boule

The original post can be found on my blog: http://www.foodbuzz.com/recipes/1765649-homemade-baguettes-and-rolls-

Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Homemade Baguettes and Rolls!!!
This was my first attempt at making homemade bread and I was absolutely TICKLED with the results. This dough was so easy to manipulate and tasted so good after it was finished baking. I recommend this to anyone and everyone. It is so simple. I know that working with yeast can be intimidating, but I promise you it's not. I am a complete novice in this realm of baking. Trust me. Use the boule dough recipe I have recently posted to make baguettes, rolls, or any shaped bread your heart desires! I promise you will not be disappointed. I couldn't keep enough of this bread on the table. It was eaten up so quickly! It remains soft for quite some time, unlike what is purchased in a store. DO IT. DO IT NOW. MAKE THIS BREAD. :o)

Homemade Baguettes
Courtesy: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

1. Use a grapefruit sized amount of Boule Dough.

2. Here are the instructions, verbatim, from the cookbook: "The gluten cloak: don't knead, just "cloak" and shape a loaf in 30 to 60 seconds. First, prepare a pizza peel by sprinkling it liberally with cornmeal (or whatever your recipe calls for) to prevent your loaf from sticking to it when you slide it into the oven. Sprinkle the surface of your refrigerated dough with flour.

3. "Pull up and cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-size) piece of dough, using a serrated knife. Hold the mass of dough in your hands and add a little more flour as needed so it won't stick to your hands.

4. "Gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. Most of the dusting flour will fall off; it's not intended to be incorporated into the dough. The bottom of the loaf may appear to be a collection of bunched ends, but it will flatten out and adhere during resting and baking. The correctly shaped final product will be smooth and cohesive. The entire process should take no more than 30 to 60 seconds."

[SIDENOTE: Okay, so I didn't have a pizza peel (it is on my list of things to get by the time I'm married), but you can make it work- either transfer the dough VERY CAREFULLY onto your baking stone by hand or slide it on by using a cornmeal covered cookie sheet.]

5. Work the dough so that it is cylinder shaped, approximately two inches in diameter. Make sure your work space is well floured. Once the dough is the correct shape and size, allow it to sit for 25 minutes. At this time, preheat your oven to 450 degrees F.

6. Place a baking stone and empty broiler tray into the oven AS IT IS PREHEATING. Put the baking stone in the middle of the oven, and place the broiler pan below it, on another rack.

7. Once the dough is finished 'sitting,' use a pastry brush and brush water onto the top of it, so that you can cut diagonal slits on the top of the dough using a serrated knife (I found this a touch difficult to do, but try your best).

8. Once the oven is ready to go, CAREFULLY put the dough onto the baking stone. Right after you put the dough onto the baking stone, put a cup of warm water into the broiler tray so that it steams. Quickly shut the door so that the steam stays inside of the oven.

9. Bake the bread for 25 minutes, or until it is golden brown and firm to the touch. Once it is finished baking, place it on a rack to cool. Once it is cool, it is ready to slice and enjoy!

Homemade Rolls!
Also courtesy: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

The next day, I had enough dough left over to make individual rolls for lunch! There are minor differences to the recipe above.

The dough only needs to be shaped in a ball. It must sit on a cornmealed surface again (either a pizza peel or cookie sheet) for 30 minutes. Place whole wheat flour on top of the dough as it sits. Use the serrated knife again to make the slits (the difference with the baguettes in this section of the recipe is that traditional baguettes do not have flour on top of the bread, so water is used instead). Preheat the oven to 450 degrees again with the baking stone and broiler tray in the same places as noted for the baguette recipe above. Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown and firm to the touch.

Enjoy!! It is truly delicious!!!!

This was my kitchen sink recipe.  I accidentally made too much baguette dough so I decided to throw some of it in my banneton with a few added extras.  I had sun-dried tomatoes around and I had recently ground up some parmesan.  So, I thought, why not mix it into my extra dough.  Before putting it into the oven I spritzed it with water and gave it a sprinkling of cracked pepper.  Out of all the breads I have made this one actually made my mouth water when it was baking.  The smell was incredible.  Here is how I made it. 

Follow my poolish recipe for the dough.  I made 900 grams of dough for this recipe.

After the second rise lightly flatten out the dough into a square that is roughly 12"x12".  On one half of it sprinkle 1/4 cup ground parmesan cheese and then, on top of that, gently press in 1 cup of chopped sun-dried tomtatoes.  Leave 1/2 inch of dough around the edges so that you can seal it back up again.  Fold the empty side over the top of the tomatoes and press down on the edges to seal.  Flatten the dough slightly and business fold it into thirds (like you are mailing a business letter).  Let your dough rest for 5 min and business fold again.  I folded mine three times. 

At this point you should have a few layers of tomato and you will want to shape your dough into a boule.  You don't need a banneton for this because all of the folding and shaping has made your dough fairly tough and it will stand on its own.  However, let your boule rise for an hour, until doubled, before baking. 

Pre-heat the oven to 500F while your dough is rising.

Right before baking spritz your boule with water and top with pepper.  You need the pepper...trust me. 

 Spray the walls of your oven with water and bake for 2 minutes.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Turn the heat down to 425

Bake again for 20 min at 425.

Rotate your bread 180 degress and turn the heat down to 400 and bake for 20 min.  

Check the temp of your bread.  If the internal temperature isn't over 195 it isn't done.  The optimal temp is between 195 and 205. 

I wanted to take pictures of the crumb so you could see the tomato goodness inside but it got eaten before I could remember.  Next time I will post a picture of the crumb.  This is a recipe that I would like to re-create again. 

http://veggieinmilwaukee.wordpress.com

Three weeks of sourdough. Got my starter from a baking class and named him Clint. After Clint Eastwood - full of potential!

The basic recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup starter

2 cups whole wheat bread flour

1 cup AP unbleached flour

2 t salt

1.25-1.5 cups water

Methods:

- Mix flours and water to form a shaggy dough. Autolyse - rest for 30 mins.

- Add starter and knead 8-10 minutes, till you get a windowpane.

- Add salt and rest.

- 3 stretch and folds at 20-30 minutes apart.

- Proof till double in size. Deflate and place seam side up a linen lined bowl or floured banneton.

- Then retard overnight in fridge.

- Next morning, set dough at room temp for 2-3 hours.

- Pre heat oven to 485. Plop bread into dutch oven, seam side down. Score and lower temperature to 450 or 440. Bake 35-35 minutes or till internal temperature is 210.

- Cool for an hour and slice.

Lessons so far.

1. Week 1: The loaf tastes terrific, but is a shining example of how not to fold and shape.

2. Week 2. Started paying attention to details: weighed EVERYTHING this week, checked temperature and in a rush of enthusiasm, made english muffins with excess starter.

3. Week 3. Best lookin' loaf yet! Big holey crumbs, perfect for dipping into some olive oil.

Lessons learnt:

1. Decided to be as empirical as possible but also not try to control EVERTHING. Must tell self to bake by feel as much as bake while following instructions.

2. This bread is great for sandwiches and for dipping. My next goal is to consistently reproduce them, and perhaps to try a celebration bread using the starter.

Feedback is welcome and appreciated.

Thanks in advance!