Potato bread

Mookie likes to get his way and when he wants something he lets me know it.  For example, when he wants breakfast he will knock everything he can off of my night stand until I get up and feed him.  When he wants dinner he will flop down by the door when I come home and insist on a belly rub until he is satisfied and then run to the kitchen and yell at me to feed him.

Here is my belly...what are you waiting for?

He will wait by the closet in the kitchen where the food is until he is satisfied that the can of food I have chosen meets his standard.  So I really didn't have a choice when Mookie told me he was tired of not having a bread named after him and if I didn't rectify the situation there would be serious consequences.

For this reason and this reason alone, I present to you a bread worthy of its namesake.  Mookie loves hot cocoa and he is a big potato fan as well.  This bread also has some espresso powder, pistachio oil, and assorted flours since Mookie has a sophisticated palate.

Mookie did insist on having the bread have his likeness on it, so since I don't have a cat mold I used a cookie cutter to make a bread cookie to adorn the top of the bread.  I am not sure if he approves of how it looks since it doesn't have any white in it, but he said he will overlook that if it tastes good.

I am happy to report that the bread is nice and moist and you taste the espresso powder and a hint of the hot chocolate.  The rye chops and First Clear flour along with the Oat flour and White Rye give this bread a nice earthy flavor that Mookie liked so much he refused to share it with his brother and 3 sisters.

I made 1 large boule with this recipe but you can easily make 2 smaller loaves if desired.

The total hydration of this dough is 71% which made a nice wet dough and a final moist loaf.

I used my standard 65% AP starter for this recipe.

Directions

AP Starter

227 grams AP Flour

71 grams AP Seed Starter

151 grams Water at Room Temperature (80-90 degrees F.)

Mix ingredients in a bowl until thoroughly combined.  Cover the bowl and let it sit at room temperature for around 8 hours.  The starter should almost double when ready to proceed.  You can either mix in final dough or put in refrigerator for at most 1 day before using.  If your kitchen is warmer than mine which is usually about 70-72 degrees with my air-conditioning you can proceed sooner.

Main Dough Ingredients

425 grams Refreshed AP Starter (65% hydration) from above

200 grams European Style Flour (KAF, you can substitute bread flour with a little whole wheat mixed in)

50 grams Wheat Germ

150 grams First Clear Flour (KAF)

70 grams Oat Flour (KAF)

100 grams White Rye Flour (KAF)

70 grams Rye Chops

260 grams Mashed Potatoes (I added a little Greek Yogurt to smooth it out)

14 grams espresso Powder

25 grams Pistachio Oil (You can sub Olive Oil or Vegetable Oil or any nut oil)

16 grams Seas Salt or Table Salt

350 grams Hot Chocolate (Cooled to Room temperature)

Plus 65 grams Water at Room Temperature

797 grams Total Flour

566 grams Total Liquid

71% Hydration

Procedure

Mix the flours, and rye chops with the hot chocolate  in your mixer or by hand for 1 minute. Let it rest covered in your bowl for 20-30  minutes.   Next cut the starter into small pieces and add to the flour mixture in the bowl and also add the oil, salt, potatoes and the water.  Mix for 4 minute to incorporate all the ingredients. I mixed on speed #1 for 3 minutes and speed #2 for 1 minutes.   The dough should have come together in a ball and be tacky but not too sticky.

Next take the dough out of the bowl and place it on your work surface or as in this case place it in an oiled bowl or container.  Do a stretch and fold and rest the dough uncovered for 10 minutes.  After the rest do another stretch and fold and cover the dough and let it rest for 10 minutes.  Do one more stretch and fold and put the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and let it sit at room temperature covered for 2 hours (if it is already in a bowl just make sure to cover it).   After 2 hours you can put the dough into the refrigerator for 24 hours or up to 2 days before baking.  Feel free to do some additional S & F's if you feel it is necessary.  I baked the bread about 24 hours later.

The next day (or when ready to bake) let the dough sit out at room temperature for 2  hours.

Next, form the dough into your desired shape and put them in floured bannetons, bowls or on a baking sheet and let them rise covered for 2 hours or until they pass the poke test.  Just make sure to not let them over-rise.

I saved a small piece of dough and used a cat shaped cookie cutter to create the Mookie decoration.

I let this rise covered with a towel and when ready to bake the loaves I glued it on the loaf with some water.  In hindsight I should have adhered the dough better as it kind of puffed up and looks like a handle.  Hey, I guess that could be a new concept....a built-in carry handle for your loaf of bread!

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

Set your oven for 500 degrees F. at least 30 minutes before ready to bake.  When ready to bake place the loaves into your on  your oven stone with steam and lower the temperature immediately to 450 degrees.    When both loaves are golden brown and reached an internal temperature of 200 degrees F. you can remove them from the oven.  Since this was one large loaf it took about 45 minutes to bake.

Let the loaves cool down for at least an 6 hours or so before eating as desired.

Be sure to visit my other blog at www.mookielovesbread.wordpress.com for all my recipes.

I put on this stupid costume so where is my treat!

It's week 6 in the Inside the Jewish Bakery Challenge - Semester 1. This week is Polish Potato Bread.

By procrastinating my bake until the end of the week, I can learn from the experience of those who have their act together and baked earlier! A common theme seemed to be "dough too wet," so I was meticulous about my measuring. The biggest opportunity for adding moisture seems to be during the process of boiling the potatoes. I weighed them prior to boiling, and again after draining, and they had gained a half-ounce. I reduced the potato water in the recipe accordingly.

For the flour, I milled hard red wheat and sifted it to ~80% extraction through a #30 sieve.

As you can see, the dough was still wet, but it wasn’t the batter that some folks have gotten. I was able to more-or-less wrangle it into a shape with well-floured hands.

I would change the following things next time I made it:

First, I would allow the proof to continue until the loaf was higher than the top of the pan. Like many others, I got no oven spring at all. I had gotten such a vigorous rise in the fermentation, I think I could have easily gotten another inch during the proof.

Second, I got burned (almost literally) by putting the pans into the top third of the oven rack. The tops were starting to get really dark at the 40 minute mark, so I pulled the pans. I left the bread in the pan for 15 minutes, then moved to a cooling rack. The bottoms were very undercooked. If you look at the bottom of the slices in the last picture, you see no crust at all. Next time, I’ll put them lower in the oven, and tent with foil if necessary to get a longer bake.

And there will certainly be a next time. The bread is unbelievably soft – the softest milled wheat bread I’ve made. I made potato soup to go with it, and they paired perfectly. I would imagine I’ll make this every time I make potato soup in the future – I’m already boiling them, it’s really easy to add a couple extra for the bread.

This spectacular bread is made with bread and a little wholewheat flours, potato and a little honey.  If you haven't made it yet, you've got to try it. It's fabulous!

- Elizabeth

my take on the recipe: Tortano, based on Royal Crown's Tortano in 'Artisan Baking Across America' by Maggie Glezer

As I was paging through BBA to find the various sourdough and other rye bread recipes, I discovered two recipes, with great photos, that I had somehow missed in my many, many trips through that wonderful bread book—Potato Cheddar, and Chives Torpedos, and Roasted Onion and Asiago Miche. Both recipes are from bakeries in Sonoma County, CA, one of my favorite places, home to great wineries, and great wines, and home to some astounding artists, among them, Ginny Stanford, whose portraits of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and the late, wonderful food writer, M.F.K. Fisher can be found in the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery.

In fact, my first exposure to Sonoma County, in 1981, was under the guidance of Ginny Stanford, who led me on a day tour of some of Sonoma County's wineries, including what immediately became my favorite, Kenwood Winery. To this day, the 1978 Kenwood Zinfandel remains one of the best wines I have ever tasted. After the tour, I baked some baguettes at the home of one of Ginny's friends, to accompany a fine dinner of lemon chicken and pasta with pesto. And, though I'd love to be counted among the fine Sonoma County bread bakers, I can at least say I have baked bread in that county that is loaded with all kinds of talent—in art, food, wine, and more.

But, I digress—let's get back to today's bake.

I knew when I saw the two recipes and the accompanying photos, that I would soon bake both—it was just a matter of deciding which one to bake first. My wife, Linda, solved my dilemma. She suggested saving the miche, a three-pound wonder that should be presented on as pictured in BBA, on a pedestal, for a festive occasion (and the recipe yields two of these hefty loaves).

Of course, that festive occasion will be here soon. As I'm sure you know, Mardi Gras originated here in Mobile, AL, and we'll begin the two weeks of parties and parades in the city on January 29. So, yesterday I tried the Potato, Cheddar, and Chive Torpedos, reserving the miche for sometime in the next few weeks. And the results were just great—so great that I will submit this bread to Susan at her wonderful blog, Wild Yeast, for her regular Friday feature, Yeast Spotting.The recipe, slightly abridged, follows. Immediately following the recipe, you'll see what I did, some of which digressed from the recipe (mostly because of my ability to carefully read and then to follow directions).

Potato, Cheddar, and Chive Torpedos from Bread Baker's Apprentice

Ingredients

For two 1.5 pound loaves

8 oz. un-peeled potatoes, coarsely chopped, boiled in 3 cups water until soft, and cooled.

4 to 8 oz. potato water, lukewarm (from above)

10.5 oz. barm

18 oz. unbleached bread flour

.22 oz (2 tsp.) instant yeast

.5 oz. (2 tsp.) salt

1 oz (one-fourth cup) chopped fresh chives

6 thin slices (about 4 oz.) sharp Cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Prepare potatoes in advance and allow time for potatoes and cooking water to cool. Remove barm from fridge about one hour before making bread, to take off the chill.

2. In a 4-qt. bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer, stir together the barm, half of the flour, the yeast, the cooked potatoes, and one half cup of the potato water (or, use paddle attachment with the mixer). Let this sit uncovered for 30 minutes.

3. Add remaining flour and the salt, and mix until ingredients form a ball adding as much or remaining water as needed.

4. Sprinkle some flour on counter, transfer the dough to the counter and knead the dough for about 6 minutes (or mix on low speed with the dough hook). Add flour or water as needed. Add the chives and continue kneading until they are evenly distributed (about two minutes). In a mixer, the dough should clear the sides and bottom of the bowl. The dough should pass the window pane test, and be very tacky, but not sticky, and should be about 77° to 81°F. Lightly oil a large bowl, and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it to coat all sides with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

5. Ferment art room temp for about 90 minutes or until the dough doubles in size.

6. Transfer the dough to the counter and cut it into two equal pieces. Press each piece into a rectangle about 6 inches wide by 8 inches long. Lay three slices of cheese on each rectangle, covering the surface, but leaving about a half inch border uncovered around the edges. Tightly roll up the dough from bottom to top, jelly-roll style, creating a spiral with the cheese. Seal the ends of the rolled dough, which should look like a log , into points by rolling them more forcefully with your hands. this will give the dough a torpedo look, plump in the middle and tapered at the ends. As you roll down the ends, be sure to squeeze out all the trapped air pockets to avoid separation of the layers. Seal the bottom seam closed with the edge of your hand.

7. Line a sheet pan with parchment, mist the parchment lightly with spray oil, then dust with cornmeal or semolina flour. Lay the two loaves across the width of the pan, mist the tops lightly with spray oil, and cover loosely with plastic wrap.

8. Proof at room temp. for about one hour or until the dough nearly doubles in size.

9. Prepare the oven for hearth baking (i.e., have your stone in place) and be sure to have an empty steam pan in place. Pre-heat the oven to 500°F. Score the the top of each loaf with two diagonal slashes, making sure to cut through the first layer of cheese.

10. Generously dust a peel or the back of a sheet pan with semolina flour or corn meal and very gently transfer the loaves, with or without the parchment to the peel or the pan. Slide the loaves onto the baking stone, or bake directly on the pan. Pour one cup of hot water into the steam pan and shut the door. After 30 seconds, spray the oven walls with water and close the door again. Repeat twice more at 30 second intervals. After the final spray, lower the oven temp. to 450°F and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. After 15 minutes, rotate the loaves 180 degrees, if necessary for even baking. The loaves should register 200°F in the center, be nicely browned all over, and sound hollow when thumped on the bottom. the cheese will bubble up out of the cuts, crisp up, and also brown.

11. Transfer the finished loaves to a wire rack for cooling for at least 45 minutes before slicing and serving.

As I said, I didn't follow the recipe exactly as presented in BBA, but I am happy with the results.

I have learned the value of mis en place and adhere to this basic principle at every bake.

As it happened, I didn't need to take my barm from the fridge, as I had refreshed it twice over the past two days, and it was already en place in a covered bowl on the counter.

I had also previously (about 45 minutes earlier) cooked the potatoes and saved and measured out the cooking water.

Next, I mixed half the flour with the yeast (and it appears that I was about a tenth of an ounce over, on my flour)

I mixed the barm, flour, yeast, potatoes, and a half cup of the potato water…

and added the remaining flour, and the chives (which were to be added just a bit later, according to the recipe)

and a bit more water. Then I kneaded the dough with the dough hook until it cleared the sides of the bowl.

I then, transferred the dough to an oiled bowl, and covered it with its own lid.

It seems I have a tendency to use a bit more oil than what might be considered "lightly oiling a bowl."

After the dough had fermented for about 90 minutes,

I divided it into two rectangular pieces, and placed the cheese strips as directed. However, I had a narrow brick of white sharp cheddar cheese, and so, I used about 10 strips for each rectangle, and then, because I didn't carefully read the directions, I rolled the dough up on the eight inch side, making for rather longish torpedos that would not fit across the pan, but would only fit lengthwise.

I realized that it seemed silly to proof the loaves on a half-sheet pan, and then transfer them to a peel or to the back of another pan,so I quickly pulled out my new SuperpPeel™ (again without the cloth conveyor belt) and gently moved the loaves, on the parchment to the peel for proofing. that worked really well and the loaves on the parchment slipped perfectly onto the stone when it was time to bake. I much prefer the SuperPeel™ to my aluminum peel—it's bigger, and can easily accommodate loaves crosswise, which helps getting them into the right position on the stone. Now I use the aluminum peel mostly for removing loaves, one at a time from the oven when they are finished baking.

After proofing for a bit more than an hour, I scored the loaves (at this point on parchment on the Super Peel)…

but, as you can see, I scored the front loaf three times instead of two (because my placement of the first score was too near the end of the loaf).

Nonetheless, and despite my mis-steps, the loaves turned out well, with a soft crumb, an astounding aroma and flavor, and a pretty decent crust.

My guess is that I didn't roll the dough tightly enough, and that caused the holes you see (and that is where the cheese is).

All in all, this was bread that was fun to bake, and once again, I learned a great deal (especially about reading directions).

I can tell you that after the requisite cooling period, the first slice was not enough, and my wife and I happily (but with some guilt) ate about a third of that loaf.

This recipe was contributed by Salome, who recently joined TFL. She is Swiss, and the breads she bakes represent a bread tradition which is new to me. The Southern Tyrolean Potato-Nut Bread (Südtiroler Kartoffel- Nussbrot) particularly appealed to me, since I have made potato breads a couple of times and really enjoyed them, and I like sourdough bread with nuts. It seemed to me that the combination of the potato and nut flavors would be delicious.

Notes: Salome's recipe calls for a mix of hazelnuts and walnuts. My usual source of hazelnuts has very poor quality stock at present, but their walnuts are very good. So I just used walnuts.

Procedure

1. Prepare the sourdough starter by mixing 50 gms of starter with 100 gms AP or Bread Flour and 100 gms of water. Cover and let ripen until it has expanded somewhat and is actively bubbling. (8-12 hours)

2. Cook and peel the potatoes. Mash them or put them through a potato ricer. (Salome says she usually steams the potatoes for this bread, but I decided to roast mine, thinking I would get a more intense flavor. I used Yukon Gold potatoes and roasted them in a covered pot at 375F for about 35-40 minutes. I peeled them and put them through a ricer, directly into the mixer bowl on top of the flour.)

3. Place 200 gms of the sourdough starter in a large bowl or the bowl of your mixer. Add the water and dissolve the starter in the water.

4. Add the bread flour and potatoes to the dissolved starter and mix to a shaggy mass with all the flour moistened. Cover this tightly and allow it to rest for 30 minutes. (This “autolyse” allows the flour to get fully and evenly hydrated and the gluten to start to develop.)

5. Add the coriander and salt and mix them into the dough. I then mixed in a KitchenAid Accolade using the dough hook for 13 minutes at Speed 2. There was some gluten development, but the dough was very loose. It never cleaned the side of the bowl

6. Transfer the dough to a floured board and, with well-floured hands, stretch it into a 14 inch square. Distribute the nuts over the dough, roll it up and knead for a couple minutes to get the nuts evenly distributed in the dough.

7. Gather the dough into a ball and place it in a large, lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl.

8. Ferment the dough until it has doubled, with stretch and folds at 40 and 80 minutes. (I think a third stretch and fold wouldn't have hurt.)

9. Transfer the dough to a well-floured bench. Divide it into 2 equal pieces. Pre-shape into logs. Dust with flour and cover with plasti-crap. Let the dough rest for 10-20 minutes.

10. Form the pieces into bâtards and place them on lightly floured parchment paper. Dust again with flour and cover with plasti-crap.

11. Proof the loaves until they are about 1.5 times their original size. (1.5-2 hours)

12. 45-60 minutes before baking, place a baking stone in the oven and make pr

    eparations for

    your oven steaming method of choice. Pre-heat the oven to 450F.



13. 
    

    Bake with steam for 10 minutes, then in a dry oven for another 20 minutes. If the loaves seem to be getting dark too fast (and they  probably will), turn the oven down 10-20 degrees.

    
    


14. 
    

    Bake until the internal temperature is 205F. Remove the loaves to a cooling rack.

    
    


15. 
    

    Cool completely before slicing.

    
    

Potato-Nut Bread from the South Tyrol

Potato-Nut Bread crumb

This is a very enjoyable bread eaten without any spread or addition. It has a mildly chewy crust, once cool. The crumb is tender, as expected, and has a cool mouth feel, like many high-hydration breads. There is a mildly sour under-tone, but the predominant flavor is from the toasted walnuts. The walnuts also gave up some of their oil into the crumb, so the crumb feels like it is oiled.

I thought this bread might be good with a blue cheese, so I tried it with some Point Reyes Blue. This is a rather strong-tasting cheese, and it overpowered the bread. Maybe a fresh Chevre? A nutty Compté?

David

Submitted to Yeast Spotting on Susan FNP's  Wild Yeast blog (This week, hosted by Nick at imafoodblog)