The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

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Sftobos's picture
Sftobos

Adding lime to corn meal for better nutrient absorption?

I'd like to use my electric gain mill to grind corn into meal to use as a whole grain cereal or to make polenta. Yet I know lime is often added to such dishes, I think because the nutrients in the corn aren't otherwise absorbed adequately. Can someone tell me more about this and advise me? Thanks. 

Kgrrl's picture
Kgrrl

Hokkaido Milk Bread Recipe without Tangzhong

The only recipes I've found here for Japanese Hokkaido milk bread are ones using tangzhong.  I've made Japanese bread with and without tanzhong and I prefer making the bread without tangzhong because I've found that making the bread is simpler and the bread tastier.  Here are links to recipes and videos for Japanese Hokkaido milk bread without tangzhong on  the ricenflour blog.  Rose Levy Beranbaum made a few modifications to that recipe on her blog here

 

FloridaShark's picture
FloridaShark

Homemade Sourdough Pita

I've been craving pitas lately so I made a batch of sourdough oat bran pitas for lunches this week with some hummus. I made the dough last night and baked them off this morning.

macette's picture
macette

Found a useful tip or two...

Elsie_iu's picture
Elsie_iu

First try at home sprouted flour: 20% sprouted white wheat sourdough

Finally! The white wheat berries are back in stock! I bought a bag of it and decided to put it into use immediately by sprouting and milling it into flour. Not sure how it would affect the dough, I started out at a low percentage of 20% sprouted flour. 

The berries were sprouted and dried a few days ahead but freshly milled (using the newly bought coffee grinder) on the day the leaven is built. The first thing I noticed is the smell of the flour. Its scent is divine! I have never smelled anything like that before. Though I enjoy the aroma of bagged whole grain flour, it is by no mean comparable to freshly milled sprouted flour. I now regret starting to mill my own sprouted flour so late but I guess it’s better late than never!  

 

20% sprouted white wheat sourdough 

 

Dough flour:

60g       20%      Freshly milled sprouted white wheat flour

240g     80%      Whole red wheat flour 

 

For leaven:

10g       3%      Starter

10g       3%      Bran shifted out from sprouted flour

10g       3%      Whey

 

For dough:

290g     97%      Dough flour excluding bran for leaven 

275g     92%      Whey 

30g      10%      Leaven

10g       3%       Vital Wheat Gluten

6g         2%       Salt

 

Add-ins:

45g       15%     Whole sprouted white wheat berries

______________

310g     100%     Whole grain

290g      94%     Total hydration

 

Shift out the coarse bran from the dough flour, reserve 10g for leaven. Mix the rest back into the dough flour or soak them in equal amount of whey taken from dough ingredients for a minimum of 4 hours.

Combine all leaven ingredients and let sit until doubled, about 9 hours.

Roughly combine all dough ingredients and let ferment overnight for 12 hours. Fold in the sprouted wheat berries and let the dough rest for 20 minutes. Construct 3 sets of stretch and fold over a 1.25 hour proofing period (20+30+25), shape the dough after the last set of stretch and fold and let rise untouched for 25 minutes (part of the 1.25 hour). At the same time, preheat the oven at 250°C/480°F and pre-steam at the last ten minutes.

Score the dough and bake at 250°C/480°F with steam for 15 minutes then without steam for 20 minutes more or until the internal temperature reaches a minimum of 205°F. Let cool for at least 3 hours before slicing.

The crust is thin and browned nicely, which I think had something to do with the sugar of the sprouted wheat flour. The scoring was not completely successful but the bread still had decent oven spring. 

I thought this bread would be slightly drier than other bread I baked due to the lower hydration (I usually aim for 100% for whole wheat) and the sprouted flour. However, to my surprise, the crumb is actually moister and softer than those without sprouted flour. You can hardly relate it to the dry and coarse texture people often associate whole wheat with. Considering the presence of sprouted wheat berries, the crumb is fairly open too.  

I left out the dark barley malt this time as I didn’t want it to mask to flavour of the sprouted flour. The bread tastes a bit different from the previous ones. It is subtle and difficult to describe but the sprouted flour gives it a kind of fresh note, making the bread more complex in general. Next time, I’ll definitely up the % of sprouted flour so that its aroma would be more pronounced. 

________

This is an inspired bake a few days ago after reading Dabrownman’s post of tang zhong Hokkaido bread.

 

Mixed flour Tang zhong chocolate marble bread

 

For tang zhong:

40g      14%       Whole spelt flour 

200g     71%      Water

12g       4%        Brown sugar

15g        5%       Honey

24g      8.5%      Dry whole milk powder

 

For ‘white’ dough and chocolate dough:

141g     50%      Whole wheat flour

113g     40%       Whole spelt flour

28g      10%        Dark rye flour

60g      21%        Water

4.7g     1.7%       Instant yeast

10g      3.5%       Vital Wheat Gluten

2.5g     0.9 %      Salt

 

For chocolate dough:

14g       5%      Unsweetened cocoa powder

14g       5%      Water

 

For glaze:

12g       4%      Brown sugar

5g       1.8%      Water

______________

322g     100%     Whole grain

260g       81%     Total hydration (for ‘white’ dough)

 

Mix together the flour and water for the tang zhong and heat over medium-low, stirring continuously until thickened, about 3 minutes. Stir in the rest of the ingredients. Let cool to room temperature.

Combine the 60g of water for the dough with the tang zhong. Pour it over the rest of the dough ingredients and mix thoroughly. Divide the dough into two parts in the ratio of 2:1. Combine the cocoa powder and water under For chocolate dough and knead it into the 1/3 dough portion. Let both dough rest for 30 minutes. Knead both the dough until smooth and elastic, about 7 minutes for each. Let rise for 1 hour.

Flour the ‘white’ dough and stretch it lightly into rectangle (any dimension works). Sprinkle cocoa powder over the chocolate dough and stretch it into a rectangle with the same width but half the length of the ‘white’ dough. Place it onto one side of the white dough and fold the over half over it so that it is sandwiched between the two sides of the ‘white’ dough. Roll the dough out to the original size of the ‘white’ dough, and then cut it crosswise into two equal half. Put one half over the other with the cut side facing opposite directions. Roll out the dough again and repeat the above procedures for 2 more times. After layers of alternate dough are formed, roll the dough lengthwise to about 1.3 times the length of your bread pan. Cut it into three equal long strips of dough and braid them together. Put it into the pan and let proof for 1 hour. Meanwhile, combine the sugar and water for the glaze and preheat the oven to 350°F.

Bake at 350°F in the middle rack for 30 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 190°F. Brush the sugar mixture over the hot braid and let cool for 50 minutes before slicing.

It tasted very mildly sweet so if you want, you can add some chopped chocolate or more sugar to make it more of a sweet treat.

 

pmccool's picture
pmccool

Hamelman's 5-Grain Levain

Okay, the grain bill was different than Hamelman's but the rest of the bread was per the formula.  Good stuff!

Paul

Anne-Marie B's picture
Anne-Marie B

Bolo do Caco

My sister recently bought a house in Portugal. That got me interested in Portuguese breads and I discovered their treasure trove of breads. For the next few weeks I will be baking breads from that little sunny land and aided by Miguel Forte's blog on Portuguese breads.  Bolo do Caco is from the Islands of Madeira. They are made with a sourdough starter and contains sweet potato. Traditionally baked on a slab over an open fire, mine was cooked in a dry skillet on the stove over a very low heat. Soft and moist inside, probably due to the sweet potato. Tradition in this house demands that the first roll/slice of a fresh bread is eaten warm with heaps of butter. 

 

 

HKbreadwinner's picture
HKbreadwinner

High Hydration Proofing Issues

Hello!  New to this forum and super impressed with the all the awesome exchanges.  I've been baking basic tin loaves forever: basic hearth loaves, silky Hokkaido milk loaves, etc., and they turn out great.  Kneading, rising, proofing, etc is almost second nature to me.  I've recently ventured into high-hydration (80%) rustic/artisan type breads employing a preferment (eg biga), and stretch and folds.  Here are the questions/problems I'm encountering:

After the bulk ferment and shaping of the dough, I find that the final proof just doesn't rise like it does in the bulk ferment, and NOTHING like the rise I get when making regular sandwich loaves with 65/67% hydration and bread flour (high-protein flour).  Also, whereas I wouldn't dare to proof my sandwich loaves beyond and hour in normal warm conditions, most artisan bread recipes call for 2 hour proofs!  And even then my dough in the banneton barely rises.  Why does it rise so much in the bulk fermenting, but barely in the final proof?  How do you check if a high hydration dough is over-proofed?  Or is it normal for it to not rise as much as a lower-hydration dough?

Also, are you supposed to do any de-gassing (however gently) after bulk fermenting when dealing with high-hydration dough?

Lastly, if you choose to retard your final proof in the fridge, would you let it warm to room temp before popping it into the oven, or bake it immediately after taking it out of the fridge?

albacore's picture
albacore

Italian Biga Bread with Semola Rimacinata di Grano Duro

Abel's excellent 90% Italian Biga Loaf has created a lot of interest at TFL. I've made it a few times with great success, apart from once when I did the sourdough version, and it didn't turn out too well - dense/dry crumb - a victim of dough degradation in the biga, I now believe.

Not wanting to be beaten, and inspired by Lechem's recent bake I decided to have another attempt after getting some sound advice from mwilson on Biga procedures.

Then I chanced upon this recipe from Italian maestro Ezio Marinato. It's a biga based recipe, but uses 100% semola rimacinata. I had a bag of Divella semola in the cupboard that needed using, so the recipe was a good fit. I decided to use 50% semola and 50% bread flour as I believe that 100% semola can be a little dense.

I refreshed my stiff starter twice as per the recipe and then made the biga with 600g Waitrose Canadian flour (15% protein) - I guess Italians would call it Manitoba flour. I made the biga at 11pm and kept it overnight at 16C. In the morning at 9am I made the main dough with the biga and 600g semola. I upped the hydration to 65% on account of the 50% bread flour - all other additions were pro-rata. I mixed on low speed for about 4mins after the dough came together.

I pretty much followed the recipe instructions, eventually shaping to two 900g batards and a small boule.

I was quite pleased with how the loaves turned out - good oven spring, a subtle but pleasant flavour and a moist, tender crumb.

Lance

Hanzosbm's picture
Hanzosbm

My attempt at Pane casareccio di Genzano

After finding out that this was the official bread used for bruschetta in Rome, I had been wanting to try it for some time.  I went ahead and gave it a go this weekend using Local Breads as my guide.  Overall, it went pretty well.  I didn't use the bran coating simply because I didn't have any, and aside the some of the rise times, stuck to the recipe exactly.  

Here's what I got:

Flavor was good with a hint of sour, but the large open crumb near the crust is something I'd like to learn to fix.  My rise times were quite a bit faster than Leader gave and I chocked that up to it being a warm day.  Also, upon doing the first stretch and fold, oddly enough, the dough didn't deflate very much.  

Can someone suggest what I might have done wrong here?

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