YW

We were feeding the yeast water on the 3th of July and didn’t want to throw any YW away.  With the 4th of July the next day and knowing it would only be my apprentice and I for dinner that night, we decided to have some rib eye steak kabobs, veggie kabobs and garam masala rice and beans.

 What was missing was some Naan to put the dinner in to eat it properly.  We decided not to bake the Naan or cook it on the stove top but dry fry it in the cast iron skillet on the grill while grilling the kabobs.  After making pizza the other day on the grill we thought it would be fun.

 We were inspired by Sonia101’s unusual Roti here:

 http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/29275/roti-bread

and by Delta_v’s stove top Naan here:

 http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/27350/quick-stovetop-naan-recipe

You can see my Naan were larger than 12" and got squished at the edges to fit the pan - no worries !

 We built a 2 stage yeast water levain, 4 hours each using durum atta and AP flour.  After 8n hours it had doubled and was ready to go.  At the 6 hour mark we autolysed the bread flour with the liquids and the spices.  We held out the Greek yogurt, fresh herbs, green onion, baking soda and salt.

 The YW levain and the autolysed flours were mixed with the salt and Greek yogurt for 4 minutes on KA 2 and then 4 minutes on KA 3.  The baking soda was then added and mixed in for 1 minute on KA 3.

 The dough was then rested for 20 minutes.  Then it was turned out on a lightly floured surface and hand kneaded for 5 minutes and allowed to rest covered for 10 minutes.  The fresh herbs and green onions were then worked into the dough using S & F’s.

 The dough was allowed to develop and ferment for 1 hour.  (2)150 gpieces were separated out for the Naan and shaped into a ball and allowed to rest for 10 minutes.  The remainder of the dough was shaped into a loaf and placed into an oil sprayed Pyrex loaf pan and allowed to double over 4 hours.

Kabobs and..............................................................................Naan with Mexican Chipotle Pink Sauce

 The Naan balls were rolled and pressed out to 12”circles and covered with plastic for 30 minutes.  Then they were transferred to a floured peel like a pizza for chucking into the skillet on the grill – closing the lid. The gauge read 450 F.   After cooking for about 2-3 minutes the Naan was flipped and the cooked side, now facing up was brushed with Mojo de Ajo.  After another couple of minutes the bread was flipped again onto the Mojo de Ajo side allowed to fry for about a minute.  The bread was then folded to fit into a tortilla warmer while the 2nd Naan was fried. 

 The un-slashed loaf of bread, using the same dough, was baked in the mini oven at450 Fafter preheating with 'Sylvia’s Steam' at 500 F.  It was steamed for 12 minutes then the steam was removed, the loaf rotated 180 degrees and the mini oven was turned down to 425 F convection this time.  The loaf was rotated every 5 minutes until it was done and205 Fon the inside – about another 20 minutes – 32 minutes baking time total.  It was left in the oven with the door ajar and heat off for 10 minutes to further crisp the skin.

 The loaf and the Naan were both terrific.  The loaf was nicely browned, blistered and crunchy when it came out of the oven but it softened as it cooled.  The crumb was open, soft and moist.  It tasted like Japanese white bread met Indian curry.  When toasted with butter and corn jam it was just great.

Peach and mango Crisp for desert

 The Naan ended up with some soft and crunchy parts that made it unique.  It went well with the kabobs and tasted like a plate of Indian veggies and spices.  Yummy. 

Toasted with butter and carrot jam - delish!!

The formula follows;

It has been several year's since bagels were on the bake list.  We always made them sourdough but after seeing that Stan published his bagels on TFL, we had to give them a go for the 4th of July. 

We used Stan's method but instead of using clear flour we used a host of multi-grain s and some sprouts.  The grains include dark rye, WW, Durum Atta, semolina, soft white wheat and Bread flour.  The starter was a sourdough and yeast water combo starter that had some Bulgar, AP and 6 grain cereal in it.

Since the whole grains were over 50%, much of it home ground, we upped Stan's hydration to 60% from 50% and hand kneaded it after mixing the levain with the dough and salt briefly in the KA .  We built the combo levain in 3 stages - first 2 stages were 4 hours each and the last stage 2 hours before being refrigerated overnight.   The YW was used to replace the commercial yeast in Stan's recipe.

When the levain came out of the fridge the next day, we autolysed the flour with the dough for 2 hours as the starter warmed up.  We hand kneaded the dough for 10 minutes after mixing in the KA for 3 minutes.  The 25 g of sprouts were added at the very end of kneeding.  The dough was then rested for 15 minutes to relax it before forming the bagels over the knuckles and rolling the seam.

We weighed out the dough in 102-103 g portions to end up with 12  nice sized bagels that ended up at 85 to 90 g (with seeds) when baked.  Stan's recipe doesn't call for any bulk ferment prior to or after forming the bagels or after retard either.  I guess they were supposed to only rise in the fridge.  The bagels are formed right after kneading and placed on parchment, covered in plastic and placed directly in the fridge for an overnight retard.

The bagels are then removed from the fridge the next morning and simmered in malted barley water for 1 minute, (30 seconds a side -mine floated right away) then dried slightly (we used a non terry cloth towel) before dipping them in the sesame, poppy, salt or combo toppings.  They go back on the parchment and directly into a 450 F oven preheated with steam in place for 8 minutes.  Then the steam is removed, the bagels turned over and baked for another 8 minutes.

I tested the baking with 4 bagels and found that, using 2 of Sylvia's steaming pans with towels and water, the bagels needed 10 minutes of steam then flipped without steam for 10 more minutes and then flipped again for 2 more minutes - 22 minutes in all instead of 16.  We made 4 sesame, 4 poppy and 4 combo black and white sesame with kosher salt.

The bagels didn't rise as much as we wanted even though they tasted very NY authentic and had fine chew just like they should.  These would be great bagels if allowed to proof in a trash can plastic liner at room temperature - possibly after simmering in the water.  Maybe someone would know the correct thing to do.  I read later that David Snyder lets his bulk ferment for an hour before forming and retarding. 

The formula follows immediately if not sooner.

With the 110 F days of summer upon us, all baking and most cooking is done out doors on the grill or in the mini oven moved outside.  It has been a while since we did pizza on the grill so out went the stone to preheat at 650 F.

The Semolina and Durum Atta really made this dough stand out.  My wife said it was the best pizza dough we have ever made at home.  The starter was a Yeast Water and SD combination starter that was added to the autolysed dough with the salt, rosemary. grated pecorino cheese and garlic.  The hydration was 72%.

After mixing with the KA on speed 2 for 8 minutes the dough was rested for 15 minutes and then 5 S & F's were done on an oiled surface and rested for 10 minutes in a plastic covered bowl in between.  The last S&F was done on a floured surface and then the dough was rested for 1 1/2 hours on the counter before being refrigerated for 4 hours.

2 1/2 hours before bake and pizza time, the dough was removed from the fridge and divided into one piece 400 grams (for 2 pizzas) and one 800 gram piece for the bread.  The bread was pre-shaped into a batard and then final shaped 10 minutes later an places into a rice floured cloth lined basket to proof. 

When ready to bake the bread was up ended onto parchment and the top of the broiler pan that came with it  It was then baked in the mini oven at 500 F with Sylvia's steaming method for it for 4 minutes and then the oven was turned down to 450 F for another 8 minutes.  At the 12 minute mark the steam was removed the bread rotated 180 degrees and then baked at 400 F convection this time.  Every 5 minutes the bread was rotated until done and the internal temperature was 205 F  - about 32 minutes total. 

It thought the pizza was terrific and I ate a whole one by myself - no problem and I never do that.  The crust was the difference. We had grilled some; eggplant and Mexican grey squash, some poblano / red peppers and yellow onions.  Other toppings included; sliced green martini olives, reconstituted shitake mushrooms, green onions,  pepperoni, basil  and home made hot Italian sausage.   Cheeses included mozzarella, Pecorino Romano and pepper jack.  The sauce was homemade and spicy just the way we like it.

The pizza dough was par baked for 3 minutes and then removed from the grill for a coating of Mojo de Ajo and the toppings befopre being placed back on the stone for 3 more minutes.  The crust came out thin and very, very crisp. 

The pizza was so good it overshadowed the bread which oddly tasted just like the pizza dough -  which was fantastic :-)  I see some nice sandwiches in the future and some fine tasting garlic bread that, when toasted, will be perfect for bruschetta.   Some lunch with this Italian bread salami, guacamole, chips, pico, carrot, celery, cherries, cantaloupe, corn, radish, pickle and tomato.  The formula follows the cheesecake photo that jumped in there again.

We really like kjknits SD English muffins and have made them several times.  This time we decided to make them circles instead of irregular shapes cut with a dough scraper and we wanted to get some YW working in there too.

Still don't have a cutter so we used a plastic lid from a peanut butter jar.  It worked OK if a little small.  The recipe should make 12 large English muffins but we got 24.  The spring on these things is amazing so we rolled them about 3/16" thick to get about a 1" final height.

These were just delicious as usual they were small enough to eat like candy.  Toasted with butter and jam.... they made a for a fine, if short, breakfast.

Now how did that cheesecake get in there again?  Looks like it has an Oreo cookie crust.

After baking my first variation of sweetbird’s Buckwheat SD and Apple Bread here:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/28081/dabrownman-butchers-sweetbird%E2%80%99s-lovely-buckwheat-apple-and-apple-cider-buckwheat-groat-br

I thought we would give it another go, since we butchered her lovely bread and also made an evil face with the boule,  by removing the hard cider and replacing it with the juice used to re-hydrate the dried apples and prunes and combining it with Phil's Sage and Walnut Rye.

 We added prunes, walnuts, a walnut oil paste, sage, chia, flax seed and wheat germ.  The buckwheat groats remained and were used with the apples and prunes as decoration for the loaf and well as add ins.

 The bread is 60% whole grain consisting of buckwheat, durum atta, rye, soft white wheat, WW, WWW, semolina and AP.   The hydration was 75%

 We made this bread 2 ways; in a loaf and as the ever popular Chacon.  The top of the loaf was decorated with buckwheat groats and the apple prune filling and the Chacon was left nakedly unadorned.

Both baked up nicely in the mini oven.  The crust was dark brown and crunchy going to chewy when cooled.   The exterior of both was appealing.  The crumb was ope, light, airy, moist and soft - just like the YW and SD combo bakes tend to be every time. 

This bread tastes great with the buckwheat, fruit and walnuts coming though  well with the hint of sage.  The SD tang is muted because of the YW and hanging out in the background.  We really like this bread and glad that we did another variation of it - without the ugly face!

Method and formula follow the pix's.

Chacon wedge shot of the ctrumb.

Made a great salami sandwich with veggies and fruits for lunch.

Method

Instead of our usual 3 day method we shortened it down to 24 hours.  The mixed YW and SD levain was built over two 4 hour builds and one 2 hour build and then it was added to the 2 hour autolyse of; flours, apple /prune re-hydration juice liquid and salt.

The dried apples and prunes were reconstituted in water overnight in the fridge and the excess water was squeezed out and used for the dough liquid.  The groats were micro waved in water for 1 minute and allowed to sit for 30 minutes.  The walnut and walnut oil paste was made.

Once the autolyse was complete the levain was added and hand kneaded to mix before being allowed to rest in an plastic covered oiled bowl for 15 minutes.  6 S&F’s were done every 12 minutes.  The first 2 were performed on a floured surface and the next 4 on a lightly oiled surface.  Before the 5th S&F the dough was rolled pout into large circle about ½” thick and the walnut and sage paste, buckwheat groats, walnuts and apple / prune add ins placed on top. ¼ C of AP flour was added to the apple / prune mixture to help dry it out some more and not affect the overall hydration of the dough..

The dough was placed back into the oiled bowl and allowed to ferment and develop for 1 ½ hours before refrigerating for 6 hours.  In the morning the dough was removed from the fridge and divided in half with the Chacon half going back in the fridge for another hour while the other half of the dough was formed into a loaf and placed into a PAM sprayed Pyrex loaf pan and allowed to rise in a plastic trash bag until doubled and passing the poke test about 2 hours.

After the additional hour in the fridge, the remainder of the dough was formed into a Chacon by making a knotted roll and placing it in the center of the folded round edges of the circular Chacon.  The Chacon was formed on a cutting board so it could be inverted into the rice floured basket placed on top.  Rice flour was also used to dust the top before being inverted into the basket.

The Chacon was placed into the plastic trash bag with the loaf and allowed to rise until doubled and passing the poke test.

 The mini oven was heated to 500 F regular bake and Sylvia’s steaming method using a wash cloth and 1 C Pyrex measure ½ full of water installed on the back of the oven after being micro waved until the water boils.  We decided to slash this loaf at the last minute and then steamed it in the mini oven for 12 minutes with the temperature turned down to 450 F at the 4 minute mark.  At the 12 minute mark the steam was removed and the temperature turned down to 425 F – convection this time.

The loaf was rotated 180 degrees every 5 minutes and it was removed from the pan at the first 5 minute rotation.  At the 32 minute mark the loaf was done, reading 205 F on the inside and allowed to dry in the off oven with door ajar for 10 minutes.  The loaf was them allowed to cool on a wire rack while the mini oven was steam prepared and preheated for the Chacon in the same way as the loaf.

The Chacon was removed from the basket by inverting it onto parchment paper with the perforated top of the broiler used as a baking tray.  The decoration of buckwheat groats, apple and prune fruits was added.  The same baking method was used for the Chacon as the loaf.

Boule and crumb.

We are continuing to discover a better method of summer baking in the Cuisinart mini oven.  This time we tried Sylvia’s steaming method by using a 1 cup Pyrex measuring  cup half full of water with a dish rag rolled up inside and microwaving it before putting it onto the preheated 500 F mini oven.

 No stone was used.  We think this steaming method is a good as covering the boule with a stainless mixing bowl and that both would be better with a stone.

 Even though the loaf was not slashed, since we managed forget to do so, I though for sure it would split somewhere but it only cracked down one side.  There wasn’t much spring - about an inch.  It browned up nicely though.  We love the color that durum brings to bread inside and out and about 50% of this bread was durum with the other 50% whole grains of various varieties with wheat germ and the flax ground.  The whole grains overpowered the yellow color of the durum with barn on the inside though.  This bread is much more about being a hearty multi-grain variety.

 The only slightly unique addition to this bread was using Vietnamese 902 Green Jasmine Tea for the liquid.  I just love Vietnamese jasmine tea and used one that is especially fragrant with jasmine blossoms. 

Boule crumb

 The crust was nicely browned and chewy after coming out of the oven very crusty.  The crumb was very moist and light and tastes very sour. It made a fine sammy and it was delicious as toast or plain.   I have noticed that, if YW and SD starters are mixed from the beginning of the levain build, the bread is less sour.  The boule sprang more than the loaf and the crumb was a little more open.

Loaf crumb

 This bread didn’t have the usual sprouts and pumpkin or sunflower seeds (since I also forgot to put the pumpkin seeds in) we like so well, but it is a very hearty and satisfying bread to munch on – until it is gone!  Formula and method follow:

Method

 The YW and SD levains were built separately this time and used 3 builds.  The first 2 builds for each were 4 hours apart and the levains were refrigerated overnight at the 8 hour mark right after the 3rd build as each had already doubled. 

 All mixing was done by hand.  The flours, ground flax seeds, wheat germ, chia seeds, salt and green tea with the salt were autolysed for 1 hour before the levains were added the next morning.   After mixing the levains in completely the dough was allowed to rest for 20 minutes.

 4 sets of S&F’s were done every 15 minutes.  The first 2 were done on a floured surface the last 2 in a well oiled, bowl.  The dough was rested in a plastic covered oiled bowl between the S & F’s.  The dough was allowed to ferment and develop on the counter for 1 ½ hours before retarding in the refrigerator for 12 hours.

 The dough doubled in the refrigerator overnight. The next morning the dough was divided in half and half returned to the refrigerator since it would be baked one hour after the first half.  The other half was allowed to come to room temperature for 1 hour and then pre-shaped into a loaf rested 10 minutes and final shaped into a loaf and placed into a Pyrex loaf tin and allowed to proof.  The other half of the dough went through the same process but shaped into a boule and placed into a rice floured basket to proof.

 After an hour and half the loaf had doubled, passed the poke test and ready to bake .  Sylvia’s steaming method was used with a wash rag heated in a half full Pyrex 1 cup measure in the microwave and the placed in the back of a 500 F preheated Cuisinart Mini Oven.  No stone was used.  The loaf was not slashed but was steamed  for 12 minutes and then the steam removed and the temperature turned down to 425 F convection this time.

 The bread was then rotated every 5 minutes until if reached 205 F internal and then was removed to the cooling rack with no extra crisping in an off oven.  After the first 5 minutes of convection baking the loaf was removed from the Pyrex loaf pan and baked directly on the rack. 

 A similar process was used for the boule except it was slashed and steamed on parchment paper on the top cover of the broiling pan for the first 12 minutes and then baked at 425 F directly on the rack.  The loaf took about 30 minutes of total baking time and the boule 3 minutes less.

It's almost been a week since the last sandwich for lunch post and some of us are getting hungry.

grilled 50% whole grain with sprouts seeds and nuts,  Amish Swiss cheese with Italian salami with Brownman pickles and pico.

A dinner snuck in there with herbed and seeded ciabatta bun for the hammy, caramelized onion and mushrooms with some baked mini oven wedge fries.

Ciabatta salami and cheese, cantaloupe, grilled pineapple and some grilled pico.

got some more of those nice apricots - not for jam this time.

Dinner salad with cold steamed veggies (broccoli, summer squash, corn ,green bean), carrot, mushroom, green onion, red and green pepper, celery and 2 kinds of lettuce.

the 50% whole grain bread with orange home grown tomato and grilled smoked sausage with pepperjack cheese.

Grilled chicken and cheese with strawberry stuffed apricots, pickles, jicama, tomato salad and mango - the world's most eaten fruit!

How did that get in here...and who pinched the e topping twice?  Apprentices are suspect!

Another interloper, this time a salad for 2.

90% whole grain, spouts, nuts and seeds used for grilled salami and cheese with pickles, green chili verde, berries and mango.

After this in 100 F heat...

You need this for lunch ...Amish Swiss, tomato, grilled chicken sandwich on 90% whole grain with celery and carrot, cold steamed veg, pickle, berries, apricot and guacamole on tomato. 

We took 100 g of our last bake:  The SD / YW Chacon Revisited – 90% Whole Grain, Multigrain Sprouts, Walnut and Sage Paste, and Pumpkin Seeds and used that as the starter for the pizza and pide dough.  It was weird having nuts, seeds and sprouts in the final dough but sure made forming the crusts fun and interesting with these add-ins tearing holes when ever they were encountered :-)

To this starter we added 100 g of whole soft white wheat we ground in the Krups grinder and 150 g of AP flour with 180 g of water.  The hydration ended up being around 75% since the starter was at 90% hydration.

We ground up some dried rosemary from the back yard and added this to the pizza dough after it was formed into a pie and the Mojo de Ajo brushed on the top.  The pies and pide were pre-baked a 500 F on a stone for 3 minutes before the rest of the toppings were added.  Instead of rosemary, the pide was sprinkled with dried Greek oregano after the  Mojo de Ajo was brushed on. 

My daughter said is was the best pizza to date even through she and my wife preferred our standard Focaccia Romana with garlic, fresh rosemary and sun dried tomatoes in the dough.  I'm not sure how this squares with being the best?

The pizzas had the usual toppings, home made Italian sausage, pepperoni, 5 peppers; red, green, poblano, Serrano and jalapeno peppers, caramelized onion and mushrooms,  3 cheeses; mozzarella, pecorino and Parmesan with fresh basil and garlic chives for garnish - after they came out of the oven.

Since this dough didn't have any olive oil in it, it baked up thin and very crisp and stayed that way even when wrapped up for the freezer an hour later.  It didn't bend even when loaded with all the toppings. A crunchy delight that wasn't too much because it was so thin. Very tasty too.

I liked the pide the best because of the toppings.  The oregano and Mojo de Ajo base, green olives stuffed with pimentos cut in half, sun dried tomato and garlic Feta, caramelized onion and mushrooms, the 5 peppers, thinly sliced Swiss chard with a hint of pecorino on top.  The little extra dough on the ends and side was also nice.  I'm sure the next bake will use the standard Focaccia Romana dough but the change this time was nice.  Next time, we have to bake it longer to get those dark, dark spots on the crust that makes Sylvia's look and taste so good.

This 40% whole grain bread is a combination YW and SD starter, seeded, multi-grain that does not have sprouts or a scald.  The hydration of 79% is not too much for a bread with so much whole Rye, WW, spelt and WWW.  There is also semolina in the starter and the dough as well.  There is a little potato flake, red and white rye malt, wheat germ and 6 kinds of seeds.  Sunflower-25 g, anise-3g, hemp-10g, coriander-2g and fennel-3g with only the flax seeds ground into a flour.  Since the bread was not retarded to bring out additional SD flavor it had a slight tang but the aromatic seeds really came through nicely.

Marking the fold lines.

Folded with knot roll added.

It’s not often we get to work on a new bread shape but one was needed for the 6 sided basket requiring the new shape.  Thomas Chacon came up with the unique way to fold the 6 flaps to the center so the bread could be loaded into the basket and this bread is named after him - he deserves it.  I added the knotted roll in the center to complete the loaf.  The hard part was flipping the whole thing into the basket after the shaping.  Instead of flipping I should have folded the bread on the peel with parchment under the dough, added the knotted roll, placed the same shaped basket on top and turned the whole thing over causing no damage to the Chacon shape.- Next time!

Flipped into teh basket.

Risen nicely. Can you find the poke test?

Since the skin couldn't be tightened like a normal loaf, and was just folded like an Altamura ‘Priests Hat’, we didn't know how the loaf would perform in holding in the gas and generating spring.  It proofed up nicely though and was amazing how well it filled in all the space from the end of the fold to the knot.  Spring wasn't what we had hoped but a different folding method could possibly cure some of that problem.  All in all it was a fun experiment that resulted in a nice looking loaf of bread.  It smelled great when it finished baking and was crisping on the stone with the oven off and door ajar.

The Chacon is nice looker even before baked.

The crust was deeply cracked (since there was no scoring) brown, and crisp - and it stayed crisp after cooling.  The basket left some nice flour marks too.  The Chacon was very nice looking overall on the outside but the spring would have been better if the loaf wasn't over proofed by an estimated 30 - 40 minutes.  When it passed the first poke test the oven was still cold – not a good thing and shows you need to be testing earlier than 2 hours after start of proof.  It is summer time and every bit of 112 F outside today.  A/C keeps it 80 F inside though.

Nicely cracked and we like what the knot roll did for the baked looks.

The crumb was nicely open for the amount of whole grains and the manhandling it took.  I'm still impressed with what the YW   can bring to a loaf of bread when it comes to moist and soft crumb - amazing really.  The bread tasted like a seeded rye loaf that had more rye than this did.  Maybe this was because of the seeds though.  I would be tempted to put some caraway in the seed mix next time.  This Chacon is hearty, tasty and visually stimulating.  Method and formula follow the Pix’s

The Chacon made a very nice taasting grilled chicken, queso fresco sandwich witha plate full of fruits and veggies. 

The Chacon Method

 The SD and YW levains were built over 3 stages of 4 hours each. The next stage is added to the previous one and all of the eventual 320g of levain is used in the final dough. After the 3rd stage was built, the levain went into the fridge for a 6 hour retard.  In the morning when the levain came out of the fridge to warm up the flours, malts, VWG and slalt were autolysed with the water for 2 hours on the counter.  The seeds and levain were the only things held out of the autolyse.

After 2 hours on the counter, the autolyse and Levin were mixed on KA 2 for 4 minutes and KA 3 for 2 minutes.  The dough was transferred to a well oiled bowl and allowed to rest covered with plastic wrap for 15 minutes

4 S&F’s were performed at 15 minute intervals in the bowl.  The 5th S& F was performed on a floured counter where the seeds were incorporated.  After the 6 S&F the dough was allowed to ferment and develop in the bowl for 1 ½ hours.   

The dough was then placed on a floured work surface, a small ball removed for the eventual knotted center. The remainder of the dough was gently jostled  into a1”thick circle that was 12 “ across –2”wider than the widest part of the Chacon 6 sided basket.   The basket was used to mark the dough to establish the 6 fold lines.  The dough was then folded to the center at the lines, leaving a 4” diameter open circle in the center.   The knotted roll is placed in the center of the Chacon to complete the loaf.  The entire loaf was then flipped over into the well rice floured 6 sided Chacon basket and allowed to final proof on the counter for 2 hours in a plastic bag where it doubled and passed the poke test.  Don't do this flip into the basket though.  Put some parchment on a peel, press out the circle of dough 1" past each of the points of the basket, mark the fold lines with the inverted basket, make the six folds, add the knotted roll and place the basket over the dough. Then just turn the whole assembly over removing the peel and parchment.

At 2 hours the oven was preheated at 500 F for 45 minutes with stone steam in place. Overturn basket onto parchment on a peel. No slashing is required for the Chacon.

Slide bread into the oven.  After 2 minutes, turn oven down to 450 F.  After 13 more minutes, remove steam and turn down oven to 4oo F convection this time. Turn Chacon 90 degrees every 5 minutes and bake until temperature in the middle of the bread is 205 F. Turn off oven and crack the door to allow the crust to crisp for 12 more minutes. Remove bread from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.

We were inspired, even though the wrong time of year for laminated doughs with it being 8o F inside and 105 F outside in AZ, by txfarmer's croissants and Danish pastries. 

Hers are just fantastic to look at and professional in every way - unlike mine.  But, I thought we would give it a go now and get back to them later next winter.  Her posts can be seen here:  http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/22677/poolish-croissant-pursuit-perfection and here http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/26777/cheese-danish-sourdough-all-american-beauty

We needed to change her recipe from yeast to sourdough and yeast water since I no longer stock any commercial yeast.   I didn't expect my first attempt at laminated dough to be anywhere near txfarmer's and I was right.  Freezing some of the croissants and Danish didn't help any either I suppose :-)  But I did learn many important things about lamination which will help my assistant out later. 

A very nice grilled; Amish Swiss and pepperjack cheese with grilled chicken sandwich made for lunch with this fine white sandwich bread.  Love the chia seeds.   The sweet potato and the pickled tomato, red onion and cucumber salad were also nice.

We made this enriched dough (can't believe it didn't have cream in it too) into 3 variations with various flavors; a non -laminated white sandwich bread (half of the dough split off before lamination), 3 kinds of Danish (blueberry, strawberry and dried apricot) and 2 kinds of croissants (plain and with a sweet home made mince meat filling made with beef shanks - those are the fat ones that didn't have 7 steps).

Used 27.5% of the total dough weight in roll-in butter (180 grams),  txfarmer recommends 30% but we had a few more add ins than her recipe that upped the total weight.  Txfarmer also said to hold the hydration down al little and I managed to somehow up it slightly,at least a couple of percent, if I calculated properly.  We used dried apricots and they burned on the top and I should have reconstituted them in bourbon or water.  We wanted to take them out of the oven at 25 minutes but by mistake took them out at 22 minutes and they could have used another 3 minutes in the oven.  If you live in AZ it is best to do this in the wintertime. 

My wife summed it up best.  They don't look too good but they taste OK.  I give the sandwich loaf a solid B and the rest a C only because it was a first attempt - my apprentice is worried she will soon be replaced since she said she was a lamination freak - well, at least the freak part was right:-) 

The formula and method follows the pictures.

Method

 Build the levain over 3 - 4 hour steps.  I mixed the YW and the SD together from the beginning as is our usual now a days.  Mine had more than doubled over 12 hours and then I refrigerated it overnight.

The nest morning, mix everything except the levain and the salt together in the mixing bowl and autolyse for 1 hour.  Add the levain and the salt and mix on KA 2 for 4 minutes and KA 3 for 1 minute.  Remove to an oiled bowl and rest for 15 minutes.  Do (4) S &F’s every 15 minutes.  At the 1 hour mark let the dough develop and ferment for 1 hour.

At this point I split off half the dough and formed it into a boule and let it ferment for another hour.  Then it was formed into a loaf, placed into a Pyrex loaf pan and refrigerated for 4 hours.  It doubled in the fridge.  It was then removed and allowed to final proof for 3 hours.  When it tripled in volume from when it initially went into the loaf pan, we slashed it and put it into a425 Fmini oven with steam for 10 minutes.  The steam was removed and the temperature turned down to 375 F convection this time.  The loaf was turned 180 degrees every 4 minutes 2 times.    At this point the loaf was removed from the Pyrex and allowed to finish baking turning 2 more times at 5 minute each.  When the loaf reached 205 F the loaf was allowed to stay in the off oven with the door ajar for 10 more minutes to crisp the crust..  It was then removed to a cooling rack.

 The other half of the dough was used for lamination and I followed txfarmer’s method and procedure.  I used180 gramsof roll-in butter for 645 g of dough (27.5%).  The croissants and Danish were retarded overnight in a plastic bag in the fridge where the back half of them froze – no harm done though.  In the morning, they came out of the fridge for final proof – this took about 2 ½ hours.  Then they were placed in the 425 F oven for 22 minutes (should have been 25 minutes) rotated half way through and the temperature turned down to 375 F convection.  When done they went onto a cooking rack from the parchment covered baking sheet.

Formula