The Fresh Loaf

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Rosemary Olive Oil Bread (with seeds)

jennyloh's picture
jennyloh

Rosemary Olive Oil Bread (with seeds)

I saw Floyd's posting on this recipe.  Wanted to try out.  I also saw some seeded recipes,  and wanted to add in the seeds. I need some advice here,  as the the bread turned out a little dense - see the crumb below.



Ingredients:
Preferment
125g All Purpose Flour 85g water 2.5g salt 2g yeast
Day 1:  Mix all and leave rise for 1 hour,  then refrigerate it overnight.
Final Dough
350g Bread Flour 225g water 40g extra virgin olive oil 5g rosemary leaves (I used dried) 7.5g salt 2.5g yeast All of the preferment
Seeds (I added these in as I wanted a seeded bread)
50g Sunflower seed  20g Sesame seeds
Bake sunflower seed for 15 minutes in oven at 150 degree celsius. Turn the seeds occasionally. Fry sesame seeds for about 5 minutes over fire.  Stir constantly till brown.  Put in a bowl and cover overnight.

Day 2:  Mix dough first,  and add in preferment,  knead well.  I added the seeds last after I've kneaded the dough well. Mix the dough and seeds well together. (Should I have waited after the 1st rise to add in the seeds?)
Rising/Proofing:  Rise for 1 1/2 hours, (Floyd suggest a 3 hour bulk rising with 2 folds,  which I should have followed).  1 fold and shape.  Proof for 1 1/2 hours. (The dough have doubled well,  my first rise should have been longer??)
Bake:  Steam the oven at 250 degrees celsius,  and  bake at 230 degrees celsius for 50 minutes,  and bring down the temperature to 200 degree celsius for 20 minutes.  (did I bake a little too long?)
Looking for some advice please?
Jenny

Comments

AnnaInNC's picture
AnnaInNC

might not be as precise since some flour is packed more tightly than another brand.  A weighted amount is the same.

 

jennyloh's picture
jennyloh

Julio-fully understand your frustration, as I am the same when I see ounces, 1/4 tsp!? Here's what I found from KA website: 1tsp is 5g. So, 2.5g should be 1/2 tsp. check out this web page for the varous tips on conversion, http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes2008/measuring.html
I believe this helps.

share with us when you try this, I did have a lot of questions as you can see from my posts. I'm still looking for advices.

Floydm's picture
Floydm

Julio - people can post in whatever unit they are comfortable using.  The poster is not required to convert to different units for everyone else.  If this recipe doesn't fit your needs, find another (or ask nicely if someone could help you the units to something more familiar).

2.5g is less than a teaspoon.  Baking is not an exact science, so if you accidentally put in 3 or 4 grams it won't cause any problems.

Nice looking bread, Jenny.

wdlolies's picture
wdlolies

Exactly, I've noticed that there're plenty of recipes with cups and ozs, which is no good to us Europeans.  But hey, what about using the internet to convert.  We all have to go through that, it's all a part of it, isn't it? :-).  Jenny, thanks for the recipe and all the best from Ireland.  Wolfgang.

jrudnik's picture
jrudnik (not verified)

I thoroughly enjoy making bread with using a scale and the metric scale, it is the easiest system to use. Volume measurements are easy, but you have to worry about your technique. Just my 2 cents.

Dragonbones's picture
Dragonbones

Why all this quibbling over measures, and two months later, still no answers for poor Jenny on what she asked? LOL

Jenny, that's not a large amount of seeds. I often add more than that, and add it right in with the initial mix, and don't have any problems, so no, you don't have to wait after the first rise to add the seeds, IMO (in my opinion).  Don't skip the folds, as they help develop the gluten, which helps with loaf height.

As to how long your 1st rise should be, remember to go by amount of rise, rather than time. Watch the dough, not the clock. You want it to double, roughly, and how long this takes will vary depending on various factors, most critically the temperature of the dough and its environment. After shaping, the same rule applies: watch the dough, not the clock. Traditional recipes often state to let it rise 100% (double), but I find that letting it rise only 50-70% is better, because the yeast still has food and energy left when you put it in the very hot oven, and then as the temperature rises the yeast goes crazy and you get a big rise in the oven, aka "oven spring". So that gives you the tallest loaf and the lightest crumb.  

Remember to preheat that oven for a full hour, and don't leave the door open too long when you load the loaf, so that the oven doesn't lose much heat. Then wait about 5 minutes before turning the heat down to 230C.

Yes, your baking time looks WAY too long to me -- 70 minutes?! Floyd baked for 20. In the 240-250C range even a very large loaf will be done (for me) in 30-35 min or so. Are you preheating the oven, and have you checked it with an oven thermometer to see if it's accurate?

Anyway, the proof of doneness is always in the bread, not in the clock. If you get an instant-read thermometer you can poke that into the loaf, all the way to the center, after say 25 minutes in the oven, give it 10 seconds to read, and if it's up to, say, 200F or so, the loaf is done. I usually bake mine until 205F internal temp or so.  After you use that a few times you'll have a better idea how long to bake the bread, and will be able to start judging from the time, oven temp and external appearance of the loaf.