The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Blogs

linder's picture
linder

A month ago, the three gmas baked a great looking lemon anise seed tea loaf from Dan Leader's book 'Bread Alone'.  Having lots of lemons and being a lover of all things anise (including anisette), I decided to bake a loaf for us to have with tea in the evenings.  I up'ed the lemon flavor by adding a teaspoon of limoncello to the lemon and simple syrup glaze.  Haven't cut into it yet, but it makes a very big loaf of tea bread.  It is baked in a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan and rises in the oven to fill the loaf pan to the very top.  In baking this, however, I did find the 30-40 minute baking time quite optimistic, mine wasn't done until an hour had passed in the 350F oven. 

 

Wingnut's picture
Wingnut

Messing around..........

Good Crumb, nice sweet nutty flavor with just a hint of sour.

Cheers,

Wingnut

davidg618's picture
davidg618

Saturday evening's dessert: Peach Upside Down Cake. (I had my piece sprinkled with a few drops of Amaretto.)

and Sunday morning's bagels. (Ciril Hitz Baking Artisan Bread, CHEWY Bagel formula converted to natural levain.)

David G

Isand66's picture
Isand66

The storm has come and it has delivered as promised.  Here on the South Shore of Long Island where I live we spent most of the morning digging out of 20+ inches of icy heavy snow.  In between the snow plowing and digging I managed to shape and get my latest bread in the oven.

Using the 36 hour technique I adapted from TxFarmer's blog posts on The Fresh Loaf, I made a hearty style loaf with my favorite cherry flavored tea, fresh chopped cherries and some oat flour.  I used the oat flour in the levain as well as the final dough.  Some potato flour and malted wheat flakes were added to round out this dough.

The end result was a nice moist crumb with a great chewy crust with cherry chunks.  This was a large loaf and took almost 2 hours to bake.  I lowered the temperature to 425 F. to prevent the crust from getting too dark which is one of the reasons why it took so long.

This exciting technique takes a while but it is worth it. I actually let the dough retard longer than 24 hours called for in the recipe due to my schedule and I don't think it effected the final bread either way.

Directions

Starter Build 1

104 grams Seed Starter (Mine is a 65% White AP starter)

100 grams Oat Flour (KAF)

200 grams European Style Flour (KAF)

203 grams Water at Room Temperature (80-90 degrees F.)

Mix ingredients in a bowl until thoroughly combined.  Cover the bowl and let it sit at room temperature for around 8 hours.  The starter should almost double when ready to proceed.

Starter Build 2

All Starter from Build #1:

35 grams Water at Room Temperature (80-90 degrees F.)

Mix ingredients in a bowl until thoroughly combined.  Cover the bowl and let it sit at room temperature for around  4 - 6 hours.  The starter should almost double when ready to proceed.

Main Dough Ingredients

300 grams  Starter  from above (note: you should have a small amount left over)

450 grams European Style Flour

200 grams Oat Flour (KAF)

100 grams Potato Flour

100 grams Malted Wheat Flakes

20 grams Seas Salt or Table Salt

88 grams Fresh Cherries (Pitted and chopped)

600 grams Cherry Tea Iced  (Make sure the tea is ice-cold before using.  I added the hot tea to ice cubes)

Procedure

Mix the flours, malted wheat flakes and the ice tea 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 add your starter and salt to the dough and mix by hand until it is thoroughly mixed and evenly distributed.  Due to the high water content in the 100% hydration starter this dough is very easy to mix by hand and is very silky and smooth.

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.  During the last stretch and fold flatten out the dough slightly into a rectangle and add the chopped cherries.

Put the dough back into the refrigerator for around 20-30 hours.  I ended up letting it go around 30 hours.

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.

Next, shape as desired.  I made a large Miche and placed it in my cloth lined basket.  Make sure you use enough rice flour with flour in your bowl/basket to prevent this moist dough from sticking.

Cover the dough with a moist towel and let sit at room temperature for 1.5 to 2 hours.

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

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.   Since this loaf was so big I ended up lowering the oven after 35 minutes to around 425 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.

Cat-Angel Bell Weathering the Storm
The Dolphin is Trying to stay above the snow
Misty waiting for some Cherry Sourdough.....okay so she's waiting for some Kibble!
Crider's picture
Crider

I'm approaching the age of sixty and I've been baking regularly for about ten years and doing it by hand. But a bug got in my soup more than two years ago when txfarmer posted the breathtaking blog "Sourdough Pan de Mie - how to make "shreddably" soft bread". She wrote and demonstrated about intensive kneading and how that was the secret to those amazing loaves. She showed different windowpane characteristics which developed as she cranked her mixer for rather long periods of time.

I was intrigued, to say the least. I even played around with long-time kneading by hand. I remember how I spent fifty minutes hand kneading a white dough until it finally showed signs of over-kneading. Not practical. A mixer is definitely needed for that kind of thing. But I never really liked the way home mixers appear to beat the hell out of the dough. It seems they spin way too fast, especially compared to commercial mixers, and especially compared to fork mixers and falling arm mixers. There were (are?) actual countertop falling arm mixers Artofex made. Santos still makes a fork mixer that gently turns the dough. It sells in the US, but $1,200? Not only couldn't I afford something like that, I'd rather use that kind of money to lie on a warm beach in Hawaii right now.

The truth, probably, is that these home mixers really aren't being harsh on the dough at all and I'm just clinging to my superstitious hand-knead ways. Temptation came when I saw a video on Youtube of somebody demonstrating a little Bosch MUM 4 Compact mixer, and when they turned it to speed one to incorporate the ingredients, it was slow — real slow. I loved that! I downloaded the manual for that machine to see if it is willing to operate on speed one indefinitely. It is!

Weird thing is, Bosch USA still doesn't admit they sell the things. All they feature on their website are the big MUM 6 Universals. But Pleasant Hill Grain happily sells them whenever they have some to sell. One ninety nine! You could get six MUM 4s for the price of one Santos fork mixer . . .

When it arrived I didn't have any flour milled or sourdough started for a big loaf, but I did have a sack of all-purpose white flour in the cupboard and yeast in the 'fridge. What could be more fun than a sandwich loaf? Haven't made a white sandwich loaf in years. I didn't do txfarmer's Pen de Mie, but I did a lean loaf at 65% hydration. I stood there and stared at the mixer for fifteen minutes as it gently, very gently kneaded the dough round and round on speed one. It was fun watching. Do you all stare at your mixer when it's kneading? Could have gone longer, but maybe next time. The dough felt and handled wonderful. Flour, water, salt & yeast. Why do supermarket bakeries refuse do make a simple sandwich loaf like this?

 

evonlim's picture
evonlim

 

Dried black mission figs, dried white USA figs, turkish dried brown figs, fresh turkish figs and fresh Japanese figs..

In the history of foods the fig is one of the earliest fruits to be desiccated and stored by men.  Sumerian civilization, Phoenicians, Ancient Greeks and old Chinese promoted fig culture and gave it sky-scraping fame. In China it has been grown since one thousand years back. Ancient Greeks offered figs to each other as precious gifts. Greek players used it to increase their potency and muscles.  

 Antediluvian king of Pontus Mithridates had ordered his citizens to use figs everyday to keep them away from diseases. It is said that in ancient Rome and Greek, farmers and slaves were given figs on a daily basis to increase their working capabilities. 

The fruit have both nutritional and medicinal values therefore it is regarded as functional food. It has property of keeping people physically and mentally strong. Dry fig has nutrition values more than its fresh variety. Protein, carbohydrates, calcium, thiamin, riboflavin, potassium, iron and high amount of fibers are its main constituents. It contains second highest amount of calcium after Oranges.  The major section has sugar which forms 51 to 70 %of the whole fruit.

Beauticians recommend it for beautification and personal care. Eating figs prevent cracking of lips and premature wrinkles. It puts off bad breath. The milky juice of green fig has necrotic property and can be applied to soften the thickening of skin of toe (Corn). Its sodium-free, cholesterol free, fat free and high fiber properties make it ideal food for dieters.  For those who are planning to quit smoking, figs can be an alternative. For long time it has been used to treat skin pigmentation, warts, mole and blisters. It is used as a medical dressing which applied on infectious skin to get rid of abscess. Its sugary pulp is ideal for making sweetener for dieters. 
 
Softening and soothing effects of figs provide relief from respiratory tract inflammation, cough, colds and aching throats. In folk medicine it is used as a demulcent for the irritation of soft skin tissues. Due to anti-bacterial properties it can inhibit bacterial growth.

For chefs and bakery product makers fig is a favorite ingredient for making of deserts, jams, jelly, cakes, pies etc. Adding figs to food products enhance both their taste and dietetic values. Presence of a substance known as humectants makes figs useful to keep the bakery products fresh and moist for long time. 

In south East Asia, Anjeer and Guava blended, together to make a healthy and refreshing fruit drink. In Mediterranean countries its extract is added in alcohol and tobacco. Dry roasted figs are pressed and grounded to use as alternative to coffee. In America fig puree is part of many sweet recipes.  Combination of figs and milk ensure sufficient supply of proteins, calcium and iron.  

In western countries green figs are available in can and tin and added to yogurt and cream to make deserts.

Figs are rich source of soluble and insoluble dietary fibers. Soluble fibers help to lower blood cholesterol while insoluble fibers prevent breast and colon cancer and heart attack.

in my case, this is how i enjoy fresh and dried figs...

 

Black mission figs in country boule

 

black and white..in flaxseeds sourdough

 

fresh turkish figs on toasted sourdough bread with walnuts and swiss chard

 

Japanese fresh figs on toasted sourdough bread with grilled gorgonzola and smoke salmon

 

 

Health benefits of figs
  • Fig fruit is low in calories. 100 g fresh fruits provide only 74 calories. However, they contain health benefiting soluble dietary fiber, minerals, vitamins, and pigment anti-oxidants that contribute immensely for optimum health and wellness.

  • Dried figs are an excellent source of minerals, vitamins and anti-oxidants. In fact, dried fruits are concentrated sources of energy. 100 g dried figs provide 249 calories. 

  • Fresh figs, especially black mission, are good in poly-phenolic flavonoid anti-oxidants such ascarotenes, lutein, tannins, chlorogenic acid...etc. Their anti-oxidant value is comparable to that ofapples at 3200 umol/100 g.

  • In addition, fresh fruits contain adequate levels of some of the anti-oxidant vitamins such as vitamin A, E, and K. Altogether these phyto-chemical compounds in fig fruit help scavenge harmful oxygen derived free radicals from the body and thereby protect us from cancers, diabetes, degenerative diseases and infections.

  • Furthermore, research studies suggest that chlorogenic acid in these berries help lower blood sugar levels and control blood-glucose levels in type-II diabetes mellitus (Adult onset) condition.

  • Fresh as well as dried figs contain good levels of B-complex group of vitamins such as niacin, pyridoxine, folates, and pantothenic acid. These vitamins function as co-factors for metabolism of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.

  • Dried figs are excellent source minerals like calcium, copper, potassium, manganese, iron, selenium and zinc. 100 g of dried figs contain 640 mg of potassium, 162 mg of calcium, 2.03 mg of iron and 232 mg of potassium. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids that helps controlling heart rate and blood pressure. Copper is required in the production of red blood cells. Iron is required for red blood cell formation as well for cellular oxidation.

enjoy... a fig a day keep the doctor away too :)

evonlim

 

Second Cooking's picture
Second Cooking

I made some rolls a few weeks ago with bits and pieces of left over hard cheese. I just grated them and added to the dough. I also had just a scrap of Gouda, that I cut in chunks and threw in as well. They came out fine. Mostly a shrap taste from whatever the predominate hard cheese was. I liked the occasional smoked smoked bite from the Gouda.

When I saw a Smoked Gouda at the Costco last weekend from a local dairy, I decide I would give some cheese rolls another try. I tend to more whole grain when cooking only for myself. Figuring everyone would want some cheese bread, I decided to go with mostly white flour. Since my starter is on a white whole wheat, I went with a country style mix on the dough.

 Overall Formula:

300g Bread Flour* 60%

150g White Whole Wheat 30%

50g Rye 10%

325g Water* 65%

10g Salt 2%

0.5 Tablespoon Instant yeast ~0.5%

180g Smoked Gouda 36%

 

*I used a 20% of the flour as a preferment sourdough at 100% hydration.

100 g White whole wheat

100 g Water

 Mix all ingredients, except for the cheese. Knead by hand for minute or so, and fold into the dough. I cut these a little uneven in size so they would give different size pockets in the rolls.

 

 Stretch and fold 3 times 20 minutes apart. Let rest another 20 and divided.

 

 I was a little pressed for time when I started on these. My starter was at room temperature (approx. 70°), but I used warm water to bring the dough temp up a little quicker. I also kept everything in a warm oven the whole time (approx. 85°). I had formed these all as rounds. They proofed in about an hour and a half.

 

 Bake at 400° for just under 20 minutes. I checked at 15 originally and they were pretty much done by then, so I covered with foil. I didn't want them to brown up much more, but wanted to be sure to have the cheese melt.

 

 I let them rest about five minutes.

 

 They came out pretty good, I thought. I had two right then.

I've made similar versions before with other semisoft cheeses, as rolls and bread loafs.  With rolls you tend to get a little more seeping out the sides or you could used a little less cheese, I suppose.  I have plenty of cheese left.  I may try this as a loaf next and squeeze a little more cheese in.

Take care, Todd


carltonb's picture
carltonb

From eGullet

In our ever increasingly busy world, leave it to Fleischmann's (yes, that Fleischmann's) to come up with the product we all need - and in many varieties.

Yes, it's their Simply HomeMade No Knead Bread Mix (in four flavors) - and it's as simple as making bread in under an hour.  Here are the ingredients for the Stoneground Wheat Bread:

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

This is another ‘Post Panettone Levain Build’ bake.  It is amazing how much wasted starter you can; will, end up with when making the Italian levain for panettone!  Not to worry….we came up with another bake that used up all of left over SD and YW levain; 392 g worth, with the exception of 100 g of SD levain we are saving for the Valentine Rose Vienna Bread bake with the Three Twisted Sister GMA’s on Monday.

These near white levains had been in the fridge for a few days and were a little sleepy so we gave them 108 g of our whole Rye, spelt and WW mix with 125 g of water and let it sit out on the heating pad to warm up and get perky again.

  

While the huge, now 625 g YW/SD levain. was waking up, we autolysed the dough flour; half WW and half bread flour with the salt, Toadies, VWG, malts, honey, molasses, and Guinness Black Lager for 2 hours.  The only thing left out were the pumpkin and sunflower seeds.

 

The huge levain ended up being 45% of the total weight if you discount the 100 g of seeds.  This is about 3 times as large as normal for our baking.  Ian uses large levains per Peter Reinhart but I’m not sure he has gone this big!  We have tried this before but forgot what is was like so my apprentice thought this was the perfect time to continue our 'try it and see if we like it' method - our Mikey Technique of bread discovery.

 

Once the autolyse and the levain came together, we did 10 minutes of slap and folds to get this 80% hydration dough to come together.  I wasn’t at all difficult since we had 60% whole grains, most of it whole wheat, which really soaked up the beer.  After 10 minutes the dough had a great feel, was smooth supple and exhibited fine gluten development for higher percentage whole grain bread.

  

 After resting for 15 minutes we did 3 sets of French Folds to incorporate and distribute the seeds and further develop the gluten.  We then let the dough ferment on the counter for an hour before retarding it in the fridge for 12 hours.  It more than doubled in the fridge just like John01473’s  did yesterday.

 

We allowed the dough to warm up on the heating pad for 2 hours before gently shaping it into a batard, loafish, oval shape that would fit nicely into the non stick sprayed, Romertopf, clay baker we got at Goodwill many months ago but never used it to make bread.  It made a fine Sunday Chicken though.  We had soaked the Romertopf in a 5 gallon bucket on the patio for a couple of days waiting for a good time to use it.

 

This bake was also inspired by Raluca’s boldly baked 65% whole wheat bread and lamberta72 buying a Romertopf and Bobkay1022 posting pictures of a very nice bake in his Romertopf  that healso  got at Goodwill like I did!  So it was time to put these additional inspirations together with Ian’s big levain and long bulk retard in the fridge.  It is not too odd, as odd things can go,  how things can come together for a bake with a little Fresh Lofian help.

 

After 4 1/2 hours in the Romertopf for final proofing on the heating pad, the bread was ready to be slashed and baked.  Slashing was made with my favorite French bread slicing knife,  We put the Romertopf in the very cold Old Betsy and fired her up to 460 F.  When she beeped that she was at temperature, we set the timer for 20 minutes of steam.  After 20 minutes we removed the lid and turned the oven down to 425 F, convection this time.

 

After another 10 minutes, rotating every 5 minutes, we removed the bread from the Romertopf and placed it on the stone and continued rotating it every 5 minutes to ensure even browning.  15 minutes later we turned the oven down to 400 F; convection and tented the top with aluminum foil to keep it from browning too much.  The bread reached 205 F 15 minutes later after a total baking time of exactly 1 hour after the oven beeped when reaching the original 460 F.

 

There was no reason to crisp the crust on the stone for 10 minutes with the door ajar and the oven off as this bread was very brown and crust crisp as all get out.   It was certainly a looker from the outside and the rise and spring were very good indeed.  We are impressed with the Romertopf, as much as we are impressed with Ian’s large levain, bulk retard, warm, shape and proof method.  If the inside is as good as the outside this should be one of those bakes we look forward to doing again.

 

The crumb wasn't as open as the rise, spring and bloom would have us believe but the crumb was light and moist with lots of smaller holes that must have added up to the rise and spring we saw on the outside.   Sometimes bread can fake you out.  It also tastes well rounded and has a deeply flavorful profile.  There is a slight SD tang that was muted by the YW.  The seeds came though nicely too.   All in all, it is  a very nice WW sandwich bread which is what we were after.  I'm sure my wife will love this for her lunch sandwiches - I know I will.  It is good be nearly out of panettone levain too - only  100 g to go:-)

It's a grilled pepper jack,  brie with pastrami cheese sandwich.  Great bread makes great sandwiches!  And don't forget the salad and fresh fruit, citrus, melon and veggies with a home made pickle.

If you eat right you can have some lemon cheese cake with chocolate sandwich cookie crust once in a while.

Formula

Big Combo Whole   Wheat Multi-grain Bread with Pumpkin and Sunflower Seeds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Starter Build

Build 1

Build 2

Build 3

Total

%

WWW & AP SD Starter

30

0

0

30

3.97%

Yeast Water

80

0

0

80

10.60%

Rye

0

0

0

0

0.00%

WW

0

0

36

36

4.77%

Spelt

0

15

36

51

6.75%

Dark Rye

0

15

36

51

6.75%

White Whole Wheat

66

0

0

66

8.74%

AP

66

40

0

106

14.04%

Water

50

30

125

205

27.15%

Total

292

100

233

625

82.78%

 

 

 

 

 

 

Combo Starter Totals

 

%

 

 

 

Flour

325

43.05%

 

 

 

Water

300

39.74%

 

 

 

Starter Hydration

92.31%

 

 

 

 

Levain % of Total

42.26%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dough Flour

 

%

 

 

 

Red Malt

3

0.40%

 

 

 

Toadies

10

1.32%

 

 

 

Vital Wheat Gluten

15

1.99%

 

 

 

White Malt

2

0.26%

 

 

 

Bread Flour

200

26.49%

 

 

 

Whole Wheat

200

26.49%

 

 

 

Total Dough Flour

430

56.95%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salt

12

1.59%

 

 

 

Guinness Black Lager

290

38.41%

 

 

 

Dough Hydration w/o   starter

67.44%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add - Ins

 

%

 

 

 

Sunflower, Pumpkin 50   ea

100

13.25%

 

 

 

Molasses $ Honey

22

2.91%

 

 

 

Total

122

16.16%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total Flour w/ Starter

755

 

 

 

 

Total Beer & Water   w/ Starter

590

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hydration w/ Starter   & Adds

79.60%

 

 

 

 

Total Weight

1,479

1,295

Finished Weight

% Whole Grain

60.77%

 

 

 

 

 

krasnyja's picture
krasnyja

Have not posted any of my baking results recently, so I thought that I would share a photo of the 75% whole Wheat Bread from Ken Forkish's book.  It was pretty darn good, but since it was more healthy, not as much of a hit as the white.  :P

 

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - blogs