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I was messing around with Semolina Flour and tried to make a couple loaves. One is plain with Sesame Seeds on top, the other is with Lavender and Oat Bran on top. Next time I think I will make the dough a bit stiffer, it was quite slack.

Cheers,

Wingnut

Sláinte

Hi Everyone,

time for my second post! Unfortunately I don't have any "work-in-progress" photos of this one - the battery on my camera was flat when I made it and I couldn't find the charger. This is a 3 strand braid, filled brioche.

The brioche recipe is from Pierre Hermé's book "PH10". As you can see, it's very rich in butter (like nearly all his recipes). 

The brioche dough (500g) is as follows:

strong flour 176

sugar 26

egg (whole) 132 (approx. 3 eggs)

instant yeast 2.5

salt 4

butter 158

The original recipe calls for fresh yeast, but that's not that easy to find in the UK (at least not for me) and I don't really think it makes that much (if any) difference. I halved his yeast quantity to take into account the fact that I was using instant. I imagine that 5g of fresh yeast would work if that's what you are using. The dough was quite sticky but not overly greasy. I put it in the freezer for about 30 while making the filling. The filling recipe is (heavily) adapted from one found in "non solo zucchero vol. II" by Iginio Massari.

ground almond 150

icing sugar 150 

yolk 40

water 10

vanilla 1/2 a pod

butter 26

zest of 1 unwaxed orange.

Mix this all together to form a paste. The original recipe called for whole egg rather than just yolk, but I wanted a nice orange colour running through my brioche. 

When the brioche dough was firm I took it from the freezer and divided it into 3 balls. While working one, I kept the other 2 in the fridge. I rolled out the dough into a rectangle and then piped a line of filling down one long side before rolling it up to form a tube. I sealed the ends and put it back in the fridge. Same thing for the other 2.

When the dough was nice and cold again I braided it. As this was an experiment, I kept it to a simple 3 braid (1 over 2, 3 over 2 etc). This done, I popped it into a loaf tin and let it prove. This took about 4 hours at c.28 degrees C. Pierre Hermé doesn't give a cooking time or temperature for his dough so I guessed at 200C for 20 minutes. I think the photo shows this wasn't quite right, as the crust is a little too thick and brown for my liking. The brioche itself was also just a tiny little bit drier than would have been ideal. 

To finish I made a sugar glaze (110 icing sugar, 20 water and a few drops of orange blossom water) which I poured over the top while it was still fresh from the oven, and then sprinkled some flaked almonds and pearl sugar on it to finish it off. 

If I were to do it again, I think I'd make more of the filling (you can see in the photo how little there actually is) and experiment a bit more with the cooking temperature or time. The flavour was lovely and orangey, with a strong aftertaste of butter. 

David

We've been in Warszawa since Thursday.

It has been cold, but it is actually quite beautiful right now.

I've not been here in 15 years. The change is incredible. You can still find funky little flea markets, run down train stations, and ugly Communist-era buildings, but those are quickly being replaced by new shopping centres, shiny glass office towers, and brand new new trams and metros. Business and growth, and with them money and English, are everywhere here now.  It is incredible.

 We've mostly been visiting family so far, so I haven't had much of a chance to go "bakery hopping" or do much sightseeing yet.  We've eaten some wonderful breads with pasztet and ozorek and zurek though, many of the breads quite dense and dark, containing grains and fruits and nuts (I'll have time to figure out what all they were later).  And I've finally tried pączki.

These pączki were from A.Blikle, one of the most famous bakeries in Warszawa.  They claim it is where Charles De Gaulle used to get his pastries during his time here.  

The Blikle pączki were amazing, soft, just slightly sweet, and flavoured with rose petal jam.  I always figured pączki were "kinda like jelly doughnuts," and I guess they are but that comparison is like claiming that a French baguette with brie is kinda like American cheese on white bread.  Or saying that what you get at Olive Garden is Italian food.  The same general make up, yes, but really on entirely different level when it comes to craftsmanship.  

I don't know if pączki are usually this good or if it is just this bakery, but I will definitely be trying more while we are here!

-Floyd

Firstly, thanks to all the comments on my previous posting ... I am sorry I haven't had time to reply and say how much I appreciate the support. Secondly the oven build is going amazingly well. The photos really tell the story ... thank you Dennis, Allan, June and Justin - our hardworking ovenbuilders.

For, me ... I am still spending much of my time wrestling with ovens and experimenting with schedules, ingredients and techniques. Still quite a way to go ...

Thank you to all who have helped me and continue to help and to push me further ...

... and some oof the regular posters might have wondered what happened. 

Rather a lot, I suppose.

In terms of TFL - I am still catching up - all those rye posts by the bakers who attended the Hamelman class ...

Let's start with christmas - I received what seems a brain-splitting present: A voucher for a pastry course with Ghalid Assyb at Bertinet's in Bath, this was given inside a book about the DASH diet...

Why the pastry course? I never felt that I would ger a kick out of pastry, but my dear wife was convinced that I would be able to master the sweet things and have fun with them.

Why the diet book? Well, all those carbs ...

The pastry thing is getting me - and the course was a great source of knowledge and inspiration. Watching Ghalid and registering his little remarks gave me an idea about the workings of a Pastry Chef's mind.

Some time before Christmas I started already to look around  for pastry books (due to my wife's nagging) and I got the volumes by Bo Friberg. I tried quite a few recipes (Lebkuchen, Cardamom buns, Black Forest Gateau...) all quite successful and with an authentic taste (being from the Black Forest it is really amazing to find an authentic recipe in an american textbook written by a swedish-american chef).

I then looked at the French edition of Cristophe Felder's Patisserie - the French food blogs are raving about this book. I pre-ordered, and I recieved the English version last week. A truly amazing book.

So, what did I learn / make at the pastry course?

- Puff pastry / laminating  / millefeulle / creme mousseline

- Genoise / Biscuits a cuillere / Fruit Bavarian / Raspberry Charlotte

- Chocolate Financiers

- Fraisier cake

What did I make since the course?

I was always frightened of making croissants and the few attempts were messy and not quite satisfactory.

Today I made my second batch of Croissants since the course, using my newly gained knowledge and the recipe from Felder's book, and voila:

They taste as great as they look, and I am even very pleased with the crumb:

In Felder's book there is a simple variation with croissant dough - Lunettes, which we called "Kopenhagener" or "Pudding Brezel" in Germany - one of my alltime favourites.

Now I am making them myself %BIG SMILE%

Essentially, it is twisted croissant dough filled with pastry cream.

For a charity bake at work I made a Charlotte with black fruit (blackberries, cherries, blueberries, blue grapes), following the recipe from the pastry course:

and for home and friends - and just to try out the formula I made a batch of chocolate financiers according to Ghalid Assyb which were delicious, and I also tried Felder's recipes for chocolate financiers and vanilla financiers (the classic). All very delicious. Here the results of the Felder recipes:

And the diet book you might ask?

Well, we started it 5 weeks ago, maintained it during a vacation with my parents, and I lost around 10Kg since.

I eat a 50g of wholegrain rye bread every day, no other bread, with occasional exceptions - naturally I bake a little less, although it seems that the demand by colleagues and in the community is picking up ...

All the sweet things get eaten, just not by us alone.

The weather kept us busy as well here in the UK, and commuting was a bit of a lottery in those past weeks ...

3 cm of snow and the United Kingdon grinds to a halt (almost).

I have to go and distribute my pastries now ...

Cheers,

Juergen

Jewish Sour Rye Bread

March 15, 2013

As some of the TFL old-timers may recall, I started baking bread again about 7 years ago, in part because I had a craving for Jewish Rye Bread, and I had no local source. One of the first baking books I bought was George Greenstein's Secrets of a Jewish Baker, and found that his recipe for “Jewish Sour Rye” produced just what I had hoped. However, Greenstein provided ingredients only in volume measurements. In October, 2008, after making this Jewish Sour Rye quite a few times, I weighed all the ingredients and have been using those measurements ever since.

Today, I baked this bread again. The formula I have been using makes two good-sized loaves of 750 g each. I am providing baker's percentages for the convenience those who might wish to scale up or down.

Notes: I have always used First Clear flour in the past. Today, for the first time, I used Bread Flour (14% protein). I did not use altus today.

Traditionally, Jewish Sour Rye is made with white rye flour. I found I much prefer the fuller flavor of medium rye flour.

If you have a rye sour, build it up to a volume of 4 cups or so the day before mixing the dough. If you do not have a rye sour but do have a wheat-based sourdough starter, you can easily convert it to a white rye starter by feeding it 2-3 times with rye flour over 2-3 days.

1. Dissolve the rye sour in the water in a large bowl.

2. Add the rye flour and mix well.

3. Cover the surface of the sour with a thin layer of rye flour.

4. Cover the bowl and ferment until the dry flour forms widely spread “islands.” If necessary, refrigerate overnight.

Method

1. In a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer, dissolve the yeast in the water, then add the rye sour and mix thoroughly with your hands, a spoon or, if using a mixer, with the paddle.

2. Stir the salt into the flour and add this to the bowl and mix well.

3. Dump the dough onto the lightly floured board and knead until smooth. If using a mixer, switch to the dough hook and knead at Speed 2 until the dough begins to clear the sides of the bowl (8-12 minutes). Add the Caraway Seeds about 1 minute before finished kneading. Even if using a mixer, I transfer the dough to the board and continue kneading for a couple minutes. The dough should be smooth but a bit sticky.

4. Form the dough into a ball and transfer it to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl and let it rest for 15-20 minutes.

5. Transfer the dough back to the board and divide it into two equal pieces.

6. Form each piece into a pan loaf, free-standing long loaf or boule.

7. Dust a piece of parchment paper or a baking pan liberally with cornmeal, and transfer the loaves to the parchment, keeping them at least 3 inches apart so they do not join when risen.

8. Cover the loaves and let them rise until double in size. (About 60 minutes.)

9. Pre-heat the oven to 500F with a baking stone in place optionally. Prepare your oven steaming method of choice.

10. Prepare the cornstarch glaze. Whisk 1-1/2 to 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch in ¼ cup of water. Pour this slowly into a sauce pan containing 1 cup of gently boiling water, whisking constantly. Continue cooking and stirring until slightly thickened (a few seconds, only!) and remove the pan from heat. Set it aside.

11. When the loaves are fully proofed, uncover them. Brush them with the cornstarch glaze. Score them. (3 cuts across the long axis of the loaves would be typical.) Turn down the oven temperature to 460F. Transfer the loaves to the oven, and steam the oven.

12. After 15 minutes, remove any container with water from the oven, turn the oven temperature down to 440F and continue baking for 20-25 minutes more.

13. The loaves are done when the crust is very firm, the internal temperature is at least 205 degrees and the loaves give a “hollow” sound when thumped on the bottom. When they are done, leave them in the oven with the heat turned off and the door cracked open a couple of inches for another 5-10 minutes.

14. Transfer the loaves to a cooling rack. Brush again with the cornstarch glaze.

15. Cool completely before slicing.

The crust was chewy as was the crumb. I have never been able to get the classic crackly crust that Sour Rye should have. The flavor was very good, with a mild sour tang and just enough caraway flavor to my taste. However, there was a flavor note missing, again, to my taste, because of my having substituted bread flour for first clear. Although KAF sells first clear flour, Hamelman never prescribes its use, even in his formula he likens to Jewish Rye. I prefer this bread made with first clear, based on today's experience, but it is really good with bread flour too.

David

Submitted to YeastSpotting

Addendum: On March 7, 2014, I amended the baking temperatures and timing. The higher temperature and shorter baking time yield a darker, crisper crust which I prefer. There also seems to be less frequent bursting of the loaves.

pizza night!

Cheers,

Wingnut

Okay, I got rid of the baking soda in the bread.  It doesn't taste like baking soda anymore.  I added 1/4 cup honey to the bread instead of diastatic malt, added zest of one orange and one more cup of oatmeal substituted for about that much flour. 

Results- better but still not a loaf to write home about, rather bland in flavor.  My husband says it's not near as flavorful as the 100% whole wheat bread from Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads.  Hmmm, what to do next? 

A little more salt? I'm using about 2 tsp. for 2 loaves.  I'm thinking of uping the whole wheat flour and doing a preferment of wild yeast starter like the WGB bread and putting together an oats soaker as well a la Reinhart.  Is it the oats that make the bread so ho-hum?

Or maybe just forget this recipe, because it seems like by the time I've tweaked it there won't be much left of the original.  Any ideas for improving the flavor profile of this loaf gratefully accepted.

Linda

I am very new to this but im a great chef and baker...I could cook just about anything. I am very young but very experienced.

My friend Eric was stopping by to go to lunch yesterday so I told him I would bake bread for him to take home.  He requested something simple and plain.  I don't do simple and plain...it's just not part of my DNA, so what I came up with is as close as it gets!

I had bought some Einkorn Wheat Berries and also some Soft White Wheat Berries from Breadtopia.com that I wanted to try grinding into flour.  I don't have an actual flour mill just yet so I used my coffee grinder and sifted the Einkorn flour once.  The soft white wheat was so soft that it didn't really have anything left to sift.

I made a 2 step starter build from some left-over Kamut/Bread Flour starter using more Kamut, European Style Flour and Pumpernickel flour.

For the main dough I added some rye chops, wheat germ, mashed roasted potatoes and some honey for a little sweetness.

I just received my Brod and Taylor Proofer for my birthday and used it for the first time.  I had already mixed up the dough and put it in the refrigerator for the bulk ferment but I let the dough sit in the proofer at 80 degrees F. for about 1 hour instead of my usual 1.5 to 2 hours.  The dough was nice and puffy after it's rest and I let the formed loaves proof at 80 degrees as well for about 1.5 hours before baking.  I have to play around with the proofing temperatures and see which is ideal.  I may try going a little higher for the final proof next time.

The end result of this bake was very satisfactory as you get just enough sour tang along withe the nuttiness and wheat flavor from the combination of flours.  The crumb was nice and open enough for this type of bread.  I will have to make bread with just the Einkorn flour in it to really taste it in the bread but it certainly added a nice flavor profile to this one.

Levain Directions

Build 1

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.

Build 2

Mix all the ingredients listed with the levain from the first build and let it set at room temperature for around 7-8 hours or until the starter has doubled or before it starts collapsing on itself.  Either use right away in the main dough or refrigerate for 1 day.

Main Dough Procedure

Mix the flours, wheat germ, rye chops and the water except for around 75 grams, 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 30 minutes to 1 hour.  Next add the salt, starter (cut into about 7-8 pieces), honey, and mashed potatoes and mix on low for a minute.  Add the rest of the water  unless the dough is way too wet.   Mix on low-speed for another 3 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.  (I used my new proofer this time and it only took about 1 hour at 80 degrees).

Remove the dough and shape as desired.   Place your dough into your proofing basket(s) and cover with a moist tea towel or plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray.  The dough will take 1.5 to 2 hours depending on your room temperature.  (Again, I used my proofer set at 80 degrees and let it rise for about 1.5 hours).

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, score as desired 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.

 Feel free to visit my other blog at www.mookielovesbread.wordpress.com for 100 of my other recipes.