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The Banana Saga 長篇故事 and Conclusion (updated 101116)

RonRay's picture
RonRay

The Banana Saga 長篇故事 and Conclusion (updated 101116)

 

Previous Blog:  http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/20032/1-little-2-little-3-little-chia-rye-loaves

 

Have your ever felt that the expression "Couldn't see the forest for the trees." applied to you?
I think that this may be a case where it really applied to me <Blush>

When I first read Shiao-Ping's blog on making a sourdough banana bread - Banana Pain au Levain (see link)
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/14432/banana-pain-au-levain
I thought what a great gift such loaves would make for some of my friends. It certain was different from the usual gift. But, by the time I had finished the article, I found I was a bit concerned over two things that the author had experienced; first the hydration surprises she had encountered, and secondly, what she said about the slowness of the rising:
"dough appeared very sluggish.  It was almost as if my starter was finding it tough adjusting to bananas, "

Well, I went off and pursued other interests. However, I found my thoughts kept coming back to bananas, and to those two points that Shiao-Ping had raised. Checking on Google quickly revealed that the amount of water in bananas was closer to 75% than the 65% which she had initially assumed - base upon pumpkin percentages. Returning to the original blog, I found two others had already reported somewhat similar findings. Well, good. Most likely that cleared up the hydration issues, but what about my second issue - the slow rise?

Did the wee yeasty beasties really have problems with the addition of bananas in their diet? The more I consider this, the more interesting that question became for me. If you think I get interested in odd subjects, that's okay, others have mentioned that before.

I have spent a great amount of time studying my sourdough cultures and I have a very well establish baseline data set on my primary White Levain, which data I often use for comparisons. Suppose I take seed from that levain and build a variant levain, a Banana Flour Sour, at the same test hydration level that I used in establishing my baseline reference plots. Yes, I decided that was a clean way to get an initial handle on this slow rising point.

A Comparison

So, I took a seed from my primary White Levain (WL) and did a build/refresh containing as much banana as could be used while still maintaining the 100%HL . Maintaining that hydration level was necessary to match the WL reference data. The table below provides details.

     Table 1. Compositional breakdown of the 200 gram batches used on Day 0 through Day 8 of Banana Flour Sour at 100%HL testing


As soon as the refresh was mixed, the 200g test batch was place within my homemade temperature controlled chamber. The TC was set to maintain 80ºF (26.6ºC) +- about 1ºF. The level of the top edge of the levain was then recorded, and for every 15 minutes thereafter until the peak of the rise had been reached/passed, ending the Growth Phase.


      Figure 1. Comparing Average Rise of my Reference White Levain with the same WL Seed and a 67% Banana Puree + 33% AP Flour Refresh.

Certainly, at first reading of the data, Shiao-Ping's observation that "dough appeared very sluggish" was validated in the rise-time difference between the reference Lag and Growth Phases and those of the test Banana Flour Sour (BFS) culture.

One could argue that a good portion of the BFS Lag Phase could be explained by a difference between the average starting temperatures of the two cultures at test start, and I fully agree. However, that would not explain the difference in the Growth Phase slopes.

The temperature difference, just mentioned, resulted as follows. Both the WL reference and the BFS started from seed stock consisting of 200g of culture, which had undergone refreshment 24 hours prior, had been monitored through rise until the peak (Stationary Phase) had been reached, and then been returned to the refrigeration. The difference occurs in the refreshment temperatures. The WL was fed room temperature AP Flour and room temperature water, whereas, the BFS was feed 33% room temperature AP Flour (APF), plus refrigeration temperature banana puree (B) for the remaining 67% of its refreshment. There is no question that this difference would result is a longer Lag Phase for the BFS build. Hindsight is usually 20-20. But, this was not intended as a NASA grant application, and sliding the BFS curve to the left 30 or 45 minutes would affect the elimination of the "sluggish" nature of the rise slope.

A Bit of Back-slopping

Alright, there appeared to be less than euphoria on the part of the culture's beasties to feed on fruit - banana - rather than grain - wheat flour. Now, was this just a "fact-of-life", or could the culture's behavior shift if it were played with. To me, it seemed that the final height of the Growth Phase indicated that the banana was being used as material to created the CO2 desired, just at a slower rate. I have read the sugar, like salt, slows the growth rate. Certainly there was a lot more sugar in the new refreshment than the old.

If I simply repeated taking 100g of WL seed stock and adding the same 33% APF and 67% B (banana = B) as the refreshment, reasonably, I could expect pretty much the same curve, and that wasn't very informative. Whereas, back-slopping introduced two opposing factors. First, by using a portion of the previous build to act as the seed for the next build I could expect a lowering in the vigor of the BFS culture if B wasn't a viable food, and alternatively, I could expect an adaptation to the use of the B as a major food source if some of the beasties could handle it better than others - sort of a survival of the banana eaters. If B was really not a food for all the beasties, then the BFS culture should go downhill even faster, since, for the next several refreshments, the total % of B in each build would be increasing - Day 0 had a seed that was a pure water/APF composition, to which the 33% APF and 67% B was fed. Day 1 would have a seed that was a 100g of the residual of Day 0, to which the 33% APF and 67% B would serve as its refresh. So, each day would shift to a slightly higher % of B, until it peaked at a level 67% B total.

It looked as if the BFS culture had to go downhill if B was a poor food source for the beasties, and, on the other hand if it were a population mix, then I should see preferential growth of the B-eaters and resulting improvement in the rise slopes of the tests. Or at least, that was how it seemed to me.

                        Figure 2. The Rise Plots for Day 0 and 8 Days of Back-slopping with a Banana Flour Sourdough Culture.

Now, if one takes the starting temperature handicap that was mention earlier into account, it would appear that the BFS Day 7 and 8 are essentially equal to the reference WL data. I thought that this made it reasonable to think of the culture as now being happy to fed on either and both flour &or banana. In fact, after nine days of taking readings every 15 minutes, I was very eager to do a bread baking test, although, the addition of the BFS "disposable" daily 100g of culture, mix in with some a couple of white levains and a rye made for interesting and great sourdough waffles, and let me note that the wee yeasty beasties did not get all of the banana sugars. There was a lot of B-sugar that went into my waffles, as well (º0º)

The Banana Flour Sour Bake

In my usual fashion, I made one batch of dough, 1285g and split it into three, 428g parts. It took me time to bake the 3 loaves, just over a period of a week, in fact. The first and third loaves were done in a Dutch oven, with only their internal moisture for the steam. The second loaf was with steam and on parchment paper on the oven stones, but the temperatures match those given below for the DO loaves.

The two done in Dutch oven had preheated DO to near 500ºF (260ºC) and dropped to 410ºF (210ºC) as soon as the loaf was in the DO. After 20 minutes, the lid was removed, loaf turned out and replaced in the oven directly on the stones. The temperature was set down to 350ºF (177ºC) for 10 minutes and then turned off totally, while the door was cracked about ¼ inch (6mm) and the loaf left in for 10 addition minutes. The instant internal temperatures were ~ 207ºF (97ºC).

                 Table 2. Formula for Banana Flour Sour 3 Loaf Bakes Total of Banana 9% [ 6% water, 3% solids ]

The White Levain, BFS Levain and water were combined. Then the 2 flours mixed in and covered for 20 minutes. Total turned out into large bowl where the salt was added and worked in with 30 S&F followed with 30 minutes rest and another 2 sets of 30 S&F. At that point it was a bit over 2 hours and the dough was divided into 3 parts of 428g each in their individual 1L/1Qt oiled and covered plastic containers and placed in fridge. One loaf was used the next morning. Shaped and given 5 hours rise time and baked in a DO. Treatment of the third loaf was about the same 6 days later. The other loaf was made 3 days later, but shaped and formed in cloth-lined, clay loaf form.

                                                           First Dutch Oven Boule from WL+BFS Levains.

                                                             First Dutch Oven Boule's Crumb.

                                                            Second Boule - Steam & Stone from WL+BFS Levains.

                                                           Second Boule's Crumb

                                              Third Loaf, A Dutch Oven Boule - A Small Amount of Chia on Top.

                                Third Loaf's Crumb.

Yes, But.....

Baking each of the loaves went well. The crumb was fine, crusts great. The taste fine, with a slightly different flavor. Ah, but I would really be stretching the facts to say that I could taste anything that I would consider a banana flavor ! Well, there was only about 9% banana total in the loaves, and 6% of that was water. I guessed I'd just expected to much after eating those waffles with their great banana flavor, and that flavor coming only from the discards of the levain builds, and also being mix with a lot of other sourdough discards in the same batter.

The way I figured it, Shiao-Ping's Banana-Pain-au-Levain had about 38% banana in it. So, did I really expect 9% to overpower my little loaves?

Alright, how could I really load in the banana and still use my new found banana loving culture. If I added more banana, the hydration level (HL) was going to have to go above 100%HL, and a total banana based levain would have 25% solids (let that equal "flour") and the remaining 75% of the banana was water. A 75:25 ratio, or just plain 300%HL -WOW !!!

           Table 3. Details of the Five Builds to Reach Maintenance Level Pure Banana Starter 300%HL

A series of five builds gave a progression of hydration levels, starting at 100%HL, then 233, 285, 297, 299 and finally got me to a maintenance level of a Pure Banana Levain with 300%HL. This Pure Banana Levian seemed more viscous than I had expected. It even tripled on a rise and did not collapse, as a 100%HL flour levain would do. I found I enjoyed eating the discards directly with a spoon. The taste is like banana with a touch of vodka added to it.

                   Table 3. Formula for Bread Using 49% Starter, where the Starter was Pure Banana Levain @ 300%HL

Of course, I made a new bread ASAP. The method was a close match to the one Shiao-Ping gives for her Banana-Pain-au-Levain. I calculated her loaf as having 38% banana (solids plus water), and this formula yields a loaf the is 49% banana (solids plus water).

The mixing, shaping and baking all went as expected.

                                                           The 49% Banana Loaf Made with Pure Banana Levain @ 300%HL

                                         The crumb of 49% Banana Loaf


It was unbelievable! There was no discernible banana flavor, as least none that I could detect. It was a fine loaf, tasted fine. It did stay moist longer than most sourdough loaves. The crumb and crust were certainly in an acceptable range and the flavor was a bit different, but more towards the taste of rye than anything else.

As must be evident by this point in my "banana saga", this whole banana thing was getting to me. So, what to do next. I already had worked out a formula that would use no additional water, other than that from bananas. It had a Baker's % of 81.5% banana, all of which was in the form of Pure Banana Levain #300%HL. But, I decided that until I had a better handle on where had all the flavor gone, I could see little point in proceeding. What had Shiao-Ping done that I was missing? Well, the best way to attempt an answer to that was to bake her loaf as given in her blog. Something I no doubt should have done in the beginning - a fact now not lost upon. :-(

      Shiao-Ping's Banana Pain au Levain Formula Recast with the Levain Build

          Repeat of Shiao-Ping's Banana Pain au Levain


          The crumb from the Repeat of Shiao-Ping's Banana Pain au Levain

Guess what.... No banana flavor that I could detect. I could not believe it. I followed the posted formula and methods as close as anyone could expect. I knew I was missing something, but WHAT !!!

Lacking any better idea, I went back to the original posting, intending to read ever word again. There it was - it hit me like one of the trees had fallen on me - in that forest I had never noticed for all of the trees... The second sentence - "... the bananas in my house have gone sesame (ie, growing freckles) ..." I have been using fresh bananas. Generally, they still even had some green at their stems.

Well, my next attempts will need to wait, until the bananas I have just purchased, have gone beyond sesame!

In my own very weak defense of missing the obvious, let me say that the only use I have ever made of bananas in baking had been in a 70 year old banana cookie recipe that I came across some time ago. In making those, I take fresh bananas, slice them into 1/4" thick rounds, and freeze them for a day, and then let them thaw in the fridge. They turn into a dark brown mush that a simple hand-held blender with single whisk-like blade can whip into a smooth mush. So, I carried this method over into this pursuit of the elusive (for me) banana flavored loaf.

It has actually been a worthwhile endeavor, I have new waffle alternatives, and a most unusual "Banana foaming levain desert" as a result, of my explorations. I also certainly have lots of new information to think about. There is one thing I am sure of, and that is that I will bake a banana flavored bread - no matter how long it takes.... LOL

RonRay

 

****************************************** Appended 101116 The Banana Saga Concluded長篇故事

 

Yesterday, the bananas had been aging for 2 weeks, since purchased. Even within the thin plastic grocery bag I could smell the strong banana scent fairly well. As I removed the plastic, two of the eight bananas fell off their common stem. They were “well passed ripe”. I made 484g of banana puree with them, and no water was required to make it, so there was 40g of water, that I was temped to drop from the formula for this batch of dough. I mentally chastised myself for that thought. I would make the closest match I could to the original Banana Pain au Levain in Shiao-Ping's blog. And that is exactly what I did.

 

     A Simple Restating of Shiao-Ping's Formula with the 75%HL Build Combined.

While I did stick to the formula values, and essentially the same procedures, I did differ in the baking method. Some of teketeke's experimenting with alternatives to Dutch Ovens had interested me (See link) http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/20460/banana-saga-%E9%95%B7%E7%AF%87%E6%95%85%E4%BA%8B#comment-143159 and other entries in the thread below. So, when I saw a sale on turkey baking pans / turkey ovens, I bought one.

I have a 2 quart cast iron Dutch Oven and an Emerilware Enameled Cast Iron 6-Quart Trinity Pot. The 2 quart is perfect for most of my boules, but the Emerilware 6-Quart is both too deep and too heavy for me to safely throw in and out of a screaming hot oven. Also, being as deep as it is, makes turning out a high hydration dough from a brotform into such a deep drop does too much damage to be practical. Lurking over Mini, Daisy and Akiko's posts gave me an idea, which I wanted to try and this 864g loaf, now rising in a brotform, was just the thing to try the idea out on. I cut the handle off of an old Teflon frying pan that was destine for recycling, so that it would fit within the turkey pan/oven. This would hold the loaf and there was room outside of it to add a small amount of boiling water just before closing the lid.

       Turkey Oven and Lid with Old Frying Pan - Less Handle Inside

 

       Risen Loaf in Brotform about to be placed into Handel-less Old Frying Pan

      Loaf in Frying Pan in Turkey Oven - Ready for about 90g of boiling water in Turkey Pan

 

      Finished Banana Bread Loaf

 

Crumb of Banana Bread Loaf

Ah, banana scent floating from the baking bread.... At last ;-) And old, old bananas was all it needed...

Crumb is rather moist, but very tasty. It was not as strong a banana flavor as I'd expected from the heavy scents that came off the puree and again during the mixing, rising or the baking, but it surely is enough, and would well and pleasantly do for now.  I found it a nice bread to add to the increasingly long bake list.  An a happy ending for the conclusion of my Banana Saga.

Ron

======== 101118 Note:

**********You might enjoy checking out the forum topic of Wild Yeast at:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/20693/culturing-growing-and-baking-range-wild-yeasts

Ron 雷朗

Next Loaf Baking: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/20693/culturing-growing-and-baking-range-wild-yeasts#comment-143857

 

 

Comments

teketeke's picture
teketeke

The result of the bread of the clementine yeast.

Today, I made another 123 sourdough bread with CLEMENTINE water yeast :) it was successful, too!   It was born today.   I had fed 100% apple juice to the clementine. See what happen...  This ingredients are as same as the grapefruit one above. Although I didn't change the water hydration this time.

For the dutch oven method, I will test a new thing.

It didn't work..   The bad thing was that I put the pan the lowest level in the oven, too.  As Mini mentioned, I better use a shallow pan on the bottom.

200g levain ( 100g clementine 100g bread flour)

400g water

600g bread flour ( I put some rye flour  around 50g, bread flour  550g )

14g salt

-----71% hydration  is too wet.   " Okiraku Tennen koubo pan"'s  writer suggested  70% hydration is for imported flour.  But I think that it is better to use 66% hydration for Japanese bread flour like she uses.

Example:

200g levan ( 100g fruit yeast, 100g bread flour)

362g water ( 700g( 600g bread flour + 100g bread flour from levain) x 66% -100 ( the amount of  fruit yeast liquid)

600g bread flour

14g salt

------ If I use " OKIRAKU" recipe,  My formula will be like this below.

http://www2.memenet.or.jp/yukine/mokumoku/bread/bread_howto3.html

200g levain ( 100g fruit yeast, 100g bread flour)

440g bread flour ( OR 330g bread flour +55g whole wheat flour + 55g rye flour)

187-264g water (53%-67%)

6.6g salt ( 1.2%) 

I didn't measure sugar from volume into metaric so I don't know about the sugar amount exactly.

0-15g butter or oil

 

I think that you can add more salt up to 2%.. I have not tried this recipe yet though. 

By the way, when I used 100% apple juice, it rose faster for some reason. For the taste, I prefer feeding fresh fruit to my fruit yeast ( I mixed up grapefruit and clementine yeast because I can't take care of two fruit yeasts and white starter and rye starter) that has more flavor in my opinion.

Akiko

 

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

As Mini mentioned, I better use a shallow pan on the bottom.

:)

teketeke's picture
teketeke

it worked better with shallower bowls (heats faster)

 

 

I am sorry about that, Mini!

Akiko

teketeke's picture
teketeke

About feeding ratio:

I fed as " OKIRAKU Tennen koubo" writer mentioned, 10g yeast, 1tsp honsey, 100g water.  It didn't fermente within 24 hours. 

I fed 50g 100% apple juice and 50g mix of the yeast, then It was fully fermented within 6 hours.

----------------------

I tried new " Dutch oven" method.  Mini suggested to use a wok.. I don't have any woks. so I just tried the shallow pan that I was using for the top for the dutch oven before.

The plate that is between the pizza stone and the pan is a camp stove toaster

Coghlan's Camp Stove Toaster

I used Susan's Norwich sourdough changing the hydration.

180g levain ( 90g fruit yeast, 90g bread flour (AK))

Final dough

450g bread flour ( Ak ) ( I used  50g rye flour and 400g ak bread flour)

58g whole wheat

267g water

11g salt

( This hydration is 60% overall) I think that 66% is better.   It was too dry.

I forgot to take a picture of this bottom! It was not burned!! I didn't retard it.  I think that is succesful.    I did use of Sylvia's steaming method in the same time. but I may not need it.  Franko used the Sylvia's method when he used a dutch oven.  His bread looked very good indeed. ----- That was my mistake, again. He used 2 different kinds of method, the first one is a dutch oven method and the second one is Sylvia's steaming method.  I remembered that he tested, and somehow. I mixed them up in my mind.   Next time I don't use the steaming method.and see what happen.

Happy baking!

 

RonRay's picture
RonRay

The completion of this, my first experimentation with yeast water leavening, came yesterday afternoon when I got my first taste of my first loaf. It all started for me a week ago Saturday, when Daisy_A pointed me to a TFL thread started by Wao, nearly 3 years ago - in Feb. 2008 "Baking with natural wild yeast water (not sourdough)" :
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/6012/baking-natural-wild-yeast-water-not-sourdough
This first of 3 loaves came out as well, or better, than I had expected, except for the flavor, which was excellent other than for the fact that I could discern no apple flavor , perhaps, I am "taste blind" to fruits ... LOL

Method:
a/ Mix the water with the levain, then add the flour and combined in large bowl and give 20 minutes to autolyze.
b/ Mix in the salt and do 1 set S&F (30/set), then cover and rest 20 minutes.
c/ Do two additional sets of 30 S&F, at 20 minutes intervals.
d/ Let the covered dough rest 10 minutes after the third set of S&F. During that 10 minutes prepare 3, 1L/1Qt covered plastic containers by dropping 1/4_tsp of olive oil, or grape seed oil into each container. Spread the oil on the inside to lightly cover.
e/ This should place you at about 1-1/2 hours from the initial mixing. Prepare the work-surface with a Silpat sheet, dusted with APF.  Turn out the dough on the lightly dusted Silpat sheet. Stretch into a rectangle and do a letter fold (or two) then form a rough log of the dough. Cut the dough into 3, equal (weigh) pieces and form each into ball shapes.
f/ Place each ball of dough into one of the 3 containers. Manipulate the containers and dough balls to oil the surfaces of the 3 doughs.  Cover and place into a fridge for retardation of 8 hours, to 8 days.
g/ When you want to bake a loaf, just take out a container . Turn out the dough, gently shape, and place in preferred proofing form to rise.
H/ I removed 1st loaf after overnight, shaped to boule, and dropped it into a floured cloth nest. Place in an 80ºF(26.6ºC) proofing box.
I/ It was given 6 hours of re-warming and rising. Dutch Oven (DO) preheated 30 minutes to 450ºF(232ºC). Boule turned out into the preheated DO, slashed, and inside of rim of the DO sprayed and lid covered it at once, then returned to oven at 450ºF(232ºC). Since, all required steam is inside the DO, no external steaming method was used. That is the main reason I love a DO method some much.
j/ At 15 minutes, oven reset to 400ºF (204º C), and at 20 minutes DO cover removed
k/ At 30 minutes, turned out of DO and placed loaf on oven stones, until 45 minutes.
l/ Internal = 211.9ºF / 99.9ºC and weight = 325g (down from about 380g - 15% drop in weight.
m/ Cooled on wire for 1 hour before cutting.

     Apple Water Yeast Boule baked in Dutch Oven

 



The taste was excellent. No trace of sourness, but none of apple, either. A very slight sweetness, or perhaps, it was the lack of sourness?

I look forward to seeing if the is a taste change as I get to try the other two loaves, presently undergoing prolonged retardation in the low 30ºF (1 to 2ºC) condition.

Ron

 

teketeke's picture
teketeke

Congratulation and Thank you for taking a time to write this post with excellent details, Ron!   I like your scoring pattern that is very popular in Japan.   My fruit yeast breads are not sour at all, either. I like these breads.

I think that is natural that you didn't taste apples into your loaves when you use " levain" method. That is what other Japanese bakers who bake bread with fruit yeast say the same thing.   Especially, When you used apples for your fruit yeast, the bread will be milder than the other kinds of fruit yeast bread.  I read these things in some Japanese websites. 

I am interested in what you wrote that " retard your loaves 8 hours to 8 days" That is very new to me.  Have you tried to retard your bread for 8 days? It is like refrigerated pizza dough! 

Sometimes, I use the baking ratio when I make baguettes like you did above. ( 15% baking ratio)  I may try it for my loaves with fruit yeast, too :)

Happy baking、Ron 雷朗 :)

Akiko 亜希子

 

RonRay's picture
RonRay

Thank you, Akiko, for those kind words. The loaf was very much a success, I think. I like sour sourdough - sometimes. I have no one to eat my bread, except myself. So, I often make dough and split it into 3 parts, I keep one refrigerator, that I store flour, and such storage items, very cold 33-36ºF. I place two of the three pieces of dough there. The longer a dough piece is retarded the more sour it becomes. The longest test was 15 days and it made beautiful loaves, but they were so sour that they made the throat sour if I ate too much at one time LOL I want to see if the AWY loaves start to be sour, as well.

Sometimes, I use the baking ratio when I make baguettes like you did above. ( 15% baking ratio) I may try it for my loaves with fruit yeast, too :)

I do not understand what 15% your are referring to? The only thing I said that was 15% was the weight lost from before baking until after... The loaf lost 15% weight in water while baking. Did you mean that 15%?

Ron

teketeke's picture
teketeke

 Hi, Ron

We some of Japanese home bakers  calculate how much water lost after baking their breads like you do.

Here is the baking ratio:

 

A ( The bread's weight  before baking ) - B( The bread's weight after baking) ÷ A x100 =  Ratio of  how much water the bread lost.

 As I calculte your bread's baking ratio that you made above,

380-325÷380x100= 14.47368  So,, It is close to 15%   or 14%  if 14.47368 is rounded off to the second decimal places.

 For baguettes- 20-23% around.  ( some bakers say that will be up to 25%)

For sandwich breads- 10-11% ( some bakers say that will be up to 15% )

For boules-20-22%

For Sweet breads→8%

For batards→20%

:) Akiko

 

 

RonRay's picture
RonRay

Akiko,

I understand now.  I always do that - if I remember to make both measurements in time LOL  But, I just had not thought of it as a 'Ratio', which, of course, it is.

Thank you for the other ratio information, as well.  That is good reference material.

Ron

RonRay's picture
RonRay


Hi, Daisy-雛菊 & Akiko-亜希子

It was a busy ... (€¿€)

Just looking down this thread has gotten to be like going through Grand Central Station at 5:15 on a Friday....

One thing that can help reduce Dutch Oven Burned Bottoms is reducing the direct thermal transfer at the bottom of the loaf. Wheat brand, Semolina Flour, parchment paper and combination steps - like grains of uncooked rice with a form-cut disk of parchment paper to fit over the rice covering the bottom of the Dutch Oven BEFORE the raised-loaf gets dumped in on it all work to some degree.

Ron

 

teketeke's picture
teketeke

Thank you for the tip that is helpful, Ron!

I use parchment paper all the time when I make breads.  Many members of TFL use semolina flour for it.  I will get the flour soon. Thank you, Ron

RonRay's picture
RonRay

Akiko, Daisy, Mini, Robyn, AnnaInMD, and any lurks with an opinion.....

I would like all of your opinions on this. I can no longer edit the initial - The Banana Saga 長篇故事 - blog posting - I think TFL has some time limit on edits?

Here is what I'd like your opinions on: The Banana Saga Completion 長篇故事
The loaf is cooling, and it will be sometime, tonight or tomorrow, before I'll have the posting finished.
Since, I cannot edit The Banana Saga 長篇故事, if I post on this thread, it will be a "reply" tacked at the end of this thread. If I post as a new blog - The Banana Saga Completion 長篇故事 - I can point back to this thread.

So,
A/ Tack it on this blog thread as a [ reply ].

B/ Post a new blog - The Banana Saga Completion 長篇故事 - pointing back to this thread.

C/ Post as a [ reply ] to the First reply posted, namely Anna's..

 

What do you think is the best course of action?

Ron 雷朗

 

 

Problem solved.... Thanks to Daisy-雛菊 ...I now know where the [Edit] tab is. Now, if I can just remember that until tomorrow.
RonRay's picture
RonRay

Daisy, I had a real sinking feeling as the photos all started to 'dissolve'....{-:True, but funny  ;-}

Ron 雷朗

 

RonRay's picture
RonRay

Daisy, I have made far worse verbal confusions between "American" and "British" word meanings when I live in the UK... We will not go into those, however.

I just posted the Updated (Edited) Conclusion of the Banana Saga.... Thankfully, because I have had a killer neck-headache since the middle of last night.

Ron 雷朗

 

AnnaInNC's picture
AnnaInNC

of how to make sure the dough always rises:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/4608/steam-injection-home-oven

I have had great success with the ice cubes around the spring form.

Hope your head and neck pains have resolved.

Best,

anna

PS:  I just saw your post re help with editing. I believe, Daisy was able to assist.

RonRay's picture
RonRay

Thanks, Anna

I will have to check my oven and that "steaming thing" his wife bought. But it has possibilities. Thanks for pointing me to it.

Yes, Daisy set me straight on the edit tab <Blush

My neck/headache is much better. Those things can be quite debilitating (~^~)

Ron

 

RonRay's picture
RonRay

True, Daisy 雛菊,

But, until I get my broken denture back on Nov 29th it can be painful unless eaten very carefully... LOL

Ron 雷朗

teketeke's picture
teketeke

WOW, Ron 雷朗

You have been working hard on your " Banana Saga"! I am very impressed with your work and your fabulous banana loaves and you had the loaf that has banana flavor at the end!!!Great work, Ron!!

For your headahe

Massage your head is helpful  

 

also, little bit of exercise

And  SLEEP :)

Take care, Ron.

P.S Your calligraphy is outstanding!  I never been to Paris ... I will eat more bread there if I am in Paris. LOL

To Daisy  I am glad that you found your way for a dutch oven!  One of Japanese home bakers use foil for the cover.. http://cookpad.com/recipe/682622#comment  although she also recommends to use the lid.   She places the parchmentpaper in the pan from beggining ( preheat) that is interesting..

Akiko

 

RonRay's picture
RonRay

Akiko, exercise can kill a person... LOL Thanks for your concern. My head is much better today. We had quite a weather change start yesterday and that often gets my sinus problem complaining.

Ron

 

RonRay's picture
RonRay

Akiko, Daisy, Mini, Robyn, and any interested lurkes...

Check out the new forum topic of Wild Yeast.
All contributions welcome. ;-)

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/20693/culturing-growing-and-baking-range-wild-yeasts

Ron 雷朗

Shiao-Ping's picture
Shiao-Ping

What a FANTASTIC saga, and dedication!  I had no idea!  I couldn't get over how good and translucent the crumbs of your second boule and third loaf were.  At first I had a big question mark in my head when I read that you baked the three loaves over a period of ONE WEEK (I would never have left my doughs in the refrigerator for so long for fear of gluten degradation), but obviously the long time in the refrigerator had done good for the doughs.  Just amazing! 

My Banana Pain au Levain last year was for a bit of fun rather than a serious endeavor.  At the time I also thought of using fresh mango puree, fresh apricot puree, and so on, for hydration and flavour.  I didn't follow through the idea in the end because I thought if I liked the fruit I should just have the fruit.

This is a very interesting thread; many ideas are new to me.  Thank you for a great write-up.

Shiao-Ping 小蘋

RonRay's picture
RonRay

 

Shiao-Ping 小蘋

It is nice to have active, once again on TFL. I am also pleased that you found the "sage" interesting. As for gluten degradation, I have seen no evidence of it with periods up to 1 week at 37ºF ( 2.8º C). I may have seen some at 2 weeks (an accidental length that was too sour for even me LOL). I use temperature a lot, and find it an interesting variable. I have a total of 5 cooling options; A deep freezer, used only for long temp storage of low use flours, etc. A storage fridge that is maintained at 37ºF ( 2.8º C), and a second one held at 44ºF ( 6.7º C) - for everyday use. I use a small 8 bottle wine fridge that is a solid state and digitally controlled over a range of 51ºF ( 10.6º C) to 64ºF ( 17.8º C). I have another that is seldom used, but can be if needed. Currently, nearly all of my levains are made with 3-build stages - sourdough, and yeast water both. The small Wine fridge is very useful for this and the 3-builds I normally do over a 3-day period. I have yet to have a weak levain when using this method.

A word of caution of your choice of fruit purees, Some may give you unexpected problems. I added the following on one of the related TFL posting:
"Akiko (teketeke) mentioned to me something that I thought I should warn anyone trying to make yeast waters levains about. Certain fruits should not be used for yeast waters intended for leavening bread. They are those fruits (or vegetables) that contain Actinidain (or actinidin) kiwi, pineapple, mango and papaya. This protease enzyme breaks down protein. If you make a yeast water from these fruits, you can still use it as a meat tenderize, but NOT in your bread dough."

Ron

 

Shiao-Ping's picture
Shiao-Ping

Thanks for that!

About gluten degradation, it's good to know that for you there is no problem for doughs up to one week at the low temperature of 37F.  For me it will be quite different: (1) the temperatures in my OLD fridge vary widely in different spots of the fridge from 2 - 8C; depending on how much foods already in the fridge, the temperatures are different again; and (2) I generally do large doughs of 1.5 kg and more; it takes a long time for the internal temperature of the large dough to cool down while in the mean time fermentation continues.   If I intend to leave the dough in the fridge for many days, I think I will need to mix it to lower than room temperature and have no more than 2 hours floor time.  This will then be similar to the delayed fermentation method that I once did.  I am waiting for a new wholemeal flour to arrive and that is the method that I thought I'd use as I was having trouble with the crumb quality of my wholemeal miche.  Thanks for the suggestion.

Shiao-Ping

RonRay's picture
RonRay

I live along, and what I bake, in general I have to eat. So, 1.5kg batches are few and far between LOL

Ron

 

Darxus's picture
Darxus

I love your graphs.  It's great to see science applied to bread making.  There is something I would love to see tested, and you seem like the perfect person to do it.  

I've gotten the impression that the amount of time bread takes to proof, or for starter to peak, is directly proportional to the ratio of fresh dough (flour + water) to yeast or starter. 

That's the theory I'd like tested.  Is the relationship linear?  If not, what is the relationship?  

I'm most interested in ranges around 24-48 hours, but I realize that's not what you seem to have been working with.  I'm also mostly interested in 100% whole wheat, which I expect to be different from white at longer time periods due to it adding more yeast.

RonRay's picture
RonRay

I am glad you liked the presentation, and I thank you for your kind words.

I would encourage you to pursue exploring some answers to your questions relating to your theory. I am sure many of those that look to TFL for information would find your result of interest, as well as I would, even though I have little interest in 100% whole wheat myself.

Ron

Darxus's picture
Darxus

Okay, it was worth asking.  My problem is aversion to maintaining a stable temperature.  But... maybe I'll give something a try eventually.  Last night I split my starter into two jars to try to improve my understanding of optimal ratios at 24 hour feed cycles.  I do have a couple extra nice Ranco thermostats laying around.

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