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Timing is everything.

Good timing makes a joke work, as bad timing does the same for tragedy.

For bread, though, it means nothing.  Bakers who brag about using long fermentation times puzzle me.  I mean, I know what they mean, but do they?  I, too, am guilty of using this idea when discussing bread.  Why?  It's convenient.  Everybody knows it.  It's an available reference point.

And yet it all means nothing.

Handmade things that take a long time to make are usually thought of as being of a higher quality than a similar product made fast and cheaply on an industrial scale.  Why?  The answer to this question will help us a bit further on.

First, let's talk about time.  What is it?  For our purposes, it's the same thing as dough rheology, the progression from one physical state of being into another, with the possibility of never returning to the previous state.  The tricky thing to pin down, though, is the rate of change, which is consequently affected by the hows and whys of the physical transformation attempting to be measured.

For us, as bakers, time is merely a very long string connecting together a series of snapshots of a dough's state of being.  And, no, I am not about to get Heideggerian.  For me, this offers a better framework by which to understand time.

Some bakers view time as an ingredient.  This is silly.  It is okay to have one cup of thyme, but not one cup of time.  Others, still, insist it is a procedural parameter, which it certainly is.  In a real-world environment, we all have busy lives.  There are only so many hours in the day, and this might dictate our baking schedule.  It is much easier to control time when it is viewed as an outcome, and not as an independent variable.

Fermentation is the change in the physical state of being from a dough and into bread.  There are simply so many controllable variables available to a diligent baker that she might be able to make two loaves of bread, both with nearly identical results, but with vastly different times it took to achieve that end result.  This tells us that time is irrelevant to understanding fermentation.

So, how to we better measure the physical state of our would-be bread?  What tools are available to us to better understand and measure the rate of metabolic activity, the degradation of the dough?  There are many methods already available to the baker (e.g., measuring pH, CO2 production, and so on).  What other data points can we find to build a better, more robust model?

And why does taking a long time by hand necessarily make something better?  Because:  there's simply more time to interact with the substance to be measured, and thus more available data points for an astute baker to collect (with or without her consciously knowing).  Good bread is not about time; it's about doing the right thing at the right time.  It is in our, the baker's, interaction, when and how we handle the dough, from which good bread emerges.

So, let's take our time and find more reference points.  Answer why and we discover how and when.

I didn't do much holiday baking this year mostly because I have had my focus firmly on bread and flour, and the infinite variety that flour, water, salt, and yeast can create.   For my last post of the year, back to my learning bread - the bread that I made over and over and over again for a year before I went on to other things.   Of course what's the fun without variation.   This one is made with a mix of KA AP flour, White Rye, and High Extraction flour.  

The White Rye for reasons I don't understand gives oven spring a boost.  

The High Extraction flour, while containing a fair amount of bran, does nothing to reduce the lightness of the crumb.  

The crust is crisp and crackly.

I thank all of you out there for helping me to learn how to bake, and also for sharing all your wonderful creations.   Here's to a happy new year of baking in 2013!

Maggie Glezer - Tomcat's Semolina Filone 

I baked with family and friends for the holidays

German Christmas Biscuits/Cookies

These are soooo delicious, full of spicey goodness, coated with two different glazes and topped with sugar crystals for a little extra holiday shine.  I used my candied orange peel finely chopped instead of orange grated, which made a nice touch.  I will definately make more of these.  

Think Almond Roca

Took me a while to find this resized photo...sorry for the delay posting :)

May this New Year Coming be blessed for all.  

Sylvia 

Hi folks. Long time between blog posts for me. Been baking as much as ever but got lazy with taking pics and doing write-ups. I've fallen into a comfortable 3-bake-per-week rhythm cycling through our favourites, which these days are mostly variations on my pain de campagne. I like this rhythm after 3 years of working through scores of different breads. I've found it's a different type of learning, focusing on just a few breads - an incremental progression towards quality and consistency. Nice after all the experimenting, but perhaps not so conducive to regular posting, for me at least.

It's not really bread that has prompted this post. It's jam! Our backyard mulberry tree has delivered us a bumper crop this year, which my partner has turned into the most glorious jams (and cobblers!). Sensational on fresh-baked SD pain de campagne, and what a colour! Thought this was worth sharing:

Season's greetings to all.

Ross

Made a loaf of Laurel's Buttermilk Bread today and, as is typical, I simply did two bulk rises before shaping, and then did the final rise in a cooler with a cup of boiling water inside. I also reduced the liquid to about 170g water and 170g buttermilk. The difference, however, is that I completely forgot about it  after shaping and didn't remember that the bread was rising at all until it had proofed for more than 2 hours! Much longer than I ususually let it go.  If my nine-year-old had not reminded me, I'd have let it go until after I got back from the new Corvallis brew pub with my buddy, at which point it would have been an over-risen, imploded mess. 

That said, it actually turned out pretty well! Maybe I should proof it for 2+ hours every time!

Decided to start with one of Ken Forkish's easier recipes and made the Saturday Bread.  It turned out pretty good and I would say it is probably the nicest looking bread that I have made on my short journey to bread geekdom.  Finally got the nice rings from my wicker basket (you should have seen some of my past disasters).  I used a czech flour to flour the basket - it was a coarse wheat and I think that made it less sticky than the previous AP I was using (didnt have to add rice flour). 

I can't help it. I'm so proud of my son's first bread. A month ago, I visited them for Thanksgiving and left him with some of my sourdough starter. I baked once while there, with Joel watching. Yesterday, he made his first on his own San Joaquin Sourdough.

I aske Joel how it tasted. He said, "Kind of like yours. Great."

Not too shabby, eh?

It's not quite like having another grandchild, but sort of like. 

David

According to Floyd's clock, it has been exactly a year since I emerged from lurkdom @ TFL.  So it's a good day to thank our gracious and attentive host for his hospitality at The Loafers' Inn, and as well to thank Floyd's far-flung guests who have enlivened and enriched my bread journey so generously over the past twelve months.

We are pilgrims on separate paths to our uniquely personal leavened Canterburys, all intersecting at Floyd's Inn.  Some arrived long ago yet linger, lurk or share, while others have wandered away leaving rich legacies on the TFL server.  For many, the journey continues, stopping over to trade millers', bolters' and bakers' tales of crust and crumb, lending support in the passing of fellow travelers or their kin, through work changes, retirements, medical challenges, sundry personal crises or merely a distressingly dense crumb or moribund starter.   To paraphrase a poet: You can get almost anything you want at Floyd's TFL Inn.

To my fellow and former travelers on this unexpected but rewarding pilgrimage, from Brisbane to British Columbia, Fresno to Ft Bragg, Arizona to Seattle, Dubai to Newcastle, Massachusetts to Montana, and all points in between....

Thank you all,
     Happy New Year
               Happy Baking in 2013
                              and don't forget the salt.

-Tom

Stollen is one of my favourite Xmas breads, in fact all breads.

Not surprising given my fondness for fruit, cherries and marzipan….

Not fond of dark rum though…a tipple of white rum, yes!!

Sublime…

Just gorgeous with Marzipan

The one I make has fruit that has been sitting in rum for a week or so….

It is also chocka block with fruit and cherries and my favourite, marzipan…

I have to say that I feel this years Stollen is magnificent:)

It has been sitting for ten days wrapped up, now it is ready to unleash!!

The first one, I scoffed in a few days….

Delish!!

You do need patience, so don’t think it is a quick bread.

It is also BEST left for a week or so to ‘mature’.

This is why the recipe I will give you, makes 2 big ones….One for now and one for later.

One last wee thing…..

NO NO NO !!

Don’t even think about it!!!

DONT USE THAT HIDEOUS WHITE ICING , FONDANT OR ALMOND ICING THAT IS NOT PROPER MARZIPAN!!!

I will know and come round to your house!!

Sorry to be an arse but it makes it taste like crap and it ruins it….

You are probably thinking “food nazi” but seriously, why take the time to make this beautiful only to ruin it with something that is wrong for the bread.

You wouldn’t use substandard choccy for a brownie, so NO ICING!! or make meringues with granulated instead of castor sugar.

So use marzipan or mandorle (almond paste)  or make your own almond paste or marzipan…

Marzipan is made from the almond paste, it just has more sugar in it.

NO ICING, FONDANT, ALMOND FLAVOURS ETC ETC ETC…NO, NO, NO. NO!!!

Grind them, baby!!

So without any further blathering…….and lecturing…

*******You need to soak the fruit at least a week before hand**********

YOU WILL NEED!!

500 g cake mix

1/2 cup of chopped up Glace cherries

1 cup of black rum

20 g of dried yeast.

200-300 g marzipan.

1 cup of milk warmed

1 cup of flour -(any is ok….err no wholemeal)

2 tsp sugar

4 cups of strong bakers flour

Pinch of salt

2 tbsp cinnamon

2 tsp cloves

2 eggs

100 g butter softened

soaking the fruit…

First you need to soak your fruit and cherries in the dark rum a week before hand.

Cover and place in fridge!!

SEE YOU IN A WEEK:)

Stollen sponge

Warm milk, stir in sugar and add yeast.

Mix well and leave to become frothy for 10-15 minutes.

Add in 1 cup of flour and stir well.

Cover and leave for an hour.

Drain any liquid off the soaking fruit.

Reserve liquid and pour into spongey mix after an hour.

Stollen dough….time to rest:)

Add all dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and stir through.

Beat eggs and pour into yeasty mix with excess rum liquid from fruit.

Toss fruit very lightly in a little flour and set aside.

Pour eggy yeasty mix into dry and form a dough.

Knead for 10 minutes, adding in the softened butter until smooth and combined.

Some people put their fruit in before kneading and then knead with the fruit….I don’t like that.

You can ,once the dough is formed and kneaded as above, then lightly mix the fruit through, in 2-3 batches.

I usually wait until after it has risen and do it then.

Place marzipan in dough…

So once the dough (fruit or no fruit) is ready, place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover and leave for 2 hours.

Turn out dough on lightly floured board/ bench.

I will now incorporate my fruit, in 2-3 batches and then cut the dough in half.

You could make three of these instead of two as this gives you two BIG stollens.

I then lightly push dough out to form like an oval shape.

The beauty of stollen, is that it is supposed to resemble a sort of crescent BUT there is no hard and fast….

It’s supposed to be mishapen etc…

roll up dough over the marzipan

I place my marzipan roll up near the edge of the dough and fold dough over it, pinching in the ends in the middle.

I then bring the edge closest to me, into the middle as well and then tweak together.

roll the dough fully…

You definitely want it to be humpy/lumpy looking.

Place the crescent-shaped loaves on a tray with baking paper.

I like to brush them with melted butter now and cover with gladwrap lightly and then a tea towel.

Leave to rise for about 90 minutes.

pre rising…

rising….full of cherries and fruit…

Preheat the oven to 180 celsius.

Gently remove gladwrap and place stollen in the oven.’

Bake for 20 minutes and then turn the stollen around so it is evenly baked.

I find that 40-45 minutes, until goldy brown, is enough…

Remove from oven and allow to cool.

When cool, dust with icing sugar.

If you are keeping one, then wrap tightly in a muslin cloth or tinfoil.

Ready to bake..

Cooling….

Wrapping the one for later…

dusted and ready to eat!!

See the marzipan….

Fully dusted….

Tasty…

ENJOY, ENJOY, ENJOY

MERRY XMAS….

This stollen recipe is an old family one, passed down through my eldest son, whose paternal family is German.

Tweaked a little for NZ conditions so to speak....

Peter Reinhart does a lovely Stollen and I found this one the other day which I will try next Xmas.

Well I will probably make a mid year one:)

It is richer and needs a good month or so prep…so be warned:)

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/25407/dresden-christmas-stollen

Just gorgeous with Marzipan

 http://greedybread.wordpress.com/2012/12/27/sublime-stollen-german-xmas-bread/#more-2297

What's fun about working with natural yeast is that I can throw together anything and just play around.So I just watched a couple of videos on bagels, and made 4 bagels of my own.The photos are from my phone, so they're not very clear.

The bagels came out just the way I wanted them. I've never been to NYC, or even to a real DELI, so I had nothing to "work with" in terms of achieving an example. These were tasty, chewy, and crispy.

It's spongy on the inside, incredibly crisp on the outside, chewy, but not too chewy. The very best thing about this is that it is not dry at all, but moist.

A pinch of homemade yeast
Sprinkle store yeast
AP flour
Wheat gluten
Water

Next day: salt, molasses, flour. Knead and rise. Shape and rise. Boil in Chinese alkali water. Bake in toaster oven on "high". Crazy...