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Isand66's picture
Isand66

Since I had some leftover Durum YW starter from my last bake I decided to make English Muffins again.  I followed the same recipe I used the last time but this time the starter was 100% Durum flour and I used my European style flour from KAF for the main dough.  Similar to last time I used Greek Yogurt (2%) and I added some Cheddar cheese as well.

The end results were exactly what I expected with a nice open crumb and flavor as good as any English Muffin I have had before.

English Muffins Main Dough

165 grams Wild Yeast Water Durum Starter (you can use your regular Sourdough starter at 65% hydration instead if desired)

620 grams European Style Flour (KAF or use Bread Flour with a little Whole Wheat)

300 grams Greek Plain Yogurt (I used Fage 2%)

235 grams Water (85-90 degrees F.)

50 grams Cheese (I used grated Cheddar.  Add in final mix)

26 grams Sugar

10 grams Salt

12 grams Baking Soda

Semolina or Cornmeal for Dusting

Directions

Mix flour, starter and yogurt in your mixing bowl and mix for 1-2 minutes to combine.

Cover the bowl and let it sit out at room temperature overnight or for at least 9-10 hours.

The next morning add the rest of the ingredients and mix for a minute.  Knead the dough either with your mixer or by hand for around 4 minutes, adding additional flour if necessary.  Next roll out the dough to about 3/4" thickness on your work surface.  You will have to put some bench flour on the work surface to prevent the dough from sticking.  Using  4" biscuit cutter or can, cut the muffins out and place on a pan lined with parchment paper dusted with corn meal or semolina flour.  You should end up with 5-6 muffins.  If necessary you can combine the scraps and roll out again but you may need to let it rest before rolling.

Cover the muffins with a clean misted or floured towel and let rest for 1 hour at room temperature.

Heat your griddle or heavy skillet to medium or around 350 degrees  and when ready to cook spray some cooking spray on the cooking surface before placing the English Muffins in the pan.

Cover the pan to create some steam and let cook for around 5 minutes or until the bottoms are nice and brown.  Flip and cook another 5 minutes and remove to a baking rack to cool.

Wingnut's picture
Wingnut

First attempt 

 

Raluca's picture
Raluca

 A couple of days ago I told you about my first white sourdough baked this year.

Today I am going to tell you about the second one. Still not perfect, but definitely improved. Baked all the way through, with a good oven spring due to preheating the oven and stone for much longer (1hr and 20 minutes to be exact) and a better crumb (potentially from the increased hydration – I went for a 67% hydration level for this one, compared to almost 65% for the first one).

I followed pretty much the same recipe and method as for the first boule, the only difference for the recipe was in the hydration level of the final dough.

So you still have the same time schedule, the same ingredients for the preferment and the same baker’s percentage for the preferment.

Here are the ingredients for the final bread and the baker’s percentages for this new formula.

Recipe for 1 loaf (67% hydration)

Ingredients for bread

Ingredient     Quantity   Baker's %
Preferment245gr72%
Strong white flour340gr100%
Water192gr56%
Salt8gr

2.30%

Final baker’s percentage (including preferment)

Ingredient  Quantity    Baker’s     %
Strong white flour455gr100%
Water307gr67.47%
Sourdough culture15gr3.29%
Salt8gr1.75%

For this bread I used the same strong organic white flour from Shipton Mill.

Method:

The method I used was the same, apart from pre-heating the oven and baking stone for 1h and 20 minutes rather than just 20 minutes.

The results are just amazing! When a loaf like this comes out of my oven I just wonder why I have ever bought bread from a shop, why? Why?

This time the bottom wasn’t cracked anymore, the bread was baked all the way through and the crumble was much better. As for the taste: divine!

What do you think? Better?

lumos's picture
lumos

 When I encounter really tasty bread from a bakery or at a restaurant, my usual reaction is ‘God, I want to make this myself!,’ and start going back and forth on my palate-memory lane, playing with formula in the attempt to re-create the flavour, aroma and texture I enjoyed.  Many of my bread recipes are born like that rather than following/adjusting the recipes I found in books or on internet.

 One of those breads I’d been trying to re-create was Pain l’Ancienne by a small artisan baker with amazing array of European (mainly French & Italian) breads, Earth Crust, a very popular bread stall at the Market in Cambridge town centre. I love the slightly chewy texture and its very open crumb. And of course I like the flavour but I wanted it to be a tiny bit more rustic/deeper than their verson, so I’ d been tinkering with the formula for quite a long time, not quite sure myself what sort of flavour-profile I want to achieve…..without just ending up with exactly the same formula of other breads I already had and liked, which  often happens with me. :p

Then, in February last year we went to have a lunch with our family friends at a lovely restaurant on the Thames in the southwest of London  after watching our daughter’s boat race on the river.  As soon as we ordered the food, a waiter brought a huge basket with breads of various kinds, and among them were a few slices of bread with very open, creamy coloured crumb & quite rustic looking dark crust.  Without any delay (nor manner), my hand bee-lined to grab the slice. As soon as I chewed into it, I knew. This is IT!! This is exactly what I wanted to achieve!  I asked the waiter where they got their bread from and this was the bakerery he told me and, by judging from the photo and the description on their website, I think what I had was Ancient Loaf (Ha! :D) from their ‘Long Fermentation Speciality Bread……probably.

Anyway, whatever the name was, my quest of re-creating it by tinkering the uncompleted ‘Earth Crust’s l’Ancienne’ recipe that I’d been playing with had began….and sort of completed in the early autumn last year.

 So this is my take on Flourish Craft Bakery’s Ancient Loaf/Pain l’Ancienne, though I’m guessing theirs is much higher in hydration than mine, from the look of their very open crumb with large holes.  I lowered the hydration to just a little over 70% because 1) I’d be using the bread to make sandwich for my hubby, so too many, too large holes might not be such a good idea, 2) I didn’t want the dough to stick to my banetton during proofing.  Also, according to their product list they only use wheat and rye, but I added small amount of spelt and wheatgerm for extra flavour…..plus a tiny bit of rapeseed oil for better keeping quality. I used rye sour as the starter to make sourdough because I know some traditional French bakers use it as their mother starter.

 

My take on Flourish Craft Bakery’s Ancient Loaf

    S/D   Rye sour 50g (75% hydration) fed, twice, with 140g strong white flour + 100g water during 14 – 18 hr period (or shorter or longer) before making the dough.

        Feed 1 – flour 40g + water 30g

        Feed 2 – flour 100g = water 70g

    (Note:  Only 240g is used for making the bread. Store the rest in the fridge as starter for next use.)

  Main Dough  

    Strong flour   570g

    WW  15g

    Spelt  15g

    Wheatgerm   2 tbls  

    Water   420 – 430g

    Sea salt   14g

   Very good quality rapeseed Oil (or extra virgin olive oil) 1 tbls

  1. Mix mature sourdough with all the flour, wheatgerm and most of water until no dry bits of flour is left.  Cover and leave for 30- 40 min.

  2. Sprinkle the salt over the dough with some of remaining water and S & F in the bowl until everything is thoroughly mixed and the dough becomes smooth. Adjust the hydration, if necessary, at this point using remaining water. (Don’t make it too wet because….→) Add oil and mix thoroughly, using S & F technique. Cover and leave for 40 min. (or maybe 30 min if you live in a warmer country than this freezing Britain! Brrrr….)

   3.  Two more S & Fs at 30-40 min interval.

   4.  Leave for 1 – 1 1/4 hr and let it increase in volume by about 25% at room temperature.

    5.  At the end of the above period, check the dough’s strength and, if necessary,  letter-fold once on a floured work-tup to strengthen the dough. Put it in the fridge for cold retardation for 12 – 18 hrs.

     6.  Take it out of the fridge and leave for 1 – 2 hr (depends on how cold where you live is…) to return the dough to room temperature (….and finish proofing, if necessary).

     7.  When fully fermented (you’d see a few large bubbles on the dough surface), divide into two, pre-shape, rest 15 – 20 min.

8, Shape, put in two banettons, cover (I use a shower cap) and proof.

     9.  Pre-heat the oven @240C with casserole/pot/Pyrex with lid.

    10.  When the is sufficiently proofed (finger test!), score the top and bake for 20 min with the lid.

   11.  After 20 min, remove the lid, lower the temperature to 210 – 220C and bake another 20 min.

    12. Turn the heat off but leave the loaves in the oven with the oven door slightly ajar for 5 min.

 

 

 

 

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hello everyone,

January’s Bread Baking Day theme is “A Bread Fashion Show”, with a call for decorated crusts.
What a lovely idea!

                                                                                

A Fashion Show seemed to call for fabric – how to use fabric to decorate bread?
I was reminded me of a photo I saw once, of one of Roger Gural’s beautiful breads, stencilled with a lacy pattern.
Off to the fabric store I went.

This is Mr. Hamelman’s Unkneaded Six-Fold French Bread, using a big piece of lace to stencil, for this month’s baking challenge. I wish I could say I used fancy French lace – this was more likely drapery material :^)    

                                  

 

Many thanks: to Mr. Gural for the inspiration, to Mr. Hamelman for his delicious recipe, to Jenni at The Gingered Whisk for a wonderful idea for this month’s challenge, and to Zorra for her Bread Baking Day event.
I’m so looking forward to seeing what other bakers will create for this month’s ‘decorated bread’ baking theme!

 

*Update to this post - one more entry for the Fashion Show :^)

I was going through some photos and remembered this bread I baked a long time ago (2011).
This bread was inspired by a fashionable, floral, felted hat, made by a very talented lady I met at a bread-baking class -
I wanted to add this bread to this post!
This sourdough bread's crust was covered with decorative dough 'flowers', that had been colored with white flour, cocoa and cornmeal; the 'leaves' were colored with green pea flour. Had fun with cookie cutters, for this one :^)
                               

 

Happy baking everyone,
:^) breadsong

 

linder's picture
linder

Today, I decided to try Txfarmer's straight dough baguette formula on this post http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/31945/straight-method-baguette-good-starter-baguette-practice 

OK, I'm hooked.  I am now, along with many others, on a quest to make a good baguette.  I made a bunch at the SFBI class Artisan Bread I and it was so much easier to get a nice brown crust on those baguettes with the professional oven.  Now I'm with my home oven and the browning just isn't happening.

Here is a picture of my baguettes to date -

-

Close up of the scoring (which could improve but getting better)-

 

I would like to get the bread to have a little more color.  Not sure what the issue might be.  I have a  gas oven. I used the towel steaming method that SylviaH explained in detail(thank you).  It helped open the scoring. Perhaps I didn't have the steaming loaf pans in the proper positions?  I also used quarry tiles on the top shelf over the baguettes in hopes of creating more of a brick oven effect.  Was that a mistake?  I would like more color on the baguettes.  Should I add some diastatic malt to the mix?  I was using KAF Bread flour not AP, would that do it?  Any and all ideas welcome

 

Skibum's picture
Skibum

I have recently been seeking out new recipes to try, both for the flavour of new breads and the fun of trying new things. One of my favourite recent bakes is P. Reinhart's Many Seed bread which has become my favourite toast bread:

After a year of trying to make "artisan breads," I tried PR's Hoagie/ Cheesesteak buns and I love these! It is a super easy recipe -- beautiful dough to work with, the buns freeze well and toast up great for a grilled Bratwurst from my local Swiss deli.  I have done these twice now and both have been easy, fun bakes:

Hoagies proofing on my ragged linen couche. I support the couche with the counter backsplash and anything handy for the other end.

Proofed, scored and ready to bake.

Voila! A most tasty result and I will repeat, a very fun bake!  Beautiful, easy dough to work with and tasty results.

Regards, Brian

txfarmer's picture
txfarmer

Sending this to Yeastspotting.

Click here for my blog index.

I have made brown croissants (coffee), green croissants (matcha), black croissants (dark chocolate), yellow croissants (pumpkin). With some purple yam on hand, it's only natural that I want to make purple croissants.

Well, it turns out complicated. Yam puree, just like potato puree, softens the crumb and weakens dough strength. As the result, if I add too much, croissants don't open up enough (i.e. no big honeycomb holes) and the texture is tender rather than crispy. However, if I add too little, there isn't enough color. After a few tries, the following recipe is what I arrived at. Still not the vivid purple I wanted, but at least that hint of color is noticable.

Purple yam croissant with Sourdough Starter
Note: for details and tips on making croissants, please see this post & this post.
Note: this recipe makes about 12 large danishes.

-levain
starter (100%), 35g
water, 59g
bread flour, 105g

1. mix and leave at room temp for 12 hours.

-final dough
bread flour, 422g
sugar, 68g
salt, 10g
instant yeast, 7g
butter, 21g, softened
purple yam puree, 200g
water, 180g
levain, all
roll-in butter, 287g

1. Mix everything but the rolling butter, knead until medium gluten developement. Then follow the steps here.

I filled them with more purple yam filling

It's obvious that the cross section has less hight comparing to my other croissants, that's due to the weaker dough

-----------

Also want to post some chocolate puff pastery I made a while ago. Recipe is from Pierre Hermes’ “Chocolate Desserts”(recipe can be found here), like all PH recipes, it's horribly time consuming and fussy. Yes, it's also terribly delicious. Sigh.

This dough is on the drier side, then it needs to be folded six times!!! Let's just say between all the resting and rolling out and folding, it was a 24 hour process.

The first time I made it, I was so sick of the dough that I directly shoved it into the freezer after the final rolling, couldn't bear to use it until a month later. I of course didn't learn my lesson, made it again. Used some of it for this mille-feuille.

All that layers...

Used the rest for some very fancy apple hand pie.

johannesenbergur's picture
johannesenbergur


Ingredients:

  • Whole grain
    • 150g whole grains
      • Feel free to combine different sorts: wheat, rye, barley, spelt
  • Dough
    • 450 g water
    • 150g sourdough
    • 5g fresh yeast
    • 10g honey
    • 10g malt syrup
    • Seeds and the alike
      • Sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, sesame seeds
        Just a small handful
    • 150g stale bread
    • 25g salt
    • 600g flour
      • 300g rye
      • 50g semolina or durum
      • 250 other flour
        • Graham
        • Spelt
        • Wheat
Grains:Soak the whole grains in a cup with around 2,5 dl cold water. Put a lid on and leave it in the fridge for at least 24 hours.Dough:Dissolve the yeast in the honey. Add water, the soaked grains with the remaining water, malt and sourdough. Finely chop the stale bread and leave it to soak in the mixture for around 15-30 mins. Add the salt, dissolve and start adding the flour, little by little. When the dough is starting to come together, although still very sticky, you may precede to knead it with your hands. At this point you usually need to knead some more flour into the dough. The dough doesn't need a lot of kneading, since it's a pretty tight rye bread, around 5-10 mins, just so it's still sticky, but still is dry enough to keep a shape.
Put the dough in a greased container and cover it up with a wet tablecloth. Leave it to proof for at least 12 hours i the fridge. I usually just leave mine over night.When proofed, put it in a 3 litre bread baking pan. Sprinkle oatmeal, seeds or nothing at all on top of it and score it. Cover the pan up with a wet tablecloth and leave it to rise at room temperature until it has risen to fill the pan completely - this process usually takes up to a couple of hours.Bake at 180 degrees celcius. Bake for two hours, gently remove the baking pan and put the loaf in for another half an hour.
Leave it to cool on a tray and keep your fingers to yourself until the next day.
Faith in Virginia's picture
Faith in Virginia

This is my go at the basic croissant from the  Advanced Bread and Pastry by Michel Suas and baked in my wood fired oven.  The only changes to the formula was a change in yeast type.  The formula called for osmotolerant yeast and all that I have is active dry so I made the conversion even though it felt like a heap of yeast.   The book also did not call for any egg wash.  I don't know if that was because it was an advanced book and the egg wash was expected without mention or an egg wash was not required.  None the less I liked the end results.

Think I will work through his other croissant formulas.

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