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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 :).

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

Tangzhong 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.

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.

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.

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.

Mookie and Lucy Waiting for the Rolls to Bake

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.

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

Compliments to Chef John from www.foodwishes.com for this recipe!
okay and Heineken too! I make this bread all the time and it goes great with a carrot soup on a cold day!
New to this site but so far I am feeling very welcomed.

inspired byFarina http://www.farine-mc.com/2012/08/apple-blueberry-spelt-bread-with-chia.html

my version of this bread. out of spelt flour at that moment. replaced with organic whole wheat flour. friend gave me a handful of beautiful blue pea flower from her garden. this flower is popular among our locals making nyonya kueh..

http://nonya-cooking.webs-sg.com/pulut_tai_tai.html

the amazing blue it gives .. and fragrant as well, quite similar to lavender.

made 2 batards and a boule..

soaked the blue pea flower with some hot water n pounded. because it was so little i lightly mixed it into the dough as i did the SF.

this crumb shot is from the Boule.. lovely hue of blue :) 

taste great..

a picture from my wonderful friend she made tonight's dinner eaten with 2 slices of the bread

evon

While traveling for business the last two weeks in China, as usual I read my favorite website, www.thefreshloaf.com and couldn't wait to get home to try some new recipes.  One of the recipes I loved was Varda's Pugliese Revisited.    The crumb photo of her bread looked like cotton candy that melted in your mouth.

I wanted to try to duplicate the same results that Varda achieved and I followed her recipe pretty close, only replacing the AP flour with KAF French style flour and some of the Durum with Kamut flour.  I decided to also double the recipe and made one large loaf.

I think I was suffering from the jet lag when making this and almost left out about 70 grams of water.  After mixing the dough I realized something was wrong when it seemed too dry for what's such a high hydration dough.  Fortunately I was able to add the remaining water before it was too late and the final bread came out as good as I could have hoped.

The bread is light as a feather and has a great nutty flavor with a nice crisp crust.

Even though this dough is so wet it was not hard to work with at all and I highly recommend you give it a try.

Levain Directions

Mix all the levain ingredients together for about 1 minute and cover with plastic wrap.  Let it sit at room temperature for 3.5 hours or until the starter has doubled.  You don't want the levain to develop too much sour so you want to use this in the recipe right away.

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

 Main Dough Procedure

Mix the levain with the water and add the flours, yeast and salt and mix in your mixer for 6 minutes increasing the speed from 1 through speed 4.  The dough should clean the bowl but will be wet and sticky.  Place the dough in a well oiled covered bowl and do stretch and folds every 1/2 hour three times while letting the dough bulk ferment for a total of 2.45 hours.  I used my proofer set at 80 degrees but room temperature should be fine.

Next shape into a boule on your work surface.  The dough should feel like a "squishy balloon" (Varda's words :0).  Proof in a well floured basket or bowl and cover with a moist towel or plastic wrap and let it rest for 1 hour until it doubles.

In the mean time 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.

This bread does not need to be scored so when ready to bake, place it on  parchment paper on your peel and then add 1 cup of boiling water to your steam pan or follow your own steam procedure.

After 1 minute lower the temperature to 450 degrees.  Bake for 35-50 minutes until the crust is nice and brown and the internal temperature of the bread is 205 degrees.

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

The crumb of this bread is like a pillow and is the lightest and most airy I have ever tasted.

It has been a nail biting 3 days! LOL
I know but today on day 4 The Bubbles came and I was happy!
I am following the starter suggested here and it has worked as described.
I have just fed the starter and continue on my path!

I fed my starter with my whey from kefir. I have been making a lot of kefir cheese lately ..we use it to fill crepes and make Mexican dishes and also lasagna. It is so yum but I have a LOT of whey. The starter was very happy . I then used the whey to replace the water in 3 different formulas. I have never made an olive loaf. I looked around on TFL and found mebake's take on Hammelman's formula in Bread. I used the whey and added extra as did mebake . I also used it in my More Sour Norwich formula. I have never made a sourdough fruit and nut bread so also made a formula for that from Wild Yeast's blog. 7 loaves all in all. Everything responded beautifully to the whey. I shall use it now each time I bake breads. I just noted that the crumb shot for the fruit and nut bread is too blurry to post. WIll have to do another later. I have posted the Norwich many times so won't repost unless you would like to see ;)  Here are some pics:

olive loaf after retard overnight and ready to be turned out on parchment : slashed and ready to go in hot iron pots: baked olive loaves: More sour Norwich SD: crumb olive loaf: fruit and nut loaf crumb: another crumb shot of olive loaf: fruit and nut loaf: