ends with pizza wheel or chef's knife.

A same size piece of parchment paper with markings helps with the cutting

Cut rectangle into long, skinny triangles, 4 inches wide at base and 10 to 12 inches long on sides. (It's easier if you cut parchment paper into a same size rectangle, and measure and mark bases and tips of triangles on it. Place paper over dough, and then mark dough in the same way with little incisions.)

Make a 3/4-inch incision in the center of each triangle base (this notch helps to create the desired length in the final shape.)

To shape each croissants, pick up a triangle, holding base edge with one hand. With the other hand about 1 inch from base, pull dough gently to lengthen it slightly, without causing any tears. Place triangle down again, base towards you, and gently but firmly roll it up towards the tip. (If done properly, you should have 6 to 7 tiers.)

Leftover dough scraps: Place cut off half-triangles from both edges side by side, pinch the middle seam together, put any other small scraps on top, and roll this patchwork triangle up, too. It will be a little "malfatti" (badly made) as my half Italian spouse calls it, but nothing of your precious dough will be lost.

The triangles get a notch at the base to make lengthening easier

Put shaped croissants on prepared baking sheets, evenly spaced, the tips should be tucked underneath.

For the egg wash, whisk together egg with water and salt in small bowl until smooth. Brush croissants lightly with egg wash, carefully avoiding open edges, so that the egg can't glue them together and prevent tiers from rising. (Refrigerate remaining egg wash for the second application.)

The croissants need to proof for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Place baking sheets in the (unheated!) oven, then put a pan with hot, steaming water on the bottom to provide the ideal rising environment: humid, to prevent a skin from forming, and warm, but not too warm - you don't want the butter to melt, resulting in less flaky, greasy croissants.

Half an hour before baking, remove proofing croissants from oven. Position racks in upper and lower thirds, and preheat oven to 430º F.

Cover croissants, and continue to let them rise, until they have almost doubled in size, and dough springs back slightly when pressed gently with a finger tip, but the dimple should remain visible. Each tier should still hold its distinct shape. (Check croissants frequently after the first hour of rising, if they overproof, they will have loose their flakiness and have a bread-like structure. The room temperature should not be too warm.)

Proofed croissants. The "malfatti" on the upper right is not much different from the others
  

A few minutes before they go into the oven, brush risen croissants again with a thin coat of egg wash, carefully avoiding the edges (you don't want to screw up now!)

Bake croissants for 10 minutes, then quickly rotate baking sheets from top to bottom and from front to back, for more even browning, taking care not to leave the door open too long. Continue baking for another 4 - 6 minutes, until they are evenly baked, with deeply browned, crisp edges.

Remove sheets from oven, and transfer croissants to wire rack, to cool a bit. They are best when eaten while still warm, or shortly after baking.

 

If you cant eat all of the croissants right away, you can wrap them individually in plastic wrap, and re-crisp them at 375ºF for a few minutes.

OR YOU TURN THEM INTO HEAVENLY ALMOND CROISSANTS!

There is no such thing as stale croissants when you recycle them into these!

Submitted to YeastSpotting

CB85's picture
CB85

I was wondering what that burning smell was when I tried to preheat the oven...I couldn't find anything! But then, up in the back corner, I found the basket of bread I had put in there (cold!) to proof. In my defense, I am making 9 loaves so there was a lot to keep track of! Anyway, I have been meaning to start a blog here, and I had a whole long introduction planned out, but I think this says it better: Overachiever messes up in a REALLY dumb way. :)

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Willie Mae’Big Mama’ Thornton is a Blues Legend.  She didn’t write but had her biggest hit with Hound Dog which was written for her.Elvis had a big hit with it later.  She was a 6’tall, large in; voice, frame and width being well over 200 pounds.  She drank hard too and never turned down a drink from a listener.  She taught herself to play harmonica and drums as well as anyone could and often played both while on stage as she sang. 

She had the biggest blues voice anyone ever heard.  In the early 70’s we would always try to catch her when she played Rick’s in Waldo - KCMO the home of some fine Blues at that time - not 12th Street and Vine where you could get killed pretty easy enough.  She died, in 1984, from a heart attack and complications from cirrhosis of the liver. She was penniless at the time of her death.  Even though she sold 1,000,000 copies of Hound Dog she only made $500 off it.  She wrote and recorded Ball N’ Chain which was another big hit for her. Janis Joplin supposedly met sang with Willie Mae when they both lived in San Francisco and later recorded Ball N’Chain for a big hit.  Both Elvis and Janis did much better than Big Mama ever did – just by covering her songs.

With dark breads, darker DaPumpernickel breads and fruit and nut breads behind us, I decided to do an about face with a simple sort of SD white bread loosely based on one of our David Snyder favorites - Pugliesi  Capriccioso.  Keeping true to our 2 most recent resolutions, we added a little corn flour and Tang Zhonged 25 g of the flour mix with 100g of water. This water was not included in the hydration calculations.

I know some might be dumbstruck with the purer, comparative simplicity of this bake’s ingredient list but, there is a reason for it.  My apprentice was looking pretty frazzled after her long series of more complicated creations and was at the beauty parlor getting her hair done to be beautiful for next week’s festivities.  So, the bread was naturally way more sane than usual in her absence.  Without an apprentice under foot, I’m way to lazy to work that hard.   Ahhh, peace and blissful, no work retirement at last!

Another Hound Dog -a hot one with a pretty purple bow.

The rye, whole wheat and spelt sourdough levain was the one we had built on April 24 form a multigrain 3 leaven bake we posted thatday and refrigerated the rest of it.  We used half of the left over levain for the Yellow Mellow bake earlier this week and we used the rest of it for this bake.

We fed it 60 g of AP flour and 60 g of water and it doubled and was ready to go in 2 hours.  The formula shows that the levain was a 1 stage build but it was really a 4 stage one.  When the levain was originally made we refrigerated it after stage 2 and then did the 3rd stage build the next day before refrigerating it again.  It was in the fridge for over a week before we did the AP 4 stage build today.

We hope at least the longer cold spell in the fridge will impart many more labs that yeast into this bread so it will have a decided sour taste.  There isn’t much else taste enhancing going for it besides the corn flour and other 10% whole grains in the levain.  With guests coming in next week for our daughter’s college graduation, they might prefer some white SD bread instead of all the other kinds of bread in the freezer.

The method was a 2 hour autolyse, with salt, while the levain doubled, making the water roux in a sauce pan and then mixing the levain with the autolyse with a sturdy SS spoon. Almost forgot the corn flour. Then 10 minutes of slap and folds brought this much wetter than 70% feeling dough together nicely – silky smooth just like white bread should be at this stage

We sang Big Mama’s 12 bar blues version of ‘She’s My Sweet, Sweet Angel’ while doing the slap and folds this time.  I’m not sure where the song came from but the lyrics are a little risqué for this forum as 12 bar can get sometimes.  She never recorded it as far as I know but I heard her sing it several times since folks would request it and buy her a drink.  Clay Walker did a very clean Country version he called Sweet Sun Angel not long ago.

We developed the gluten further with 3 sets of S&F’s where, each time, we gently stretched out the dough into a rectangle and folded it in thirds from the E, W, N and South.  We let the dough ferment for an hour on the counter in an oiled plastic tub, before its 20 hour retard in the fridge, to help the sour along a steeper, pucker curve.

In the morning, we took it out of the fridge and let it warm on the counter for an hour before pre-shaping and then shaping it into an oval that went into a rice floured basket seam side down.  After 30 minutes of final proof it look like it was going to take off and it did.  After an hour it had over proofed again – we are getting good at this over proofing thing.

 

This would eventually not even be close to fitting, un-slashed, seam side up, into the mini oven - which is officially banned to the outside patio for the summer.  We have to learn to make these breads less gargantuan in the summer months so they fit the mini oven!  Where is that apprentice when you need her to help think and plan things out right anyway?

 

So we fired up Old Betsy to a preheated 500 F with the (2) stones - top and bottom, 1 large Sylvia’s Pyrex steaming pan with (2 ) towels half full of water and a 12” CI skillet with the bottom filled with lava rock, per David Snyder  and half full of water for the required mega steam.  This set up trally puts out the steam.

 

The mini oven is famous around here for putting the best blisters one has ever seen on bread of all kinds when the steam is fierce.  But Old Betsy can blister bread pretty good too on occasion.  We steamed the bread for 2 minutes at 500 F and 13 more minutes at 450 F and then removed the steam while turning down the oven to 425 F, convection this time and continued baking for 15 more minutes when the bread hit 205 F on the inside.  We rotated the bread every 5 minutes 120 degrees on the bottom stone to get even browning.

 

We left the bread on the stone with the oven off and door ajar for 8 minutes to crisp the bread even more.Betsy didn’t disappoint and neither did the bread.  The bread baked boldly, blistered and nicely brown.  The crust came out crisp but it went softer as it cooled.  Will have to wait to see what the inside looks like after it cools.

 

We don't often make the same bread twice but, when we make white bread, a version of David's is always the one we go back to again and again - so we do make this bread often.   The crumb came out less open than usual but it was much softer and moist this time - both probably due to the Tang Zhong.  The crust went chewy soft and was delicious.  We think the corn flour addition really improved the already fine taste of this bread some too.  We like it very much and this bake again shows why David is so famous for his SF style SD breads.  He spent a lot of time developing and perfecting them and we get those benefits every time we make them even if we add a tiny little bit more whole gain to them.   If you haven't made the Pugleise, SFSD or San Joaquin you really need to do so.

The bread went extra tany the nexr moring for breakfast and toaasted well. If you like SD white bread you shoud give this one a try.

 

Formula

I Got The White Bread Blues

   
    

WW SD & Rye Sour

Build 1

Total

%

WW & RyeSD Starter

10

10

1.54%

AP

60

60

9.23%

Spelt

20

20

3.08%

Dark Rye

20

20

3.08%

Whole Wheat

20

20

3.08%

Water

130

130

20.00%

Total

260

260

40.04%

    
    

Levain Totals

 

%

 

Flour

125

19.23%

 

Water

135

20.77%

 

Hydration

108.00%

  
    

Levain % of Total

22.99%

  
    

Dough Flour

 

%

 

Bread Flour

300

46.15%

 

Corn Flour

25

3.85%

 

AP

200

30.77%

 

Dough Flour

525

80.77%

 
    

Salt

12

1.85%

 

Water

325

50.00%

 

Dough Hydration

61.90%

  
    

Total Flour

650

  

Water

460

  

T. Dough Hydration

70.77%

  

Whole Grain %

13.85%

  
    

Hydration w/ Adds

69.70%

  

Total Weight

1,132

  
    

Add - Ins

 

%

 

VW Gluten

10

1.54%

 

Total

10

1.54%

 
    

100 g of water for the Tang Zhong not included in hydration

 

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

Today for our 3 pm dinner of Pork Kabob's, excuse me, that's Pork Kabab's with a Cucumber, Yogurt Sauce.  Inspired by a Saveur magazine recipe.   I wanted a nice easy Naan/Pita bread on the thickish side to enjoy with the PK's.  This was a first for me making a Naan and, I quickly settled on a recipe I found surfing around.  I changed the whole wheat flour addition to an organic white whole wheat, I had been wanting to use up.  I added quite a bit more AP flour.    

After dinner I looked more into the orginale recipe.  I also found that there had been a discussion on tfl and the recipe was changed or maybe it wasn't, I still can't figure it out.  Anyway, it just opened up a whole can of worms 'lol' and I decided not to go there with a recipe.  

I should have done my math first and saved myself the grief.  I was just having to much fun mixing up my wine marinade for the kababs and that wonderful greek yogurt sauce I love so much.  So no post for the recipe.

I would love to see some of tfloafers favorite Naan/Pita's recipes..on the thickish side.  I also like to bake them in an iron skillet for a little extra crunch and char taste.

Dinner at 3pm  or is that Supper...no I'm pretty sure it's Dinner time!

 

 

Rotisserie Pork Kababs

 

The Naan was delicious and went perfect with dinner.  The texture and thickness was just right and the touch of honey was a plus.  I ate the first one off the grill, just meaning to have one bite.

 

Sylvia

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

 

This rye recipe is my Chilean version of my favorite rye ratio recipe using a rye sourdough starter and the addition of chia seeds that increase the dough hydration yet maintain a nice shape.  Use a large Dutch oven for a free form shape. 

I designed this recipe for one narrow tapered loaf pan:   cm: 30 x 11 x 7.5   or   inches: 11 3/4 x 4 1/4 x 3 

It is my basic rye recipe (starter:water:flour) (1: 3.5 : 4.16) plus 6.1% chia (on total flour weight including flour in the starter) plus 4 times the chia weight in water added to the dough.  Also added nuts, seeds and 90g to 100g arbitrarily selected moist rye altus (day old bread.)

 

DARK RYE & CHIA BREAD

The wet:

  • 175g vigorous peaking rye starter  100% hydration
  •  90g  moist rye altus 
  • 812g  water  24°C   (75°F) 

        1077g

The dry:

  • 728g rye flour  (dark rye 14% protein)
  •  50g chia seeds
  •  17g salt   (2%)  
  •  17g bread spice  (2%)  (toasted crushed mix: coriander, fennel, caraway seed)
  •  17g toasted sesame seed  (2%)

         829g    (total dough so far 1906g) 

           (optional:)

  •     4g black pepper  (0.46%)
  • 100g broken walnuts
  • 150g chopped Araucaria Pine nuts   
  • sunflower seeds to line bottom and/or sides of buttered form 

 

Method:

Inoculate (1:5 to 1:10) sourdough starter soon enough to have a vigorous starter when ready to mix up dough.  

Plan to bake in 3 hours from the time you start combining liquids with the flour to make dough.  

Combine liquids and break apart floating altus.   Stir dry ingredients and add to liquids stirring until all dry flour is moistened.  Scrape down sides of bowl, cover, let stand 2 hours.  No kneading ever!  Dough will stiffen as it rests.   (Another order for combining is to add the chia and spices to the wet ingredients and allow to swell 15 minutes before adding flour, salt and nuts.  Not sure if it makes a difference but if you find you're getting a gummy crumb, let the chia soak in the water and swell before adding the flour.)

Smear bread pan with butter and dust/coat with raw seeds, crumbs or flour.  Spoon or plop dough (trying not to trap air) into form or floured banneton.  (The recipe lends itself well to free form in a large Dutch Oven.)  Use a wet spatula or wet fingers & hands to shape dough.  Pile the dough up higher in the center for a nice rising shape.  Sprinkle with seeds and press lightly into dough while making a nice dome shape.  

Let rise about an hour.  Meanwhile heat oven 200°C to turn down to 185°C (365°F) 15 minutes into the bake.  Make a cover for the loaf from a double layer of alufoil or flip an identical pan over the top.  Leave room for loaf expansion.  

When ready dock,  take a wet toothpick and poke about one hole every inch, all over, toothpick deep.  Wait a few minutes and smoothen over with a wet spatula.  Dough is ready to dock when you see the dough surface threatening to release trapped gasses under the surface.  One or two little pin hole bubbles is enough to start docking.

Spray or rinse the inside of foil or empty bread pan cover with water and cover the dough to trap steam during the bake.   Bake for about 40 minutes on the lowest rack, then rotate and remove the protective cover to brown the loaf top.  Finish the loaf in another 20-30 min for a rough total of one hour baking time.  Inside temp should reach 94°C, sound hollow, but I tend to shoot for 96°C or 205°F.   Cool on rack.   Wrap when cold.  

Here is the cold loaf (after 12 days, last 6 in the fridge) and you can see how much the dough rose. The shaped dough would have been rounded under the rim.   There are no nuts in this loaf other than what came from frozen stored altus.

Free form using floured rice sieve:           Oops, I spy a few docking holes!  

Have fun,  I do!    Really proud of that one!   

 

Isand66's picture
Isand66

GroupShot I love nuts....some say I am nuts....well, I'll leave that up to you to decide but I think my wife has already made up her mind :).

My favorite nuts are pecan and walnuts with pistachios coming in a close third.  I have been wanting to make bread with nuts in it for a while, but since my wife detests nuts I have not baked one for a while.  In any case it was time to take the plunge and incorporate both of my favorites in one bread.

I didn't want the pecans to compete too much with the walnuts so I ground the walnuts into a paste with my coffee grinder and added the pecans after chopping them.

I used the 36 hour method which I have posted about a few other times which I found really helps to develop the flavors and open the crumb.  I also wanted to push the hydration limits on this one and see how high I could go with a multi-grain type bread and still get a nice open moist crumb, so this one is not for the faint at heart and comes in at 80% hydration.

I used a multitude of flours which I thought would provide a nice nutty flavor profile to compliment the pecans and walnuts and I have to say I was not disappointed.  The final bread while a little flat due to the high hydration is chock full of nutty flavor and as a bonus the walnuts gave the dough a nice purple haze.

The crumb is as moist and open as one could hope for and the crust is just thick enough without being too chewy.  All in all this one is a keeper.

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Formula

PecanWalnutMultigrainChart

Procedure

Refresh your starter the night before you are ready to bake and make sure you have at least 300 grams.  I used my standard AP starter which is at 66% hydration.

Mix the flours, and ice-cold water together in your mixer or by hand until it just starts to come together, maybe about 1 minute.  Put the dough in a slightly covered oiled bowl and put in the refrigerator for 12 hours.

The next day chop the pecans and grind the walnuts into a paste.  (Note: do not grind the pecans, just the walnuts).  Add your starter, walnut paste, mashed potatoes and salt to the dough and mix by hand or in your mixer on low until it is thoroughly mixed and evenly distributed.  Mix for 3 minutes and then add the pecan pieces and mix for another minute until the nuts are evenly distributed.  Place the dough into a well oiled container or bowl and cover.

Bulk rise at room temperature for 2-3 hours until it grows around 1/3 in volume doing stretch and folds every half hour until it has developed the correct amount of strength.

Put the dough back into the refrigerator for around 20-30 hours.  I ended up letting it go around 40 hours since I got tied up in Skype meeting but it didn't have any adverse effects.

When you take the dough out of the refrigerator you want it to have almost doubled in volume.  Mine only rose about 1/3 in volume.  Let it rise at room temperature for around 2 hours or until the dough has doubled from the night before.CloseupRisenDough

Next, shape as desired  and place in your baskets.  Make sure you use enough rice flour with flour in your bowl/basket to prevent this moist dough from sticking.  This is a very wet dough so you will have to make sure you use wet or floured hands to shape the dough.  Don't add too much flour when shaping.  I actually didn't use any flour for shaping these, and pretty much did the shaping in the air before plopping them into the bannetons.risendough

Cover the dough with a moist towel and let sit at room temperature for 1.5 to 2 hours.  (I used my proofer set at 80 degrees for 2 hours).

Score as desired and prepare your oven for baking with steam.Scored

Set your oven for 500 degrees F. at least 45 minutes before ready to bake.  When ready to bake place the loaves into your on  your oven stone with steam and lower the temperature immediately to 450 degrees.    When the loaf is nice and brown and reached an internal temperature of 200 degrees F. you can remove it from the oven.

Let the loaves cool down for at least an 3 hours or so before eating as desired.

CrumbCrumbCloseupCloseup2

 
Wingnut's picture
Wingnut

Well they will not win any awards, but they taste good.

Overnight proof......

Fairly good crumb......

But not regulation.........(as told by my last post)

Cheers,

Wingnut

PS. I made a regular loaf out of the rest of the dough..........

Mebake's picture
Mebake

This is a 100% whole wheat bread with corn slurry. It is an enriched bread with molasses and oil. TFL member Janet (Janetcook) has blogged about it earlier here.

I used sunflower oil, and substituted Molasses for date syrup since i didn't have any. Like janet, i used a sourdough starter (210g) instead of the yeast called for in the recipe. Furthermore, i had storbought fine cornmeal, so i cooked it to a slurry and used it after 1/2 hour.

I mixed the dough with a mixer, but continued by hand when the corn slurry, date syrup and oil were added. Since the dough was faily wet, i kneaded using the (Slap and fold technique) and the dough was miraculously turned into a soft, smooth dough. (The corn slurry was edible enough as it is, and i could eat the whole lot!)

Given the fact that i used a white starter, the levain was an all white liquid sourdough, so the fermentation of the dough was fairly sluggish. After forming the doughs and molding them into the pans, they were allowed to ferment for an hour and then were refrigerated to the next day eveneing (18 hours). Next day, i removed the pans from the fridge, and allowed them to continue fermenting for 6 hours! at 10 pm they were ready to be baked.

This morning, i had a slice. The crust was soft, and the crumb was moist and very soft. It was slightly sour, yet sweet from the date syrup. the corn slurry did not shine through as i had hoped, but it did help establish the overall character of this loaf.

Personally, i preferred Peter Rienhart's Anadama. However, next time, i won't reduce the corn meal to a slurry/mush. Janet's version must have tasted loads better with the coconut oil, and freshly ground corn.

-Khalid

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