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evonlim's picture
evonlim

little treats for me and my friends..

ALMOND & ORANGE FLORENTINES WITH LAVENDER SUGAR

INGREDIENTS
Vegetable oil for greasing the tray
2 egg whites
50gm caster sugar blend in a food processor with one tablespoons of lavender tea flower
200gm flaked almonds
Grated zest of 1 orange

METHOD
1. Preheat the oven the 150°C and line an oven tray with baking paper and brush it lightly with oil.
2. Put the egg whites, icing sugar, flaked almonds and orange zest in a bowl and combine gently.
3. With damp hands pick up portions of the mix (about a heaped tablespoon) and place them on the tray in little mounds. Make sure they are spaced well apart as they do spread during cooking.
4. Dip a fork in water and gently flatten each florentine very thinly…as thinly as you can muster without leaving gaps between the almonds. Aim for a finished diameter of 8cm.
5. Bake until golden for around 12 minutes. I’d suggest setting your timer for these ones as they can burn very quickly if left too long.
6. Allow the biscuits to cool on the tray then gently lift them from the baking sheet using a palette knife.

happy baking

evon

linder's picture
linder

Today, I took out a portion of the spent grain in the freezer that was leftover from making beer last week. (The beer is resting comfortably for another week after being decanted from the carboy into a second carboy).  The bread made from the spent grain along with a wild yeast starter and whole wheat soaker is rising right now - soon to be baked. 

Linda

varda's picture
varda

I have never been one to put extra stuff into bread.   Flour and water all the way.   And yet, resolve weakens, fruit beckons, fresh loafers keep on posting.    What can one do?    A rhetorical question of course.    The simple answer is throw in a few dried cranberries.   I had already developed a nice seeded levain (after tasting Jong Yang's delcious one at the TFL Boston meet-up)  and thought - just swap out the seeds for the cranberries.   It works.   Two completely different breads on the same substrate.  

One might note that this is a tad underdeveloped.   It is because at the same time I was making this loaf I was also making several others:

I neither had time to properly knead by hand, nor was the mixer free.   So I just mixed it up by hand and did a few stretch and folds, and it almost got there.  Here it is on the front left with two seeded levains, one tzitzel rye, and three challahs.   The sourdough challah is courtesy of Maggie Glezer, via zolablue's excellent 6 year old post.   I never realized how easy it was to do a six strand braid until watching the Maggie Glezer video referenced in zolablue's write-up.   

The ones on the right are six strand.   On the left is 4 strand using exactly the same braiding technique.  

But the real news here is how delicious this challah is.  I made a few different versions of challah over the week, trying to decided which one to go with.   This beat them hands down.   It doesn't taste even slightly sour, but the starter takes a caky, eggy treat and turns it into a really fine bread.  

Update:   Tried the cranberry sourdough again but this time with mixing.  It makes a difference. 

Formula and method for the cranberry sourdough

 

Multigrain Cranberry Sourdough   
      
Starter67% Hydration, 100% KAAP  
Rye Sour82% Hydration 100% Rye  
      
        Final   Rye Sour    Starter       Total    Percent
KABF177  17748%
Rye071 7119%
KAAP0 14144%
WW71  7119%
Spelt35  3510%
Water212591028076%
Salt8  82%
Cranberry40  4011%
Rye Sour130    
Starter24    
      
Total Dough698    
Total Flour369    
% preferment23%    
      
      
Autolyse flour and water 1 hour   
Mix all ingredients until developed   
Bulk Ferment 1.5 hours    
Roll into batard shape and lightly rock (dough is very sticky)
Proof in couche 80 minutes (or so) until soft  
Bake with steam for first 5 minutes then at 450 for 35 more.
davidg618's picture
davidg618

Last night's dinner was a favorite: White Pizza.

The white sauce is simply a cup of Bechemel sauce with a 1/2 cup of Peccorina Romano, and minced garlic added. The toppings are Mozzerella, Feta, fresh basil leaves, and 8 oz. of wrung-out thawed spinich with a splash of Balsamic vinegar. The dough is 50/50 Semolina and KA All Purpose with appropriate salt, water and a couple of tablespoons of EVOO for flavor and softness.

Baked 8 mins @ 500°F, convection mode.

It lasted all of 30 minutes.;-).

David G

 

MANNA's picture
MANNA

This bread was nice. It doesnt have a picture so I read the directions twice. Pretty much mix and let bulk ferment. Turn out and rough shape into a rectangle handling it gently so not to overly degas. It has olive oil in it that helps the crumb texture. I once again used my cast iron cooker to bake with. You can see the edges of the dough turned up becase of the round cooker. I am working on getting a steaming setup, just need to work it into the budget. This dough would be great for pizza or top with whatever and bake it.

Alpana's picture
Alpana

Floyd's post on Hokkaido Milk Bread, which mentioned red bean filling, started nagging me to make red bean rolls. Fortunately, I had a stash of home made red bean paste in my freezer, which was given to me by a good friend. So why delay?

I decided to use Hamelman's Soft Butter Rolls formula as a base for my rolls. Instead of instant yeast I decided to go with RYW levain. I usually don't use sourdough starter in my soft breads, but I thought this time it would give a nice contrast to the red bean paste. But either my sourdough is too sour or I am too much of a sourdough wimp, so I always build my sourdough with RYW in my hearth breads and I did the same here and used a small amount. And as the post on tang zhong seemed to be the driving force behind these rolls, it was a given.

These are the proportions I used :

RYW Levain 

Bread Flour : 150 gms 

RYW : 150 gms

Total : 300 gms

Sourdough Levain

Seed : 10 gms

Bread Flour : 20 gms

RYW : 20 gms

Total : 50 gms

Tang Zhong  

Bread Flour : 25 gms

Water : 125 gms

Total : 150 gms

Final Dough 

Bread Flour : 300 gms

RYW Levain : 300 gms

SD Levain : 50 gms

Tang Zhong 150 gms

Egg : 60 gms

Softened Butter : 40 gms

Milk Powder (non-fat) : 25 gms

Sugar : 30 gms

Salt : 10 gms

Kneaded in Bread Machine till I got a window pane (almost full 20 minutes of dough cycle).

Put the dough in an oiled bowl. Did 3 S&F at 30 minutes interval. The dough was quite well developed & strong after the last S&F. Retarded in fridge overnight. Next day, divided it in 20 pieces and pre shaped in rough rounds and rested for 15 minutes. Decided to make 10 red bean rolls & 10 ham-n-cheese for kids. Used monterey jack cheese with black pepper ham.

My shaping skills are hilarious, as the photos testify, so shaping rolls is always the most tedious part for me. I was just glad to be done with it. Kept for final proof for one hour. Fifteen minutes before baking, put egg wash & sprinkled sesame seeds over red bean rolls. Baked at 180 C for 20 minutes, rotating the tray after 10 minutes.

Notwithstanding their ugly look, the rolls were all that I wanted. The slight tang  added by sourdough gave an extra flavour note to the rolls. The tang zhong & ryw helped the softness. If they had lasted beyond one day, I hope the SD & TZ would have kept them from getting stale. But as it goes, my daughter and her school friends managed to devour them in no time and have ordered another batch ASAP. I have agreed on the condition that they help me to shape the rolls next time. They are quite willing and I am confident the 12 year olds have better dexterity than me :).

HokeyPokey's picture
HokeyPokey

To celebrate my new oven and lovely sunny weather here in London I mixed up some focaccia, which turned out super moist and super fluffy.

Well pleased with it, one of the easiest recipes I ever came up with - full recipe on my blog here

Isand66's picture
Isand66

GroupCloseTangzhong is the technique of heating a portion of the flour and liquid in your recipe to approximately 65C to make a paste (roux).  At this temperature the flour undergoes a change and gelatinizes.  By adding this roux to your final dough it will help create a soft, fluffy, moist open crumb.  It is also supposed to help prevent the bread from going stale.

I've seen many posts lately using this technique from my baking friend DA as well as many others.  I decided to base the technique for these rolls on the Hokkaido Milk Bread posted by Floyd but of course I changed most of the ingredients so it didn't really end up as fluffy and shreddable as the beautiful loaf he made.

It is not very difficult to do a Tangzhong.  Use a  5 to 1 liquid to solid ratio (so 250g liquid to 50g flour) and mix it together in a pan.  Heat the pan while stirring constantly.  Initially it will remain a liquid, but as you approach 65C it will undergo a change and thicken to an almost pudding like consistency.  Take it off the heat and let it cool before using it in your recipe.  Some people will refrigerate it for a while but you can use it right away as soon as it cools.

I really like the effect this has on the crumb and will definitely try this again.

I wanted to make some rolls to use for some chicken burgers I was making on the grill tonight and since I love onions and potatoes I figured why not incorporate that into the mix as well.  I used my refreshed AP starter, some milk, sautéed onions, mashed potatoes, assorted whole grain flours and the potato water with some Durum and European style flour for the Tangzhong.

The final result was a nice soft crumb, crisp crust and tasty roll.FinishedRolls

Formula

Note: Tangzhong consisted of 30 grams European Style Flour, 20 grams Durum Flour and 250 grams Potato Water.  I included this in the overall formula below.

Tangzhong-Onion-Potato-Roll

Levain Directions

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

Either use in the main dough immediately or refrigerate for up to 1 day before using.

 Main Dough Procedure

Cut up the onion into rings and sauté on low heat until nice and canalized using some olive oil or butter in your pan. Let the onions cool completely and chop into smaller pieces before using in the dough.

Prepare the Tangzhong per directions above and allow to cool to room temperature.

Mix the flours, Tangzhong and milk together in your mixer or by hand until it just starts to come together, maybe about 1 minute.  Let it rest in your work bowl covered for 20-30 minutes.  Next add the salt, starter (cut into about 7-8 pieces), and olive oil and mix on low for a minute.   Mix for a total of 13 minutes in your mixer starting on low-speed and working your way up to speed #3 for the last 5 minutes.  Remove the dough from your bowl and place it in a lightly oiled bowl or work surface and do several stretch and folds.  Let it rest covered for 10-15 minutes and then do another stretch and fold.  Let it rest another 10-15 minutes and do one additional stretch and fold.  After a total of 2 hours place your covered bowl in the refrigerator and let it rest for 12 to 24 hours.

When you are ready to bake remove the bowl from the refrigerator and let it set out at room temperature still covered for 1.5 to 2 hours.  Remove the dough and cut into equal size pieces and shape into rolls.  Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and cover with moist tea towels or plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray.RollsonSheetbeforeoven

The dough will take 1.5 to 2 hours depending on your room temperature.  Let the dough dictate when it is read to bake not the clock.

Around 45 minutes before ready to bake, pre-heat your oven to 500 degrees F. and prepare it for steam.  I have a heavy-duty baking pan on the bottom rack of my oven with 1 baking stone on above the pan and one on the top shelf.  I pour 1 cup of boiling water in the pan right after I place the dough in the oven.

Right before you are ready to put them in the oven, using a simple egg wash brush each roll and sprinkle on your topping of choice.   Next add 1 cup of boiling water to your steam pan or follow your own steam procedure.

After 1 minute lower the temperature to 425 degrees.  Bake for 35 minutes until the crust is nice and brown.

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

 

MookieandLucy
Mookie and Lucy Waiting for the Rolls to Bake

Crumb

 
BreadChubby's picture
BreadChubby

Yes you read correctly I marinated Hot Italian Sausages in Jamaican Jerk and sloooow cooked them.
Sliced the bread and dropped them in between.
It was awesome.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

We use a lot of cranberries around here mainly as part of our snockered fruit bled we put in so many baked good.  Evon published her beautiful cranberry bread she made her Mom and we have been making a bunch of different breads with dried fruits and nuts of late.  The only ones we missed were cranberries and pecans.  Then we saw a beautiful cranberry and pecan batard at Whole Foods when we were there stocking upon whole grain berries.

That sort of moved the cranberry and pecan bread up to the top of the list.  My apprentice just couldn’t leave it at that so she went - with whole; rye, spelt and wheat in the levains only along with some corn flour in dough.  We are trying to get out tongue around corn flavor wise and have seen it so many bakes of late like Janet’s Anadama Bread.

Lucy found some apricot soaking water from the last bake (which we added the cranberry soaker water to) and ricotta cheese in the fridge. She also scalded up multigrain berries as she does for just about every bread.  It must be a German thing.  She also used our normal flavor, color and rise enhancers of malts, Toadies and VWG.  Not including the multigrain scald, we kept to our healthy and tasty minimum of 30% whole grains.

Because of the Tang Zhong, ricotta, scald and re-hydrated cranberries, this dough does not look or act like a 70% hydration bread.  It is very wet feeling, like 78% or more - so not quite ciabatta.  The Tang Zhong took 25 g or the flout mix and 125 g of water not included in the formula to make the roux.

We built 2 separate levains over 3 stages.  One a YW and the other a rye sour.  Both levains had doubled at the end of 2nd 4 hour stage.  At the beginning of the 3rd stage, right after feeding, we refrigerated the levains for 12 hours.  The next morning we took them out of the fridge and allowed them come to room temperature and double again in 4 hours.

We did our usual 4 hour autolyse, starting when the levains came out of the fridge, including everything except; salt, ricotta, YW and rye sour levains, the scald, cranberries and pecans.  When the autolyse met the 2 levains, we added the salt and did 10 minutes of slap and folds.  After a 15 minute rest we did (4) sets of S&F’s on 15 minute intervals.  On the first S&F we incorporated the ricotta.  On the 2nd we put in the scald.

 After the 2nd we divided the dough in half.  On the 3rd we added the cranberries and on the 4th we made sure everything was incorporated for one half.  The other half of the dough was S&F’ed without the fruit and nuts.  This way we get a breakfast toast and a lunch sandwich bread.

 After an hour of counter fermentation the dough was retarded in the fridge for 15 hours.  In the morning they were retrieved from the fridge and allowed to come to room temperature for 1 hour before being shaped into a batard for the fruit and nut version and an oval for the plain.

 Both were placed into a trash can liner to proof for 2 hours before Big Old Betsy was fired up to 500 F with Sylvia’s steaming pan and David’s CI Lava Rock steam in place.  Once Betsy beeped she was at temperature we waited 20 minutes before un-molding the bread, scoring and placing onto the bottom stone.

 After 5 minutes we turned the oven down to 475 F. Our oven reads 25 F low so adjust your temperature accordingly.  After a total of 15 minutes of steam we removed it and turned the oven down to 425 F, convection this time.  We rotated the bread every 10 minutes and after 20 minutes without steam the bread reached 205 F in the center.

 We turned off the oven and left the bread on the stone, with the door ajar for 10 minutes to crisp the skin before removing it to a cooling rack.  The crust browned nicely with small blisters and went from crisp to softer as it cooled.  The spring and bloom were OK too.  The cranberry, pecan version browned more for some reason.

 The crumb of both versions was about the softest, moistest and tastiest we have ever managed to bake into any bread.  it is just fantastic as a sandwich bread and we hope it toasts just as well for breakfast in the morning.  It is like eating two different breads one more cranberry sweet and pecan nutty.  Both are terrific!  Thanks Evon for the cranberry inspiration, to Ian for the cheese and to my apprentice for the nuts. 

 We love spaghetti and meatballs.  Hopefully the plain version will grill up nicely for garlic toast or bruschetta or breakfast.

Formula

YW and Rye Sour Levain

Build 1

Build 2

 Build 3

Total

%

Yeast Water

40

0

0

40

7.21%

Rye Sour Starter

20

0

0

20

2.37%

Spelt

13

13

13

39

4.62%

Dark Rye

34

34

39

107

12.66%

Whole Wheat

13

13

13

39

4.62%

Water

20

60

25

105

12.43%

Total

140

120

90

350

41.42%

 

 

 

 

 

 

Levain Totals

 

%

 

 

 

Flour

195

23.08%

 

 

 

Water

155

18.34%

 

 

 

Hydration

79.49%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Levain % of Total

19.14%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dough Flour

 

%

 

 

 

Corn Flour

50

5.92%

 

 

 

AP

600

71.01%

 

 

 

Dough Flour

650

76.92%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salt

12

1.42%

 

 

 

Apricot/Cranberry Water 100, Water 300

400

47.34%

 

 

 

Dough Hydration

61.54%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total Flour

845

 

 

 

 

Apricot & Cranberry Water 100  & Water

555

 

 

 

 

T. Dough Hydration

65.68%

 

 

 

 

Whole Grain %

30.89%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hydration w/ Adds

70.15%

 

 

 

 

Total Weight

1,829

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add - Ins

 

%

 

 

 

White Rye Malt

3

0.36%

 

 

 

Red Rye Malt

3

0.36%

 

 

 

Toadies

10

1.18%

 

 

 

VW Gluten

15

1.78%

 

 

 

Cranberries

75

8.88%

 

 

 

Pecans

75

8.88%

 

 

 

Total

317

37.51%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weight of cranberries and scald berries are pre re-hydrated weights

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scald

 

%

 

 

 

WW Berries

33

3.91%

 

 

 

Rye Berries

33

3.91%

 

 

 

Spelt Berries

34

4.02%

 

 

 

Total Scald

100

11.83%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tang Zhong 25 g of flour was included above but the 125 of extra water was not

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