The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Playing with Different Bread Shapes

Elsie_iu's picture
Elsie_iu

Playing with Different Bread Shapes

 Before attempting “true” baguettes, I made these sophisticated looking yet in fact easy to make Epi de Blé baguettes.  Epi de Blé Baguettes with a Japanese Twist ( makes 6 baguettes)

 

Dough flour (all freshly milled):

210g      70%     Whole white wheat flour

90g        30%     Whole durum flour

 

For leaven:

6g          2%       Starter

12g        4%       Bran sifted out from dough flour

12g        4%       Water

 

For dough:

288g      96%       Dough flour excluding bran for leaven

288g      96%       Water

30g        10%       Leaven

5g       1.67%       Salt

 

Filling:

90g        30%       Shredded provolone

30g        10%       Fish roe paste

15g          5%       Wasabi paste

 

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303g      100%       Whole grain

303g      100%       Total hydration

 

Sift out the coarse bran from the dough flour, reserve 12g for leaven. Soak the rest (I got 27g) in equal amount of water taken from dough ingredients.

Combine all leaven ingredients and let sit until doubled, around 3 hours.

Mix the filling ingredients and keep refrigerated until needed.

Roughly combine all dough ingredients except for the salt, leaven, and soaked bran, autolyse for 15 minutes. Knead in the reserved ingredients and ferment for 15 minutes. Stretch and fold the dough a few times then ferment for 4.5 hours longer.

Retard the dough for 11 hours or proceed to the next step directly. Divide the dough into 6 equal portions then let it rest for 20 minutes. Stretch a piece of dough into a small rectangle gently. Place one sixth of the filling onto the central one third part, lengthwise, leavening no borders on the left or right. Shape the dough like regular baguettes. Let it proof for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven at 250°C/482°F. Cut the proofed dough into Epi de Blé shape. The method I used was the same as that of David

Spritz the dough then bake at 250°C/482°F with steam for 5 minutes then without steam for 15 minutes more or until the internal temperature reaches a minimum of 208°F. Let cool for at least 30 minutes before serving.

If you love salty food like I do, these baguettes are for you. The idea of fish roe spread filled baguettes was stolen from Japanese bakers. I fell in love with it instantly once I had a taste of it. To give it a kick, I mixed in some wasabi.

The cheese is gooey on the inside but crisped up when leaked out. Moreover, I get baguettes with lightly blistered crust and chewy centre. They’re for those who love bread with different textures.

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I adore yeasted doughnuts! However, I can’t get properly made once in where I live. They’re treats I have for one month every few years when I’m visiting my relatives in Canada. To tame the craving, I created my own healthier version.

 

Naked Non-fried YW Doughnuts

 

Dough flour (all freshly milled):

112g      80%       Whole white wheat flour

28g        20%       Whole eirkorn flour

 

For leaven:

10g       7.1%       Flour from dough flour

10g       7.1%       Yeast water

 

For dough:

130g     92.9%       Dough flour excluding flour for leaven

95g       67.9%       1% milk (I used a Hokkaido brand)

20g       14.3%       Leaven

20g       14.3%       1 large egg yolk

7g              5%       Brown sugar

2g          1.4%        Salt

 

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140g       100%        Whole grain

105.5g    75.4%       Total hydration (Assuming 1% milk and egg yolk are 90% and 50% water respectively)

 

Combine all leaven ingredients and let sit until doubled, 6-8 hours.

Roughly combine all dough ingredients and let rest for 15 minutes. Slap and fold the dough until gluten is developed, around 10 minutes. Ferment at room temperature for 3.5 hours. Retard the dough for 8 hours.

Divide the dough into 4 equal portions. Let it rest for 20 minutes. Shape the dough into a ring and proof at room temperature for 1.5 hours.

Preheat the oven at 204°C/400°F.

Bake at 204°C/400°F without steam for 7 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches a minimum of 190°F. Let cool for at least 20 minutes before serving.

Honestly, my taste buds have changed as I grew up. Store-bought doughnuts become too sweet for me. I left my doughnuts plain because they don’t need anything else in my opinion. However, feel free to glaze them if you want to.

These doughnuts have a soft and moist crumb with a thin crust, all without the muss of deep frying!

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These are inspired by Caroline’s Banana YW bread.

 

Malty Banana SD+YW Rolls with 20% Sprouted Buckwheat

 

Dough flour (all freshly milled):

160g      80%       Whole spelt flour

40g        20%       Sprouted buckwheat flour, roasted

 

For leaven:

6g           3%       Starter

22g       11%       Bran sifted out from spelt flour (dough flour)

22g       11%       Yeast water

 

For banana-buckwheat mixture:

116g       58%       Banana puree (1 medium banana)

95g      47.5%       Hot water

40g         20%       Sprouted buckwheat flour, roasted (dough flour)

10g           5%       Diastatic malt powder

5g          2.5%       Assam tea leaves

 

For dough:

138g       69%       Spelt flour excluding bran for leaven

266g     133%       Banana-buckwheat mixture

6g             3%       Vital wheat gluten

3g          1.5%       Salt

 

___________

203g      100%        Whole grain

204g     100.5%      Total hydration (Assuming banana is 75% water. Diastatic malt and Assam tea leaves soak up a significant amount of water)

 

Sift out the coarse bran from the dough flour, reserve 22g for leaven. Combine all leaven ingredients and let sit until doubled, around 2 hours.

Mix together all banana-buckwheat mixture ingredients. Keep refrigerated until needed.

Roughly combine all dough ingredients and let rest for 30 minutes. Stretch and fold the dough a few times then ferment for 1.5 hours longer. Retard the dough for 10 hours.

Divide the dough into 4 equal portions then let it rest for 30 minutes. Shape the dough like ciabatta and let proof for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven at 250°C/482°F.

Flip the dough and place it onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Spritz the dough then bake at 250°C/482°F with steam for 10 minutes then without steam for 10 minutes more or until the internal temperature reaches a minimum of 208°F. Let cool for at least 1 hour before serving.

I thought I was biting into banana bread! The banana flavour is pretty pronounced so you must like banana to enjoy these rolls. Moreover, they have strong aroma of malt from the diastatic malt and Assam tea, which goes really well with the sweetness of banana and toastiness of buckwheat.

The crust is thin and crispy and the centre is surprisingly chewy. Thanks to the banana, these rolls have a close crumb. However, they’re also very moist so it’s not unpleasant to bite into at all.

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Airy but very chewy 71% hydration white sandwich bread (it's my first!) for mom

Who else serves khichdi with nann? (I do…) Carbs-loaded (mung beans, millet and wheat) but healthy :)

Pizza for Breakfast: Caramelized mushrooms, pickled red onions, pancetta and provolone 100% WW pizza with spicy&smoky roasted red peppers sun-dried tomatoes sauce

 

Comments

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Love the Epi with cheese and roe.  You wont' find those at the bakery even in Japan:-) Donuts, banana bread, naan and a white bread for Mom!  All of them are very nice indeed.

Well done and happy baking

Elsie_iu's picture
Elsie_iu

out of the three bakes too. The filling is kind of addictive but then how can you possibly go wrong with those ingredients? 

This is an unusual post where you see all kinds of bread except for the batard-like bread I most frequently bake. Glad you like the post and I hope you like the pizza I just posted as well :) Sometimes one forgets how tasty something like pizza is when he/she hasn't have it in a while. 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

How much WW is in the mix?

Elsie_iu's picture
Elsie_iu

I bought a bag of Indian atta flour and this was the first time I used it. It's very finely milled so it absorbed a great deal of water. The dough felt silky smooth at 105% hydration with no added gluten!

Though it doesn't taste as good as freshly milled flour, it has more pronounced sweetness than other commercial WW flour that's more coarsely milled. Moreover, it only costed 1/3 of the price of whole wheat berries! I'll continue to use it for goodies like dumplings, pizza and stuffed flat bread where the show-stopper is more likely the topping/ filling than the dough. 

This might be the best topping combo I've come up with so far. I just had the other half for breakfast so it's now gone...

 

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

Looks like you went on a binge! They all look scrumptious!

Elsie_iu's picture
Elsie_iu

It's summer holiday so I'm having much more free time than usual. I promise things will return to normal comes September when school starts again!

Exploring a wide variety of bread is more exciting than baking the same thing repeatedly... Hopefully, I can learn some useful skills which help me improve. Thanks for the praise! They're indeed pretty tasty :) Happy Baking, Danni!

not.a.crumb.left's picture
not.a.crumb.left

All looking delicious and banana bread is always popular in our house as well as pizza! I really must start to make SD pizza....

Very impressed!!!!!! Kat

Elsie_iu's picture
Elsie_iu

Although I definitely didn't grow up with the aroma of homemade banana bread coming from the oven, it has become one of my mom's favourites since I began baking it. We love how the warming spices complement the sweet bananas. This yeast-style banana bread doesn't taste quite the same as the cinnamon-vanilla scented one. It is robustly toasty and malty because of the roasted buckwheat, barley malt and Assam tea, which I think makes a nice variation when you want to switch things up. Hmm... converting it to the cake-style one sounds like a good idea as well.

Pizza never fails to please! It's such a treat that everyone enjoys. With dough that has a higher hydration than most recipes out there call for, you can easily produce pizza with killer crust. People might think it looks fancy and sophisticated yet we know it's almost effortless to make in reality:) 

Thanks for the complement. I'm flattered! Happy SD pizza baking!