The Fresh Loaf

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Golden raisin pecan WW cudgel.

alfanso's picture
alfanso

Golden raisin pecan WW cudgel.

My wife is off to a Dragon Boat race this weekend.  I won't describe what it is, you can look it up if you have the mind to.  The three main things they do there are 1) race, 2) spend a lot of downtime between races and 3) eat and nap during the downtime.  I thought that I'd add to the groaning table by baking a rather, um, large golden raisin-pecan WW bread for them.

Coming off the recent just-for-the-heck-of-it monster baguette, I decided that it wasn't big enough.  This beast weighs in at 1500g, a full 50% heavier than the prior beast while being a few inches shorter.  A perfect snacking bread with or without butter, soft cheese and/or jam, and makes a fine toast too.  Probably not a great bread for sandwiches.  C'est la vie.

Unfortunately, having hardly any experience with breads this size, it looks as though in the scheme of things a seam  twisted out of position and although it may look artistic is actually a burst seam.  I'll have to somehow console my sorrow and find the inner strength to recover from this tragedy ;-) . 

The little fellow is a 550g batard that will keep my tonsils company over her weekend absence.

The lone slice of the Big Boy that my wife left behind...

 

  1. 1500g x 1 truncheon
  2. 550g x 1 batard

 These are loosely based on the fabulous Ken's Artisan Bakery version of this bread.

Raisin Pecan Whole Wheat Levain    
alfanso        
    Total Flour    
Total Dough Weight (g) 1000 Prefermented20.00%   
Total Formula   Levain  Final Dough 
Ingredients%Grams %Grams IngredientsGrams
Total Flour100.00%503.3 100.00%100.7 Final Flour402.6
AP Flour70.00%352.3 60.0%60.4 AP Flour291.9
Whole Wheat25.00%125.8 20.0%20.1 Whole Wheat105.7
Rye flour5.00%25.2 20.0%20.1 Rye5.0
Water72.60%365.4 75.0%75.5 Water289.9
Salt2.10%10.6    Salt10.6
Raisins / Figs12.00%60.4    Raisins60.4
Pecans / Toasted Walnuts12.00%60.4    Pecans60.4
75% Stiff Levain2.00%10.1 10.0%10.1   
       Levain176.1
Totals198.70%1000.0 185%186.2  1000.0
         
    2 stage stiff levain build  
    Stage 1    
    AP Flour30.2   
    Whole Wheat10.1   
    Rye10.1   
    Water37.7   
    Starter12.6   
    Stage 2    
    AP Flour30.2   
    Whole Wheat10.1   
    Rye10.1   
    Water37.7   
    Total188.7   

Timing

  • Day 1 – Mix Stiff Levain – 15 minutes
  • Day 2 – Mix dough, French Folds & ferment – 2-3 hours (~18-24 hour rest)
  • Day 3 – Bake – 1.5 hours 

Method

DAY 1:

  1. Mix levain. Ferment at room temperature, covered tightly, turn once or twice during build. (can be as much as 8-12 hours - your mileage may vary)
  2. Soak fruit in water.  Reserve water for final mix.

DAY 2:

  1. Mix flours and water, include water from fruit. Cover and autolyse for 30 minutes.
  2. Add levain and salt and pinch-and-fold mix to incorporate. 150 French Folds / 5 minute covered rest / 150 FFs.
  3. Transfer to a clean, lightly oiled bowl and cover tightly.
  4. Add raisins and pecans at first Letter Fold.  Stretch dough out into large rectangle on wetted surface and distribute fruit and nuts evenly.
  5. With each Letter Fold, try to fold so that the fruit and nuts stay toward the interior of the dough as much as possible.
  6. Bulk ferment 2-3 hours with 4 Letter Folds every 25 minutes, one final 25 minute rest, then refrigerate. Dough will start doming after the first fold.  Dough will remain silky and extensible throughout.
  7. Cover and refrigerate for as much as 18-24 hours.

DAY 3:

  1. Take the dough out of the refrigerator.  For baguettes, divide into SQUARE pieces.  For batards, divide into pre-shaped balls.
  2. Cover and allow to rest for 10-12 minutes.
  3. For baguettes - these work better as short & chubby baguettes/torpedoes perhaps allowing a little raw flour on surface for rustic look.
  4. Onto lightly floured couche, seam side down.  These will shed some moisture.
  5. Cover with plastic.  Back into retard.
  6. An hour before baking, pre-heat the oven to 500ºF, with baking stone and lava rock pan in place.
  7. Score.
  8. Bake at 470ºF 10-13 minutes steam, separate & rotate 180 front to back, then another 10-15 minutes or more after rotating.  Vent for 2-3 minutes.
  9. These should bake darker than you think.  We want the crust to be dark and thick!

Notes:

  • My kitchen is almost always 78-80dF.
  • Dough can be shaped anytime during retard cycle, after ~ 2 hours in refrigerator.
  • I bake directly out of retard.
  • 1 Sylvia's Steaming towel, 1 9"x13" pan of lava rocks.  Towel goes in 15 minutes prior to bake, 2 cups of water onto lava rocks after dough is loaded.
  • Recommend the short and chubby baguettes because the fruit and nuts would wind up dominating the girth of a fully sized baguette.
  • Can also be scored with a diagonal cross hatch for the fun and look of it.

alan

Comments

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

Or she could use it as a paddle if needed. :) But regardless of size, it looks beautiful. Do we get a crumb shot? And is the formula posted somewhere?

alfanso's picture
alfanso

Thanks LL.  This is a fun bread to make. - and to eat.  It goes really well with a cheese board and wine.  I've also made this with fresh apples soaked in boiled apple cider and toasted walnuts (and a combination of the raisins and apples too).  The flavor of the apples has underwhelmed me, so I basically stick with the other fruits.

alan 

kendalm's picture
kendalm

Put this on the home page.  Btw regarding score techniques I have recently been taking note of any pics you post of scores prior to bake and came to the conclusion that I am coming in too shallow.  Last few bakes I've tried to mimic your score patter by slashing more vertically and seeing much better results leading me to think that the whole shallow angle idea is a bit over emphasized (ie 30 degrees is way too shallow - 60 seems to work much better) 

alfanso's picture
alfanso

I almost always bake directly from retard, so that may affect the scoring as the dough is chilled and may respond to scoring differently than a bread that is bench proofed.

Lower hydration doughs should generally not be scored with too much of an angle, it is the higher hydrations that should get the sharper blade angle.  They have a heavy water:flour ratio (just my unproven opinion here).

The question is what is the tipping point between lower and higher hydration dough?  I'll take a crack at it and say that doughs which come in at ~75% hydrations or higher.  But OTOH, a heavily whole grained dough will have absorbed more water than an AP dough.  Ya know, when it comes down to it, we work on intuition and experience.  So for each of us we wind up coming around to what we find works best for us once we get past the "rule of thumb" aspect of it all.

I've already had the pleasure of the top photo a while back.  There are plenty of gorgeous breads by bakers that should also get the chance.  But thanks for the thought!  alan

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

I have even done it a couple of times! Tons of fun but you really need to stay coordinated otherwise clashing paddles and punches to the person in front of you happen!

That loaf is amazing! It certainly could be used as a weapon but I am sure it will be devoured as a treat! My mouth is watering just looking at it!

alfanso's picture
alfanso

with the boaters when she first started.  Too much work for me!  And you are certainly right about the coordination parties well as refined technique.  When folks ask about what it is I'll sometimes refer back to the opening or closing sequence of the Jack Lord Hawaii Five-O series.  But instead of big sweaty South Pacific Islanders manning their outriggers, think of lithe sexy Latinas and toned Latinos working the paddles down here.  20 paddlers to a boat along with a drummer and helms-person.

P.S. drool in the keyboard is not permitted - unless you happen to be my dog leaning over it to get my attention...

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

You have to go for the 2000g mother of all gihugic loaves of this sort...what ever it is.  These all look terrific.

Well done Don Baggs

alfanso's picture
alfanso

the batard to the end of the Big Boy, maybe it can be marketed as Thor's Hammer Bread.  I wonder if there's any market for that.  Hmm.

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Looks great Alan.  Just the right thing to slay a dragon!

Happy Baking!

Ian

alfanso's picture
alfanso

The boat must have been sitting a few inches lower in the water after this beast was consumed!

I'm not kicking myself over it, but I should have noticed the seam not being side down on the peel before scoring it.  A rookie mistake for sure.  If this bread were on some regular rotation, eh, so what.  But who knows when I'll get around to baking something this size again.