pugliese

I've been a longtime reader (lurker) of the The Fresh Loaf and haven't really had the chance to bake for a while, oven use when it was hot out just wasn't working, I was really busy with work, etc. But I recently jump started myself back into it with the BBA Challenge, and the realization that my girlfriend didn't care about me using the oven at her house!

Since then I've been practically a whirlwind of baking. That Panmarino up at the top, from BBA, was the first in the whirlwind! Except for the last 2 weeks, helping her move up to Fairbanks, Alaska from Los Angeles, CA for a PhD program. Now that we're done with the drive, and up here and a bit more settled I finally have the chance to sit down and type up this post. I've been just itching to bake, but I don't really have the facilities up here.

Well, since I haven't been able to bake for a bit I'll just give a few of the 'greatest hits' from recently.

I made these right before I left on the trip, two loaves of pugliese from Bread Baker's Apprentice. I deviated from the recipe a little bit and made them sourdough with 100% semolina flour.

Also a pannetone made with golden raisins, triple cherry blend, and blueberries.

A week or so before I left for the trip I made the BBA Miche using a blend of whole wheat, white, spelt and rye flour. It was a little tricky handling a loaf that big but it turned out beautifully! Really awesome mix of grain and sourdough flavor in that one.

And lastly, cinnamon rolls from BBA, these were a huge hit with my friends and at work!

So again, hello to everyone and may all your baking go well!

SO, I havent made bread in a little while apart from my LSA mix bread that tasted great but never cook properly. I have been hankering for some good real bread.

So Monday evening I mixed together my preferment 1kg of flour in total, but a mixture of rye, wholemeal whole wheat, white unbleached wheat, semolina flour, gluten flour, salt, yeast, Rice bran oil.

I left it out all night until around 10am when I begn to make it into bread.

I added Wholemeal wheat flour, white unbleach flour, gluten flour and medium grind semolina into one bowl. I added half the preferment, 1 cup of water and 1 cup of buttermilk, 1 teaspoon of yeast and 1 of salt. mixed and kneaded and left of an oiled tray covered with a wet teatowl to rise.

I then mixed another bowl with wholemeal wheat, white unbleached wheat, gluten flour, rye flour the rest of the preferment, oil and buttermilk, salt and yeast. Mixed and kneaded this also and put aside to rise as I did for the other dough.

I left them for 3 1/2 hours. Came back, folded and left for another 2 hours.

Came back and divided and shaped the semolina dough which I came to call the Pugliese (even though a Pugliese doesnt contain rye or buttermilk.....it is my version of it now ;))

I loosely chaped it into 3 rustic loaves and 2 rolls. the rustic loaves I tried to shape into ciabatta loaf shapes and one I made my first Fendu. Turned out nicely :)

The rye I left for a third rise as I just didnt have time to shape it, so I folded it and left it covered for another 90 mins.

It became a big sandwich loaf and 5 rolls.

It all came out so well, and I am so happy with myself! What lovely bread!

The Fendu isnt in the picture because we had already eaten it!!! 

Thegreenbaker

So I have baked a lot of bread this weekend, if you count Friday.  Friday saw the BBA pugliese.

I liked it, but it didn't turn out the way I expected it to.  It wasn't as soft as it looked like it would be in the book photo.  The book photo bread is all squooshed down on top, as if it has a ciabatta-like, softer crust.  Also, my crumb wasn't near as open.  But, it was still nice, sort of like a generic Italian bread.

Yesterday I started to bake some sandwich bread (just my usual recipe), but then the day got short on me and I ended up putting the shaped loaves in the fridge for overnight.  I baked them this morning before church, and they seem different.  I haven't sliced them yet, but it does seem like the crust might be a little chewier.  There are lots of little blisters all over the crust, too, which they usually don't have.  It will be interesting to see what the crumb texture (and flavor) are like.

I also baked Bill's sourdough pagnotta today with my new starter.  Now this is a bread I can get behind!!!  With a big, wide open mouth! 

 It's gorgeous, albeit a bit flat.  It's such a wet dough that I just don't think it can do much.  But my starter performed wonderfully, doubling the dough in 4 hours and doubling the shaped boules in 3 hours.  Fantastic.  I did a few things differently than the recipe--I made up a sponge last night, using the starter, water, and just the AP flour.  Let it sit overnight on the counter.  It was super sour and foamy this morning, which worried me, bc I don't like really sour bread.  But I kept going.  I used KAF AP, KAF bread, and then for that last 100 g of flour, I substituted organic whole wheat graham flour from Hodgson Mill.  It made a beautiful dough.  I also used gray sea salt from France.  And, I mixed the dough in my mixer rather than doing all of the folds.  It took about 10 minutes at med-high speed to get a windowpane.

I proofed the shaped boules in improvised bannetons, namely wood salad bowls lined with smooth kitchen towels and dusted with flour.  Baked them at 500 for 20 minutes and did the steam thing (I baked the first loaf without the steam, and it got less oven spring than the other two).

The crust is thin, crisp but chewy, and nice and brown.  The crumb is open, holey, smooth and moist (almost tastes buttery).  And most importantly, it isn't too sour...it's just right.  And so, count me as another "Bill's Sourdough Pagnotta" convert!