The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Christmas Bi-Color Rose - 30% Whole Grain, Pesto and Sun Dried Tomato

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Christmas Bi-Color Rose - 30% Whole Grain, Pesto and Sun Dried Tomato

Our take on Breadsong’s fabulous Christmas Rose was to make it Green with basil pesto and Red with home made sun dried tomatoes.  We used our combo yeast water, rye sour and Desem sourdough starters with our 30% whole gain multi-grain mix of Kamut, dark rye, spelt and whole wheat.

 

As has been the norm lately, we added some red and white malt, Toady Tom’s Toasted Tidbits (wheat bran, oat bran, wheat germ and other middlings from various sifted flours), oats, potato flakes and flax seeds all ground up together as a fancy and festive bread enhancement all purpose mix.

  

We had a little less than 900 g of dough compared to Breadsongs’s 1,200 g that she split in half and she only used half.  We split this in half too,  to make 2 ropes – one basil, almond, walnut, Parmesan and olive oil and the other sun dried tomato, oregano, salt, pepper and olive oil.  We decided not to use any garlic and hoped we wouldn't miss it with all the other stuff in this bread’s fillings.

  

Each rope was split in half and combined with the other colored half and then braided to make (2) each red and green braids that were wrapped around each other to make a rose.  The ropes were smaller so we ended up with a more shallow Frisbee like, Italian Flat Bread Rose, but it was still very fancy do and Christmas festive looking.

  

The SD and YW levains were built separately over 8 hours now that it is winter time and refrigerated overnight.  The flours and all the other ingredients were mixed with the water and allowed to autolyse for 3 hours as the levains warmed up to room temperature the next day.

  

We made a little proofing pad with a heating pad on low covered with kitchen towels to get the temperature to hover right at 82 degrees.  The levains were not built on it but they were warmed up on it and the dough was fermented, developed and proofed on it too.  What a handy little contraption it turned out to be.

  

Once the levains hit the autolyse it was 12 minutes of French (2) slaps per fold in order to get this dough stretched, silky and smooth with a high degree of gluten development.  Normally we would have easily been over 75% hydration for a dough like this but, with the olive oil coming in later for both fillings, we decided to hold the water at 73.5%.  

 

After the French slap and folds were complete, we let the dough rest for 30 minutes and then 2 sets of S&F’s were done 30 minutes apart.  The dough was rested for 20 minutes, divided in half, rolled out with a pin and the filling spread on before rolling up into a log.

 

Each log was split in half and then braided with the opposite colored half and then the two green and red braids were coiled up on parchment to make the rose. 

The rose was allowed to ferment and develop on the proofing pad in a plastic bag for 1 ½ hours before being retarded overnight for 8 hours.  After removal from the fridge in the morning it was allowed to final proof on the proofing pad for 4 hours where it doubled in volume.

We had some lemon infused olive oil, balsamic vinegar, cracked black pepper and Parmesan cheese to dip the bread into for lunch.

The mini oven was fired up to 425 F with steam in the bottom of the broiler pan.  The bread was loaded and allowed to steam for 10 minutes before the steam was removed.   The bread baked at 350 F, convection this time, until it hit 200 F in the middle.  It was rotated 90 degrees every 5 minutes until it was done and removed to a cooling rack - about 30 minutes total baking time.

My daughter said this was the best tasting bread I have ever made but she, being away for college, only gets to sample about 10% of the bread baked around here.  My wife wants to have it dipped in olive oil, with grated Parmesan, rosemary and black pepper for a Christmas dinner appetizer.

My apprentice just wants to eat all right now with butter and not have to share it with anyone including her master!  I think that this is one of the best higher whole grain focaccias I have ever tasted.  Just delicious.  The mini oven put mini blisters on the crispy brown crust and the YW made the crumb moist and tender with that hint of SD that lingers with the herbs and tomato.

Christmas Rose - 30% Whole Grain, Pesto and Sun Dried Tomato

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mixed Starter

Build 1

Total

%

SD Starter

10

10

1.98%

AP

78

78

19.80%

WW

5

5

1.27%

Spelt

5

5

1.27%

Kamut

5

5

1.27%

Yeast Water

50

50

12.69%

Dark Rye

13

13

3.30%

Water

56

56

14.21%

Total Starter

222

222

56.35%

 

 

 

 

Starter

 

 

 

Hydration

100.00%

 

 

Levain % of Total

24.83%

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dough Flour

 

%

 

Spelt

20

5.08%

 

WW

20

5.08%

 

Dark Rye

20

5.08%

 

Toady Tom's Toasted Tidbits

20

5.08%

 

Red Malt

2

0.51%

 

White Malt

2

0.51%

 

Kamut

20

5.08%

 

Potato Flakes

20

5.08%

 

Oat Flour

20

5.08%

 

AP

250

63.45%

 

Dough Flour

394

100.00%

 

Salt

8

2.03%

 

Water

260

65.99%

 

Dough Hydration

65.99%

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total Flour

505

 

 

Water

371

 

 

Total Dough Hydration

73.47%

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hydration w/ Adds

73.47%

 

 

Total Weight

894

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whole Grains

31.09%

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add - Ins

 

%

 

Ground Flax Seeds

10

2.54%

 

Total

10

2.54%

 

 

 

 

 

3 T each Basil Pesto & Sun Dried Tomatoes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

gmagmabaking2's picture
gmagmabaking2

A rose by any other name... etc... I bet this one smelled AWESOME.  Looks great all Christmasy... and flavorful. What great braiding and shaping into a rose... Challenge ON!

Merry Christmas, Diane

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

baking a rose for one of your Monday bakes!  Plus they look great, small better and taste fantastic.  There is nothing not to like about this bread except not having any :-)  This was such a fun bread to make  adn All Hail to Breadsong for posting hers and getting so many Fresh Lofians to bake it off right away for Christmas,

You will just love making this bread and the only hard thing is keeping the cut side up when braiding  and coiling.

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Floydm's picture
Floydm

Very very nice.  Merry Christmas!

-Floyd

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

one of the fine breads that Breadsong has inspired.  It is so very nice all the way around - inside and out.  Glad you liked it Floyd and...

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hi dabrownman,
So nice to see the baked, SD/whole grain version of your rose! - very colorful and loaded with lots of good and tasty things. With all that went into making this, the bread's flavor would have stood on its own; add in those fillings of yours, and the taste must have been amazing :^)
The rose proofed up really well, using the heating pad - what a good idea - your rose looks like it really 'bloomed'. 
Thank you so much for your kind words! It's been such a pleasure seeing all of the beautiful roses everyone's been making!
:^) breadsong

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

post I just about fell out of my chair - just like so many others did.  I knew my apprentice, like all the rest,  had to try her paws at doing one.  At first we thought we might do some little green knotted rolls around the central red rose and make a chacon out of it all.  On second thought, we figured being upside down in a basket for 12 hours might keep the ropes from opening up.  So, we took a different route and stuck to your version and we are glad we did.   Once we saw how nice the split open ropes looked we braided them keeping the splits on top - not as easy as it sounds.  I wish I would have read your post a little closer to know to make an x first and work from the center out :-)

I'm sure the bread would have been fine plain but, the fillings are what really make this bread taste great and made it a bread to remember inside and out visually too,

We have so much basil growing indoors now and one of the first things my daughter always wants when she comes home is to make sun dried tomatoes.  This pesto is from a frozen batch I made quite a few months ago and was surprised how green it had stayed - even after baking.  I'm so glad to find another outlet for too much basil and frozen pesto :-)

We are making a special lunch today using this fine bread dipped in ECOO, herbs, grated Parmesan and black pepper with fruits, cheese, pate and Pino Noir - since we didn't get around to having it as an appetizer last night.  We will be pretend to be French holiday tourists on the Amalfi coast for a just little while today!

I just can't thank you enough for your inspiring such great Christmas traditions for so many.   You are not only inspirational but a Fresh Lofian Treasure.

Merry Christmas.

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hi dabrownman,
Thank you for you oh-so-kind words! & Christmas wishes :^)
I hope you had a lovely lunch, and thanks for the picture of that basil - makes me dream of summer...
Wishing you the very best for the New Year and looking forward to seeing the treasures you'll bake!
:^) breadsong

 

pmccool's picture
pmccool

Seems like a mighty big shift, dab.  Or is it just a temporary, seasonal thing?

Very pretty and, I'm sure, tasty.

Paul

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

get some whole grains in there, baked it at a higher temperature during steaming and to a higher internal temperature in order to get some brown on the outside of it :-)

Since it's my daughter's new favorite bread I'm guessing we will bake it up fairly often, just maybe not as a festive Christmas Rose though.   You are right, the bread is very tasty and beautimous too!

I'm guessing you are seriously thinking about using Breadsong's beautiful Christmas Rose to teach those students of yours some fancy Holiday bread baking skills?

Glad you liked it Paul.  Merry Christmas to you and yours.

gmabaking's picture
gmabaking

and violest are blue, now I see they are red and green too! Beautiful and as tasty as it must have smelled with all those creative things in the pesto/s. I think you were right about the garlic. Much as we love to us it around here it might have taken away from the nuts and other flavors. That basil pesto does sound really good though....

Looks like Diane has thrown down the sisterly gauntlet for a try at baking a rose one of these days! Since I tend to have one or two fairly round circles in a batch of bagels or donuts, I can only wonder how I will do with something this intricate!

But then, a baker's reach exceeds their grasp, right? 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

have a hoot baking up your takes of Breadsong's Christmas Rose.  You will be shocked at how good this bread tastes.  I don't remember if she put garlic in the pesto when my apprentice made it made it since the recipe calls for it but , I would be shocked if she didn't use Mojo de Ajo for the olive oil portion instead :-)  She puts it in just about everything.

I'm thinking this bread would be good in any shape and though about putting it into a 9" cake pan to proof so it would go up instead of out - and then baking it, tin and all  in a DO!  Can you imagine the crust the DO would have put on the Rose.  I get all jumpy just thinking about it :-)

Merry Christmas to you, your extended baking sisterhood and their families.

 

 

Isand66's picture
Isand66

What a beautiful adapatation of the rose recipe.  I wish I could sample some of that right now.  Just fantastic looking and I'm sure tasting.

Regards,
Ian

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

those breads that easily make it into my apprentice's top 5 list that always seems to have 15 breads on it - like your:  isand66's Bacon, SD, Potato, Onion with Cheddar Bread Meets Pork Jowls, Aged White Cheddar, Potato Flakes and Caramelized Onion -  which is one of my all time favorites.

This is a tasty bread and, I have to admit, it was all I could do to keep my apprentice from putting some cream cheese into it while I wasn't watching.  But,  I'm saving that for my new recipe, as yet not finalized,  for our traditional New Year's Pizza bake.  I figure Rugelach dough has cream cheese in it and it is sliced into pizza wedges before rolling them up... so why not put some cream cheese in pizza dough - like you would do without even thinking about it :-) 

So soon the pizza will be gone and the year faded into history - possible lost baking memories without TFL.

The spell checker says Rugelach isn't a word and to replace it with Gulch or Squelch.    Two great names for some kind of Ian future baked goods next year :-) 

Isand66's picture
Isand66

You're comments always bring a smile and a chuckle.

I will have to remember to make a Gulch bread for 2013! 

The Rugelach pizza sounds like a keeper!

I made some authentic German Pretzel rolls for Christmas Eve at our friends house and they were all the rave.  Who knew that risking life and limb to dip the dough balls in Lye would be worth all the compliments!

I will post them when I make again for this weekend or for New Years Eve.

Regards,
Ian

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

I've been looking everywhere for it.  I even went to my favorite Chinese grocery store yesterday to get some when a Fresh Lofian said she used Chinese alkali water for her bagels.  No luck there but it was a hoot participating with the fine folks there that didn't speak much English and me not speaking a lick of Chinese except food lingo like Dim Sum and Chow Mein.

I would say 'do you have alkali or alkali water'.  And they would look at me like I was from Mars.   Then they would repeat alkali and it would come out arkarye.  Trying to be helpful, they would call over another person and I would ask them about alkali and they too would say arkarye and roll their eyes.  With me in the mix it was like an old vaudville comedy act.  I really wish I would have filmed it as we would all be famous now on YouTube.  Next thing you know there were half a dozen of us standing around saying arkarye, including me,  looking like we knew what we were tallking about even though no  worthwhile communication was taking place at all.  Nevermet so many fine folks in a grocery store before, or had so much fun eitherand I'm going to pronounce alkali that way from now on to remember such a fine time.  I wrote it down for them and they said the would call when they got some alkali in.

Bought all kinds of other stuff though like black caraway seeds I have not seen before.    I was disappointed when I saw the Roasted Peking Duck man who had a roasting stall at Lee Lee's for years was gone , he retired, and replaced by, shock upon shock, a lady bread baker from Vietnam.  She had some tasty sweet breads and Binh Mai.  I was so shocked from losing a great duck master roaster that I was almost ready to drink some alkali water!   Duck I buy, bread I don't

Even went to the Bosch dealer and she said they would never put lye in bagels and they use barley malt in theirs.  I said that I used BM too in the bagels but to make bagels I needed to boil them in a lye solution.  I said without lye there would be mo pretzel either and she said that it was probably illegal to use lye in bagel or pretzel making and said they just use plain old water.  When I asked if she had ever been to NY and had a real bagel or pretzel and she said she had never heard of the place  but it sounded interesting and wanted to lnow where it was in Phoenix :-)

Now I'm making bagels today without lye again.

varda's picture
varda

I had black caraway seeds in a loaf of durum bread that I got at Amy's bread in NY.   Fantastic.   I stopped by an Armenian store in Watertown, MA for poppy seeds, and lo and behold they had black caraway.   I added some to a Jewish Rye and it was awesome.   It will be a great addition to your baking.   Good luck with the lye.   Can't you get it for cleaning clothes?   -Varda

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

can you imagine how great they will be in your double dark chocolate rye?  Just the thought of clothes cleaning and bagles combined gives me the willie s:-)  But, if I have to go to a dry cleaners to get lye I will !

Isand66's picture
Isand66

I went on Amazon and did a search and found it.

It cost more to ship it than the product but I did find it made the pretzels what they were supposed to taste like.

I don't think you need to use them in bagels but it may be interesting to try them as well.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

lye solution when you boil bagels in order to be NY authentic and get that great crust,which you can't get any other way but we have been forced to use some baking soda and barley malt syrup as a very poor substitute.  I know I can get it locally but just haven't found it yet.

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

and just as delicious for everyone to enjoy over the holidays!

Best Wishes for the New Year ahead!

Sylvia

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Rose and there was just enough room for one of your steaming cups and the Rose in the mini oven.  Then the bread puffed up in final proof and there was no room left at all in the mini for the steaming cup.  So I poured some for the hot water out in the broiler pan that came with it and that was the best I could do for steam.  I should have thrown the dish rag in it there too!  You never think of these things when scrambling for steam.......

I was reading up on your Gibassier post.  What beautiful, non fattening breakfast breads they are!  Perfect for a.........

Happy New Year Sylvia!

Song Of The Baker's picture
Song Of The Baker

Good god darownman!  I don't have words for this one.  Just awe.  You keep surprising me with your creations and I want a taste immediately....not fast enough.

Good job!

Hey since you are well versed in berry/grain soaks/sprouts, can you comment on my recent post on rye berry substitute? 

Thanks and wow :)

John

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

with this one and your turkey roaster would really put a crust on it too.  It is one fine tasting bread and so Holiday festive looking too.

We have to figure out a way to get you some various berries to make bread flours, sprouts, malt and soakers.  You can' stay white  bread forever and will have to get to the dark brown side eventually.

Glad you liked the bread John

Happy New Years

Song Of The Baker's picture
Song Of The Baker

Happy New Years to you too!

You're scaring me with all the berry sprout talk.  I don't know if I'm ready for that kind of bread relationship!  :) 

It's funny.  Whenever I look at one of your new bread posts, at first glance I'm like, 'what the heck am I looking at here?'  Then I scroll down a bit,...well, I still don't know what I'm looking at, but I want to devour it all!

Keep goin!

John

hanseata's picture
hanseata

What an amazing bread! I'm a bit out of commission right now - I ate too much crispy duck skin yesterday, so no bread preparations today.

Karin

 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

of that matches crispy duck skin for total luxury is frying potatoes in that fine fat that came out from under that crispy duck skin!  You are the only duck skin casualty I have ever heard of - that lived at any rate :-)  Glad you liked the bread Karin it was a fun bake.  Get well soon so you can get back to your New Year's baking.   Can't wait to see it.

Happy New Years to you and yours.

 

varda's picture
varda

contribution to the Rose Bread genre.   -Varda

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

this take on Breadsong's Christmas Rose.  It is such a fine tasting bread and I can't help but think it would be a nice pizza dough too.  Perfect for your WFO as Rose or pie.  I've got to make some bagels.  Been out for awhile and my wife came home with Einstein's this morning.  All I am willing  to do is find a place in the freezer for them.  Just not my kind of bagel.  It has to have blisters, cracks and be really brown on the outside and chewy on the inside.  Sounds like one more bake besides panettone before year end after all.

Happy New Years Varda!

salma's picture
salma

I made Breadsong's recipe too for Christmas and was torn between sundried tomato which I love or regular pesto or sweet with cinnamon sugar and nuts. I stayed with the sundried tomato recipe which was delish. I was about to make two loaves tomorrow, one with sd tomatoes and one with pesto. What a great idea to rope the two together, and that is what I will do tomorrow. Thanks Breadsong and DAB.
Salma

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

best tasting bread and so fun to make?  Breadsong has a hit recipe !  I hope you will like the pesto as much as the sun dried tomato version and also hope you are having fun with this bread today.

Happy New Year Salma!

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hi Salma,
You're so welcome - glad you liked the tomato pesto -
hope you liked making dabrownman's basil and tomato version too!
:^) breadsong

salma's picture
salma

Hi bread song and Dabrownman,
The bicolor came out really well yesterday. Both are really addictive. If you slice it, the flavors blend in, so to taste them differently you would have to tear bits of the rope. I am making another batch Monday and will probably increase the recipe to make one sweet version.
One of my daughters is a vegan. Is there any way to make this without mayo and cheese and still taste as good? What would you substitute?
Salma

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

bread Salma.  There is no Mayo in this bread so ditching what is not there is not a problem.  The only cheese is the little bit of Parmesan in the pesto.  I don't think anyone would miss this little bit of cheese either.  Just leave it out as the bread will still be tasty enough. 

We tore the ropes appart for dipping too as this was easiest and it went down faster :-)

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hi Salma,
To replace the mayo and cheese in the tomato pesto,  you could try adding more almonds for thickening (to replace the cheese) and a bit more olive oil (to replace the mayo). A bit of lemon juice might be nice too (mayo sometimes has an 'acid' component), and you might have to adjust (increase) salt slightly, to replace the salt that would have been present in the mayo and the cheese. 
I would add the extra olive oil cautiously - so the pesto still remains spreadable and doesn't get too 'liquidy'.
I liked working with a drier pesto better :^)
If you make a vegan version, I hope you like the flavor, with any subsitutions.
:^) breadsong

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Salma was talking about your tomato pesto.  I never knew pesto had mayo in it - will have to try it for sure..  I switched the non mayo pesto to the basil side formy take of your Rose and just used sundried tomatoes in oil for the tomato side.  Salma's double Pesto (Green and Red) version really sounds tasty!

I'm thinking about doing a bruschetta version if I can figure out a way to get some of the water out of the mix.  Maybe salting the veg and letting it sit in a colander in the fridge for a few hours to drain will work.  Just thinking of the olives, basil, garlic, tomato, onion, balsamic and parm in that version has me hungry....... I was going to make panettone for New Year's.