The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Pane Integrale with Garlic and Olive Oil

Shiao-Ping's picture
Shiao-Ping

Pane Integrale with Garlic and Olive Oil

This post is about sourdough made of whole-milled grains which are grown locally. 

Just before I scaled back my bread blogging last July, a project that I was looking into was home milling my own flour.  I thought that was one way that I could take my sourdough to the next level - go to the freshest and purest ingredients possible.  I had even decided on a home mill brand.  But before I could execute that idea, I lost my drive.  Even the publication of Chad Robertson's book, which I so waited for, couldn't save me from my doldrums because, at that stage, I had basically worked out for myself what I wanted to find out.  I did bake a couple of Chad Robertson's Country Sourdough last October:

 

        

    baked in a covered cast iron camp pot, without steam, at the end of our last Australian winter 

                          

 

             

                                        baked on a stone, with steam, at the start of our spring 

                            

 

Summer came and went; it is now autumn.  Preparing our beautiful lawn for winter, my husband works in the yard to give his brain a rest, as he always does.  My daughter is now second year in Uni and my son, last year in high school.  Polly, our dog, is getting older, but still behaves like a child.  (Do you think dogs dream in sleep like humans?  I can tell you they do.)

Dropping my son in school one morning I went to my favorite coffee shop for some reading.  I read an article in Bread Lines (page 24, Volume 19, March 2011), quarterly magazine of The Bread Bakers Guild of America (BBGA), by Joe Ortiz, the author of The Village Baker.  The title is "Local Grain, Whole Grain Milling."  He talks about how a restaurateur (Bob Klein of Oliveto Restaurant), a baker (Craig Ponsford, Board Chairman of BBGA until end 2010) and a miller (Joseph Vanderliet of Certified Foods) got together in California on a community grains project.  Why?  To find more flavors in whole grain breads! 

Eco-consciousness is not normally my first and foremost concern when I bake and consume.  My efforts are geared toward achieving the most flavors for my bread using only the simplest ingredients.  But, what is with this community grains project and "local grain economy" whereby locally grown grains are whole-milled between tones (not re-constituted as in many modern industrial roller mills-produced flour)?  The answer: more vibrant flavors.

Aa an artisan baker, wouldn't you just love to use flour that is "more alive and brimming with its natural nutrients and structure!"? 

Imagine combining such flour with an artisan baker's hands: reduced mixing (gentle or no kneading), some type of preferments, long fermentation....

Let's get started.  But before we do, I have a confession to make.  FOUR times I tried making Mr. Ponsford's Integral Bread (formula in Bread Lines, Volume 19, BBGA), each time a 2kg loaf, without success.  I almost used up my 5 kg bag of organic WW flour.   After that, I went on my own, doing my own formulas, for another FOUR loaves of 1kg each (can you imagine anyone else more brave and no brain?).  The bread still came out quite dense.  I finally rang up the miller for some data, and you know what I was told, "Oh, we don't work with bread bakeries."  Sweet!  Was I shooting the moon with a wrong spear?  Was that pastry flour that I used for my sourdough?

I gave up.

The bread below uses only 50% of whole wheat flour.  That is the only way that I could make it work.  This wholemeal flour is produced by stone-milling the whole wheat grain and the wheat is grown in Darling Downs, Queensland, 170 km south-west to where I live.

FORMULA for my Pane Integrale with Garlic and Olive Oil

  • 200 g liquid starter (50/50 in white and whole wheat flour)
  • 300 g organic stoneground wholemeal plain flour (Kialla Pure Foods)
  • 300 g bread flour (Laucke's unbleached bakers flour)
  • 446 g water
  • 14 g salt
  • garlic olive oil mixture for brushing the crust: two cloves of garlic + about 1 - 2 tbsp. of olive oil + a pinch of salt.

Final dough weighs 1.25 kg at 78% overall hydration.

 

       

 

                                                                      

My Procedure

  • Adjust water temperature. (Aim for a final water/flour temperature of 25C/77F.)
  • Start by adding water a little bit at a time into the starter to dilute it.
  • Once the starter is diluted, measure flours and salt into it.
  • Mix the flours and water to just combined. (I used a blunt dinner knife and stirred for one minute.) Cover.

              

  • First fermentation (from time-off mixing to the time I placed my shaped dough into the refrigerator) was 5 + 1/2 hours. During this time, I did four stretch-and-folds in the bowl at 30 minutes intervals: 1st time - 12 strokes, 2nd time - 12 strokes, 3rd time - 6 strokes, and 4th time - 6 strokes. At about 3 + 1/2 hour mark, I shaped my dough. There was enough strength in the dough and I didn't need to pre-shape it. The shaped dough was left out on the kitchen bench for about another 2 hours. For the whole time of this leg of fermentation, my ambient temperature was 25C/77F and so I was able to keep the dough temperature constant. Your may not need this long. My dough rose about 60 - 70% before the next leg of fermentation.
  • Second fermentation was done in the refrigerator for 12 hours.
  • The night before sleep I set my oven on timer to bake the next morning. The oven was to pre-heat to its max. temperature with my cast iron pot inside.
  • On the morning, I scored and baked the dough cold straight out from the refrigerator at 230C/446F for 25 minutes; then with the pot cover open, it was baked for a further 15 minutes at 220C/430F.
  • While the bread was being baked, I made the garlic olive oil mixture. (I used a garlic press for this. If you don't have a garlic press, use a mortar and pestle; if you don't have a mortar and pestle, chop garlic finely, then use the back of your knife and press the garlic into a paste.) You will only need half of this mixture. With the rest, I made it into a garlic butter.

                                                   

  • After 40 minutes of baking, take the bread out, and very quickly, brush the crust with the garlic olive oil mixture, and bake for a further 5 minutes. (After that, check if your bread is done, if not, leave the bread in with the oven turned-off for another 5 minutes. Be careful for the garlic on the crust may burn.)
  • I couldn't wait. I sliced my bread after 45 minutes rest and here it is:

 

           

 

With this post, I encourage you to seek out your local grains and whole-milled flour and see for yourself how much more you like your bread.   

 

                 

 

If you are like me who doesn't like the taste of 100% wholemeal, try substitute up to 50% bread flour or other type of flours.   The garlic and olive oil mixture has done its trick and the bread is delicious.

 

                   

                                with garlic butter                                                     eggs benedict the next morning

 

If ever you find yourself in Beijing, visit Green-T House.  It is a tea house, a restaurant, a spa, and on top of all that, a modern-day Chinese design icon.  The owner, chef, designer and musician, Jin-Jie Zhang (known as JinR) is the very first modern-day Chinese female chef.  I'd like to go and visit myself but I can't at this very moment.  So, dream on, I tell myself; buried in my books and closed my eyes, I "shern-yo" (神遊) ... soar in my imagination....

 

                                                                               

                               

Shiao-Ping

Comments

ananda's picture
ananda

Hi Shiao-Ping,

It is so good to see you posting blog entries once more.   I see your standards continue to soar, and your ideas remain at the "cutting edge".

Local grains provide so many answers on on so many levels.   But they do not produce bread of a nature that many are used to.

I think your idea to mix local, freshly-milled wholegrain flour with white bread flour is a really good one.

Afterall, we all want to make breads which we like best for ourselves, before others.

All good wishes

Andy

ps I don't know about dogs, but our cat does very little apart from sleep, and there is frequent evidence catching her mid dream!

Shiao-Ping's picture
Shiao-Ping

Hi Andy, I had not thought of it but I can see that you are right about that.  There would be no point forcing ourselves to use a gain that we don't like, local or not local.  We can't do it for the sake of doing it.  Thanks for your comment.  Shiao-Ping

Mebake's picture
Mebake

You Have been missed, Shiao-Ping! though TFL member Txfarmer has done a good job entertaining us with her wonderous bakes.

Your loaves are top-Notch! As always. I have first learned stretch and fold in the bowl from you, and i've depicted it in an illustration posted here. Is this the same method used by you? I'd like to know.

Beautiful Bakes, Shiao Ping!

Shiao-Ping's picture
Shiao-Ping

Thanks.  Take a look at this.  I'd be interested in what you think.

Shiao-Ping

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Wonderful post, wonderful bread, wonderful story, wonderful idea, Shiao-Ping.

I love the idea of garlic oil brushed into the bread. I can almost smell its aroma, must be fantastic.

Sue

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com

 

Syd's picture
Syd

Beautiful bread, beautiful photography and excellent write up!  That first pic could quite easily make the cover of any bread book I have ever seen. 

When I first started baking bread some twenty years ago, I had this dream of someday being able to plant the wheat ( I lived on a farm back then), grind the flour and bake the loaf all myself.  I still haven't done it, yet but your post has rekindled the passion.

Thanks for posting.

Syd

kim's picture
kim

Shiao-Ping,

Nice to see you post again in the TFL, I do miss your post and so much to learn from your blog. I think your local organic ww flour company is a small company; maybe they don’t have enough money to do all the lab work. My local flour is also facing the same problem, they depends on certain plot for their flour (no lab work). I also had the same problem as you pointed out before. By the way, thank you for brushing oil tips.

Kimmy

ehanner's picture
ehanner

Well done Shiao-Ping. Who can resist the aroma of garlic roasting on the surface of fresh bread. Thank you for this effort.

Eric

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

I very much enjoy your very talented posts, clear instructions and beautiful photos.

Sylvia   

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

It's good to see you posting on TFL again, Shiao-Ping.

David

nicodvb's picture
nicodvb

Shiao Ping. I always like reading your posts. Coincidentally sunday I made a bread with 50% bread flour and 50% emmer milled by me just 1 hour before. Well, it tasted like nothing ... meaning nothing at all, not nothing else before. I followed a different (maybe hasty) procedure that is surely the cause of my failure.  I should retry following your recipe.

  Nico

wally's picture
wally

Nice to have you back! Your stories are always as beautiful as your breads, and what you've shared here just more confirmation.

Nice bake - and good to have you among us again!

Larry

wally's picture
wally

Nice to have you back! Your stories are always as beautiful as your breads, and what you've shared here just more confirmation.

Nice bake - and good to have you among us again!

Larry

Janetcook's picture
Janetcook

:-)

What a lovely surprise to find you here while I was browsing through recent blog entries.

I couldn't imagine my surprise getting any better until I began to read what you were writing about....

Your Chocolate Sourdough and Banana Pain au Levain are favorites here and my kids favorite meal is spaghetti with garlic bread.....Now I am sure I will have another one of your creations to add to our 'favorites' list!  I can't wait to give it a try!

I'll let you know how it turns out!

Gratefully,

Janet

Shiao-Ping's picture
Shiao-Ping

if your kids were like mine, be sure to serve the bread with garlic butter!

Shiao-Ping

Janetcook's picture
Janetcook

Afternoon Shiao-Ping

Mine are like yours....and they like it heated with the garlic butter heated on it so the crust is crunchy and the crumb is soft and the butter dribbles off of their chins... :-)

....sometimes they even have room to eat some spaghetti but it is mostly the garlic bread they love  ;-)

 

Side note:  Today I am making your Banana PaL...my kids love cinnamon and raisins in bread too so I decided to throw some in....You think bananas confuse and slow down yeast...you haven't seen anything!  I'm thinking my loaf needed to do push ups before I fed it extra ingredients!!!! It is proofing now and it looks like it will be a 'l o n g' one....I am not even sure it will ever proof....oh well, maybe a new door stop in the making.  :-D

Janet

Shiao-Ping's picture
Shiao-Ping

It may be slow but once it's happening, it may happen FAST because of the high sugar content in the thing so be careful not to over-prove it.  Last night I was having a drink with my daughter while proving a Miche type of dough, at 8pm, it looked like nothing much had happened, but at 8:30pm, it seemed to have over-proved.  I guess it was a warm night.  My dough was 26C.

I heard that cinnamon inhibits yeast activity, as does garlic in big quantity.  The first time I made the bread in this post, I had minced garlic and olive oil mixed into the dough but the dough didn't rise the way I wanted.  I blamed it on the garlic.  But it is really hard to say whether it is indeed garlic that is the problem or that it simply is that my starter was not performing.  In any event, I ended up brushing the garlic/olive oil mixture on the crust for this bread.

Janetcook's picture
Janetcook

You were right with knowing how my dough would react.  It sat inert for over 3 hours while proofing and then in the last 45 minutes it began to rise...I was watching it carefully so I was able to get it into the oven before it had a chance to overproof.  

It came out of the oven at about 9 PM and only 1/4th of the loaf was left by 10:30....Kids loved it with the raisins but said they couldn't taste the cinnamon.  

I am thinking it was probably the cinnamon and the raisins that slowed it down. I know when I make other sourdough recipes with cinnamon it takes longer - but it isn't that big of a deal when you know to expect that....today it was just longer than it has been in the past....oh well, it turned out well and that is what counts!

Tomorrow I try the garlic loaf and shall see how long it lasts :-)

Good Night!

Janet

SallyBR's picture
SallyBR

Wonderful to see you back here... and again with one of your thoughtful and beautiful posts...

 

(dogs do dream, and I bet they do it in colors... :-)

ww's picture
ww

If i were such an accomplished baker like you, i would be exploring the next step - to go back to the roots, to look at the basic ingredient - the flour. It's a wonderful idea and i hope you will persevere and post your findings!

your breads are awe-inspiring as always. I was just asking myself if those were garlic bits on the crust... yum.

my dog sometimes wakes up with a very dazed look - i think then that he's been in dreamland :))

 

 

arlo's picture
arlo

This brightened my day to see a post of yours again Shiao-ping!

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hello Shiao-Ping,
I have come across a few of your posts, and have been in awe of your lovely breads.
I am awestruck all over again with this latest post.
The Tartine country breads are so beautiful, as is your Pane Integrale - thank you for sharing the photos!
Your baking, writing and photography are all very inspiring to me.
With thanks from breadsong

teketeke's picture
teketeke

I have followed your posts and I really admire your baking and writing skills and more.  Your breads are ultramate in every way.  The Tartine country bread that you baked on the cast iron popped my eyes open, especially.  What wonderful crumbs they are. All of your beads are art.

P.S One of my dogs did say something like dreaming while sleeping once although I am not sure if he was dreaming.

It is really great  to see your blog again,

Akiko

Shiao-Ping's picture
Shiao-Ping

Thank you, all, for your warm welcome back.  TFL is a great family and there are many talents here.  There are a lot of passions here and they are all shown through via each and every one's posts and discussions.  If anyone is serious about sourdough baking, TFL is the place.  Thank you again.

Shiao-Ping

rossnroller's picture
rossnroller

If anyone is serious about sourdough baking, TFL is the place.

I couldn't agree more. This has been hammered home to me in recent days for reasons I will not go into, but which lead me to express gratitude for the professional way this site is run, and the quality of folk it attracts. No more roaming around from site to site for me - this is it.

Like everyone else, Shiao-Ping, I'm so happy to see you back here posting in your inimitable style. WELCOME HOME!

As you know, my preferred flour is Eden Valley, which comes from a biodynamic organic Western Australian farm in my general area. That terroir factor is appealing to me - but of course, the quality of the flour also has to be terrific (which the Eden Valley produce is).

I guess we differ a little in that minimising carbon footprint is a major concern for me (another good reason for buying local). Although I haven't pushed the extra yard to mill my own, I share your mission and that of all artisan bread bakers to optimise flavour - and using the freshest, best quality ingredients is surely crucial. Look very forward to more posts from you...and more of those sensational bread pics!

Cheers
Ross