Today I baked loaves of the pain au levain that we created in the French bread workshop at KAF.  The recipe we followed there varies slightly from those found in Hamelman's Bread in that no rye flour is involved.  The baking temperature is also lower - 220° C versus the 240° C in his book.

I also scaled this to produce two 500g batards:

Overall formula

500g sir galahad (or KAF's AP) flour  (85%)

88g whole wheat flour  (15%)

400g water  (68%)

11g salt  (1.8%)

First build

11g sir galahad

4g whole wheat

9g water

3g culture (I maintain my starter at 60% hydration)

The first build should take place approximately 30 hours before the bake.

Levain

52g sir galahad

8g whole wheat

36g water

27g first build

The second build is mixed approximately 18 hours before the bake.

Final dough

437g sir galahad

76g whole wheat

355g water

11g salt

120g levain (this is the weight of the levain after backing out the 3g of original culture, although given the small amount I left it in)

The final dough mix occurs approximately 6 hours before the bake. Desired dough temperature is 76-78° F.

Mix ingredients except for the salt and levain until they just come together.  Autolyse the flour and water mixture for 20 - 30 minutes. Add the salt and chunks of levain and mix on second speed until moderately developed - with a stand mixer this took me about 5 minutes.

Dough undergoes a bulk fermentation of 2 - 2.5 hour with two folds. I went for 2.5 hours with folds at 60 minute intervals.

Divide into two equal pieces of dough, lightly round and bench rest for 20-30 minutes.

Shape into batards and allow a final fermentation of 1.5 - 2 hours.  I placed my batards seam side up on a well-floured couche.

Score, load into preheated oven to 220°, steam and bake approximately 35 - 40 minutes.  If using an unvented oven, crack the door slightly once the dough begins to show color.  (I misted both batards before placing them in the oven, and then misted them twice again at 2 minute intervals and I think it helped my cuts remain moist enough to open during the bake).

The end product was two 13oz loaves. I'm pleased with the outcome.  My slashes opened moderately - these are about the best gringes I've produced.  And the crumb shows good oven spring as well.

Oh - and being lazy and cheap, here's the flipper board I used to move them from my Home Depot couche (kudos to Eric and others who pointed out that a painters drop cloth is basically a couche - but so much cheaper!!) to my baking stone:

Yes, if you look carefully you'll see that it's actually the serated cutting insert to a box of food service wrap.  Completely jury-rigged, but it works!

I like this particular bread!  Good for basic sandwich use and especially with a good cheese or tapenade.

Larry

Please help me remember where I can find this light rye bread recipe.  It was posted just a few weeks ago, and I'm probably looking all around it, but just can't locate it.  I don't know who the poster was, but I remember the phrase, "I can't imagine anyone not liking it."  (because it was so mild).  Any help appreciated.

Syb

Just curious - how are the photos of the breads chosen for the opening page? 

Do they get changed once a month or without a precise timing?

Hello everyone. I'm new to the site. I found it a couple of weeks ago and was immediately astounded by the quality of the breads and the advice that was here. I've been baking bread for around 7 years. I started with a castoff bread machine, graduated to pan breads and then one day about six years ago I was eating a piece of store-bought sourdough and thought "I wonder how hard it would be to make this." I ordered a sourdough starter from Sourdoughs International in Idaho and it's been percolating along ever since then. I tried Carl Griffith's starter and even made my own, but I kept coming back to the San Francisco starter I purchased from Ed Wood's company. I spent a lot of time on the rec.food.sourdough newsgroups and subscribed to Mike Avery's mailing list before I found this site. I've made a lot of bread in the intervening years, most of it good-flavored but mostly uninteresting pan breads. Don't get me wrong, my kids don't eat store bought cardbread unless we're really in a pinch and I haven't been able to bake in a while. My standard daily bread for the past few years has been good, just not great. My baking road has been long and bumpy, and several times I almost gave up altogether. Finally, a few weeks ago I caught the bug again and I'm proud to say that everything seems to be coming together this time.

For a long time I was really nervous about degassing my sourdough. Somehow I had it stuck in my head that a sourdough starter just couldn't produce the kind of oomph a yeasted loaf could, so I resisted handling the dough very much, mixing it until the gluten developed and then letting it sit until risen. A few weeks ago I stumbled across a method on Mike Avery's website to let the dough do all (well, most) of the work in developing the gluten. He mixes the final dough together until it's a very rough mass, then lets it rest for a couple of hours, stretching and folding the dough two or three times during the rise. I know I've read similar techniques elsewhere, but for some reason his explanation stuck with me. I decided to give it a try and immediately noticed a huge improvement. The other things that have greatly helped in recent weeks are the addition of split firebrick as my baking surface and the purchase of the SuperPeel from Exo Products.

I've always baked primarily for myself, but if my family and friends didn't enjoy the fruits of my labors, I'm sure I wouldn't be nearly as motivated to continue and improve. In the past couple of weeks, I've received three compliments (unsolicited, of course) that have each made my day. A coworker said "This is just like something you'd get at a bakery." A lady at a neighborhood party said "I pay good money for bread like this," and this morning I presented my wife with the best looking baguette I've ever produced and she responded with "I've had baguettes in France that weren't this good."

I obviously still have a lot to learn, but there's just something about finally reaching a goal that has taken so long to achieve that makes me want to shout about it from the rooftops. All day long I've felt like a kid at Christmas, and I keep sneaking downstairs to cut another slice. It's amazing that something so fundamentally simple can be so universally fulfilling. I feel like today's batch of bread was finally good enough to photograph and post for all of you to see. Any comments, suggestions, or questions are welcome. Happy baking!

Since I posted last week an inquiry about how to change recipes from kneading to folding, I would like to show you my results with the

Italian Bread from BBA Challenge. I liked the results much better, and of course, it is much nicer to handle the dough than use the Kitchen Aid...

Very good bread! 

http://bewitchingkitchen.wordpress.com/2009/08/30/bba15-italian-bread/

Hi,  

 You're all so helpful and knowledgeable and I need your help.  

Can you please tell me how to prepare doughnut batter/dough in advance so that I can fry it off as needed.   I'm a caterer and thinking about doing fresh, hot doughnuts for a party. If you do cake doughnuts can the batter be chilled and then piped as needed?

If I'm using a yeast-risen dough how do I have it ready when I need it at different times during the party?  I've been to restaurant that make doughnuts per order and I'd like to know how that's done.

 I truly appreciate your help. I hope I've made my question clear..  

Thanks...

Sharon

Does anyone know of a store that stocks diastatic malt powder in the Milwaukee area? I know I can buy it on the KAF website, but it costs $4 + $6 shipping. (I just can't get myself to pay more for the shipping than the product.)

I have tried The Purple Foot, but from what I can tell, their malt powder is not diastatic. So far I have not been able to locate anyone who has it locally.

Paul

I want to make some of these

http://www.toufayan.com/Products/product-snuggles.php

I am not looking for the recipe but some suggestions on forming/pans.

If you have never eaten one of these they are like hot dog vaults. No drips, spills or disintegration.

They will hold massive amounts of chili and if you fill them with crab salad........:o)

One of the more common recurring questions on this forum is "why do I have to throw away half of my starter" or "isn't there something I can do with the abundance of starter I've accumulated".  Many of us have responded to those types of questions with suggestions on how the excess starter can be used, but I rarely see an actual recipe for building a loaf of bread in the responses.  So here's a recipe that I developed today (my healthy starter was getting to the use it or lose it point) which provided bread for our dinner this evening.  It's a simple white bread, nothing exotic, but it's tender and flavorful and makes a very nice sandwich bread.

500 grams 100% hydration starter
250 grams bread flour
7 grams active dry yeast
11 grams salt

Proof the yeast in a small amount of warm water.
Put starter in bowl of standing mixer, add bread flour and salt and mix briefly with paddle attachment on slow speed.
When all ingredients are roughly combined, then add the yeast and continue mixing until ball is formed.
Exchange paddle attachment for dough hook and knead for 8 - 10 minutes or until the dough passes the window pane test.
Form the dough into smooth ball, pulling the out edges downward and into the center of the bottom.  Place the dough in lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Set aside in warm place and allow to rest until double in bulk.
Remove dough from the oiled bowl and flatten it with your hands to about half its former thickness, then stretch it into a rectangle and fold the long ends of the rectangle toward the center (like folding an envelope) then turn 90 degrees, stretch and repeat the fold.  Stretch once again and fold one side into the center, bring the opposite side to the center and press the edges together to form a sealed edge.  Fold the dough in half and seal the edges where they meet.  Use the palms of your hands to roll the dough on the counter to form a log at least 8 inches but not more than 9 inches long.  Shape this into a loaf approx. 8 1/2 x 4 3/4 inches and load into a 5 x 9 inch loaf pan (I use a silicone pan), cover and set aside until at least double in size.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Slash the top of the loaf in three adjacent angular slashing moves, approx. 1/4 inche deep, and brush the top of the loaf with melted butter.  Load the pan into the lower third portion of the oven and allow to bake for 10 - 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 375 and continue baking for another 20 minutes and check internal temperature.  I remove mine when internal temp. is 210 degrees.  Allow to cool for five minutes in the loaf pan before removing it from the pan onto a cooling rack.  Allow to rest and continue cooling for one hour before slicing.
Use a sharper knife than I did and you won't get those waves through the face of the crumb. 

Now, go feed the remainig starter.

Click on the thumbnails for a larger view

After a couple of weeks break, I resume baking the breads in Peter Reinhart's book -

Just made his French Bread, if anyone is interested I have photos in here

http://bewitchingkitchen.wordpress.com/2009/08/23/bba14-french-baguette/

Now, I wonder....  The more I make bread, the more I am convinced that "the folding thing" is what works best for me. Maybe some people prefer to beat the dough into submission, either with a Kitchen Aid or their own hands, but I never seem to have the same success I do with folding, a la Hamelman, Lepard, and others.

After making the French Bread, watching the dough mixing for many minutes in the machine, checking the temperature, crossing the fingers for a windowpane pass, beating a little more.... everything seems ok, but it is not as good as other French style breads I've made following recipes here, that call for the folding method.

My question for the experts - can ANY recipe with a reasonably high content of water work by folding? What I am considering is repeating the French Bread, with the EXACT same recipe, but just changing from kneading to folding, just to satisfy my curiosity about the method.

if I do that, should I allow the dough to rest for, say,,,, 20 minutes, then fold it twice, maybe 45 minutes apart,  then shape?

if there are threads here comparing a given recipe with different methods of kneading, feel free to point me in that direction... if not, any advice, suggestion, input is more than appreciated!

Thank you!