The Fresh Loaf

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webaldo's picture
webaldo

Bread made by fermented fruits

hello world,

my name is Aldo and I am a Italian miller with bread passion. You can see my blog here www.fysis.it and and flours shop here www.tibiona.it.

In this first post I want to share with you this recipe of bread made by fruits fermented. 

ingredients starter

100g raisin

300g water 

200g flour type 1

preparation 

matched raisin with water, covered with a piece of cloth and stored in hot zone (near the window where sun heated it). Next 3 days mixed all with a mixer and added the flour and attended 4 hours.

Ingredients of bread 

1000g flour type 1 

700g water

250g starter 

30g extravirgin oil 

20g whole salt 

preparation 

Sift the flour and add all water in a bowl, added starter, mixed and add 50% of flour, the salt and mixed again. Add the remain flour slowly than the oil. Covered and, next 30 min., throw on the table and made same folds. Moved again into bowl and covered. After 8 hours made others folds and rolled it.  After 1 hour bake into oven for 50 min. At 200 degrees (Celaius). 

My english is not the best, hope that you understand. 

rrralec's picture
rrralec

Looking for general rules to convert recipes to overnight, two part

Hey all, 

First time poster, long time reader. What a great resource. 

 

Looking for a bit of advice on a standard way of converting recipes to a two part biga/sd starter + soaker method. 

This bread, from Reinhart's WW, is the spent grain recipe and it turned out perfectly for me. 
I was happy to give the bread time overnight with grains and a biga (yeast,flour,water) in the fridge and a soaker (flour,water,salt) at room temperature. 

Gave me very little work other than combining and proofing after taking off the chill. 

What I'm hoping for now is advice on how to convert other recipes to this method. I've worked through most of the BBA but my heart has always been set on whole wheat, so my hope is to try and adapt recipes from the Laurel Bread Book to this split 12 or so hour preferment/soaker method. 

What I'm wondering is how to take a recipe that calls for, say 750g ww flour and some additional grain (eg oats)  with normal timing/instructions for two proofs and 600 strokes to an overnight preferment and soaker method. 

Tried it the other day for the oatmeal bread:

-cooking up the oats, sitting overnight.

-biga/preferment with half the recipes flour, half yeast and half (or more) water to make a good feeling dough

-soaker with half flour, all salt, half water. 

Combined them in the morning to somewhat unsatisfactory results, hydration feeling off and a messier combination than the spent grain recipe. 

I noticed the Reinhart preferment and soaker are at about 75% hydration whereas mine was slightly lower around 66%.. 

To summarize this growing, long-winded question: how can I split up a direct recipe's total flour into a soaker and biga (or sourdough) for an overnight retardation. Hoping for a blanket general method that I can start with and adapt according to feel..

 

Thank you! 

jimt's picture
jimt

building the levain

Trying to get some consistency in my bread and really working on my levain timing/mix. Finally paying more attention makes me realize that I am also a bit confused.

I use 2 different 50/50 starters (one rye and one white/wheat) that I keep in the refrigerator. I bake once a week and try to use each starter, each week to make a couple of loaves. If beginning a recipe on Wednesday I remove the starters on Monday and try to get them up to speed.

Seems that the levain builds I've seen in the couple of books I've used (FWSY and Tartine3) call for using a very small amount of starter (8-40g) to build the levain up to (150-400g) for the bakes in one session of somewhere between 8 and 12 hours.

I've read here about people doing a 1:1:1 to build the levain and then doubling. For instance 30/30/30 to make 90 and then using the 90 90/90/90 to make 270. 

These methods seem so far apart to me that I feel like I must be missing something or misinterpreting things...I've gone with the books and started with a small amount and while it works sometimes, sometimes not so much. I'm guessing that the difference is strictly in the time for these builds to ripen before use but wonder if there is something I need to understand to arrive at some consistency? 

FWIW, my starters easily double in a few hours if I feed them at 1:1:1 by weight. Also my wheat starter rotates feedings between white wheat, red wheat and AP flour....rye is just dark rye from the health food store. Both have been up and running for a couple of months and again in my eye appear healthy.

Thanks!

 

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

10 Grain Cereal Porridge Bread Take II

I made this bread back in June and really liked it then. It was one of the breads I wanted to repeat. Because of time, I changed the method and ingredients a bit and used a bit less cereal and water. For some reason, this dough seemed extremely wet when it came to shaping but it is hard to compare it to the other dough because I bulk fermented that one in the fridge, shaped it cold and proofed it on the counter. This one was bulk fermented in a warm place and proofed in the fridge. I think I got a bit more oven spring with the first method but both recipes turned out quite nice.

This makes 2 loaves but I did two batches to end up with four loaves.

Levain: Did three builds of my rye/flour starter to end up with 200 g of half rye, half unbleached flour levain at 100% hydration. Stored it in the fridge for a day due to other commitments and added 50 g flour and 50 g water an hour or two before mixing it with the dough. It was quite bubbly when I used it.

Porridge: Toasted 150 g of Bob's Red Mill 10 Grain cereal and then cooked until soft with 300 + 25 g of water. I added the 25 g because I thought the 300 g weren't enough during cooking but next time, I will skip it. I cooled this for 2 days in the fridge.

Autolyse: In a bucket, I put 700 g warm water, the 10 grain cereal and mixed it up. I then added 100 g dark rye, 100 g spelt, 100 g kamut (although the second batch, this part was mostly spelt because I ran out of Kamut), 100 g partially sifted local milled flour, 200 Robin Hood Multigrain Best for Bread flour, 400 Rogers Unbleached Flour. This autolysed for one hour on the counter.

Mixing: I added 23 g of table salt (ran out of sea salt) with 20 g water (next time skip this additional water) and 200 g of the above levain. I used the pincer and folding method to integrate it all together.

Bulk fermenting: I put the doughs in my oven with the light on and the door ajar. I did 6 sets of folds all a half hour apart. Then I let it rise for another 1 and a half. Total bulk fermentation time was 4 and 3/4 hours.

Divide, Pre-shape, Rest and Shape: This is where thing got sloppy. The dough was extremely wet and although it did hold its shape somewhat, it was super sticky and I had to use tons of flour on the counter surface and the top of the dough as well as my bench knife to be able to divide it in two and letter fold it. I let it rest about 15 minutes and did the final shaping. The dough was marginally better but still not fun. I decided to put it in the baskets seam side down in the hopes that it would hold its shape. 

Proofing: I put the baskets in plastic bags and it went into the fridge for 14.5 hours for the first batch and 16 hours for the second. I baked as usual in Dutch ovens pre-heated to 500 F for 20 minutes, dropped temp to 425 F for 10 minutes, uncovered the Dutch ovens and baked for another 20 minutes.

The loaves feel tender but heavy which is what I expect from a porridge bread. Three of them are going to the soup kitchen (I ran them there today but they were closed which is really unusual so it will have to wait till tomorrow) and the other is going to one of my daughter's friends. I am going to cut up the loaf for her to get it ready for freezing so I should be able to get a crumb shot and a little taste before giving it to her. ;-)

 

lorettz's picture
lorettz

Yuumy mouth watering banana bread

I would like to share my favorite banana bread recipe. It's incredibly moist and bursting with flavour. 

Ingredients :

Canola oil cooking spray
3/4 cup (175 mL) all-purpose flour
1 cup (250 mL) whole-wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup (50 mL) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (50 mL) packed light brown sugar
1 tsp (5 mL) baking soda
3 tbsp (45 mL) red wine vinegar
1/4 cup (50 mL) canola oil
1/4 cup (50 mL) nonfat plain yogurt
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla extract
3 large, very ripe bananas, peeled and mashed (about 1 1/2 cups/375 mL)

Directions : 

Preheat oven to 350 °F (180 °C). Spray 9 x 5-inch (22 x 12.5-cm) loaf pan with canola oil cooking spray. In large bowl, whisk together flours, sugars, baking soda and baking powder. In medium bowl, whisk together canola oil, yogurt, eggs and vanilla, then whisk in mashed banana to combine. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake until wooden skewer inserted into center comes out clean, 50-55 minutes. Allow to cool, and then transfer bread out of pan onto plate.

Prep Time: 10 min.
Cook Time: 50-55 min.
Makes: 10 servings

Source : http://www.physiomed.ca/blog/healthy-eating-recipes/banana-bread/

Maine18's picture
Maine18

2016 Catch Up Post

My blog posting pattern has clearly established itself – long periods of silence, short bursts of “catch up” posts with highlights from the months prior.  Not unlike Steven Jay Gould’s punctuated equilibrium theory of evolution I suppose.  Ah well.  Here goes another one, as I’ve been radio silent for a while now!

Oatmeal Buttermilk Sandwich bread.  So good, especially when you rub hot crust with a stick of butter just out of the oven.

Some Tartine-ish levain loafs.  I went through a bit of slump on levain breads recently, not getting the oven spring/volume I wanted, which I attributed to rusty shaping technique and a sluggish starter (likely some of both).  As I keep my started in the fridge and bake only on weekends – and sometimes only once  a month at that -- I decided to re-boot my starter and see it that would help.  I fed it twice a day for almost a week, until it was doubling predictably in 6 to 8 hours (I used a 40:100:100 ratio, all white flour).  My next bake was much better than the previous 3 or 4, so it seems to have needed the intense refresh

 

Lobster roll buns.  We were visiting my family back in Maine in the Summer (my home state, hence my screen name from many years ago).  We have lobster almost daily when back home, and I like to make the lobster buns when possible.  They’re always delicious when toasted in butter, but since they’re freeform, they’re also not that consistent in shape, so after this night, I picked up a “New England-style hot dog bun” pan for my collection.  I may not need it often, but it will be handy next Summer.

 

And because I was in Maine, had to make a few loaves of Anadama bread – my parent’s favorite.

 

Back in Seattle, pizza night using Jim Lahey’s formula and a white sauce/cheese/broccoli rabe topping – so good.

 

And for kicks, some spicy dill pickles (bumper crop at the Farmer’s market earlier this Summer), and latte art getting to know my new home espresso machine (for my day job, I head up innovation/product development for a coffee company).

 

Until next time!

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

Triple challenge - 123 Rainbow bread with veg!

Okay, I'm quite sure one is not allowed to have this much fun while baking bread. :) With all the ideas purcolating through my head, many sparked by questions and comments on this site, I decided to go a little nuts with this weekend's fun bake.

I'm still playing around with the 123 bread to see what I can do with it. Turns out just about anything! Then there was the semi-challenge issued by Dab I think it was, when someone posted that beautifully-weird black bread and he wondered about a 'colour' challenge. And I was also browsing an old thread about how to get more vegetables in bread to make it healthier.

So ... drumroll please ... I present 123 Veg bread, in three colours!

The base dough was the same for all of them - 100 grams of fresh, 100% hydration starter, 200 grams of water, 225 grams of bread flour and 75 grams of whole wheat flour, with 6 grams of salt, for each loaf.

The first had roasted beets, chopped fine in the food processor (they were a little chunky still because I roasted them a little too long and the outside was a bit crusty). I added some currants and cardamom, thinking of the sweetness of beets.  One thing that really annoys me is that I took pictures of the entire process, but ended up accidentally deleting them before uploading them. Anyway, the dough for the Beet bread was the most beautiful bright shade of fuschia pink, dotted with currants. Lovely!

The second had mashed roasted yam, with a little bit of maple syrup and a touch of cayenne (as this is what I like with my roasted yams). Dough was a lovely soft orange, as expected.

And the third contains chopped cooked spinach, with some toasted sunflower seeds and a dash of nutmeg. The dough itself wasn't really green (probably a good thing) but rather flecked with green.

Of the three doughs, the one with mashed roasted yam was the softest dough. The beet one was the most firm and springy, and the spinach dough was a little sticky but still nicely workable. Oven spring was very good for all of them.

Once baked, the colours come through nicely and the flavour is quite different with all of them. I baked two loaves of each plus a small taster loaf, which I cut and tested. The crumb shots below are from the taster loaves. I was quite surprised how strong the spinach taste was, and decided that one would be best served with cheese. :)

But here's a series of pictures I re-took after the bake. The colours are not so dramatic as they were in the dough (I am SO gutted about the loss of all those pictures!).

The three side-by-side for colour contrast.

Here is the Beet Currant...

And the crumb for the Beet Currant...

This is the Roasted Yam...

And the crumb shot of the Yam...

And finally, the Spinach and Sunflower loaf...

And the Spinach & Sunflower crumb shot...

So, what other colours can we make? :)

 

_vk's picture
_vk

crust, steam, temperature and timing

Hi all. 

I've being baking in a gas oven using an iron skillet and wet towels in  a tray as steaming devices. 

I'm new to this (but addicted already:). So far I thought I've being getting good results, well they were good. But...

Last batch I tried to mimic a DO by covering the baking tray (carbon steel ceramic coated) with foil. Left it covered for 15 min than more 30 min uncovered at +- 240 Cº all the way.

What a big difference! As soon as I took out the foil I could already say that my dough never looked like that. And the final result was much more pleasant. Darker, better shining crust, even better oven spring. I just found that my previous steam contraption was a flaw...  But, although the improvement, this loafs crust end up a little bit to hard, specially the bottom.

So, my question is:

To control the "hardness"of the crust what should I tweak? The time it stays covered? The overall temperature, or just overall time I baked the loafs?

 

thanks

 

vicente

alfanso's picture
alfanso

SJSD - first time since New Years!

I had an inkling that I hadn't baked these in a while but never thought that it was as long as 8 months ago.  SJSD variations?  Yes, but the base product?  No.  

Most of my formula sheets have notes on what the dough feels like at stages: extensible, slack, tight, fluffy...  Do I need to dust the couche more or dust it less post-shaping?  But on this sheet I didn't have any guide, and as it had been a while, I didn't remember what to expect.  

This mix saw a few more grams of water added than before, and the dough remained surprising slack, and at shaping time it was a bit tacky.  Gotta record that.

This is the type of bake where I feel a little doubt - until 5 minutes into the action when I can clearly see the scores making their move to bloom.  And then the doubt is once more quelled.

3x350g baguettes, 1x590 batard.

alan

crumb shot added...

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

An 'oops' turned into a 'yumm'!

As I said when I issued the 123 challenge, I needed an easy dough that I could use to test out new ingredients and compare techniques, etc. So to that end, I decided the other day to make dough for two 123 loaves. I was going to mix them together, then divide them and bulk ferment one in the fridge overnight, then shape and bake the next day, while the other was to be bulk fermented for a few hours, then shaped and proofed in the fridge overnight. I wanted to see if there was a significant difference between retarding the bulk ferment and retarding the shaped proof stage. The formula was:

  • 200 grams of fresh young 100% hydration starter
  • 400 grams of water
  • 400 grams of bread flour
  • 150 grams of whole wheat flour
  • 50 grams of coarse whole rye flour
  • 12 grams of sea salt

So far so good. However, I was stuck in a meeting that went an hour overtime, then had to make the dough for the following days' regular bake, so by the time I got to make the 123 dough, I didn't have enough hours to let it rise enough in bulk. I was falling asleep before it had risen much, so I gave up and put the dough for both loaves downstairs where it is quite cool right now.

This morning, the dough had definitely risen! It was very, very soft and pillowy, obviously over-proofed. It collapsed in a puddle when I dumped it out onto the counter.

So I decided to do something interesting with it, while at the same time finally responding to Murph's Honey Challenge. I had some leftover soaked 10-grain cereal (Bob's Red Mill; maybe about half a cup). I mixed this with a tablespoon or so of honey, the last currants remaining in the bottom of a bag and a bit of my new-favourite bread spice, cardamom.

I figured the cereal would soak up the honey so I wouldn't have the same problems Murph had, and the currants just seemed like a good idea. The dough was so soft and stretchy that I had no problem stretching it out into a rectangle. I spread the filling across two thirds of it, then letter folded and spread the rest of the filling, letter folding the other way and leaving it to rest (beside the other loaf, which had no filling).

Note the new bread rising frame, ready to be used!

The poor dough was so fragile by this point that when I rolled it carefully off the proofing mat onto the peel it nearly collapsed into another puddle. In fact, the un-stuffed loaf stuck to the peel even though it was floured and sprinkled generously with farina. I had to scrape it off onto another peel so I could get it into the oven. Sheesh!

However, then the magic of bread happened. Oven spring wasn't as great as it would have been if the dough hadn't been over-proofed. However, it was still good and the loaf burst dramatically along the single score I managed to put in it.

It smelled so good, I had to restrain myself and wait until it was at least mostly cool before slicing. I should have left it longer, as it was a teeny bit gummy, but it was so incredibly, wonderfully good that I didn't care. I could have eaten the entire loaf right then and there. It's moist, sweet and chewy, and I must make it again! The honey is very much there and everything else contributes to the overall goodness. Overall, a lovely mistake!

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