cheese

So, my wife let it slip that pepperjack is her favorite bread so we picked up some cheese at the grocery store and I diced it and folded it into the dough with the stretch & folds. Somehow I made myself put all that delicious cheese in the bread (nearly 50% of the flour by weight), I guess that's love for you. I had about 80g of stiff levain chilling in the fridge that was left over after refreshing my starter, so I used all of it here.

Pepperjack sourdough

80g stiff levain

20g whole wheat flour

280g KA all purpose

200g water

145g pepper jack cheese

6 g salt

Bulk ferment was around 4 hours at around 80 F, with S&F every 30 minutes for the first 1 1/2 hours to develop dough and incorporate the cheese. I shaped it and proofed it for around 1 1/2 hours at about 86 F. Preheat to 500 and baked in dutch oven at 425 F, 20 min cover on, 25 min. cover off.

I recently returned from my 3rd trip to China for work this year and the first bread I attempted to make was this one.  I think I must have been suffering from a bad case of jet lag since I ended up with a puddle of cherry cheese which resembled a flat bread.  I like to work with wet dough but I went overboard on this attempt and didn't take the extra cherry juice from the cut up cherries into consideration.

I am happy to say that my second attempt of this bread was much more successful as I ended up with something that actually resembles a bread rather than a pancake.  I still can't find my wife's cherry pitter so I had to de-pit the cherries by hand which is a messy job to say the least.

I used a nice Havarti style cheese in this bake which melts nicely and compliments the cherries very well.  I used fresh cherries since they are still in season and reasonably priced.  I pureed 218 grams of cherries and cut the balance of 134 grams into pieces.  I used my mini Cuisinart to puree the cherries but you can use a blender or stick blender as well.

I used my standard white flour AP SD starter which I keep at 65% hydration and I added some Oat Flour to give it a little bit of nutty flavor.  I think the next time I make this bread I would add some walnuts or pecans to make it even better.

The final dough came out terrific with a nice moist open crumb with cheese and cherries oozing from its pores.  It smelled amazing with the flavors of cherries and cheese while it was baking and it took all my self-control not to tear into it until the next morning.

Procedure

Starter

71 grams Seed (Mine is 65% AP Flour Starter)

227 grams AP Flour

151 grams Water (85 - 90 degrees F.)

Mix seed with water to break up for a few seconds and then mix in flour until the starter form a smooth dough consistency.  Put it in a lightly oiled bowl and loosely cover and leave at room temperature for at least 10 hours.  The starter should double in volume.  Put the starter in the refrigerator for up to 1-2 days or use it immediately.

Main Dough

Ingredients

425 grams Starter from above

340 grams Bread Flour (King Arthur Flour)

161 grams Oat Flour (King Arthur Flour)

63 grams European Style Flour (KAF--you can substitute bread flour or a little whole wheat)

218 grams Cherry Puree

134 grams Pitted Cherries Cut Up into Small Pieces

200 grams Havarti Cheese or Similar Style Soft Cheese

220 grams Water (85 - 90 degrees F.)  (Note: the Cherry Puree Counts as the Balance of the Liquid)

16 grams Sea Salt (or table salt)

Procedure

Weigh the cherries and remove the pits either with your hands, knife or if you are lucky a cherry pitter.  Puree the 218 grams per above in your food processor or blender and set aside. Cut the remainder of the cherries into small pieces and set aside in a strainer to drain.

Cut the cheese into small cubes and set  aside.

Mix the starter with all the water except for 20 grams just to break it up along with the pureed cherries.  Next mix in the flours for 1 minute on low in your mixer or by hand and let them autolyes for 30 minutes up to an hour.    Next add the salt and then add the remainder of your water unless you feel the dough is already too hydrated.  Mix on low-speed or by hand for 4 minutes.  Remove the dough from your mixing bowl to your work surface.

The dough will be very sticky so you may want to use a bench scraper to help you do 4-5 stretch and folds.  Leave the dough uncovered for 10 minutes on your work surface or put it in a slightly oiled bowl.  After 10 minutes either on your work surface or in your bowl do another stretch and fold, cover the dough and let it rest for 10 minutes.  Repeat this S & F procedure one more time and let it rest another 10 minutes.  Do one last S & F  and flatten the dough out into a rectangle.  Add the cherry pieces and the cheese pieces and fold up the dough onto itself.  (Note: I goofed up and did this step after the first stretch and fold which made it very difficult to do additional ones.)

Let the dough sit in your bowl for another 1.5 to 2 hours depending on the temperature of your room ( my house is usually at about 70-72 degrees F.).  Next put the dough into your refrigerator overnight up to 24 hours or longer if necessary.  I usually only wait about 24 hours but you can do 36 hours if necessary.

The next day when ready to bake, remove the dough from the refrigerator and  let the dough sit out at room temperature for 1.5 hours - 2 hours until it starts to come to room temperature and is growing slightly. You can now remove the dough from your bowl or dough bucket and form into your desired shapes.  Be careful not to handle the dough to  roughly or you will end up degassing the nice gas trapped in the dough.  Place formed loaves in floured baskets (I use rice flour to make sure they don't stick which works every time).

 Let the dough rise at room temperature for around 2 hours until they pass the poke test.  (When the dough is poked your finger should leave a small indent that springs back very slowly.)

Score the loaves as desired and prepare your oven for baking with steam.

I then baked on my oven stone with steam at 450 degrees until both loaves are golden brown and reached an internal temperature of 205 - 210 degrees F.

Let the finished bread rest on a wire rack until cool and try to resist the temptation to cut into them until thoroughly cooled.

Please feel free to visit my other blog at www.mookielovesbread.wordpress.com for all my bread recipes.

After pinching off 100g of this combo; Yeast Water and Joe Ortiz’s Cumin, WW Sourdough starter for the donuts and English muffins this past Sunday, we used the remaining 230g of combo starter to make some semolina, durum atta and white whole wheat based herbed bialy’s that had a filling of home made chorizo, caramelized onions, 4 cheeses; brie, aged cheddar, pepper jack and pecorino cheese. The herbs were basil and cilantro.

What a beauty with the cilantro sprinkled on top.

The previous YW bialy’s we made here:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/27712/yeast-water-rye-ww-garlic-chive-onion-cheese-and-chorizo-bialy%E2%80%99s

where we used YW only for the levain, used much lower % of whole grains and only used a small amount of pepper jack cheese with the only herb being a garlic chive in the dough. The best thing about the old bake was the unbelievable open crumb. Everything else about the new bake turned out better than the old one.

Chorizo and onion mix before caramelizing.

This bake built on the previous one without autolyse, but we gussied it up and baked it with Sylvia’s steam this time while making it a totally hand made dough. Because of the steam and50 Flower temperature, the bake took longer than the previous one that was 10 minute long. This one took 5 min of steam and then 10 more minutes to finish.

These bialys were just delicious with a slight SD tang that we hope will develop over the next 24 hours. We continue to be impressed with the JoeOrtizSDstarter and when mixed with the YW created a nice, light, open crumb and a crust that was thin and chewy. The filling was built up from the bottom starting with fresh basil a cube of double creme and a cube of Alpine Lace Swiss, then a tablespoon or so of the chorizo and caramelized onion mix, with 4 cubes of cheese on top (2 cubes of pepper jack, 1 cube of pecorino and a cube of aged, super sharp cheddar.

Before proofing.

The Method

was straight forward. The combo YW SD was built up over (2) 3 hour builds and (1) 2 hour build and then it was refrigerated for 72 hours. But there was no need to refrigerate it other than to fit my scedule

The chorizo and onions were sautéed until caramelized and refrigerated until needed.

Spooned and docked after proofing.

After warming up, the levain was mixed with the dough water to break it up and the salt, flour, dried potato flakes, barley malt, molasses and butter were added to the mix. After combining by hand, the dough was emptied out to a slightly floured surface and kneaded by hand for 5 minutes. It was fully developed and the dough rebounded immediately when two fingers were poked into the dough. The dough was rested for 20 minutes and then 2 sets of 4 S & F’s each were done on 15 minute intervals. The dough was then allowed to ferment for 1 ½ hours until it had nearly doubled.

Sylvia's Steam in the microwave heating up.

The dough was divided into (10) roughly 100g pieces and hand formed into tight balls. These balls were rested for 10 minutes and then formed into little pizza shapes by picking them up and hanging them in the vertical while pressing out the centers.

Mis en place for filling the unspooned and undocked bialys

These were placed on semolina sprinkled parchment paper on un-rimmed baking sheets. The centers were then pressed out again before covering with plastic wrap to proof for another hour. At the 30 minute proofing mark the oven was preheated to 500 F regular bake and Sylvia’s Steam was prepared in the microwave and placed in the bottom of the oven.

Basil and brie first then Alpine Lace went in too on this level but not shown for som reason..

After proofing, the centers of the bialys were then pressed out flat again with a wet spoon and the centers docked with a fork to keep them from puffing in the oven. Some basil leaves were placed in the bottom with a cube of brie and a cube of Alpine Lace Swiss, a tablespoon of chorizo was added and flattened out to fill the well and 2 cubes of pepper jack and 1 cube of each of aged cheddar and pecorino were placed on top.

Chorizo, and 3 more cheeses, pecorino in the middle, flanked by cheddar and pepperjack.

The bialys were placed onto the middle oven rack with the stone one very top rack and steam below. At 2 minutes the temperature was turned down to 450 F regular bake. At 5 minutes the steam was removed and the temperature turned down to 425 F convection this time as the bialys were rotated 180 degrees on the oven rack. At the 10 minute mark the bialys were rotated 180 degree again and at 15 minutes they were done and moved to cooling racks. The fresh chopped cilantro was then sprinkled on top

Before the cilantro went on.

The formula follows the pix’s.

Cut vertical with my daughter apprentice holding before scarfing.  She liked them!

Cut horizontal.  Not as open as the first YW only ones but these tasted so much better.  Will make them again.

Apprentice takes a nice 105 F bake herself in the backyard oven.  Dumb Doxie !!!

Ian is well known for his interesting and delicious bread combinations.   I had taken his BPOC SD and made it into an even stranger bread by replacing his Semolina with 5% each; WW, Whole Rye and Whole Spelt.  For his bacon, cheese onion and potato I used; home made apple smoked pork jowl, ancient white vapor cheddar, caramelized onions and potato flakes.  The bread came out beautiful inside and out and was just plain delicious.  Definitely one of the 10 breads in my top 5 (actually it is one of the top 3).

I have been eating up all of the half a loaf, boule and batards that I froze after each bake over the last 3 months to see which ones I liked most and how best to rate and present them.  Being a sandwich king, I thought each might be presented as a nice lunch.  I was going to wait till I had finished them all (and have nearly done so), photo with the new old Nikon camera to do them justice this time, but, I had to break this one out separately since it is by far, far and away the best sandwich and lunch I have had these past few weeks.

Since this bread only deserves the best, the sandwich was a Dabrownman Super Special - Curried Grilled Chicken with Mango Chutney.  The sides were cold Rosemary, Pecorino, Parmesan,White Polenta, home grown Field Greens, Meculin and Lettuce Salad, home made Kosher Dill, Bread and Butter with Serrano Pepper pickles and a home grown navel orange.  The curry, chutney and polenta recipes follow the pix's as a bonus for all lunch lovers on TFL.

The first pix is a mis en place recipe for the Grilled Chicken Curry.  It has about 2 T each starting from the far right diced small; celery, green onion, red onion, grilled Italian squash and eggplant, carrot, red pepper, poblano pepper,  each orange mango chutney and mayo,  1/2 tsp Madras Curry powder, 1/2 grilled chicken breast,  1 T each; dried apricot, cranberry and raisin (reconstituted with hot water.) Mix it all up and you are finally done with this fine sandwich's filling.

Rosemary White Polenta with Parmesan and Pecorino

1/4 C medium grain white corn meal

1/4 C white corn flour (ground from WCM above)

1 C milk - any kind

1 C chicken stock - I use home made

1 T butter

1 T fresh rosemary chopped fine

1/2 C Pecorino and Parmesan grated cheese blend

pepper

Bring milk and stock to a simmer and slowly add the corn meal and corn flour while whisking constantly.  When the mixture thickens to a thick porridge, stir in butter, rosemary.  Turn off the heat and add the cheese.  Pepper to taste.  Serve warm for dinner but it is much better the next day cold for lunch.

Orange Mango Chutney

 In large fry pan sauté:

 1 T oil

½ T fresh ginger and 2 cloves minced garlic

 Sauté until fragrant about 1 min and add:

1 C brown, white or red onion, Sauté until soft about 3-5 min Add:

 1 C red bell pepper

1 T minced hot chili (jalapeno, Serrano, Thai)

1 ½ tsp Madras curry powder, curry powder or hot curry powder

½ tsp Gharam Masala

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp each cayenne powder and red pepper flakes

1/8 tsp each; allspice, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon

 Sauté for 1 minute until spices are fragrant then add:

 2 C diced mangos

½ C apple cider vinegar

½ C brown sugar

Zest of 1 orange - Supreme the orange and add the segments with the juice of membrane

1 diced pealed and cored small apple (can use pineapple and juice instead)

¼ C raisins

½ cups Macadamia nuts (optional)

 Simmer until the chutney thickens to jam about 20-30 min.  Place hot in sterilized jar and put into refrigerator when cooled.  It also freezes well in small portions which is what I do.

 You can chutney just about anything but you may want to use lemon zest, segments and juice depending on your choice of fruit or vegetable being made into chutney.

The other night I cranked up the charcoal grill and smoked some nice juicy pork chops with some red beans for dinner.  I didn't want to waste what was left of the nice smokey fire so I roasted a bunch of yellow potatoes and what better use for them but in a bread.  I had some left over roasted corn so I figured I might as well make use of that as well.

I decided at the last-minute to add some organic cracked wheat.  The best way to add this ingredient is to soak it for about 10 minutes in boiling water so it becomes soft.  It ends up soaking up a lot of the water so it's important to include that in the overall hydration of the dough.  I ended up adding too much liquid to this dough and it was extremely wet at 77%.  The final result was bread with an excellent crust and open moist crumb but the bread ended ups little flat.

Ingredients

15 ounces 65% Hydration Starter Refreshed

5 ounces Whole Wheat (I use King Arthur Flour)

12 ounces French Style Flour from KAF (or All Purpose Flour)

2 ounces Spelt Flour

2 ounces Organic Cracked Wheat

5 ounces Roasted Potatoes (I smashed them up and left most of the skin on for some added flavor)

3.5 ounces Cheddar Cheese (I shredded the cheese)

1 Tablespoon Freeze dried chives, but feel free to use fresh ones

2.2 ounces Roasted Corn

19 ounces Luke warm water, 90 degrees Fahrenheit

2 1/2 Teaspoons Sea Salt

Directions

From the total 19 ounces of water, bring 8 ounces to a boil and add the cracked wheat.  Let that sit for 10 minutes while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.  Using your stand mixer or by hand, mix the remaining water with the starter to break up the starter.

Add the flours and potatoes and mix on the lowest speed for 1 minute.  Now add the cracked wheat with the remainder of the water and mix for 1 minute.  Let rest for 5 minutes.

Add the salt and mix for 3 minutes on medium speed.  Now add the chives and the cheese and mix for 1 minute more.  The dough will be very wet.  If you prefer to work with a firmer dough you can add some additional flour, but I left this one very wet.

Remove dough to your lightly floured work surface and do about 10 stretch and folds with a dough scraper or your hands but keep them oiled or wet.  Form the dough into a ball and let it rest uncovered for 10 minutes.

Do a stretch and fold and form into a ball again and cover with a clean moist cloth or oiled plastic wrap.  Let it rest for another 10 - 15 minutes and then do another stretch and fold.  The dough should start to develop some gluten at this point.  Let it rest covered again.

After another 10 minutes do another stretch and fold and put into a lightly oiled bowl that has enough room so the dough can double overnight.

Let the dough sit at room temperature for 1 1/2 hours and then put in your refrigerator  for at least 12 hours or up to 3 days.

When ready to bake the bread, take it out of the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for 1  1/2 to 2 hours.  Now shape the dough as desired on a floured work surface being careful not to handle the dough too roughly so you don't de-gas it.

Place it in your bowl, banneton or shape into baguettes.

Let it sit at room temperature for 2 hours covered with oiled plastic wrap or a wet cloth.

Pre-heat oven with baking stone (I use one on bottom and one on top shelf of my oven), to 500 degrees F.

Slash loaves as desired and place empty pan in bottom shelf of oven.

Pour 1 cup of very hot water into pan and place loaves into oven.

Lower oven to 450 Degrees and bake for 25 - 35 minutes until bread is golden brown and internal temperature reaches 200 degrees.  Leave the loaves in your oven with the door cracked for 5 minutes longer with the oven off.  After 5 minutes remove them from the oven and place on  your cooling rack.  Try to resist the temptation to cut into the bread until they have cooled sufficiently

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This post has been submitted to the Yeast Spotting Site here: http://www.wildyeastblog.com/category/yeastspotting/.

Many folks are putting cheese in theitr bread.  Why?  Because all bread including Cheese Bread tastes good.  Especially, if you put bacon in it.  Fresh cheese making is easy, way easier than making bread.  Here is how.

Fresh Cheese

 Ingredients

 4 cups whole milk

1/4 C vinegar or juice from a lemon or ¼ C of yogurt or 1tsp of citric acid dissolved in water (what I normally use.).

 Directions

 Bring the milk to a boil in a large pot. Add the vinegar, and stir until the mixture separates into solids and liquid. Drain the mixture through cheesecloth set in a large mesh sieve over a bowl.  Rinse with clean water while in sieve to get rid of the vinegar.  Wrap the ends of the cheesecloth around the curd and put a heavy weight on it such as a cookie jar, rice container or huge #10 Hominy can like I do..

 Place the mixture in the refrigerator. Let the water drain completely for at least one hour, or overnight for a firmer fresh cheese.

Remove the fresh cheese from the cheesecloth, and use the fresh immediately, or refrigerate in a covered container for up to 5 days

Optional Additional – after 1 day draining in refrigerator

Leave in cheese cloth and soak in 6% salt water solution for 24 hours.  Remove from cheesecloth and lightly salt the surface of the cheese.  Wrap in parchment paper and let age in refrigerator for 60 days lightly salting every 7 days for the first 21 days.

 WARNING -  Be very careful here as you are now into hazardous to your health mode if you don’t know what you are doing…… and make a mistake that can – and will kill you and anyone else that eats your mistake

This is my take on Bon Appétit's Thyme Gougères. I subbed chives for the thyme, and used finely milled hard white wheat for the flour. I also hedged my bets with 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder. These are cheesily delicious, and are begging to be filled with something (duck liver patè maybe?)