The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Mice Guarding the Punkin

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Mice Guarding the Punkin

After seeing Dwayne’s Mice Bake I had to do one ….eeeerrrr…..two and throw in a free pumpkin for them to guard.  Instead of pumpkin, we roasted some sweet potato to get rid of as much water as possible.

 

The dough was leavened by a poolish, enriched and sweetened with added pumpkin pie spice to bring out the Thanksgiving smell in the house as they baked.  I’m starting to get in holiday mood even though it is more than a month away.

 

We sis out usual slap and folds and folds but the kept the hydration low since the pumpkin was going to be free formed without any support while proofing .  We baked them in the mini oven starting at 450 F with steam for 10 minutes but turning the temperature down to 400 F after 5 minutes.

 

When the steam came out we turned the temperature down to 350 F until the pumpkin got to 195 F on the inside.  It was so much fun to make the mice and pumpkin.  Hope it tastes as good as the mice looked.  They looked furry cute in their rolled oat coats. 

Formula

 

Build 1

Build 2

Total

%

Pinch of ADY

0

0

0

0.00%

AP

50

50

100

22.22%

Water

50

25

75

16.67%

Total

100

75

175

38.89%

 

 

 

 

 

Multigrain SD Levain

 

%

 

 

Flour

100

22.22%

 

 

Soaker & Prune Water

75

16.67%

 

 

Hydration

75.00%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Levain % of Total

17.84%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dough Flour

 

%

 

 

White Whole Wheat

125

27.78%

 

 

AP

225

50.00%

 

 

Dough Flour

350

77.78%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salt

8

1.78%

 

 

Water

165

36.67%

 

 

Dough Hydration

47.14%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total Flour

450

100.00%

 

 

Soaker, Prune Water 75, Water

240

53.33%

 

 

T. Dough Hydration

53.33%

 

 

 

% Whole Grain

22.22%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hydration w/ Adds

67.58%

 

 

 

Total Weight

981

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add - Ins

 

%

 

 

Butter

40

8.89%

 

 

Barley Malt Syrup

11

2.44%

 

 

Sweet Potato

180

40.00%

 

 

Non Fat Dry Milk Powder

10

2.22%

 

 

Brownn Sugar

25

5.56%

 

 

VW Gluten

12

2.67%

 

 

Total

283

62.89%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rolled oats to roll the mice in

 

 

 

 

All weights in grams

 

 

 

 

Comments

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hello dabrownman,
Furry mice and a seasonal pumpkin punkin - very cute!
I love the shaping and what a beautiful bake.
What does Lucy think of those mice?
:^) breadsong

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

enough to eat them both in one bite!  What a fun bake this was.  Always fun to do challenges and theme bakes.  The Phoenix newspaper has a cupcake decorating contest every year and this year they opened it up to any baked good so I thought I would send in something ......and mice guarding the pumpkin was it :-)

Glad you like the Halloween Bake and can't wait to taste it.  It sure smelled like pumpkin pie when in the oven!

Happy Baking

bakingbadly's picture
bakingbadly

Hahaha, very nice bake, Dab. Simply adorable. Any other plans to bake other "bread sculptures"?

Zita

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Fresh Lofians - one for the mice and one for the pumpkin.  Those mice need something to guard!  Yes i will be doing some more bread art since these were so much fun.  I remember when I took sculpture in college and everything ended up looking like an ashtray.  Back then everyone was smoking something, including the sculpture teacher, and he though it was really cool to sculpt a bust and have it function as a a utilitarian object too!  he really liked the odd ways ashtrays could be sculpted,  Years later a friend took a ceramics course and she presented me with ....an ashtray that she had made from her class.  She thought it very odd that i was rolling on the floor laughing so hard when she gave it to me,  Odd how things have a way for turning around.

Glad you kike the Halloween bake Zita

mrfrost's picture
mrfrost

Shoulda used pumpkin(instead of potato)! lol

Nice though. Really like the pumpkin. Even looks illuminated(I know it's not though).

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

and i couldn't find a pumpkin grown for pies so this was the best Lucy could muster in a pinch.  We  do eat a lot of sweet potatoes around here and always have then on hand.  Being Southern, we like sweet potato pie way better then a pumpkin pie anyway.  Wish Lucy would have baked the pumpkin the the big GE oven instead of the mini ocean though.  it got a little dark being so close to the top elements but maybe it made it more striking that way.  i'm going to cut it up for French Toast this morning and see how it tastes.

Happy Baking mrfrost

mrfrost's picture
mrfrost

I absolutely love sweet potatoes also, and used to bake a sweet potato bread frequently.

Just kidding about the pumpkin. Not a pumpkin eater at all myself. Have always much preferred sweet potatoes.

gmabaking's picture
gmabaking

and those mice rival our apprentices on the cute factor! The height and roundness of your punkin is amazing! Envy your French Toast breakfast this morning.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

was like eating a warm pumpkin pie with maple syrup on it :-)  Delicious  Lucy cut the hydration down to 68% of so to try and get the pumpkin to stand up better,  She also used flours that were at least 13.3% protein and i added some VWG to get it up to KA bread flour range :-) I though for sure, with those 12 vertical cut on the side, the poor punkin would collapse in the oven but it acted like it had been in few knife fights before and didn't seem to mind.

My daughter freaked out on the mice and took pictures to send to everyone she knows about her Dad's cute mice.  Funny the things they go crazy over:-)

Here is a picture of breakfast.  Happy baking Barbra - can't wait to see your next bake with your sisters even if they are a little twisted :-)

gmabaking's picture
gmabaking

is even punkin shaped...even with a Jack O Lantern face! Today is fougasse day for the sisters. Chad Robertson uses a bacquette dough but since I've never tried making bacquettes,  I'm using the Tartine Country bread recipe, sisters are being way more creative than I and we are having fun already exchanging thoughts.

Happy Baking and good luck with winning the grand prize!

Barbra

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

cuts a fougasse at the end of the video.  I would cut mine on parchment  on a peel so I wouldn't have to transfer it - like he doesn't show!  Ski posted it for shaping which is the bulk of the video.  Fougasse sounds delicious and it can be made with any bread dough too.....lots of possibilities!

Happy baking Barbra

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

So lovely and creative, DA!  Very nicely done!  This is the season.  Starting early works best to feel the joy : )

Sylvia

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

and it isn't at all fair so, starting early and celebrating each one all year is the ticket:-)  Lucy even celebrates all the German Holidays too like German Baking Apprentice Day, Strudel Day,  Stollen Day. Gazintite Day, German Chocolate Cake Day  and all of Oktoberfest that she starts in July and ends in late February:-)  The mice were brazenly stolen from DeWayne who made a huge batch of them. 

Glad you like the mice adn I hope the Halloween contest judges arenl' afraid of them :-)   My daughter posted tm on Instagram, what ever that is, and she got 40 likes in 8 hours from her friends?

Happy baking Sylvia.

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Mookie, Cosmo, Lucy, Misty and Cleo give you 2 paws up for this creative bake.  I'm sure it tastes as good as it looks.  If Mookie found one of those mice he would surely bring it to my wife as a present after helping himself to a couple of nibbles :)

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

would be drooling on the computer screen.  TFL has benefits.  The inspiration for the mice and the pumpkin came from past bakes of Fresh Lofians.  Made a great pancake with the pumpkin but just can't bring myself to eat the mice........something about the plague.

Can't wait to see your Challah Ian!