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alonewitheverybody's picture
alonewitheverybody

100% Whole Wheat Dough: Windowpane test and Proofing

Hi all, I'm currently working on to perfect my skills in baking a 100% whole wheat bread based on the book "The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book". However there are 2 persisting problems that I'm unable to resolve. Hope there is someone who can enlighten me.

1) I used a Kitchenaid Artisan series mixer to knead the dough. In the book or in most of the recipes that I came across, the kneading time should take around 10 mins for the dough to pass the windowpane test. In my case, the machine has kneaded the dough for almost an hour (most of the time I stopped the machine to 'adjust' the dough) until the dough is smooth and springy but I have yet to pass the test. Is there any steps that I have done wrong here?

2) The first and second rising, I can see my dough doubled in size but after shaping, the dough seem to have loses stream during the proofing stage though the bread did rise above the pan. I'm not sure it was because too much time was spent at the beginning. In total, I took nearly 4 hours before the actual baking begins. 

Please help and I'm desperate. Thanks.

 

 

Ru007's picture
Ru007

Olive, sun dried tomato and rosemary SD

This week’s bake was inspired by Dab’s 3 starter Italian olive bread with rosemary and sun dried tomato. I love pizza and this loaf sounded like a pizza so I couldn’t help but try it and hope it turned out half as good.

I changed some of the proportions from the original formula (more whole grain, more sun dried tomatoes, less olives and more rosemary):

 

 

Weights (g)

 

Final dough (g)

 

%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Levain (87% hydration)

171

 

 

 

 

Water

 

314

 

394

 

77%

Flour

 

420

 

511

 

100%

Unbleached white bread flour

300

 

 

300

 

59%

Whole wheat flour

120

 

 

207

 

40%

Rye (all from starter)

 

4

1%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salt

 

11

 

11

 

2%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

120

 

120

 

23%

Sundried tomatoes

60

 

 

60

 

 

Olives

60

 

 

60

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dried rosemary

 1 1/4

Tbsp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total dough weight

 

1036

 

1036

 

 

 1. The levain was built in 3 stages using 8g of my NMNF rye starter (which has now gone 7 weeks without any maintenance). I did all the builds using whole wheat flour. I put the levain into the fridge overnight before mixing day once it doubled after the 3rd feed.

2. I mixed the remaining flours and water, left in the fridge for a few hours and then let come to room temp overnight.

3. In the morning I stirred down the levain and let it bubble up again for, then added to the rest of the dough along with the salt. I mixed everything with a few folds and then left to rest for 45mins.

4. I did the first S&F after the 45mins rest. The second S&F was after another 45mins (I added the olives, sundried tomatoes and rosemary at this point).

 

 

I did two more S&F at 45 min intervals.

5. I let the dough bulk ferment for 3 hours until I could see some nice bubbles on the edges.

6. I preshaped the dough and let it rest for 30 mins before shaping and placing in a rice floured basket.

7. I left the shaped dough to proof for 90 mins at room temp before putting it in the fridge for a 19 hour retard.

The whole process took about 8 hours between first mixing and getting into the fridge. It seems like a long time, but its still cold here!

8. I baked this one straight from the fridge for 30 mins with steam at 240 dC and then a further 15 mins at 230 dC. I left the loaf in the oven for another 5 mins with the heat off and the door ajar.

The aroma while it was baking was lovely!

The loaf sprang and bloomed well.

 

The crust is nice and thin and crispy.

 

The crumb is tender chewy and packed with flavor! The rosemary really comes through and there's enough olives and sun dried tomatoes so you get some in each slice. This is one tasty bread, especially dipped in a little bit of EVOO.

This loaf is a keeper. Thanks for the inspiration Dab :)

Happy baking.

 

Elagins's picture
Elagins

New on The Rye Baker blog: Wholegrain Franconia Rye

 Franconia Rye is a typical Alpine rye. Like so many other of the region’s ryes, it’s built on multiple sour sponges (in this case a 3-stage rye sponge), contains a blend of rye and wheat flours and incorporates the sweetness of sugar beet molasses and the understated  fragrance of bread spice (brotgewürz), the 10-6-6-2 blend of caraway, anise, fennel and coriander that features widely in German rye baking.

You can find the recipe here.

Stan Ginsberg
theryebaker.com
www.nybakers.com

Cathfm's picture
Cathfm

Pistachio cranberry stretch and fold question

First time I tried stretching and folding today, or at least the first semi-alright result I could muster. After I tried THIS delicious but nightmare-inducing knead: http://www.wildyeastblog.com/fruit-and-nut-sourdough/ ... and so today I decided to wing it, using only ratios, bread flour and the great video she links to on stretch and fold.

After autolyse I decided to use pistachio flour so I whipped some up, and half-kneaded the dough, shaped and SF 2-3 times with wet hands before shaping and so on and so forth. 

 

How can I make the loaf less...ugly on the outside without handling too much?

Mgtm3030's picture
Mgtm3030

Mills in Philadelphia area?

 I am looking to use fresh flour for my bread baking.  Looking for a local mill that sells to small bakers..  Any suggestions?

_vk's picture
_vk

Converting yeast recipes to sourdough

hello all. This is the question, how to convert yeast recipes to sourdough?

thanks

kellie_1996's picture
kellie_1996

Second attempt at dough lamination, how do my danish pastries look?

Hi! I'm new to this forum, and have just finished my second attempt at laminated dough. While I am very happy with the final product, and it is definitely an improvement from my prior attempt, I was just hoping for an opinion from someone with a bit more experience. 

During my first attempt (croissants) I had a lot of trouble keeping the butter from cracking/breaking when rolling out the dough. I think that because a lot of recipes emphasise keeping the dough COLD, I may have over-chilled the dough/butter. During my second attempt (puff pastry using this recipe I managed to avoid breaking the butter (woohoo!), the pastries were beautiful and flaky on the outside, lots of layers in the centre, but I'm worried about the moist appearance of these layers. While this makes for a pleasant mouth-feel (I wouldn't want a danish to be dry) I can't help but notice that the cross-section of other people's appear to be more airy? 

So I have a few questions: 

1. Do my laminating skills still need some work? 

2. Do you normally fill pastries prior to baking, mid way through baking, or after? (does removing puff pastry from the oven halfway through baking cause problems? 

3. How thick do you roll your puff pastry? 

clazar123's picture
clazar123

Never toss discarded starter again! Book recommendation.

I have had this book for a LONG time. When I started making sourdough bread successfully, I turned up my nose because she made most of her starter with a packet of yeast. Also, the quick breads and muffins didn't use the starter as leavening. What a snob I was! It also demonstrates how a mindset like that can actually cloud your vision! I had a treasure in my hands and didn't even know it!

She has developed recipes for quick breads,muffins,biscuits,cookies, pancakes and waffles that all use an acid-heavy starter along with a baking soda or powder as a leavener. Perfect for discard ! Of course she has bread recipes but she seems to do a hybrid and uses a packet of yeast with those recipes. It seems the starter is more of a flavoring agent in her yeast bread section.

So everyone that hates dumping discarded starter, start saving it in the refrigerator and pull it out for some delicious baking beyond pancakes with these recipes. I was able to find it on Amazon and at Abe Books by the ISBN number.

ISBN  0-912656-63-8 (softcover)

ISBN  0-912656-64-6

Library of Congress  Catalog Card number 77-71168

Publisher H.P Books, Printed 3/77

 

I debated between the book forum and sourdough forum and thought this made more sense.

Wartface's picture
Wartface

Dough sticking to banneton.--

2 loaves in row... When I tried to take the boule out of the basket it was stuck. That collapsed my dough and I got no rise.

I put a lot of bread flour in the bowl before putting in the dough to delay the fermentation over night. 

 

Why is my dough sticking???

 

likejehu's picture
likejehu

Starter maintenance, quality, and odors

I'll start off with the questions, and give the background below:

Questions

Is there a way to cultivate the starter so it goes toward an odor of that nice yogurt-like quality?

Does that odor indicate how well the starter will leaven and perform?

Can you tell how a starter will behave from its odor?

Does the quality of the starter affect the crumb and density of a loaf? Or does that have more to do with temperature and time for fermentation?

I made my own starter and have been baking with it for about eight months. I usually discard about ninety percent of the starter after every feeding session. It at least doubles in volume about 10 hours after each feeding of 75g water and 75g flour (50/50 AP/Rye). It's very consistent.

The smell before it has fully doubled is usually of overripe fruit with a bit of acidity. It's normally fermenting at around 20C. If I let it collapse, then it takes on the acetic/nail polish remover odor.

When I make bread with it (I normally follow the Tartine country loaf method), the dough smells kind of warm and human (not sure how else to describe it). It's not unpleasant, but I find it weird. Also, during the bulk ferment and final proofing, the dough does not increase in volume very much (nowhere near the 30% volume growth outlined in Tartine), though I typically get a pretty good oven spring and open crumb.

I for the first time smelled someone else's starter and it was so much nicer than mine. It had the sweet milky/yogurt-like odors I hear people talk about. It was really nice. I also tasted bread made with the starter and noticed how much softer the crumb was than my bread. While I like the mild sour flavour of my bread, it is normally quite dense and chewy. It's great for toast and spreads, but way too tough for sandwiches. I'm wondering if that's because of my starter.

Thanks in advance!

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