Blogs

Day 1

1 Cup KA BF
1 Cup Warm Water

 

Day 2

I am not really sure if it is good to have all of this activity under 24 hours after starting this and not even feeding it once. I will let it go and see what happens. I have been doing some reading and found that the brownish liquid isn't much of a problem but all this activity I am not sure is a good or bad thing yet.

 

 

 

Day 3

 

 

 

 

 

Day 4

The smell is way less and well , and I don't know if this looks good or not,.

 

 

 

 

 

I wanted to share what it looks like, as it is my first time doing this and I find the entire process intriguing to say the least.

I found instructions to make an apple bread in a vintage American cook book by J. L. Croly (1870) which simply indicated to use 1 part of pureed stewed apples and two parts of flour plus salt and yeast, using either white or Graham flour.

The result is a really good bread. Full recipe is here http://bakinghistory.wordpress.com/2007/07/14/apple-bread/

(This is my entry for Bread Baking Day # 2 themed "Bread with Fruit" by Becke of Columbus Foodie)

 

 

I have found that some like this bread less thick than I do. Some also just use Semolina where I use both Semonlina and Bread Flour then there are times when I just Semolina. Either way, the result is fabulous!

• This particular night I used 4 cups of fine Semolina and 2 cups of KA Bread Flour
• 2 teaspoons dry active yeast
• 1/2 liter of warm water
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 1/3 cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1/2 cup of Black Seeds, you can use any seed or none at all
• 1 egg yolk and 2 teaspoons of water for the wash

Activate the yeast in the warm water and allow it to become a bit frothy.
Measure out all other ingredients and put on top of the yeast mixture and as always making sure that the salt is last so as to not touch the yeast and kill it.





Knead for 2-5 minutes to make a bit of a sticky but smooth dough. I have found that in Algeria the woman say to add much more water than what I said and to knead for a lot longer than I do. I find that the crumb is not so soft and really falls apart when you do that, (where it is not 100% semolina) so I don't.

 

Cover and allow to rise for about 1 hour or so. I let mine triple, but some days I only let it double. This day I was so busy with the kids I forgot I was cooking bread. :-)



Punch it down and transfer to your plate of preference. I used my Algerian Bread pan, since I was making Algerian Bread. This pan must be oiled, I used extra virgin olive oil.




Press the dough down into the plate. If you want to get a plate like this, either you have to go to Algeria or have a friend bring one with them when they go visit and come back to the states. I have looked everywhere and I have never seen anything like this in the USA.

 

Let it rise again until it is the height you like. I left mine too long, homeschooling and toddlers sometimes occupy my brain more than the bread! So anyway the bread rose up over the edges, so I just pushed it back down before I thought to take a picture of it.

Brush on your wash. I sometimes like it darker but this day I just used egg yolk and water.




Bake at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes or until tapped and sounds hollow.





I think the bottom is just so pretty, I had to show you a picture of it.



It has a nice soft crumb which is good for sandwiches or mopping up food which is what Algerians do.


Like I said, I like mine really thick soft. There are many Algerian homes that like it much thinner and not so soft. This is just our family preference.

It's been a while since I've had the luxury of daily check-ins with TFL. Lots going on this summer, and actually I really don't have the time even now! But I made some sourdough sandwich bread today for the first time (so far I have only made rustic loaves with my starter), and I wanted to get the recipe written down and share it with anyone else who might like it.

I already have a favorite sandwich bread, but wanted to try using my homegrown 100% hydration starter in a sandwich loaf. Specifically, I wanted to use my starter in my favorite sandwich bread. I started with a google search and came up with a method for using starter in your favorite recipe. The website (which I can't find now, typical) stated that this was a method modified from one in Sourdough Jack's Cookery. Take 2/3 of the flour from your recipe and add it to all of the water, plus 1 cup of active starter. Stir, cover, and set on the counter overnight. Then add the rest of the ingredients and proceed as usual. This method as written, however, only allowed for a 10 minute rest after mixing, followed by final shaping. I wanted a bulk fermentation followed by shaping and a final proof. So, here's what I did, using amounts from my recipe:

Night before baking:

Combine 1 C starter (at feeding time, I feed mine every 12 hours at a 1:4:4 ratio) with 4 C KAF bread flour and 2 C Brita-filtered water at room temp (or it might have even been straight from the fridge). Stir, cover with plastic wrap and leave out overnight.

Day of baking:

Pour sponge mixture into mixer bowl and add 1/4 C melted butter, 2 TBSP sugar, 2 tsp kosher salt, and 1 C flour. Mix until combined, then add remaining cup of flour until dough is fairly stiff (my usual yeast-raised dough uses about 6 C flour and 2 C water, plus 1/4 C melted butter, for around a 35% hydration level). The dough will clear both the sides and bottom of the bowl. Knead at speed 2 for about 4 minutes or until dough passes the windowpane test. Transfer to oiled bowl and let rise in warm place until doubled, around 2 hours.

Shape into loaves and place into greased pans. Let rise for about an hour, or until light and risen nicely, then bake at 375.

This bread is tangy but not terribly sour. It tastes a little like Panera's sodo, actually, but is less chewy and has a very thin and soft crust. Moist, tender and fine crumb. Can't wait to try it in a ham sandwich!

After seeing so many lovely rye loaves here, I wanted one for dinner. Since I didn't have time (or enough yeast) for a yeast bread, I decided to try and find a quick bread recipe online. This was a bit sweet for my taste, but I might make it again with less honey. With the sweetness, I quite enjoyed it for breakfast the next morning. I'm also going to order the deli rye flavor enhancer from King Arthur for future loaves - whether yeasted or quick.

CARAWAY RYE QUICK BREAD
2 teaspoons caraway seeds
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (I used all WW pastry flour ~kip)
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or use all-purpose flour)
1 cup rye flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup melted butter
2 eggs
1/4 cup honey
3/4 cup buttermilk (plus 2 tablespoons to account for extra WW flour ~kip)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8-inch round cake pan.

Toast the caraway seeds in a small dry skillet over medium-high heat for 2 or 3 minutes, or until fragrant. Transfer to a small plate to cool; set aside. (I ground these in a spice grinder before adding to the flour mix. ~kip)

Combine the flours with the baking powder, baking soda, toasted caraway seeds and salt in a medium mixing bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the melted butter, eggs, honey and buttermilk. Stir liquid ingredients into flour mixture until just blended. Do not overmix; the batter will be lumpy. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake 40-45 minutes until top springs back when touched lightly. Cool slightly in the pan, cut into wedges and serve warm, if desired.

This bread is especially good warm. To reheat later, wrap a wedge loosely in a paper towel and microwave on half heat for 20-30 seconds.
http://www.apinchof.com/caraway1035.html

I think the formula/recipe was fine on this, but the dough was either a bit overproofed or underkneaded. How's that for confusing? :D

I know that whole wheat doughs rise faster than white doughs. I don't remember how long this dough sat for the initial ferment, just that it was less than 18 hours. I suspect that it would have been fine if I had developed the gluten by hand a bit more - maybe another fold and rest before the final shaping. As it was the dough was a bit soft when risen. I slashed it about 1/2 inch deep and saw the loaf start spreading outwards almost right away! I don't have a picture of the crumb. It was soft, but not the lightness desired in a sandwich loaf. Next time I'll try a more enriched dough for a sandwich loaf - probably Laurel's Kitchen buttermilk.

I was visiting with my sister in Wisconsin, and we joined several other family members for a July 4th get-together at my cousins' cottage. I decided to bring bread for my contribution and thought it would be best if baked fresh. So the night before I started 2 loaves each of white and whole wheat NYT No-Knead bread. In the morning, I folded each loaf and placed in an oiled ziploc bag. The bags were carefully placed in a soft sided picnic-cooler-on-wheels. At that point I realized that the cooler-on-wheels wasn't about to stand up straight and give the dough the gentle treatment I had hoped! It flopped over there in the kitchen and did so more than once more throughout the day.

Anyway, the cooler was stowed in the back seat and we headed off 100 miles to the cabin. After visiting for awhile I was going inside to bake my bread. Cousin Jeff told me that wasn't a good idea. It seems a squatter had been resident in the oven the week before. While the mouse had been evicted, the thorough cleaning needed after a bad tenant had yet to be done. So my cousin and I walked around the pond and up the hill to the other cabin. At that point I was very glad for the wheels! This kitchen was spotless, and even had a bench knife in the drawer to help with the final fold. When I opened the cooler, the zip bags were puffed out like plump pillows from the risen dough! Here I shaped and baked the loaves. The bread was very popular, with 2 requests for the recipe. I wish I had pictures - of all the family, and the bread that did just fine with that rough handling. :~)

 

How long has it been since anyone has thought of the Tassajara bread book? I actually have a 1978, twenty first printing, copy of what to me back then was the ultimate zen bread bible. Much water has flowed under the bridge, I've left bread baking, come back to it, on may occasions. I have started and done away with more sourdough starters than I can count. Now I'm back baking with a vengence, obsessing over artisan style loaves, no knead 1869 recipes, growing a starter that is being very generous to me. For the last six months I've been baking all my families bread. Hubby loves it, the kids like certain things like French bread, pass on the seven grain, gobble the cinnamon buns, devour grandma's bun recipe but still look longingly at their favourite cardboard foam bread when we pass it in the supermarket. I figure another 3 months and they will stop. They are getting more adventerous; they are beginning to realize we won't be going back.

What has promted this rennaisance? Heath issues that force me to retire? Turning 50? Being concerned about what goes into our food? What ever it is, I love my homecoming. I am having fun.

I'm wiped out tonight. Had a great weekend taking the kids camping for the first time, rafting down the Sandy River, and generally enjoying summertime.

Nevertheless, I baked. Well? No, not at all. I made a mess of most everything I touched, but they still tasted quite good.

(Perhaps that could be a a new motto for the site: "Artisan Baking: Because even your mistakes are tasty!")

I tried a bunch of recipes from Daniel Leader's soon-to-be-released book Local Breads: Sourdough and Whole-Grain Recipes from Europe's Best Artisan Bakers. As I said, I screwed them all up, but that isn't the books fault, that was me thinking "Oh, I can make it down the river in time to not overproof the loaves." I was wrong. I also mixed up my whole wheat starter and my rye starter, so my final rye and whole wheat breads ended up tasting quite a bit like one another.

Picture time.

Simple French Bread Loaves

Polish Rye Bread

Inside the Rye (with Caraway)

I'll write up a real review in the next few days, but I definitely think the Daniel Leader book is a winner. Solid recipes, nice design and typography, very accessible. Definitely a good one, and going to give Peter Reinhart's new book a run for bakers interested in whole grain baking's money this fall.

I also baked an Orange Honey Prune bread from Beth Hensberger's The Bread Bible. Convenient since, as zainaba22 pointed out, the theme of this month's bread baking day is bread with fruit.

Very good stuff. I'll post the recipe in the next couple of days.

So for a while I've been meaning to start documenting my baking a little better, and contribute a bit more to this wonderful site, and today! today is the day.

This weekend I had three buddies from Rochester come down to ithaca to visit for the weekend, and I had some more friends over and I pounded out half a dozen pizzas. I had some serious doubts that my apartments rickety half-size oven was up to the task. Turns out the bugger gets up to a solid 550F and is fantastic for pizza (though it heats kinda unevenly, but nothing a mid-bake spin can't fix). My camera batteries were dead or i'd share some pictures but for fun, here's the lineup: 2 Margherita, 2 Chicken Wing(fried chicken tossed in franks red hot, sharp cheddar, low moisture mozz, danish blue and a few dots of roasted garlic), 1 roasted tri-color pepper pesto pie and 1 sauted mushroom and roasted garlic pie. Those last couple had healthy dollops of herbed riccota, fresh cow's milk mozz, parmigiano and all the pie were on top of Reinhart's neo-neopolitan dough with an extra tablespoon of honey. Far as i'm concerned, that's about the easiest to handle and best tasting pizza dough i've ever had. Here's a pic of an older pie, white pizza with tomatoes:

This afternoon I also put my young starter to the test and mixed up a batch of thom leonard's kalamata olive bread from Glezer's "Artisan Baking".

I took a few liberties, which is to say I didn't listen to ms maggie when she told me to mail order olives, and I used a smalled percentage of ripe oil-cured olives to replace the softer kalamatas she calls for. Loaves turned out pretty well...the crumb is a bit dense and the loaves sourness isn't terribly pronounced. I've been having some issues keeping my starter sour. It was very sour initially, but one miserably hot week later its sweeter and much less potent. I've been feeding it with ice water (lowering the temp to promote acetic acid, not sure if it's working) and trying to catch and feed it before it smells even faintly alcoholic in order to bring back it's potency (it's smelling less sweet and has got a little tang back). Any suggestions on this front would be really appreciated.

 

As for the crumb issues, I think i could have let the dough proof a little longer and i also forgot to fold it until the 2nd hour of fermentation. I rushed the proofing a bit in a frustrated fit after I tripped over my still unpacked slow cooker in my bedroom floor and broke my pinky toe. It had been a bit to long since a mid-baking injury occured. i suppose i was due, haha.

I was pleased with how everything turned out and have to say that buying glezer's book was probably the best decision i've made since getting bba. Absolutley gorgeous pictures and warming baker profiles. I highly recommend it to any fellow intermediate baker. This following weekend I'll be in NJ, but there'll be plenty more bread on the way this week (i'm planning a roasted garlic/asiago cheese ciabatta, a saranac b&t loaf with caraway and onions, and maybe some pane siliciano). take it easy everyone!