04/05/2024

Aim:

Participation in Ralph Nieboer's Breadworks FB group community bake. " The Winston knot". To become capable, and proficient in shaping and baking a six strand Winston knot Bread.

Winston knot community bake.

Woke up, got out of bed and dragged a buffing rag across my head. I made my way to the kitchen and got an early start! 

Photos

1. Tangzhung water roux. (150°F)

2. Rough looking dough after initial mix

3. Smooth dough after mechanical gluten development.

4. Dough is looking as a treat after stretch and fold #1.

Deviation for formula. 

120g of roux used to account for bowl loss and for ease ( 6 parts at 20 g) 5 parts water, one part flour.

.165% instant yeast in place of fresh yeast 

Sourdough was unfed discard.

Modus operandi

Room temperature. 72°F

The Water, warm roux, and melted fat ( 10 g bacon fat, and 40 g shorting) were mixed together to temper.

Mechanical mix: 15 minutes low Bosch Universal #1 8 minutes Bosch Universal #2. 

Observations so far

The relatively low hydration dough took a bit to come together. Next time, I will hold back the fats until some gluten is developed. Aside from this the dough is now looking really nice. The elasticity is excellent. In fact I may forgo stretch and fold #2.

Stop by later for the epic finish! (I hope)

After two successive failures, I finally succeeded with Maurizio Leo’s Beginners Sourdough Bread.

When I'm in the mood nothing beats a fresh chewy bagel and for me this can be one of the most satisfying breakfast or lunch breads. I know some people aren't so into bagels, but I just think that (maybe) they've never had a great boiled bagel that came out of the oven a few minutes ago.

So, I bake a lot of bagels and thought it might be good to write a bit about my preferred recipe here. First a disclaimer - it isn't really mine - it is mostly Jeffrey Hamelman's "Bagels with Pâte Fermentée" recipe!

Where I make it differently is that I think using a regular hydration (100%) unsalted sourdough starter plus a little wholemeal flour brings with it a lovely flavour and freshness, and that this makes for a great replacement for the pâte fermentée from the original recipe.

Dough then becomes:
   
    690g bread flour
    76g  wholemeal flour
    200g levain (100% hydration, made with bread flour, usually from overnight ferment)
    397g water at around 30°C
    18g  salt
    1 3/4 teaspoons instant yeast
    1 1/4 teaspoons diastatic malt powder

Also, instead of sprinkling the baking sheet with semolina or cornmeal as Jeffrey does, what works well for me is a quick spritz of water and a sprinkling of brown rice flour which makes it easier to pick up the bagels for the boil. I've also figured out that I like bagels with a slightly shorter bake - so about 15 minutes at 230°C for the nice chew and softness.

This hybrid version, and Jeffrey's original pâte fermentée, are such lovely go-to recipes for bagels.

I've been thinking about making a rye tin loaf off and on for a while and chanced upon a Rye Baker TFL post:

https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/44945/outstanding-russian-rye-bread-moskovskiy-rzhannoye-khlebv

The post came with a nice looking loaf, so I thought I would give it a try.

As always, a few tweaks:

1) I used 60% freshly milled rye and 40% light rye for the flour mix. Like Stan, I didn't want the crumb to be too solid, so I decided against 100% wholegrain (sorry Suave!)

2) I used "proper" Solod for the red rye malt and malt extract (ND) in place of molasses

3) Stan's timings make for a long baking day, so I made the sponge the night before with a lower temp and bigger flour to starter ratio

4) I gave my diecast alloy rye tins an outing - the hard to find L6 and the smaller L12a Borodino tin

5) Stan's dough weight is a bit off to get the tins full. I've seen (tin vol) X 0.65 or 0.67 for suggested dough weight. The L6 holds 2000ml brimful and in the end I went for 1200g of dough, which worked out pretty well, but I think it would have stood 1300g.

6) I like this type of bread to have shiny tops, so I did the 3 coat system: flour paste before baking and 2 x cooked potato starch paste at the end of baking.

I was pleased with how the loaves turned out. Flavour was good: some mild lactic sour and pronounced malty and aromatic notes. It wasn't as sweet as the Borodinsky I made a while ago - I put this down to using a scald rather than the mash (Zavarka) that my Borodinsky recipe used. A scald will soon cool below mash temperature (but probaly not in a bakery setting), so there won't be much starch to sugar conversion. I'm not sure if the scald is correct or the mash, but if making again I would try the mash.

Lance