The Fresh Loaf

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July 25, 2024 - 4:13pm
Benito's picture
Benito

Purple Sweet Potato Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache

I’m back at work for a couple of weeks covering a few of my old colleague’s practices for them while they are on vacation.  Working interferes with my baking and other retirement activities but at least I make a bit of extra money and keeps my mind fresh.  I wanted a quick bake of something to bring to work with me, it seems it is expected now, so a quick loaf/cake came to mind.  I was in Chinatown the day before and picked up a couple of pounds of purple sweet potato with this loaf in mind.  I prepared all of the sweet potato by wrapping each in foil and baking them until they were fork tender.  Once cooled I scraped out the flesh and mashed it all, taking out what I needed for this bake while bagging 90 g batches in small ziplock bags which I’ll keep in the freezer for future bakes.




This was truly a delicious cake, the dark chocolate is rich and smooth, while the cake is moist and tender with lovely spice notes and a mild flavour of the sweet potato.  It was devoured very quickly with lots of compliments.

I did make one big mistake with my first batch of chocolate ganache, unfortunately I kept pot on the burner after adding the chocolate to the simmered cream etc. and the chocolate split.  I tried a few things and couldn’t bring it back together.  I ended up having to toss it all in the bin and run to the store for more dark chocolate.  The second batch went perfectly.

Ingredients

1 lb. sweet potatoes (2–3 medium), peeled, cut into 1" pieces, or 1 cup (250 g) canned sweet potato purée

Unsalted butter or nonstick vegetable oil spray (for pan)

2½ cups (313 g) all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp. Diamond Crystal or 1¾ tsp. Morton kosher salt

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

½ tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

¼ tsp. ground cloves

2 large eggs, room temperature

1½ cups (300 g) granulated sugar (I used 250 g)

2 tsp. finely grated orange zest

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup vegetable oil

GANACHE AND ASSEMBLY

½ cup heavy cream

4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into 1" pieces

3 Tbsp. granulated sugar

2 Tbsp. brewed coffee

½ tsp. Diamond Crystal or ¼ tsp. Morton kosher salt

8 oz. (227 g) bittersweet chocolate

½ tsp. vanilla extract

 

Preparation

CAKE

Step 1

Place a rack in middle of oven and preheat to 400°. If using raw sweet potatoes, wrap in foil and roast on a parchment-lined baking sheet until tender (a knife should slide easily into flesh), 50–60 minutes.

Step 2

Unwrap sweet potatoes and let sit until cool enough to handle. Transfer to a small bowl. Using a potato masher or fork, smash until smooth. Measure out 1¼ cups (250 g) purée; save any extra for another use.

Step 3

Reduce oven temperature to 325°. Butter a 9x5" loaf pan or lightly coat with nonstick spray. Line pan with parchment paper, leaving overhang on long sides. Whisk flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in a medium bowl.

Step 4

Whisk mashed sweet potato (homemade or canned), eggs, granulated sugar, zest, and vanilla extract in a large bowl until smooth. Gradually add oil, whisking constantly until completely incorporated. Using a rubber spatula, fold in dry ingredients in 2 batches, mixing just until combined after each addition. Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth surface with an offset spatula.

Step 5

Bake cake until golden and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 75–90 minutes. Transfer cake to a wire rack and let cool in pan 15 minutes. Using parchment overhang, lift cake out of pan and onto rack. Remove parchment and let cake cool completely.

GANACHE AND ASSEMBLY

Step 6 

Bring cream, butter, sugar, coffee, and salt to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat, add finely chopped chocolate (this will allow it to melt more quickly) and vanilla, and whisk until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. If you don’t remove from the heat and heat the chocolate too high it will split and be very hard to fix.  Let cool until thickened slightly, 40–60 minutes.

Step 7

Pour ganache over cake (it should flow over the sides) and, using a small offset spatula, smooth it evenly over surface. Chill cake until ganache is set, 20–30 minutes. Bring cake to room temperature before serving.

 My index of bakes.

July 24, 2024 - 6:53am
trailrunner's picture
trailrunner

Oatmeal SD /YW Whole Grain Large Pullman


Adapted from TX Farmers formula which she in turn adapted from Laurels Bread Book. It’s simply outstanding and easy when you remove all the mixer stuff and follow the lead that was started of hands mostly off the dough and let time do the work. 

We don’t care for the shreddable crumb instead we like the cake- like fine crumb. So enough about that here’s my variation on a classic. 

Levain build: 

26g stored starter

43g H2O

80 g flour - I milled Stardust Hard White Wheat

mix ferment  overnight -use all 149g

Soaker: 

89g rolled oats - I flaked oat  groats 

403g boiling H2O

14g salt

mix and cover overnight

Dough:

536 g flour ——I milled 100g Spelt 200g Rouge de Bordeaux and the rest Stardust

100g active YW apple 

50g EVOO

67 g honey 

mix everything till wet. Cover 30 min. Mix by bowl folding . Rest 30 min.  Bowl fold once more. Butter heavily a 13x4x4 Pullman I use the lid and butter well. Scrape dough into pan even out with wet spatula. Replace cover don’t close all the way rise almost to top. Refrigerate either overnight or while you do preheat. 
Bake 375° 30 min covered 15 min uncovered. 
Cool thoroughly. I divide in 3 and freeze 2 pieces. Incredible bread. 

only the one picture. I have trouble with the photo part for some reason uploads get denied too big. Anyway this is the best Pullman Hands Free yet 

 

July 24, 2024 - 3:45am
Valdus's picture
Valdus

Starters not Starting and Steve Jobs' Rye Flour

I have been having a problem with starters for almost a year now, which has resulted me giving up sourdough baking in general. Given, I once said that I was not happy unless something is rising in my kitchen- like reading a good book.

I put my starter(s) in the fridge for a couple of weeks and when I pull them out, they just don't rise like (I think) they should. No weird pineapple juice (what is up with that?) or anything. I start with a ratio of 1:1:1 and nothing, I double it and nothing, I stiffen it up, nothing, all the same. Some said that it might be that I have a weak-protein flour. My starters turn to goo, to a liquid, way way too fast.


Thinking some sort of contamination, faulty flour, flesh-eating yeast or bacteria; I pitched the starter and all its discard- it's ok, my grandmother wasn't from the Yukon.

Now I started a rye NMNF starter but now I hear that rye starters, like Apple getting along with Android, sometimes doesn't play nice with other flours.

Oh and by the way, yes the rye starter is going very very well. But will it declare war against my other flours when I try and make a bread?

July 23, 2024 - 12:40pm
alfanso's picture
alfanso

Vermont SD batards at 65% hydration

Rarely posting unless there's a change or something new.  I've baked Mr. Hamelman's Vermont SDs as my go-to bread a ton of times, although almost always as baguettes/long batards, I've never made two 750g batards in a single bake before (as far as I can recall).

My levain was last refreshed almost 3 weeks ago after having been gone for 3 weeks, and we are about to embark on another 2 1/2-3 week journey, so I thought that I'd at least get some mileage out of this aging levain before a next refresh when I return.

I almost always bake this formula at 65% hydration, having long ago abandoned the race for high hydration doughs.  These days I'm more after comfort in my bakes vs. experimentation and challenges.

July 20, 2024 - 6:07pm
justkeepswimming's picture
justkeepswimming

Rieska - Finnish Flatbread

I needed something to spruce up our leftover lentil stew that was planned for dinner. This is such a quick and easy recipe and has never failed me. I usually make 1/2 of the total recipe and cook it in an 8x8 (well greased AND lined) pan. There are multiple recipes available on the web, and most of them use identical formulas overall. I have always followed the KA recipe and use rye flour as they suggest, but others say you can use barley flour. I opted to try that for a change, and substituted fresh milled barley instead of the same amount of rye. I didn't add any inclusions this time, but have done so in the past. In the past I have added various things, like a little caraway, or some pine nuts, or hulled hemp seeds. All were really tasty!

Usually this comes out approximately 50-70% thicker than this. The rye (predictably) does a better job at capturing gases and rising. The crumb is very soft and tender, almost cake-like. Quite yummy fresh out of the oven with some butter on top! 

 

 

July 20, 2024 - 5:35am
ReneR's picture
ReneR

Attempt at Mini's Favorite 100% Rye Ratio loaf

I have finally managed a 100% wholemeal rye loaf using Mini's Favorite 100% Rye Ratio that I am not too unhappy about.

Two previous attempts were not bad taste-wise and both rose well in the proving, but one ended up having the dreaded flying top crust and being quite gummy and the other also gummy, even if slightly less than the first one.

The one pictured was made as follows:

Used Mini's ratio (1 SD starter, 3.5 water , 4.15 flour), but also added about 1tbs of carob flour that is like cocoa powder and 1tbs honey as well as the rye spices suggested by Mini. It probably messes with Mini's ratios, but used my 100% hydration SD starter. Only just realised that Mini uses a stiff SD starter. 

Trying to avoid the gumminess of the first 2 attempts, I added 1% salt right at the beginning of the mixing of the SD starter with the water and flour and manipulated the resulting dough as little as possible, just mixing it up initially and then doing a few folds with the wet dough scraper after a few hours of BF and before placing the dough in the baking tin.

The proving in the 500g tin was along the duration suggested by Mini, maybe an hour or so longer and the dough rose well and made the nice marbling cracks on the surface of the loaf on the dry flour sprinkled on top that can be seen in the photo. In retrospect, maybe the pinholes on the surface were a little too large by the time I was ready to bake, so maybe a slightly earlier baking would have given a slightly more open crumb.

I put the tin in a DO preheated to 200C, covered for about 30min and then, with the lid off gradually dropped the temperature by about 20C every 10min, for a total bake of 1h and left the loaf outside the tin in the oven till the oven had almost completely cooled. Again, I only now understood that Mini actually bakes her loaf starting with a cold oven, so this may also affect the bake.

This time there was almost no gumminess and the longer baking and temperature reductions seem to have helped with that. Maybe it could have been a little less in the oven as the crust was a little dry this time, but better like that than gummy in my opinion.

If I could get a little more open crumb, eliminate any gumminess completely, and get the baking right so it is cooked but not dry on the outside, I would be happy.

Any advice, comments, or suggestions very welcome from those with more 100% whole rye flour experience. While I regularly use up to 30% whole rye flour in my wheat SD loaves,  this is the start of my 100% rye voyage and I can see it is a completely different beast compared to other flours. 

July 19, 2024 - 9:42pm
Yippee's picture
Yippee

20240719 Walmart toaster oven graniteware bake

Hi friends!

 I want to share how I bake decent loaves in this mighty toaster oven. Here’s what I do: 
  1. Place the TRAY (not the rack) in the lowest slot.
  2. Put the graniteware roaster (15" oval end-to-end) directly on the TRAY.
  3. Line the roaster with a layer of aluminum foil.
  4. Put the lid on the roaster.
  5. Seal the oven glass from the inside with a large piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil.
 Here are my baking settings: 
  1. Cold oven, no preheat
  2. Toast
  3. 450°F x 15 minutes, check
  4. 450°F x 15 minutes, check
  5. 450°F x 15 minutes, check
 The loaf shown is a Berliner Landbrot baked with these settings. (65% whole rye, 35% AP, 80% hydration, 800g dough, any bigger will hinder browning around the edges as they are too close to the roaster)  
  Check more frequently or lower the temperature if you’re not baking lean bread. If the loaf is turning too dark when you check, cover the top of the loaf or the bottom of the roaster with more foil. Don’t worry about opening the oven door - the oven heats up quickly and retains heat well. After baking, blast a super fan/air mover at the oven and turn on the range hood. This cools down the oven and its surrounding area within minutes!

That's it!

 A big thank you to Precaud for recommending this oven! It makes breadmaking less annoying and more bearable!            P.S. More pics:                                                                                                                    15" vs 18"                                                                                                                                                            maiden bake  
July 17, 2024 - 4:20pm
justkeepswimming's picture
justkeepswimming

Yeast water - off to the races 🏇🏼

First, a heart felt thanks to Abe, Caroline, Clazar123, as well as multiple previous TFL members for sharing your methods! Especially the reminder about using the microwave with the light on. I did a test run (empty) and left a thermometer in there with the door slightly open and the light on. After 3 hours, the temp was holding at 76F, so that should work. 

I decided to go ahead and make 2. I can decide later which one works best. The one on the left is half of an organic granny smith apple diced into roughly 1/2 in pieces. The jar on the right has the other half of the apple, with probably a little less than 1/4 cup of organic raisins. Half of them were chopped in half and smooshed a little bit before going in the jar. And since I was cutting into an orange for an afternoon snack, I squeezed a little juice into the one with raisins as Dabrowman suggested in an old post of his. Both jars got a gentle shake and after taking the picture below, the rings were removed. The lids are just resting on top of the jars, so things can vent as needed. 

We'll see which one is ready first, and which one lasts best in the fridge later. I'll update as things progress. 

Mary 

 

July 13, 2024 - 9:49am
Benito's picture
Benito

Red Miso Honey 30% Whole Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread

This past winter I figured out my miscalculation on the salt content of my miso when I realized that I based the salt on the dry weight of the beans when in fact I needed to account on the hydrated weight.  This loaf achieves a nice mild yet distinct flavour of my homemade 1 year fermented red miso.  To balance the flavour I have added a small amount of my friend’s wild flower honey from their beehives.  Other than the addition of the honey, this is otherwise a lean bread since no fats were added.  The bread is lovely and soft with a fairly open crumb for this type of bread.  I did attempt to score it, but it was very very soft.  The resulting bloom actually almost appears to have occurred naturally.  I think the next time I will try this again and add some toasted sesame seed oil and see how that comes out.



Overall hydration about 82% when including the 18% water in honey

 

For 1 loaf in a 9x4x4” Pullman pan.

 

Build stiff levain, ferment at 74°F for 10 hours overnight.

Starter 6 g, water 23 g bread flour 39 g

 

Bread flour 262 g, Whole Wheat Flour 129 g, Water 304 g, all levain, hold back water 13 g, honey 26 g and Red Miso 54 g

 

In the morning, add miso and honey to the water and dissolve.  Then add the levain and break down the levain as well as you can.  Add both the flours and mix well until no dry bits are left. After 10 mins of rest start gluten development with slap and folds then gradually add the hold back water in several aliquots using Rubaud to fully incorporate the water well.  Alternatively you can use your standmixer to develop the dough and do the bassinage.  Bench letterfold, remove aliquot, then at 30 mins intervals do coil folds until good structure is achieved.

 

Once the dough has risen 40% then shape the dough into a batard and place in prepared pan.

 

Final proof the dough until it has reached 1 cm of the rim of the pan.  pre-heat oven at 425°F and prepare for steam bake.

 

Once oven reaches 425ºF score top of dough and then brush with water.  Transfer to oven and bake with steam for 25 mins.  Vent the oven (remove steaming gear) rotate the pan and drop temperature to 350ºF.  Bake for another 25-30 mins rotating as needed until browned.  Remove from the pan and place directly on the rack baking for another 5-10 mins to firm up the crust.





My index of bakes.

July 12, 2024 - 8:29am
hellen's picture
hellen

No yeast crumpets – in search of a better honeycomb

Sharing this recipe for no yeast crumpets I developed and am quite proud of.

I don’t know why this doesn’t exist already (or maybe it does but is just obscure). The no-yeast crumpet recipes I have found previously don’t really have holes on top and looked more like pancakes than crumpets imo. All the recipes for holey crumpets I found on the internet were either made from sourdough discard or some combination of yeast and baking powder/baking soda.

I’ve tried a sourdough discard + baking soda crumpet recipe (the KA one I believe) and also two different crumpet recipes which use instant yeast and baking powder. None worked for me, they all turned out cakey, mushy, and/or gross.  I decided to develop my own crumpet recipe. My first attempt using sourdough to leaven the batter was not ideal.

After several failures, I went and bought crumpets from the supermarket out of sheer frustration and noticed that there was no yeast listed in the ingredients. I consider this brand of crumpets (Oakrun bakery) to have the ideal texture as it has a very defined honeycomb with a bouncy texture when toasted. (Aside from no yeast, they also had more sugar than the crumpet recipes I found online.) So I decided to use this as a guideline to develop my no-yeast crumpet recipe. I don’t have access to some of the leaveners they use, so I only use baking soda. After some tinkering with hydration, I think I’ve hit a pretty good ratio. 

Recipe is here. Hope you give this recipe a try and get consistent holey crumpets as well. 

The most important thing about cooking crumpets is having a flat and heavy griddle or pan that retains heat well.  Also, you should modify the vinegar amount if your white vinegar is not 5% acetic acid.

Process video here: (not sure why video embed not working?) 

https://www.instagram.com/p/C9U7379yGd1/

or watch on my instagram or tiktok.

 

I am fairly certain that the addition of potassium bicarbonate will give a better honeycomb texture. Although I have not tried this yet, you can get “lye water” at Chinese grocery stores which is essentially a solution of sodium bicarbonate and potassium carbonate. I think this will work fairly well to give crumpets a good honeycomb texture. Chinese lye water is traditionally used in bai tang gao/bok tong go, a honeycomb textured rice cake that is fermented with yeast (leading to sourness) which then reacts with this sodium bicarbonate and potassium carbonate mixture when steamed to give high, defined honeycombs. Personally, I think the texture of a good bok tong go is very similar to that of a good crumpet.

Would be curious to know if anyone has experience baking with potassium bicarbonate or this potassium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate solution.

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