YW

For the 2nd test of our new 2 week old WW starter, we though we would continue our 100% whole grain quest to a 3rd bake, similar to the last 2, but making a few changes along the way as my apprentice usually does.  She just can’t leave well enough, or me either for that matter, alone.

We decided to add in some YW to the mix to help open the crumb of the planned pumpernickel baking temperature and schedule.  We also decided to change from a 100% whole wheat, 100% whole grain bread to one that was still 100% whole grain but had equal portions of WW, Spelt and Rye.  We omitted the VWG on this bake.

We also added some barley malt syrup and cut the molasses in half and throw in some bread spices consisting of; black and brown caraway, coriander, anise and fennel.  To keep in line with the change in whole grains we also changed the whole berry scald to match it using WW, Spelt and Rye.

The resulting overall hydration of 87.5% is fairly in the middle of the pumpernickel hydrations we do around here in AZ where it is so dry all time.  The method was pretty straight forward if a tiny bit unusual.   We built the whole wheat combo SD YW levain together over (2) 4 hour builds where it easily doubled.

After a 1 hour autolyse that had everything in it but the levain and scald, we mixed the levain and the autolyse together with a spoon and then did 10 minutes of slap and folds trying to develop as much gluten as we could = what fun.  We then folded in the scald berries with a bench knife.

 Once the berries were evenly distributed, we tossed the paste into a large bread pan filling it about 3/4th full.  The paste filled the pan fuller than we would normally like for pumpernickel but, my apprentice was lazy and refused to pull it out, divide it and put into two smaller cocktail pans.

 She did, to be fair, reminded me that the Altus loaf at 300 G lsss in size actually shrank the last time leaving the finished bread 1” below the rim of this same pan.  We dusted the loaf with oat bran and let it ferment on the counter for an hour before it went into the fridge covered in plastic, for a 16 hour retard.

It's a little more dense and moist on the bottom.

It had risen to the top of the pan when it came out of the fridge the next morning when it went into a plastic bag to warm up and do final proof on a heating pad for 3 hours.  Since the bread would eventually rise almost an inch above the pan rim, we decided to bake it low and slow; pumpernickel style, in the WagnerWare, MagnaLite turkey roaster with the trivet inside so extra water could be added to steam the loaf.

The temperature reducing (as time goes on) baking schedule follows:

400 F - 30 minutes

375 F - 30 minutes

350 F - 30 minutes

325 F - 30 minutes

300 F - 1 hour

275 F - 2 hours

250 F - 2 hours

225 F - 1 ½ hours

200 F - 1 ½ hours

We had a powerful sunset last night

When the bread tests 205 F in the center, turn off the oven and leave the bread in the DO inside the oven for 8 -12 hours.  We did 8 hours and the oven was still warm in the morning due to the two baking stones on the top and bottom rack of the oven.

The 3 P sandwich - DaPumpernickel, Pepperjack and Pate

Yes, it is a long bake but worth it in the end if you want to make a classic pumpernickel style loaf.  Not that this one is a classic, since it isn't 100% rye, have cornmeal, potatoes or bacon fat in it.  But this sure tastes like a pumpernickel even if it doesn't really use classic pumpernickel flours and uses an Irish Stout for much of the liquid. That’s the great thing about bread – there aren't any real rules, especially if you choose not to follow them like my apprentice.  This bread smell tremendous with the caramelized grains, scald and aromatic seeds.

Love the first one so much we made a variant - DaPumpernickel, Irish Swiss and Pate open face

Sadly, even after it cools you don’t want to slice it for at least 32 hours.  Just wrap it on linen or cotton and be as patient as you need to be…. We love pumpernickel and do not mind waiting, as long as, we win the Power Ball tonight for over $320 plus million.  Well we didn't win the big moola drawing but we still won a jackpot none the less.  We took a few slices off the loaf this morning for pictures and breakfast, re-wrapping the rest to let it sit another 24 hours before slicing it.

A close up open face sandwich - in your face:-)

This bread easily sliced 1/4" thick slices even for such a large loaf.  The bread was open and very moist.  It is also about the best tasting example of a non-traditional pumpernickel my German apprentice has ever tasted.  She wanted to take the rest of the loaf outside to bury it in the back yard but I managed to stop her before she got to the doggie door.  It is a powerful bread flavor wise, as much so as last night's sunset,  and we can't wait to try it with some robust red wine, pate, cheese and fruit spread especially after this morning's toasted pumpernickel with butter, egg, hot sausage and bacon delight.    Yummy. 

Formula

We bumped into a container marked as stock in the fridge.  We were looking for stock but inside was a once mature YW levain for panettone that we made on Feb 1st.   Here it was 2 weeks later and we still hadn’t used up all the excess levain build we had made trying to get to a panettone white levain.

Sadly, I had already started another YW levain a couple of hours before to make Cinnamon rolls.  So, I combined the two into one large YW levain.  My apprentice chucked in some more AP flour and barked that we would call it ready to go if it ever doubled.  We left it out on the counter overnight and sure enough, after a couple of hours in the morning, it was ready – in about 10 hours total.

Normally we wouldn’t make a levain that was 40% of the total weight of the dough but after recently following Peter Reinhart’s large levain process with success we though this wasn’t far out of line.  While the levain was finishing it’s doubling, we autolysed everything else, except the filling and the butter, for two hours.  We wanted to develop the gluten fully before adding the butter.

Once the autolyse and the YW levain came together, we did 10 minutes of French Slap and folds. The dough really developed nicely and became a supple and smooth.  After 20 minutes of rest, we stretched out the dough into a rectangle and added the softened butter and folded the dough envelope style.

We then did another 1 minute of slap and folds to incorporate the butter and get the gluten back in to its former well developed state.  We then covered  let the dough and let it ferment for an hour.

The dough was then rolled out ¼ “ thick on a floured work surface into a large rectangle.  The filling was sprinkled over the top and the dough rolled up jelly roll style from the wide side.  The dough was cut into 12 pieces and each one placed cut side down into a PAM sprayed  9x13” Pyrex glass pan.

The rolls were covered in oiled plastic and allowed to proof overnight on the counter for 12 hours.  Once the rolls had proofed we placed them into the preheated mini oven at 375 F and tossed ¼ C of water into the bottom of the broiler pan.

After 10 minutes the rolls were rotated 180 degrees and baked for another 10 minutes.  At that time the oven was turned down to 350 F, convection this time.  The rolls continued to bake for 5 minutes when they were rotated again and covered in aluminum foil to keep them from over browning.   The temperature probe set for 185 F was also inserted into the center of the rolls.

10 minutes later the rolls were at 185 F when they were removed and placed on a cooling rack.  After 10 minutes the powdered sugar and lemon juice glaze was applied with a spoon.

These cinnamon rolls are not overly sweet.  They are delicious and the perfect use for yeast water where sour is not wanted.  The crumb is moist open, nicely layered and shreds. The cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice, snockered dried fruits, chocolate chips and a modest amount of brown sugar with the lemony, sugar drizzled top is a great combination.  I couldn’t help myself and had 1 and half rolls for breakfast this morning.

Formula

This is yet another bread, and one still to go,  that resulted from the panettone bake where huge excesses of levain waste was required to build the Italian starter.  In this case we had some YW and SD levain hanging around in the fridge.  But the first thing we did was boil the scald for 5 minutes stirring all the time before covering and allowing it to cool on the counter.

The levain build was like a French casserole where any veggie in the fridge goes into the pot.  The two leftover levains, some more AP flour and some more YW and SD seed went into this levain casserole.   We’ve never zombied a levain like this before so it was fun, if not eventful, from a risen dead perspective.

The levain sat on the heating pad as we autolysed everything including the cocoa and instant coffee, except the scald and seeds, with the Guinness Black Lager- a beer we hadn’t tasted before.  This ended up being a 58% Whole grain loaf not including the whole grain scald and soak.  After two hours we deemed the autolyse ready for its zombie levain.

After mixing with a spoon to get things acquainted, we did 10 minutes of French Slap and folds to develop the gluten sufficiently.  After a 20 minute rest we incorporated the multigrain scald using a few S&F’s and a few slap and folds to get the dough back into shape.

The addition of the wet scald, that took the hydration up to what felt like about 82% or more, made the dough much slacker than its old self.  After another 20 minute rest, the aromatic seeds were incorporated into the dough with some more S&F’s and a few slap and folds which were more interesting with seeds and wet dough flying all over the place.

After another 20 minute rest we did one last set of slap and folds to get some shape into the dough and immediately  panned it into a large loaf pan that had been de-stickified with spray. We coverd the top with wheat adn oat bran and let it sit on the heating pad for about 3 hours until it had grown 3/4th of the way up the tin and then we retarded it for 12 hours.

When we retrieved it from the fridge it had risen to within ½” of the top of the tin rim.  We let it sit on the counter, no heating pad this time, for 2 1/2 hours before heating up the mini oven with Sylvia’s steaming cup.

The dough had risen to the rim by the time it went into the mini for 12 minutes of steam at 450 F.  It sprang about 1/2 “under steam.  Then we removed the steam and turned the heat down to 375 F, convection this time.

We continued to bake the loaf until it reached 205 F on the inside rotating the loaf 180 degrees after 10 minutes and also de-panning it to ensure even baking.  After 10 minutes we rotated the de-panned loaf again.  A total of 45 minutes and the loaf was done.

It browned up nicely but we will have to wait for the crumb shots.  Once cooled we will let this bread sit for 24 hours before cutting into it for lunch tomorrow.  Here it is the following morning and I couldn't wait for lunch since there was breakfast first :-) 

Plain, toasted with butter or with cream cheese... this bread is tasty - just plain delicious.  The crumb is open, glossy and very moist with chewy bits.  The crust went soft overnight which allowed for very thin slicing without crumbling.   I could eat this bread every day and if stranded on a desert isle, it would be one of the 50 breads my apprentice would lug along.  Can't wait to try it toasted with pate.

Formula

Our take on Breadsong’s fabulous Christmas Rose was to make it Green with basil pesto and Red with home made sun dried tomatoes.  We used our combo yeast water, rye sour and Desem sourdough starters with our 30% whole gain multi-grain mix of Kamut, dark rye, spelt and whole wheat.

As has been the norm lately, we added some red and white malt, Toady Tom’s Toasted Tidbits (wheat bran, oat bran, wheat germ and other middlings from various sifted flours), oats, potato flakes and flax seeds all ground up together as a fancy and festive bread enhancement all purpose mix.

We had a little less than 900 g of dough compared to Breadsongs’s 1,200 g that she split in half and she only used half.  We split this in half too,  to make 2 ropes – one basil, almond, walnut, Parmesan and olive oil and the other sun dried tomato, oregano, salt, pepper and olive oil.  We decided not to use any garlic and hoped we wouldn't miss it with all the other stuff in this bread’s fillings.

Each rope was split in half and combined with the other colored half and then braided to make (2) each red and green braids that were wrapped around each other to make a rose.  The ropes were smaller so we ended up with a more shallow Frisbee like, Italian Flat Bread Rose, but it was still very fancy do and Christmas festive looking.

The SD and YW levains were built separately over 8 hours now that it is winter time and refrigerated overnight.  The flours and all the other ingredients were mixed with the water and allowed to autolyse for 3 hours as the levains warmed up to room temperature the next day.

We made a little proofing pad with a heating pad on low covered with kitchen towels to get the temperature to hover right at 82 degrees.  The levains were not built on it but they were warmed up on it and the dough was fermented, developed and proofed on it too.  What a handy little contraption it turned out to be.

Once the levains hit the autolyse it was 12 minutes of French (2) slaps per fold in order to get this dough stretched, silky and smooth with a high degree of gluten development.  Normally we would have easily been over 75% hydration for a dough like this but, with the olive oil coming in later for both fillings, we decided to hold the water at 73.5%.  

After the French slap and folds were complete, we let the dough rest for 30 minutes and then 2 sets of S&F’s were done 30 minutes apart.  The dough was rested for 20 minutes, divided in half, rolled out with a pin and the filling spread on before rolling up into a log.

Each log was split in half and then braided with the opposite colored half and then the two green and red braids were coiled up on parchment to make the rose. 

The rose was allowed to ferment and develop on the proofing pad in a plastic bag for 1 ½ hours before being retarded overnight for 8 hours.  After removal from the fridge in the morning it was allowed to final proof on the proofing pad for 4 hours where it doubled in volume.

We had some lemon infused olive oil, balsamic vinegar, cracked black pepper and Parmesan cheese to dip the bread into for lunch.

The mini oven was fired up to 425 F with steam in the bottom of the broiler pan.  The bread was loaded and allowed to steam for 10 minutes before the steam was removed.   The bread baked at 350 F, convection this time, until it hit 200 F in the middle.  It was rotated 90 degrees every 5 minutes until it was done and removed to a cooling rack - about 30 minutes total baking time.

My daughter said this was the best tasting bread I have ever made but she, being away for college, only gets to sample about 10% of the bread baked around here.  My wife wants to have it dipped in olive oil, with grated Parmesan, rosemary and black pepper for a Christmas dinner appetizer.

My apprentice just wants to eat all right now with butter and not have to share it with anyone including her master!  I think that this is one of the best higher whole grain focaccias I have ever tasted.  Just delicious.  The mini oven put mini blisters on the crispy brown crust and the YW made the crumb moist and tender with that hint of SD that lingers with the herbs and tomato.

The last two bakes were a lower and then a higher percentage of whole grains  and more complex that this one at 48% whole grains.   We also used the KA mixer on speed 3 to knead the dough for 8 minutes instead of using French slap and folds and we baked the bread in a DO instead of on a stone with steam.

The rye sour and YW combo levain consisted of dark whole rye and water that was built over 10 hours with (2) 1 hour stages and one of 8 hours. After the levain had doubled we refrigerated it for 12 hours and then let it come to room temperature the next day for 2 hours as we autolysed the flours.

The AP, spelt, whole wheat, rye, potato flakes, oat flour ground flax seeds, baked potato, malts and Toady Tom’s Toasted Tidbits were autolysed with the Baltika #6 Porter and home made red wine vinegar for 2 hours before combining with the salt and the levain in the KA for kneading.

The dough was rested for 20 minutes and then 4 sets of S&F’s were done on 20 minute intervals.  The caraway and coriander seeds along with a new ingredient; caraway leaves and roasted re=hydrated onions were incorporated on the 3rd set.

The rye, spelt and ww sprout chits were incorporated on the 4th set.  Don’t forget to start your ww sprouts 48 hours ahead and the rye and spelt seeds 24 hours ahead to make sure they all chit together and are ready when needed.  Also take the 1 T of dried onions and roast them for a couple of minutes at 350 F to get them dark, not burned like I did the first time,  and then re-hydrate them in 3 T of water 4 hours ahead of time.

After the 4th set of S&f’S the dough was allowed to develop and ferment for 1 hour before being pre shaped and shaped into a boule and placed into a rice floured basket inside a trash can liner where it was allowed to ferment for another hour before being retarded for 8 hours in the fridge.

The dough was then allowed to come to room temperature and ferment and develop some more on the counter the next day for 6 hours since the temperature in the kitchen is only 67 F. 

The oven was preheated to 450 F.  The basket was upended into the cold DO, poorly scored (can’t seem to ever do it right in a DO), and placed into the hot oven that was immediately turned down to 425 F where the bread steamed itself for 25minutes.  Then the lid was removed and the bread baked for another 20 minutes.

10 minutes after the lid came off the bread was removed from the DO and continued to bake directly on the oven rack.  The bread was also rotated 180 degrees every 5 minutes until it reached 205 F on the inside.  The bread was allowed to crisp on the oven rack for 10 minutes with the oven off and door ajar before being moved to the cooling rack.  It sure smells tasty.

The crumb came out open and moist with a great chew due to the sprouts.  The taste was very good.  Instead of the dominate onion taste like last time, we had a caraway flavor that came through due to the caraway leaves and not the caraway seeds.  This is what Americans would call rye bread even though rye only makes up about 27% of the flours used in the bread.  We really like the way this bread tastes.  It is complex and earthy.  The combination of whole rye being twice as much as whole spelt and WW and the whole grains making up 50% of the flours is one we like very much.  The YW and SD levain combination also helps to lighten the crumb and open it up thanks to the YW while still getting a SD taste to come through too.

Formula

This is another take on a multi-grain bake we did not s long ago that you can find here;

60% Whole Grain SD / YW Bread With Caraway, Rye Chops, Coffee and Cocoa

This time we upped the whole grains to 75% and the hydration to a little over 85%.  We dropped the chops and added multi-grain sprouts.  The whole grains and sprouts were rye, spelt and whole wheat.  A combination we like very much as long as the rye equals the other two grains.

We also decided to make this bread a little more Russian by using their Baltika #6 Porter for a majority of the liquid in this bread and all of the dough wetness if you overlook the barley malt.

We were overcome by guilt and also knowing that The Hempster would not be her kindly self if we left out the seeds so we tossed in some caraway and coriander to perfume this dark bread in a traditional way - but not too much.

Hanseata, probably in a fit of non-hempness, is also the creator of her very fine wild rice bread that we like so much.   Thinking she would still be upset that there are no hemp seeds in this bread, we plunked in some cooked wild rice hoping to appease Her Hempness with one last gesture of jester.

Keeping with the black theme this bread was calling out for, we also added in some caramelized onions, quite a lot actually, with its deglazed reduced juices as Eric, Andy, Ian and so many TFL bakers are wont to do out ofa  honed professional education and experience for many of them that know what they are doing and a playful, inquisitive wonderment of the strange for Ian and myself.

One last shot at anti-establishment went to the Combo YW and SD rye and Desem starter and levain we cooked up over two builds.  As we contemplated the dark path we were about to trip along, in total disregard of anything sane or normal, my apprentice became edgy, quite uncomfortable really and took on the look of one sick puppy. No, it wasn’t Toady Tom’s Toasted Tidbits at fault here even though we put 15 g of them in the mix.

It is a look that I see most often right before she upchucks - which she did... then murmuring under her lowly growl something about death to all dark baking masters or another…….. It seemed she got sick after noticing that the bread lacked nuts.  She recovered quickly after the upheaval when she realized there were already plenty of nuts out of their shells in the kitchen as it was - so no extra nuts were required for this Holiday bake.  

After all of what would pass for bread 101 on Empress Ying’s home planet, we hoped that this bread would be a shade darker than a dark one should be and also one that we could be proud to pair with the fine Pate Maison that we had baked and smoked up for the Holidays the day before.  Hopefully, both will pair well with a nice Malbec from Argentina, if one could afford it and a plate of various exotic cheeses from other places even more expensive.

Hey, it’s the Holidays and who needs another pair of Santa socks, snowflake ties and Snowman stocking caps anyway.  So, as an option, save enough bread by not getting those things and splurge on some foreign hooch and cheese to share with family and friends instead - all while making the bread and pate that much better.

The crust came out dark, shiny and crispy but, after a 24 hour wait before slicing, it went soft with a slight chew.  This bread cut ¼” slices easily without crumbling.  The crumb was not heavy, slightly open, soft and very moist with little gloss.

The taste was where this bread really shines.  Subtle coriander and caraway flavors combine with a stronger caramelized onion taste and the chew of the wild rice and sprouts to go with the complex flavors of the porter, cocoa and coffee.  Very tasty indeed. 

We have now eaten it plain, toasted with butter, as a sandwich and toasted with pate – just delicious and the perfect pate platter mate.    

Method

The method was straight forward if you remember to start the WW sprouts a day before the spelt and rye sprouts since they take 48 hours to chit instead of 24.  The levain was built over (2) stages of 8 and 4 hours each with an overnight retard of 12 hours following the 12 hours on the counter

The flours, salt, Toady Tom’s Toasted Tidbits, ground flax seed and the red and white malts were autolysed with the Baltika  #6 Porter for 1 hour after my apprentice had tasted about 205 ml of the 500 ml bottle to make sure that it wasn’t a covert left over cold war poison of a 3rd kind.

Once the autolyse and levain came together, we did 10 minutes of French slap and folds and then 3 sets of S&F’s on 30 minute intervals where the seeds and rice were incorporated in the 2nd set and the sprouts on the 3rd set. 

The dough was allowed to ferment and develop for 1 hour before being shaped into an 800 g and one near 500 g loaf and panned. The dough was allowed to proof for 1 hour in a trash bag on the counter before being retarded for 12 hours in the fridge. 

Once out of the fridge the small loaf was allowed to proof for 4 hours on the counter.  The larger one proofed for 4 hours on the counter at 65 - 68 F and an additional 1 ½ hours at  85 F in the make shift microwave proofer that had a cup of boiling water in it. 

Both of these should have been baked in the mini oven but Big Betsy was preheated to 500 F instead with 2 of Sylvia’s steaming pans and a 12”cast iron skillet full of lava rocks on the bottom rack.  The stone was put on the very top rack of the oven to project radiant heat downward to the top of the loaves.

As soon as the small pan went in the temperature was turned down to 450 F for 15 minutes of steam. When the steam was removed the temperature was turned down to 350 F, convection this time.

After 5 minutes the bread was removed from the pan and finished baking directly on the oven rack.  The bread was turned 180 degrees every 5 minutes until the internal temperature reached 190 F. Total baking was 30 minutes when the bread was removed to the cooling rack.

The larger loaf was baked the same way through steam but took an extra 15 minutes at 350 F to reach 190 F internal temperature.

Formula

This lunch plate has some thin sliced sliced pate with 100% whole spelt bread, aged super sharp crumbly cheddar cheese, a pickled Serrano pepper, half a Granny Smith apple, some carrot coins, half an avocado, black and pinto re-fried beans, cabbage salad with black raspberries on non fat yogurt. 

After the difficult and tedious Not So Stollen bake earlier in the week, we decide to continue our Thanksgiving bake list with something much simpler, less stressful even if not as enjoyable.

After seeing Toady Tom’s fantastic large miche bake and the excellent crust he managed to put on it, we decided to do a large loaf too only using the chacon shape we love to make since it too can produce a beautiful crust if it naturally splits where we would like as it springs and blooms in the oven heat.

We also wanted to try out a toasted wheat germ, soft white wheat extract and oat bran component similar to Toad’s to see what it tasted and looked like in the chacon.  All but 10g went into the dark side.

Instead of using our recent 1  starter and 24 hour counter levain development we went back to our roughly 20% seed levain for the SD starter required for this bake.   One levain was Rye Desem combo SD for the heartier darker portion of the loaf that has 2all of the whole grains listed for the starter. 

The other levain was a YW one that was fed with cake meal, another new ingredient for bread making for us.  Many folks use this ground matzo altus for their lemon, poppy seed walnut cakes or possibly a chiffon cake of any number of possible flavors.  We decided to try it out in the whiter portion of this bread only to see what it tasted like and how it performed in two different kinds of bread.

The instant coffee and the cocoa were only used in the dark portion to, you guessed it, make it darker than the light colored portion.  We also used some yogurt whey water for some of the liquid in both portions with 2/3rds of it going into the dark side.  The sprouts were also split between the two sides in the same proportion as the whey water - 2/3rds to the dark. 

In order to finish the breakout, the white portion ended up being 500 g with 100 g of the AP and bread flour and 80 g of the whole grains in the bread flour and 10g of the toasted bits.  Total flour and toasted stuff was 290 g and the liquid was 210 g (42 g whey) for a little over 72.4% hydration not counting any of the 1/3 of the sprout total that went into it.

With the malts, oats, and potato flakes on in the dark side the hydration of it was 82%.

The fun part was putting together the largest chacon we have ever made.  The center knotted roll is made from the light side and the side going down into the basket is sprinkled with rice flour.  It was surrounded by a twisted rope from the dark side.   The 4 other knotted rolls, on the cardinal direction points, were made from equal portions of dark and light that were ropes twisted together to make one rope.  The 4 little balls between the 4 twisted knotted rolls were from the light side.  Remember to rice flour anything that will touch the basket so it doesn't stick - and don't rice flour anything else so it sticks together.

What was left over was two light ropes that were placed on the spread out remaining dark side.  The long sides of the dark were folded over the light ropes to encapsulate them making a long rectangle.  The shot sides of the rectangle were folded over to the middle making a near square where the corners were folded into the center making a circle that was quickly shaped as a boule.

This boule was pressed out gently into a large bialy with the center indentation equal in size to the circle of knotted rolls, ropes and balls already in the basket.  The large bialy was floured around the edge that would contact the basket with rice flour and flipped over so the indentation covered the knotted rolls and the assembly was basically flat on top when finished. 

We hope this assembly will make a very pleasing marbled look when the chacon is cut.  Otherwise it was a waste of time and effort…something every baker is well used to if they have been baking more than a couple of minutes with an apprentice that is nearly all paws, bark and ankle bite.

The levains were formed by mixing, letting them double over about 4 hours or so and then chucking them in the fridge for 24 hours to build the labs while suppressing the yeast.   The flours and toasted bits were autolysed with the liquids and the salt for 2 hours as the levains came back to room temperature a day later.

Once the autolye and the levain were combined for each, the gluten was developed with 15 minutes of French slap and folds.  Then 4 sets of S&F’s wee done fpor each where the sprouts were incorporated on the 3rd set.  The dough’s were allowed to develop for 1 ½ hours on the counter before being retarded in a36 F fridge for 15 hours.

They were allowed to warm up for 1 ½ hours before being formed into the chacon and the allowed to proof at room temperature for 2 hours before firing up old Betsy and her16”round stone,  to preheat at 500 F for 20 minutes before 2 of Sylvia’s steaming pans were added.

After 45 minute of total pre-heat the chacon was un-molded easily from the basket using parchment and peel.  It slid into the oven off the peel when a 1/2 C of water was thrown into the bottom of the oven for extra initial steam and the door closed.  The temperature was turned down to 450 F the steaming was done at the 20 minute mark when the pans were removed and the temperature turned down to 425 F, convection this time.

In another 20 minutes the bread was exactly 205 F in the middle and beautifully and evenly brown from rotating it 90 degrees on the stone every 5 minutes after the steam came out.  At the 40 minute total mark, we turned off the heat and left the oven door ajar as the chacon continued to crisp on the stone for another 10 minuets before removal to the cooling rack.

The chacon didn't spring all that much and might have been a little over proofed but it did bloom and crack as expected.  It is a very pretty large chacon and we can’t wait for it to cool down and rest for awhile before we cut it ....   and see if anything interesting happened inside.

Now that it is cut..... the light and dark did learn to play well together.  We are pleased that it is so pretty on the inside and fitting for such a gorgeous outside.   The crumb is fairly open for so many add ins and whole grains.  The dark is tangy sour while the white is a little sweet, maybe sue to the Cake meal, has no tang and is a little moister as YW tends to impart in crumbs everywhere.  A very nice combination of two tastes.  The toasted bits tend to come through more on the dark side and the millet crunch is prevalent throughout.  This bread will have to to to the top of the chacon list and into the top 15 of our all time top 5 favorites.  I'm glad we made a big one.

Formula

  10 g each of instant coffee and cocoa went into the dark side only.

We decided to take our 1% SD starter experiment to the dark side by using much more whole grains; mainly rye and add some yeast water into the mix to try to open the crumb.  Our previous YW experiments show that YW can open the crumb dramatically more than what SD seed can do on its own when it comes to high percent whole grain breads.

With Thanksgiving less than 2 weeks away we decided to make a small cocktail loaf of rye bread flavored with cocoa, coffee and caraway.  To bolster the flavor and texture of the medium rye bread further we added some scalded rye chops to the 82.5 % hydration mix.

Like Phil says - When it cracks it is ready to go in the oven.  In this case the bran flakes worked perfectly. 

We have no experience to go on using low amounts of SD and YW seeds and long counter top fermentation when using higher amounts of home milled grains.  So we made a wild guess at how long the process should take.  We decided to knock 5 hours off the total 24 hour time and to not add the 5 g YW to the mix until 5 hours after the fermentation started.

It was ready to pan up in 16 hours and it proofed, nearly doubling and cracking the bran sprinkled on top in 4 hours  We baked it with 2 of Sylvia's steaming cups in the mini oven at 450 F for 15 minute. The steam was removed and the temperature was turned down to 350 F and baked for another 10 minutes before being de-panned and baked for another 5 minutes after turning the bread 180 degrees on the oven rack. 

It was left in the off oven, door ajar for 10 minutes to continue to crisp the crust and then removed to he cooling rack.  From the outside the loaf has potential.  It smells beautiful and is quite attractive for a brown lump of a bread covered in bran.  We hope that the crumb is as open as the last rye bake that was 100% whole rye.  We await 24 hours to see if the yeast water worked its magic once again.

24 hours later and this bread turned out open, moist 1/4"slicing is no problem and best of all just plain delicious.  You don't taste the coffee and cocoa and even the caraway is subtle.  It is lovely plain, toasted, buttered and a nice coctail bread for the Holidays.

Formula 

We never have pizza night on a Tuesday so it seemed like the perfect time to have one.  We wanted to test out a new multi-grain pizza dough made 3 ways - Yeast water, Sourdough and a YW / SD combo starter to see which one we liked the best.  My wife played her part as taste tester with me this time since my apprentice never gets pizza of any kind for taste testing as she wolfs it down - faster than a shark.

This was a new formula of ingredients that included corn meal, Chi Ch flour, whole wheat, oat flour, whole soft white wheat, instant potato flakes and AP.  It turned out not to be our favorite crust.  It was good but not our favorite.

Our commercial yeasted version of Focaccia Romana remains our favorite pizza dough even though we no longer stock commercial yeast at home.  We continue to search for as good a replacement crust using natural yeast as we can find or develop and will not stop till we do.  It’s more fun searching and looking than having sometimes.

In this case we tried 3 versions of the same dough by making one sourdough, one yeast water and one a combination of the two.  We did this by building the single stage levains separately over 6 hours and splitting the autolysed flours after 3 hours.  Half the dough was mixed with the rye and Desem SD seed and AP levain and the other half mixed with the yeast water and AP levain.

Once the first 4 minutes of French slap and folds were complete for the 2 variations, 1/3 of each was taken from each and combined to make the 3rd combo YW / SD levain.  Then 4 more minutes of slap and folds were completed for all 3 variations followed by a 30 minute rest in an oiled bowl.

Then 3 sets of stretch and folds were done on 30 minute intervals. Once the final S & F was done the dough was refrigerated at 37 F in an oiled, plastic covered bowl and allowed to ferment and develop in the cold for 18 hours. An hour and half before being made into pizzas, we pulled the dough out of the fridge and allowed it to come to room temperature and relax.

The SD version had risen the most in the fridge, more than doubling, the SD / YW combo was 2nd with a double and YW was 3rd with not quite a double being held at first base.   So with a triple, double and a single at World Series time we spread each out by hand to between 1/16’ and 1/8”thick since we like out pizzas as thin and crispy as possible.

Each was topped with some combination of home made; sauce and sausage, store bought pepperoni, yellow and red peppers, caramelized; onions and mushrooms, fresh basil, mozzarella and Parmesan.  Even though we cut up some black olives we forgot to get them out of the fridge some now we have olives for tonight’s salad.  I did sneak some goat cheese on one pizza while my apprentice and wife weren’t looking.

We always put a little minced, sun dried tomato, rosemary and garlic in the crust and par bake it for 3 - 4 minutes at 500F, on a stone - once it is formed, docked and brushed with Mojo de Ajo.

All 3 baked up equally well, nicely browned; on the bottom, the edges and cheese.  Each was thin, crispy and would not bend when sliced no matter how heavily topped.  This isn’t your soggy, wimpy, foldable, bendable 3 times too thick crust pizza that New Yorkers think is real pizza to die for.    Each crust edge puffed up nicely, with large holes too.  The soft white wheat and the garbanzo bean flour made the dough really nice to spread by hand and get really thin without tearing.

My wife said they all tasted the same which is why she won’t be taste testing anything else any time soon.  But for me they all tasted different.  All were very good but different.  The SD was the best followed by the SD /YW combo with YW bringing up the rear – no question about it.   Now we have to covert our favorite Focaccia Romana formula to SD and see if it can be as good as the original.

Formula

It's been 10 weeks since our last parade so we will cut out about half the sandwiches and other stuff we would normally post.  We want to promote good, well balanced lunches just like the ones we had in grade school 50 years ago but we don't want to go so overboard that they compete with or are nearly as good as the ones kids enjoy in public schools today.  There might be some other stuff that sneaks in there now and again.