The Fresh Loaf

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Another Simple White Sourdough With a Fig YW Cinnamon Roll Kicker

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Another Simple White Sourdough With a Fig YW Cinnamon Roll Kicker

With Lucy being on strike this week after she found out the FBI was surveilling both Hilary and Trump during and after the last presidential campaign.  She wanted to know if I was surveilling her and she did not like it, not one little bit, when I said I could not confirm or deny any ongoing investigations by the Master just like the FBI’s director James Comey can’t talk about his investigations or confirm or deny they are even going on.

She then said,that usually, that is the FBI rule but it seems Comey broke it by telling congress he was investing both of them at the same time while they were running for president.  I didn’t believe her at first.  I was thinking such a thing would be impossible and really stupid for an FBI director to do but all I do is bake bread once a week.

Since she seemed up on these things, I asked her who would have the power and authority to order the FBI director to do such a thing.   She said he worked under the Attorney General Loretta Lynch.  She went on to say both Lynch and Comey were appointed by President Obama so, he too could tell Comey to investigate anyone he wanted by any means.  I told Lucy I really didn’t care about spies, political intrigue and dirty tricks …… but I would be sticking to my rule of telling no one if I was investigating them or not and play Sargent Schultz by claiming to know nothing about anything .......which would right most of the time.

Lucy immediately went on strike by refusing to give me any help at all in the kitchen or provide me recipes and started to picket her pantry to keep me out.  The last straw was she hid my new Cox Contour TV remote control which I just got and don’t really know much about or how to use either. 

Now I was starting to get a little hot because it looked like she had been planning this for some time.   To be so organized and ready to make my life more difficult than she normally did looked premeditated if you ask me.  But, I cooled off just enough to tell her that my investigation wasn’t so important, nor likely to destroy completely, the possible first women ever president’s campaign - right before the election – twice.  That had to surprise everyone - especially Hilary.  Nor was it anywhere close to trying to bring down a newly elected president’s administration 50 days in ...like the FBI seems to be doing right now.  I am forced to pay attention to such nonsense and can't help but to notice it since it is as plain as the big honking nose on Lucy's face.

 

This really ticked her off.  Being totally brazened by the FBI, she started a hunger strike, refusing all food llike she was some kind oif prisoner or something.  Well now, this brought a smile to my face.   I told her we were out of her food anyway so her timing for me not needing her food anymore was perfect........ and made my life easier by far…… at least twice a day.

Now she is threatening to riot and burn the house down.  Jeeze!  I thought her mother was a nutso, knife wielding Sweed but her bone didn’t fall far enough from the badger hole it seems.  Now I have to sleep with 1 eye open and one hand on her backside just to make sure she doesn’t torch the place killing us all out of a misguided moral compass - or just plain spite.

That is where we are now so it is time to get on to this week’s baking.   Needless to say, this week’s bread had to be easy since I had to figure it out on my own.   My brain hasn’t worked at all since I retired 8 years ago and is quite muddled after all the beer, wine, shots and margaritas over those years - especially today.

So, if you were expecting something ‘Lucy like’ this week….. you are as out of your mind as James Comey.  He has to having bad dreams about Leavenworth prison since he is the low guy on the totem pole and the likely scapegoat since somone has greased it up pretty well.  After being in Lucy’s doghouse all week ……I can relate – poor guy. Sorry,  I digress

.

The bread is what Lucy would call a simple 13.  No sprouts, 100% hydration, 13% pre-fermented, bran, 5 grain, 3 stage levain built from 10 g of NMNF rye starter.  Since I am a doofus when it comes to these things and pretty used to just doing as Lucy tells me, I didn’t even start this levain until 8 PM yesterday.  The 2nd stage at midnight was followed by 3rd stage at 7 AM this morning.  Instead of using this levain fully ripe, I put it into the autolyse 2 hours after the 3rd feeding.  It was very young for us old timers but in it went when it had risen about 25% or so.

The 5 whole grains were also a whopping 13% and made up of equal parts of Kamut, red and white wheat, rye and spelt.  These are our 5 go to grains for just about any bread as a starting point but this one was especially light and more white than usual.

Since I couldn’t get my act together, the autolyse, with the pink Himalayan sea salt sprinkled on top, was only 30 minutes.  There wasn’t any bran and little whole grains to begin with and 30 minutes I thoiught was plenty but what do I know .......and Lucy isn’t barking orders for once in her life.  All of the rest of the flour was Albertson’s bread flour - including the non bran in the levain.

We did s3 ets of slap and folds and 3 sets if stretch and folds all on 20 minute intervals, pre-shaped and shaped the dough into a squat oval and paced into a rice floured basket, seam side up.  We bagged it in a new trash can liner and left it for 2 ½ hours on the counter to final proof. With the oven pre-heated to 500 F and the combo cooker inside.  See, I’ve learned something useful from Lucy over the last 5 years!

Unmolded onto parchment on a peel, slashed once down the middle and into the CC it went and right back into the 450 F oven between the two stones for 18 minutes of steam.  Then the top came off for 12 minutes of dry convection heat at a further reduced 425 F.

When it was done to 210 F on the inside, the bread had bloomed and sprang well enough but for some reason it wasn’t as dark as usual for a 210 F bread of this size, bake temperature and time in the heat.  We will have to wait for breakfast tomorrow to see the inside.

Lucy had built a new fig yeast water 3 weeks ago using rehydration liquid but I built another one from scratch last week too.  The new one is what was used to make this batch of YW cinnamon rolls or, as they say in England - Chelsea Buns.  The preferment was 25% preferment flour at 100% hydration using the fig yeast water that was allowed to sit for 6 hours. 

The dough was enriched with 10% butter and sugar each but it was unusual because no milk or egg was in the mix.  The softened, room temperature butter was not added until the dough was hydrated and the sugar mixed in using slap and folds. All the flour was Lafma AP.  After 2 more sets of slap and folds, all on 30 minute intervals, the dough was rolled out and 20% softened butter was spread on first followed by brown sugar, chocolate chips walnuts and dried cranberries.  No snockered fruits this time,

After rolling up and cutting it into 8 pieces, they were put into a sprayed Pyrex pan for proofing.  In 5 hours they were fully proofed, Yeast water is pretty slow and new ones are even slower.  The tops were brushed with milk and put into a 350 F oven for 22 minutes until brown.  I brushed them again with milk when they came out of the oven and then spread on a cream cheese, powdered sugar and lemon juice glaze.

These were killer if you ask me but one of the girls didn’t like the walnuts and the other didn’t like cranberries  - even though the other one asked for each of them to be in the middle.  Lucy didn’t get any because she was on her hunger strike.  Not getting her treat  haced her off even more so there is no telling what she is upt o now.  The girls only had one each since they didn't like what th other wanted.  That left me with 6….. and they were gone in a flash.

I’m not having much luck with any of the girls this week even with cinnamon buns as bait.   Very high maintenance -  all of them but, if I get 6 of these sweet buns as a result, we will try to make it the norm around here.  Happy baking.

 

Comments

Yippee's picture
Yippee

I can tell without looking at the title, and you haven't bored me yet! Too bad Lucy is throwing a tantrum. It's not easy to be a master these days but you've handled the situation well.  Good job, DBM.   Waiting for the crumb shot!

Happy baking!

Yippee

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

I expected.  Open, soft, moist and glossy.  Mildly sour and not much of a tang taste wise which was also expected since the dough wasn't retarded.  It reminds me of current day SFSD.  Lucy did eat her breakfast this morning after him-hawing around looking distiurbed for a a while.   Maybe her huger pangs are stronger than her indignation of being spied upon.  I can't wait to see her when she finds out she is completely under video surveillance all the time.... no matter where she goes except on her walks when I am with her:-).

Glad you liked the bread and happy baking Yippee

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

harboring State secrets if she is so concerned about being under surveillance. And being of German ancestry, seeing the eye rolls from the German Chancellor during her recent visit, she just might be switching her allegiance from her adopted country to that of her forbearers. You really need to limit her access to the news if you are hoping to retain some semblance of control in your household, although I fear that you may have lost that in reality a long time ago if you can't get into her pantry and your baking hours are limited due to a sensory issue from your other half. Oh wait a minute, I wonder if your other half might be part of Lucy's plan? You are going to have to keep a close eye on her too! I think your offspring might be okay though as I am sure she is Daddy's little girl and has you wrapped right around her finger! Uh oh! Lucy would know that too! I think you might be in serious trouble here! You just might have to move to the cold frozen expanse that is Canada!

Now all that being said, that is an awesome loaf! It is nice to simplify once in a while and just make a basic loaf although in reality, that loaf isn't so simple for most people. And those rolls are to die for. If you ever move up here to escape the tyranny of the mini-dictator you have on your house, I want to be one of the first in line to taste one. Cranberries and walnuts in a cinnamon bun sounds like a heavenly combo. 

PS. I sure hope the FBI or the Department of Homeland Security don't show up at your door! 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

my daughter is baby girl and Lucy is girl baby.  So when I say where is the girl baby every girl around here knows who I am talking about.  I'm terribly outnumbered around here and there is never a time i m nit in hot water with one or all of them.  After years of extensive martial arts training and concealed carry permits, I can usually save myself when they gang up on me or at least scare them off with the sign of the cross using the powerful index fingers.  I can usually tell when Lucy is right on the edge because she will seak up and upchuck on my toes when I least expect it.  So far no upchucking.

I figure the feds are too lazy to get too far from their free donuts and beer to come all the way to Phoenix from DC.  Lucy says they already intercept everyone's phone calls, emails and internet keystrokes for the entire world so they already know about Lucy and probably have her on the no fly list already.  I asked her how she knows about that stuff and she asked me If I have ever heard of a guy named Eric Snowden who spilled the beans on what they are really doing at the NSA . I do remember Nancy Pelosi was really peeved when she found out, as the head of the Intelligence Committee and Speaker of the House, that all the members of congress and the Senate along with many bureaucrats in government were also under constant surveillance by USA intel - the very people she was supposed to be monitoring like a hawk.  Lucy said, which kind of shocked me to find out, there wasn't a darn thing she could do about it either.  I personally think these elected fools government folks are all crooks and really need toi be monitored and probably wear location ankle bracelets too but that is just me.  Now we know the spooks can take over our TV's, cars and even kitchen appliances to spy on us too.  They must see and hear some great stuff that would make for the best reality TV ever - just from our elected officials alone:-)  Can you imagine the dirt they have on all of them?  No wonder they get away with this stuff if they can blackmail everyone everywhere.

Because you are in Canada doesn't get you off the hook either.  That just makes you look more suspicious to these folks who probably classify you as a potentially dangerous, foreign based, bread baking target!  The armed, stealth, drones can't be far behind. or already circling overhead.  So, maybe Trump was right about being electronically spied on when, in reality, everyone is being spied on....all the time?  All I know is that I am heavily invested in the cloud for data storage because the US Government has to have one 100 times longer, wider and deeper than the Grand Canyon and somebody is getting filthy rich off of it - it might as well be me.

Keep the lights down, shades drawn, speak in sign language to everyone, encrypt all of your phone calls and computer transmissions so you can bake and sleep happily Danni:-)

Isand66's picture
Isand66

In a sign of solidarity with their West Coast girlfriend Max and Lexi have called the FBU (Fur Balls United) and lodged a complaint!  They are however happy that today it finally feels like Spring and the birds and squirrels are running rampant in my yard.

Even without help from Lucy your bread looks great and those evil "roll things" full of things that would tempt  anyone even with the strongest willpower to succumb to eating the tray.

Happy Baking and Spring!

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

the more evil the 'roll things' are the better they are - sort of like her.  We have dipping this bread in the usual suspects and so far we like it a lot.  Today it was dipped in Indian Roasted Carrot Soup with Hananeros for lunch, We don't have any ghost chilies but grow some in the summer heat to really kick them up a notch.

Lucy sends her best to the Long legged black ones and hopes they get warmed up fast.  Glad yoi like the post Ian and happy Springtime baking 

alfanso's picture
alfanso

you need to send me the app to upload a few of those cinnamon buns, still warm.  For all the talk of her doing this or that, and until she does this or that, when putsch comes to Shav she is really just a doofy BS artist.  Nonetheless, don't let the sexy eyelashes throw you, she's as dangerous as Mata Hari or even worse, Hedy Lamar. 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

on Ramses II tomb that first grew me too her but now you have done it.  I showed her yuor post about her being doofy BS artist and she too and put a contract out on you.    You're right of couse but she got hold of her Mom's old Swedish Viking knife fighting gang immediately.  Lucy siad being a Don Baggy won't help much and swears they will slice you up real good and thin like a fine Lox from The Norseland.  I want to warn you about the 3 peg legged Wolfhound though.  He only fakes with the two pegs on the left and always attacks from the one peg and abnormally large non peg leg on the right....and never turn your back on the tattooed pit bull  Those are not tatoos but real knives.   The rest of the pack are just normal killers and cutthroats.  Your crew should have no problem even if there are more than 50 of them.  Now that she is back to normal, you have given her something to focus on instead of me so I thank you for that.

Happy baking Den Baggs

IceDemeter's picture
IceDemeter

...all traumatized by the tearing away of her naivete and faith in humanity (so traumatized that she couldn't even bear food), and you just keep tearing away more and more of her sweet innocence - you monster!

Well, even without the invaluable input from the true Mistress of the house, at least you managed to retain some of her teachings and come up with an acceptable contribution to the weekly menu.  'Tis a beauteous loaf, and I'm sure it is mighty tasty even without the intricacies of your usual bakes.  Your craftsmanship in word and bake shines through, Sir - nicely done!

Thanks for bringing smiles on many levels, and I hope that you and the ladies that you serve all have a great week!

Oh - and it really is no wonder that the ladies weren't as enthused about your cinnamon buns as you were.  Seriously - compromise is NOT a virtue when it comes to treats, so you should have done some just with the cranberries as a special nod to the lady who requested those, and some with just the walnuts as a special nod to the lady who wanted them.  Of course, doing it how you did DID end up with you getting to devour the majority of them by yourself, even thought I'm SURE that wasn't your intention...

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

week when she brought up all this spycraft stuff with intrigue galore.  I was so traumatized I couldn't sleep more than a dozen hours at night.  I've got DaBaggs under my eyes now.

I am happy to know that the FBI has had the entire government under surveillance all the time for many years now.  There is much greater chance they will all end up in jail then in my pockets:-) We probably need to privatize the FBI to get the job done right.though - or replace them with robots made in China, North Korea or possibly even Russia if Trump gets the all clear from Comey soon enough.

I'm guessing there will twice as many nuts and cranberries in the next batch of cinnamon rolls .  When the girls complain, I can say I misunderstood completely and thought they were asking for more of each not less.  The batch after that can have pecans and dried cherries in it and we will see how that goes over with the female taste testers:-)

Now Lucy is all upset that Merkel invited that Russian lady; Ivanka, to the G20 Women's conference in Europe while she was here last week listening to Trump.  Heck, I didn't even know Merkel was a woman.....

Glad you liked the post and happy baking.