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I stopped off at Whole Foods over the weekend and couldn't resist picking up a bottle of Cherry Ale to try in a bread recipe.  I also picked up some coconut flour which I will have to try at some later point when I figure out the best use for it.

I have yet to include any nuts in any of my breads since my wife doesn't really like them, but I figured it was time to try a recipe with my favorite pecans.  Cherry Ale, pecans.....what goes together with these 2 ingredients, but some roasted garlic and rye.

I included some first clear flour to give the dough some structure and added some barley flour to make it even more interesting.  The final result was a bread with an excellent crunch, moist crumb and sour/cherry ale flavor.  This bread goes perfect with a nice bowl of soup or stew or some good cheese.

Ingredients

15.5 ounces 65% Hydration Starter Refreshed (I used my existing starter which is uses AP flour)

16 oz. Cherry Ale (room temperature)

9 ounces First Clear Flour (or strong bread flour)

4 ounces White Rye Flour

4 ounces Medium Rye Flour

2 ounces Barley Flour

6 ounces  Roasted Garlic (chopped)

2 ounces Chopped Pecans

2 1/2 Teaspoons Sea Salt

1 Tablespoon Pistachio Oil

Directions

Using your stand mixer or by hand, mix the cherry ale with the starter to break up the starter.

Add the flours, and oil, and mix on the lowest speed for 2 minutes.  Let rest for 5 minutes

Add the salt Mix for 4 minutes more on medium speed, adding more flour if necessary to produce a slightly sticky ball of dough.  Now add the garlic and nuts and mix until incorporated.

Remove dough to your lightly floured work surface and need for 1 minute and form a ball.

Leave 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.

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.

Leave the covered dough in your bowl at room temperature for 1.5 to 2 hours and then put it in your refrigerator overnight or up to 3 days.

When ready to bake the bread, take the bowl out of your refrigerator and let it rest at room temperature for 2 hours.  After 2 hours shape the dough as desired 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.

Let cool on cooling rack and enjoy!

13Mar

I finally got a chance to bake some bread tonight after making a bunch of pizza over the weekend for my family.

I don’t even like coffee, but I actually love the smell and if you throw in some ice and a little sugar I can be convinced to drink a glass or two.  Anyway, I was all set to make an adaptation of a bread I discovered on the internet called a Hawaiian Sour Dough when I realized I didn’t have enough starter or all of the ingredients necessary to make this bread.  Instead I decided to put our new Keurig to good use and brewed some Mudslide flavored coffee.  I added this in place of most of the water in my recipe along with my sour dough starter, rye flours, spelt flour and some wheat germ.  For good  measure I added some carmelized onions that I had left over from my barbecue pizza and also used some pistachio oil I had bought a little while ago.  I thought the nutty oil would go well with the rye flours and flavorful coffee.

I do have to admit that the dough smelled amazing before it went into the oven from the mudslide coffee and hopefully when I cut into the loaf tomorrow morning it will taste even better.

Ingredients

15.5 ounces 65% Hydration Starter Refreshed

11 oz. Coffee  cooled to 90 degrees F. (I used Mudslide flavored coffee)

4 oz. water (90 degrees F.)

9 ounces First Clear Flour (or strong bread flour)

4 ounces White Rye Flour

4 ounces Pumpernickel Flour

2 ounces Spelt Flour

1 ounce  Wheat Germ

2.5 ounces Carmelized Onions

2 1/2 Teaspoons Sea Salt

1 Tablespoon Pistachio Oil

Directions

Using your stand mixer or by hand, mix the coffee and water with the starter to break up the starter.

Add the flours, salt, oil, and onions and mix on the lowest speed for 2 minutes.  Let rest for 5 minutes

Mix for 4 minutes more on medium speed, adding more flour if necessary to produce a slightly sticky ball of dough.

Remove dough to your lightly floured work surface and need for 1 minute and form a ball.

Leave 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.

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.

Leave the covered dough in your bowl at room temperature for 1.5 to 2 hours and then put it in your refrigerator overnight or up to 3 days.

When ready to bake the bread, take the bowl out of your refrigerator and let it rest at room temperature for 2 hours.  After 2 hours shape the dough as desired 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.

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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.

Let cool on cooling rack and enjoy!

The final dough had a nice subtle rye flavor with some sour undertones.  You don’t really taste the coffee flavor very much and the crumb was a little tighter than I would have liked.  Overall the bread was a success and is worth making again.

Please visit the Yeast Spotting Site here: http://www.wildyeastblog.com/category/yeastspotting/ for lots of cool recipes

Over the last few days I've been working on another Borodinsky.   I made some new rye malt, then refreshed rye sour, and scald flavored with the malt, molasses, and not quite as potent ground coriander as my last try.   I followed Andy's Feb 6 Borodinsky post, with the exception of some different timing and a little less coriander.   I cut into the loaf this morning, and felt, that maybe, just maybe I had made something close to a real Borodinsky loaf.  

Gave some to my son for breakfast - he ate it without any topping and without any complaint.   Then cut up some slices and took them to a morning meeting.   Since the people at the meeting were civilians (i.e., don't lie awake at night thinking about how to make such and such authentic Russian bread using the Auerman process) I thought they might not like it, and warned them it was very rye-y and coriandery and so forth.   But everyone ate it and most people seemed to genuinely enjoy it.    One woman mentioned that she thought it would be heavy and dense since it was mostly rye.   But it wasn't - instead very light in a rye sort of way.   

My only complaint is that the bread didn't quite hit the top of the pan, even though I thought I had the scaling (.69 of Andy's bake) perfect.   The bread obviously had some ovenspring, but rather than smoothly expanding to fill the inside of the pan, it seemed to rise as if it was uncovered and then cracked along the top.

I tried to get a very uniform paste in the pan by putting some in with a spoon and then smoothing and flattening it with a wet rubber spatula.  

My rye malt was much more successful this time.    I read through all the links people sent me - thank you.    I took Juergen's advice to raise the temperature while toasting the sprouting berries.    The color was much darker this time but I would call it ginger rather than red.    But I did get a much more powdery consistency when I ground the berries after toasting.   The potency this time around was much stronger, and I was a little afraid that I had burned it, since it had a very powerful aroma.   In retrospect I think it was fine.

Compare this with last time:

I also found what I thought was a very interesting discussion about making rye malt here.   See in particular Ron's comments in this thread.  

Baking Notes:

I always wait to use liquid rye sour until it is frothy on top.   In this case, I fed the sour in the afternoon.   Then again at night around six hours later.   Then left it overnight.   Ten hours later, it was frothy, so I combined it with the scald (made at the same time as the second sour feed) to make the sponge.   Then let ferment for 4 hours, per Andy's instructions.    I added final ingredients (rye flour, wheat flour, and salt)   and fermented for an hour.   Then spread into the pan (9 inch Pullman.)   Then proofed for only 1.5 hours rather than 3.   I used a wet finger to poke and test for elasticity, and just felt it was done earlier than expected.   Andy specifies a long bake at very low temperature with a very high temp start.   That didn't work with my schedule.   Instead I did the following.   Preheated oven to its highest temperature - 550F - for 40 minutes.   20 minutes into the preheat, I added a big pyrex lasagna pan full of water and with three towels in it.   At 40 minutes I added the loaf, and let the temperature come back up to 550F.    Then reduced heat to 350F.   At 1 hour 15 minutes into the bake, I removed the loaf from the pan, and removed the steam pan, and baked for 30 more minutes.    This time I managed to wait for around 20 hours before cutting.  

As for coriander, the first time I made this, I put in a very small amount of coriander that had been ground months before.    I think I underdid it.   Then second time, I put in freshly ground coriander at a little less than what Andy had specified.   The smell of the sponge with the coriander was overpowering to the point of being unpleasant and things didn't get any better with the bread, which failed for other reasons.   This time I scaled Andy's formula to .69 which would have called for 7g of coriander.   Instead I put in 5g of my supply of coriander which had been ground awhile ago.    This worked.   The flavor was fantastic and not overpowering.   Note that in Andy's Feb 6 post, he didn't put in the coriander until final, whereas in earlier posts, he put in with the scald.   Either way seems to be ok.  

I'm happy with this latest effort.   Thanks so much to Andy for his detailed and repeated posts on the subject.  

I wanted to create a rustic rye, whole wheat, SD bread that was based on David Snyder's  technique for Pugliesi Capriccioso where it is baked upside down and no slashing is involved - since my slashing is primitive to say the least.  I also wanted to incorporate some rye, whole wheat and berries of each as as a boiled soaker to improve the taste, sour and texture of the SD bread while keeping the crumb open, soft and specked with brown bits.   The crust I wanted crunchy right out of the oven and turning to chewy as it cools and ages over 24 hours.  Well this it and it is named after the great Southwest of America - Rustic Southwest Sourdough Bread.   I am trying this with and without overnight retard to see which one I like better.  These pictures are from the none retarded bread that actually stuck to the benetton causing it's odd scar.  Wish I could do that every time.  This loaf also might have over proofed since I didn't get the oven heated in time to bake the bread when it was ready. It tastes terrific anyway.   The recipe follows the Pix's

Pain Rustique au Levain du Sud-ouest

 Yield: Two 850 g Loaves

Ingredients

Levain Build

50 g KA AP flour

50 g Whole wheat flour

50 g Whole rye flour

150 g water, cool (60 For so)

25 g active starter (100% hydration)

Boiled Soaker

25 g rye berries cracked

25 g WW berries cracked

25 g 6 grain cereal

Final Dough  (77% hydration, including levain excluding the soaker)

600 g KA AP flour

300 g KA bread flour

645 g warm water (80 For so)

14 g pink Himalayan sea salt (1.5%)

325 g  Levain

Boil and Soak – soaker ingredients in twice as much water by volume.  Bring to a boil and turn off heat and let soak overnight covered with plastic wrap.  Drain any excess liquid off in the morning.

Directions

1. Levain : Make the final build 10-12 hours before the final mix.

2. Mix: Add all the ingredients to the mixing bowl, including the levain, but not the salt or the soaker. Mix just until the ingredients are incorporated into a shaggy mass. Correct the hydration as necessary. Cover the bowl and let stand for an autolyse phase of 60 minutes. At the end of the autolyse, sprinkle the salt over the surface of the dough, and knead 8 minutes with dough hook on KA 3. The dough should have a medium consistency. Add the scalded and caramelized berries and mix on KA 3 for 1 minute

3. Ferment with S&F: 2 hours. Stretch and fold the dough in the bowl 5 strokes at the 30minute mark. Stretch and fold again, 5 strokes, at the one hour mark folding it into a ball in lightly oiled bowl. Do 1 S &F two more times at 90 and 120 minutes.  Divide dough in two.  Form into ball stretching the skin tight and place in floured benetton or shape into batard leave to ferment 1-2 more hours until the dough is at least 75% larger than when you started the ferment.  Remove from benneton and bake as below.

4. If retarding: do 1 S&F in the lightly oiled bowl forming the dough into a ball again. Refrigerate 8-20 hours, depending on how much time you have and sour your taste.

5. Divide and Shape: take dough out of refrigerator and let it come to room temperature about 1 ½ hours. Divide the dough into what 2 pieces and pre-shape, then shape into boules or batards 20 minutes later.

6. Proof: Approximately 1.5 to 2.5 hours a t82 F. Ready when poke test dictates.

7. Pre-heat: oven to 500 with steam apparatus in place - 45 minutes minimum. I use a loaf pan half full of water and a dry12”cast iron skillet that go in the bottom rack of the oven at the beginning of pre heat and the stone on the rack above. When the loaves go in, I throw 1 cup of boiling water into the cast iron skillet right after loading the bread on the stone.

8. Bake: Do not slash loaves. Bake seam side up on stone at 500 F for 5 minutes, turn down temperature to 450 and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove steaming apparatus after 15 minutes. Turn down oven to 425 F convetion  now and bake 15 minutes more, turning loaf every 5 minutes for browning evenness as necessary. When done (205 F internal temp), leave loaves on stone with oven door ajar, oven off for 10 minutes. Move to cooling rack until loaf is room temperature.

Today's family breakfast included rye bialys with cream cheese and smoked salmon, we enjoyed them!  The dark rye pre-ferment for these was adapted from The Bread Bible's rye pugliese, but the main dough, as well as the proportion of pre-fermented dough, is quite different.  In addition to the dark rye and unbleached flour, they also have KAF whole grain white wheat flour, which I sifted to remove the larger bran pieces.  The bran was used to coat the outside of the bialys in place of the tradtitional flour coating.  The onion, poppy seed, salt and pepper filling is from the Bread Bible's bialy recipe, it's a great filling.

The pre-ferment was mixed and left overnight (12 hrs) at cool room temperature, until doubled.

The flours, yeast and water were mixed and autolysed, then salt and pre-ferment added, and the main dough kneaded for about 5 minutes in my stand mixer.

Bulk ferment was 75 minutes at 80F.

Final proof was 60 minutes, also at 80F.   Before baking, I docked the centers and filled with the onion-poppy seed mixture.

Baked about 10 minutes at 500F.

Last time I made these, I used bread flour, which I think I'll go back to next time.  These were moist and tender, but I missed the chewiness of the bread flour.  The centers are dark from the poppy seeds (not burnt onions). 

This recipe is an adaptation from Veronika at http://eattheroses.wordpress.com.  It uses the no-knead method and allows the gluten which is very weak in rye breads to develop slowly.  I decided to add some dark beer to give it an extra kick and also used First Clear flour instead of Bread or AP flour.  I ended up keeping the dough in the refrigerator for an extended period since I ran out of time to let it rise completely at room temperature.  I think this ended up creating an extremely sour sourdough rye which is not for the faint of heart.  If you want a more mellow tasting bread, I suggest you follow the directions below.

All in all, the bread turned out fairly well with a nice crispy crust and chewy, moist crumb.  The beer definitely added another flavor profile which makes this bread ideal for a nice sharp cheese and beer.

Ingredients

Starter

5 oz. water (90 degrees F.)

3 oz. Rye Flour (I used medium grade from KAF)

2 oz. First Clear Flour (you can substitute Bread flour or High Gluten flour)

2 oz. Refreshed Starter (100 % Hydration White Starter or Rye or Whole Wheat)

Final Dough

7 oz. Dark Rye Flour

10.5 oz. First Clear Flour (or Bread flour or High Gluten)

2 Tsp. Salt

1 - 2 TBS Caraway Seeds (more or less depending on your preference.  I used 1.5 TBS)

12 oz. Dark Beer

Directions

Prepare the starter and let it sit out at room temperature for 5-8 hours until it is nice and bubbly and ripe.  You can use it immediately or put it in the refrigerator overnight until ready to use.

Mix the starter with the room temperature beer and break it up.  Next mix in the flours and salt until the dough comes together and is still sticky. You don't need to over-mix the dough as it will now sit covered with some plastic wrap for 18-20 hours at room temperature.  (This is the point where after around 8 hours I put it in my refrigerator).  After 18-20 hours the dough should be nice and puffy and ready to turn out on an either a lightly floured work surface or lightly oiled one.  Do several stretch and folds and then put the dough in your floured banneton or bakers couche for its final journey which should take around 1.5 - 3 hours.

When the final dough is nice and puffy and passes the finger poke test, prepare your oven for hearth baking.

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.

Shut the oven off and leave the bread inside with the door slightly open for 10 minutes.  This will help dry the loaves out and keep the crust crunchy.

Let cool on cooling rack and enjoy!

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

I get a kick out of trying new types of flours and grains in my bread baking.  I frequently shop on-line at King Arthur Flour and like to try new and different products when I can.  I've read many recipes on The Fresh Loaf using soakers and have tried a few recipes from Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Bread book with mixed results.  I decided the other day to try my own formula using a multi grain soaker from my baking supply bin and also used some of my existing refreshed sourdough starter mixed with some rye, whole wheat and first clear flours.  The results were surprisingly good considering I had no idea what to expect.  The final bread had a great nutty sour flavor with a nice thick crust and moist crumb.

Ingredients

Soaker

2 oz. Rolled Oats

2 oz. Malted Rye Berries

2 oz. Barley Flakes

1 oz. English Malted Wheat Flakes

1 1/2 Cups Boiling Water

Final Dough

15 oz. White Starter recently refreshed

3.5 oz. Whole Wheat Flour

3.5 oz. Medium Rye Flour

4 oz. First Clear Flour (you can substitute bread flour or High Gluten Flour)

2.5 Tsp. Salt

6 oz. Water, 90 degrees F.

Directions

Mix all ingredients for soaker in a bowl and add boiling water.  Let it sit for 2-3 hours covered until the grains are soft.

After 2-3 hours add the soaked grains along with the remaining liquid in your mixing bowl and add the flours, salt and remaining water and mix for 2 minutes.  The dough should come together in a shaggy mess and should be relatively moist at this point.  Let it rest for 5 minutes and mix for 4 minutes more on medium low-speed.

Remove dough from mixing bowl to work surface and do a stretch and fold.  You may need to wet or oil your hands and the work surface since the dough will still be very sticky at this point. Form the dough into a ball and let it rest uncovered for 10 minutes.  Let the dough rest uncovered for 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes do another stretch and fold and cover the dough with a moist lint free towel or plastic wrap sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.  Do another stretch and fold two more times letting the dough rest 10 minutes each time.  After the last stretch and fold put the dough into an oiled bowl and cover it tightly.

Let the dough sit in your bowl for 2 hours at room temperature.  It should only rise slightly at this point.  After the 2 hours are up put in your refrigerator for at least 12 hours or up to 3 days.

When ready to bake the bread take your bowl out of the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for around 2 hours.  After 2 hours shape the dough as desired 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 moist 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.

Shut the oven off and leave the bread inside with the door slightly open for 10 minutes.  This will help dry the loaves out and keep the crust crunchy.

Let cool on cooling rack and enjoy!

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