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Happy 4th to all you fresh loafer's.

Our family enjoyed and celebrated yesterday with food and the fireworks tonight. 

Just a couple of breads and treats baked to bring from my house : ) 

Good Ol' delicious Scali...but this time I've added 40% Durum flour.  The recipe is for both the Scali and dog treats are at http://www.kingarthurflours.com 

        A Scala to go

                                   I used a chopstick end to make the little indentations for a more bonie look

                the pet's love these..the bird, doggies, horses even fluff the hamster..also fit for human consumption..not bad :)

                and very easy to make.  

                                      What a Treat of Day!

                              There were all kinds of pizza combinations.

                       I enjoyed very much watching and picking up some pointers on pizza's and WFO baking :)                   

                              Salmon Dinner was the highlight of the meal.  Beautifully prepared by the chef.

Sylvia

It has been almost 3 weeks since the last blog post of lunch sammys and other stuff - so here goes.

More later

It has been several year's since bagels were on the bake list.  We always made them sourdough but after seeing that Stan published his bagels on TFL, we had to give them a go for the 4th of July. 

We used Stan's method but instead of using clear flour we used a host of multi-grain s and some sprouts.  The grains include dark rye, WW, Durum Atta, semolina, soft white wheat and Bread flour.  The starter was a sourdough and yeast water combo starter that had some Bulgar, AP and 6 grain cereal in it.

Since the whole grains were over 50%, much of it home ground, we upped Stan's hydration to 60% from 50% and hand kneaded it after mixing the levain with the dough and salt briefly in the KA .  We built the combo levain in 3 stages - first 2 stages were 4 hours each and the last stage 2 hours before being refrigerated overnight.   The YW was used to replace the commercial yeast in Stan's recipe.

When the levain came out of the fridge the next day, we autolysed the flour with the dough for 2 hours as the starter warmed up.  We hand kneaded the dough for 10 minutes after mixing in the KA for 3 minutes.  The 25 g of sprouts were added at the very end of kneeding.  The dough was then rested for 15 minutes to relax it before forming the bagels over the knuckles and rolling the seam.

We weighed out the dough in 102-103 g portions to end up with 12  nice sized bagels that ended up at 85 to 90 g (with seeds) when baked.  Stan's recipe doesn't call for any bulk ferment prior to or after forming the bagels or after retard either.  I guess they were supposed to only rise in the fridge.  The bagels are formed right after kneading and placed on parchment, covered in plastic and placed directly in the fridge for an overnight retard.

The bagels are then removed from the fridge the next morning and simmered in malted barley water for 1 minute, (30 seconds a side -mine floated right away) then dried slightly (we used a non terry cloth towel) before dipping them in the sesame, poppy, salt or combo toppings.  They go back on the parchment and directly into a 450 F oven preheated with steam in place for 8 minutes.  Then the steam is removed, the bagels turned over and baked for another 8 minutes.

I tested the baking with 4 bagels and found that, using 2 of Sylvia's steaming pans with towels and water, the bagels needed 10 minutes of steam then flipped without steam for 10 more minutes and then flipped again for 2 more minutes - 22 minutes in all instead of 16.  We made 4 sesame, 4 poppy and 4 combo black and white sesame with kosher salt.

The bagels didn't rise as much as we wanted even though they tasted very NY authentic and had fine chew just like they should.  These would be great bagels if allowed to proof in a trash can plastic liner at room temperature - possibly after simmering in the water.  Maybe someone would know the correct thing to do.  I read later that David Snyder lets his bulk ferment for an hour before forming and retarding. 

The formula follows immediately if not sooner.

I love this take on Roti Bread, love the crispy layer of this bread and it's so much fun to make! 

• 500g plain flour
• 1 egg, lightly whisked
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 cups vegetable oil
• 100g ghee

Cheers Sonia

I haven't had a chance to comment or post lately due to difficult circumstances.   I have been reading and enjoying people's posts from time to time and regret that I haven't had a chance to comment on them.    Today I finally had time to uncover my Wood Fired Oven and bake.    I gave it a long firing since I haven't used it since a brief hot spell in March - then baked a couple of durum loaves.    It was hot, too hot and when I came out to check the loaves after 25 minutes, they were done, done, done, with a bit of char to boot.  

I have been frustrated lately with the raggediness of my score openings, and thought that it probably was a function of air flow in my gas oven.   Despite fiddling this way and that, I wasn't able to fix the problem to my satisfaction.    Today, I think I confirmed that it is oven related, as I was much happier with the result in the WFO.   

I only sprayed the loaves with water before loading and didn't put a steam pan in the oven.  

And here's the crumb:

Formula and method:

I'd like to thank everyone who provided suggestions on gauging the degree of proofing of cold dough.  Keeping your comments in mind, I decided to (nearly) fully proof the dough during bulk fermentation and then cold retard the (gently) shaped loaves overnight.  The cold loaves were then slashed and transfered directly into a hot oven.  I essentially followed the same sourdough bread formula as this loaf, but stuck with whole rye flour rather than chapati flour for the whole grain contribution and also tossed in some black sesame seeds.

The aroma from these loaves baking in the oven was amazing!  The sesame seeds added an earthiness that I have not tasted in any of my previous loaves, something akin to the smell of rain hitting dry earth.  The bread had a crisp crust and a chewier crumb than my previous bakes using the same recipe (could this be from baking cold rather than room temperature dough? or perhaps excess moisture from the pre-soaked sesame seeds?).

This experience (cold retarding fully proofed loaves) provides another viable option for managing my bread baking schedule around my everything-else schedule.  I also loved how easy it was to get clean slashes on cold dough.  Next time around, I would give the dough a little bit more time during the bulk ferment (as someone here suggested, it helps to "know" where my dough is in terms of a given recipe to get the refrigeration timing right).  I might have afforded these loaves that luxury too, but alas, as a relatively new mother, I still value sleep over all else :).

Sending this to Yeastspotting.

Index for my blog entries

Got some Mexican red chili powder and red pepper flakes, holy moly, are they hot. Made some nice stews, then my thoughts automatically turned to bread...

Spicy Light Rye Sourdough
Note: make a 900g loaf

- levain
whole rye, 77g
water, 61g
rye starter (100%), 8g

1. Mix and let rise 12-16hours.

- final dough
bread flour, 456g
water, 300g
salt, 11g
Mexican red chili powder, 1TBSP
Mecican red pepper flakes, 1TBSP
all levain

2. Mix everything, autolyse for 20 to 60min,mix @ medium speed for 3-4 min until gluten starts to develope.
3. Bulk rise at room temp (~75F) for about 2.5hrs. S&F at 30, 60, 90min.
4. Shape into batard, put in basketes smooth side down, put in fridge over night.
5. Next morning take the dough out to finish proofing, about 70min for me. Score.
6. Bake at 450F with steam(either put in preheated cast iron pot and cover with lid, or put dough on preheated baking stone and pour water in another cast iron pan to create steam) for the first 15min, take out the pan with water, keep baking for another 30-35min. Turn off oven and crack the door open a bit, and leave the breads inside for 10min before taking out.

Nice ears

REALLY nice crackling crust. Apparently steaming and baking temp/time hit the right combo this time, the crust is heavenly.

Since the chilis are potent enough, flavor is noticably spicy, which is just fine with me.

Today I'd prepared to create sourdough starter.

 A clean hot pasteurized bottle

20 g boiled water

10 g wholewheat flour.

Mix the wholewheat flour and water in the bottle and put the lid on.Place the bottle under shadow.I just want to do some experience,so I just used a bit of ammount.Now what I have to do is to wait.I hope to see bubbles created in the bottle some time later.

I removed the honey from my pizza dough recipe thinking that was the reason the bottom burnt every time I baked it.  Not true, it burnt again today, and I only heated the BBQ  to 500 degrees.  

I would really appreciate any input from my fellow bakers who might have had the same problem.  I can't figure it out.

Thanks for any help

Pauly

After my sorry attempt at shaping my Pain de Campagne loaves I was itching to try again. After a suggestion from a fellow bread baker, I watched Jeffrey Hamelman and Ciril Hitz in video tutorials on how to make basic shapes. This helped more than looking at a series of pictures in a book! So this time, instead of tackling 3 different shapes, I just stuck to 1....the Batard. 

I also stuck with the same recipe for Pain de Campagne but I made my own version by adding some roasted garlic and cheddar to the dough....for something a bit different (and because I had these items in the house and wanted to use them up!). 

The day before baking, I made a preferment as follows: 

Preferment

• 5 oz AP flour
• 5 oz unbleached bread flour
• 1/2 tsp instant yeast
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 c water

I mixed and kneaded for about 4 minutes and then let it rest on the counter for 1 hr. Before...

After... 

I then punched it down, gave it a quick knead and put it in the fridge overnight. 

The next day I took out the preferment 1 hr before mixing the final dough. 

During this time I roasted 2 small heads of garlic at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. 

I must say the aroma in my kitchen was phenomenal! Until recently I had never roasted garlic before, just sauteed it and I have to tell you....it gives garlic a whole other dimension that is best described through the smell of it than words alone! So seriously...try it sometime...or maybe you have and I've just fallen way behind. 

Anyway....back to my lovely bread. I let the garlic cool on the counter, then mashed it up and set it aside.

I then put together the final dough as follows:

Final Dough

• all of the preferment (about 16oz)
• 8 oz unbleached bread flour
• 1.5 oz rye flour
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 3/4 c water
• all of the mashed garlic
• about 1/3 to 1/2 c shredded cheddar (about a handful)

1. Cut the preferment into 12 pieces.
2. In a bowl, mix together the flours, preferment, water, yeast, garlic and salt until a rough dough ball forms. Let rest for 15min.
3. Knead or stretch and fold for about 10 minutes. Towards the end of kneading, add in the cheddar until it's all uniformly incorporated.Let rest in an oiled bowl for 30 minutes.
4. Perform 2 stretch and folds and return it to the bowl and let it rise for about 30min to 1 hr or until it's doubled in size.
5. Preshape the loaves by cutting in half and then forming these halves into 2 boules. Let rest for 20 minutes before the final shaping.
6. Shape into batards and let proof seam side up for 1 hr.
7. Flip onto a baking sheet dusted with cornmeal, score, sprinkle with cheddar cheese and bake at 500 degrees for 2 min with a steam pan at the bottom of the oven.
8. Reduce the temperature to 450 and continute baking for 10 minutes. Rotate the loaves and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Let cool completely before devouring!

Truely, this is garlic bread at it's best without all the butter. The flavor also matures over time so it was heavenly the next day! I was pleased with both my shaping and flavor profile of the bread....the garlic was there but not overpowering and the cheddar paired beautifully with it....although it may have used a bit more for color throughout the loaves, but you could at least still taste it. And the crumb.....well, light and creamy and OH! so delicious!