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November 5, 2011 - 11:52am

OldWoodenSpoon

Chocolate, Chocolate Chip, Hazelnut, Chipotle Chili Biscotti

A couple of days ago David G. posted this recipe in his blog here. Being a chocoholic that refuses recovery or treatment, I could/would not resist the temptation to indulge. First, though, I must point out in my defense that I have never baked a biscotti before. Ever. They came out well enough to rapidly become an endangered item in the kitchen though!

David mused in his original blog post that he thought these would be better with as much as 3/4 teaspoon of chipotle chili. My wife and I both enjoy the heat, and neither of us has ever had chocolate with chili before, so I used a scant teaspoon. Well, more like a fat 3/4 teaspoon, of chipotle. All I can say is, "I gotta do this again!".

The heat of the chili just trails off the back of the bite, and does not persist overly long, but it is there and lends a lingering tangy tail to the chocolate flavor. I also used the Hershey Special Dark chocolate chips, but had to settle for the plain old Hershey Dark Cocoa I had in the cupboard since the grocer did not have the special dark cocoa powder on the shelf.

Never making a biscotti before, I did not know what to expect. I certainly did not expect the dough to be so sticky, and I wonder what it really should be like. It also took twice as long as the recipe prescribes to bake to the first stage where I could cool and cut them, and they took twice as long as well in the second stage to dry them out/crisp them up. My oven temps are spot on because I test a couple of times a year, and I have no trouble with bread timings. I just think I made some kind of mistake, or should have added more flour, making these up.

If you like chocolate, you will really love these! Try them if your waistline will stand it. Mine won't, but I went for it anyway!
OldWoodenSpoon

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November 5, 2011 - 9:37am

Szanter5339

Appliqué bread.

I left a few, and overlay made of bread dough on top.
Scissors and cut around the letters as I told, then I put the shaped bread.
Blade will cut around the pattern.
Beautiful, decorative and what is important, very tasty!

November 5, 2011 - 8:09am

loydb

Whole Grain Sourdough with Apple, Blue Cheese and Pistachios

Over on Fitocracy, we're having an Iron Chef Apple challenge. This is my entry.

This is based on the Basic Sourdough recipe from Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice. BBA also contains the instructions for making your very own sourdough starter particular to your local environment.

Day 1: The Preferment

Start with a mixture of 45% hard red wheat, 45% hard white wheat, and 10% rye. Mill fine. (Alternately, any combination of unbleached bread flour, whole wheat flour, and rye flour that you like, just maintain the 10% rye ratio by weight.)

Take a few ounces of your sourdough starter, and mix in an equal weight of water and flour. Let it rise covered for 5-8 hours (it will double roughly), then put in the fridge overnight.

Day 2: The Dough

Dice up 3-4 apples. I used three Braeburns and a Granny Smith. Also weigh out 5 oz. of pistachios and 4 oz of blue cheese. Chop the apples up last, as they'll immediately start to oxidize and turn brown.

Add the water and preferment to the mixer and start it up.

Alternate adding the apple and your flour until all the apple (and about 2/3 of the flour) has been incorporated, then alternate adding in the pistachios and the rest of the flour, adding the blue cheese at the very end.

Turn the sticky mass out onto a well-floured cutting board and, using a dough blade and your hands, continue to knead and incorporate flour until it forms a fairly stiff, non-sticky dough.

Put it in a large bowl or tub and let it rise for 4-6 hours, until nearly doubled. Refrigerate overnight.

Day 3: Shape n' Bake

Remove the dough from the fridge at least two hours before shaping. It will have slowly risen more overnight.

Gently divide the dough and shape it, then allow to proof covered until nearly doubled.

Score loaves and bake!

The result makes great sandwich bread -- no cheese is needed, just a couple of pieces of ham. It's also good toasted with honey for breakfast.

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November 4, 2011 - 8:47am

loydb

Whole Grain Gougères

This is my take on Bon Appétit's Thyme Gougères. I subbed chives for the thyme, and used finely milled hard white wheat for the flour. I also hedged my bets with 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder. These are cheesily delicious, and are begging to be filled with something (duck liver patè maybe?)

November 3, 2011 - 7:25pm

PiPs

Bourke Street Bakery’s Rye and Caraway with unintentional sprouted quinoa.

Nat has booked us a well deserved weekend away from the city rat race in the hinterland north of Brisbane as part of my birthday gift. This means a weekend away from the kitchen and the endless washing up I seem to create.

Nat adores the Rye and Caraway loaf from the Bourke Street Bakery cookbook. So I have baked it for her/us so we may take it away with us for picnicking and the like.

While in Sydney earlier this year we found the bakery on Bourke St on the rainiest, windiest, coldest, most miserable day imaginable. It is tiny, really tiny. This particular day all the seating was taken, leaving us standing outside huddled under an umbrella with no room for coffee or a yummy tart. I was already holding a bag full of bread from other bakery visits (Sonoma and Iggy’s Bread of the world) so I had no room for further, so alas I have never tasted the original that this bread is based on.

Desem to batter

As we are away, I refreshed my desem starter a day ago for another week in the fridge and used the discard to build a 100% hydration white flour starter which the formula calls for. Two feeds later the starter was bubbling, active and ready for use.

With my rye grain supplies sorely depleted I chose to use quinoa as the alternative grain soaker mentioned in the formula. The morning before mixing I soaked the quinoa in an equal weight of water.

Toasted seeds and sprouting quinoa

… Surprise …When I arrived home the quinoa had sprouted. I had no idea this was going to happen and it brought a rather big smile to my face.

I won’t publish the formula (for copyright reasons) as I didn't deviate from the original apart from using freshly milled whole wheat for 20% of the total flour. Lets just say it’s a sourdough at around 60%-65% hydration with a large proportion of liquid starter. It has aromatic additions of caraway seeds, cumin seeds, toasted sunflower seeds, rye starter and in my case sprouted quinoa grains.

caraway seeds, cumin seeds, toasted sunflower seeds and sprouted quinoa grains

It has been a while since I have had to knead dough at this hydration level. On a hot and humid Brisbane night, it was a 20min workout….but the work pays off for a beautiful silky dough leading to a soft crumb after baking. I cut the bulk ferment short by half an hour and gave the dough a nice long bench rest so shaping would be relaxed and agreeable.

Into the fridge straight away for a nine hour proof.

Waiting to load and steam

Upturned

One loaf will travel away with us for the weekend, while the other has come to work with me….half of it is gone already with lots of happy work colleagues.

Crumb is soft , aromatic and savoury…I heard someone sniffing all the way down our corridor at work before arriving in our room with a smile.

Best wishes to everyone spending time in their kitchens this weekend … See you all next week.

Cheers, Phil

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November 3, 2011 - 4:26pm

varda

Russian and German Ryes

Detmolder stage 2, Russian Rye production sourdough, new wheat starter, 200% rye starter

Denial is more than a river in Egypt. When I came back from vacation at the beginning of September, my starter of over a year was only clinging to life after having lived through a power failure of indeterminate length due to a hurricane. I slowly nursed it back to life only to lose interest while exploring baking with 100% durum. The breads I made from time to time with my trusty wheat starter were getting weaker and weaker until finally they stopped rising altogether. I was forced to admit the sad truth: my starter died of neglect. I decided to start over again with a new wheat starter. Meanwhile I got Andrew Whitley's book - Bread Matters - and was onto a new project - getting a 200% hydration rye starter going and raising bread. Fortunately Juergen stepped in with a tutorial on how it's done. I had hope that with patience I could do it too. Then a Noreaster paid an unexpected visit and there I was with two new starters sitting on the counter with no light, no heat, and a very bored and upset eleven year old with no school to go to since the power was out there too. This would have been a good time to let the new starters die as well, but somehow I fit in a few feedings during the four day power outage, and lo and behold when the lights turned on yesterday afternoon they were both not only alive but doing well. In fact the rye starter was frothing - the state I've been awaiting for a few weeks. I decided to try again (#5?) with Whitley's Russian Rye. At the same time, I decided to go back to a formula I had tried almost a year ago, Detmolder's 3 Stage 90% Rye in Hamelman (p. 201) because I was interested in the contrast between the Russian and German ryes. So I mixed up stage 2 of the Detmolder (I went straight to stage 2 because I was making only one loaf which would have called for just 2 g seed starter in stage 1) and the production sourdough for the Russian Rye and was ready to go today. The Russian Rye went exactly as directed. The recipe calls for 200% hydration rye starter, and 103% total hydration so it isn't a dough in any sense but rather a paste as Andy terms it. The German Rye has a bit of high gluten flour (10% of total) in the final dough, but is also high hydration - 79% - so not much doughier and sorta kinda shapable but not really. Since so much fermentation takes place during the starter stages bulk ferment is only 10 minutes and proof is an hour, whereas for the Russian Rye, there is no bulk ferment and proof is according to Whitley anywhere from 2 to 8 hours. Mine took 3 hours.

German is round, Russian is rectangular

Formulas:

Russian Rye
Andrew Whitley

11/2/2011		8:00 PM
Production Sourdough
Seed	50		Total
Whole Rye	17	150	167	100%
Water	33	300	333	200%
			500
11/3/2011	8:30 AM
	Final	Starter	Total	Percent
Medium Rye	330		330	69%
Whole Rye		147	147	31%
Water	200	293	493	103%
Salt	5		5	1.0%
Prod SD	440			31%
			975

Mix production sourdough at least 12 hours in advance. Mix final dough and place in bread pan. Proof until it softens (3 hours for me.) No docking or scoring. Bake at 480F for 10 minutes with steam, 50 minutes without at 410.

3-Stage 90% Rye
Hamelman
		11/2/2011	11/3/2011
		8:00 PM	9:30 AM
Starter
Seed	12			Total	Percent
Whole Rye	6	50		56	29%
Medium Rye			135	135	71%
Water	6	39	135	180	94%
				371
11/3/2011	1:00 PM
	Final	Starter	Total	Percent
Medium Rye	261	135	396	79%
Whole Rye		56	56	11%
High Gluten	50		50	10%
Water	215	180	395	79%
Salt	9		9	1.8%
Starter	371			38%
			906

Please read Hamelman for starter directions - they're complicated. Mix final dough and bulk ferment for 10 minutes. Transfer to oiled bowl for proof. Proof until dough softens. Flip (and coax out of bowl) to parchment paper on peel. Bake at 480F for 10 minutes with steam, 40 minutes at 410F without.

Frustratingly, I have to wait to cut for a day. Crumb shots to follow.

And here they are:

Russian Rye

German Rye

As for taste, the Russian Rye is very moist. It has a slightly tart flavor and in general is packed with flavor. I just had a slice without anything on it, and it was so flavorful it didn't need anything. The German Rye is more what I'm used to as far as rye goes. I grew up on Jewish Rye, and it tastes very similar to that, even though Jewish Rye has much lower percentage of Rye than this. It is a very tasty bread, but I would not eat a slice without a topping of some sort. If someone stuck a gun to my head and I had to choose (who would do such a thing - a crazed baker?) I would pick the Russian hands down. It is so good that I am very reluctant to fiddle with it. It tastes like a rye pudding only in bread form. Really incredibly delicious.

And finally the storm:

It's January in October

November 3, 2011 - 1:23pm

davidg618

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip-Hazelnut-Chipotle Biscotti

It's that time of year: time to think about the upcoming holidays, the New Year, and our 6th Annual open house. Taking a note from the ancient Incas, I thought "chocolate and chili.?

Hmm-m-m-m."

Almost nailed it first try! The chipotle heat shows up late on the back of the throat. One of those, "There can't be chili in this cookie!?" moments.

David G

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November 3, 2011 - 1:01pm

txfarmer

Light Sourdough Rye with Spinach and Feta Cheese - without burning my finger this time

Sending this to Yeastspotting.

Index for my blog entries

The first time I attempted to bake bread in a cast iron pot (here), I burned my fingers so bad that some finger prints were lost for good. Since then I have tried a few more time, like anything, it's about figuring out a good process and stick with it. I can now do "cast iron pot bakeing" quite safely.

This particular formula has two of my favorite salad ingredients: spinach and feta. To control moisture, I stired fried spinach until soft, squeezed out liquids before putting them in the dough. The slighter larger batard was baked in a covered cast iron pot, while the smaller trangle one was baked on the stone alongside, both turned out well with good ovenspring.

Light Rye With Granola

- levain
whole rye, 81g
water, 65g
rye starter (100%), 9g

1. Mix and let rise 12-16hours.

- final dough
bread flour, 485g
salt, 11g
raw spinach, 114g, stir fried in a little oil until soft, pat dry on a paper towel

feta cheese, 143g, crumbled
water, 316g
all levain

2. Mix levain, flour, and water, autolyse for 20 to 60min, add salt, mix @ medium speed for 3-4 min until gluten starts to develope. Add spinach and feta, mix @ slow speed until evenly distributed.
3. Bulk rise at room temp (~75F) for about 2.5hrs. S&F at 30, 60, 90min.
4. Divide dough into two portions: 650g and 550g, shape into batard and boule, put in basketes smooth side down, put in fridge over night.
5. Next morning take the dough out to finish proofing, about 100min for me. Score.
6. Bake at 450F with steam(either put in preheated cast iron pot and cover with lid, or put dough on preheated baking stone and pour water in another cast iron pan to create steam) for the first 20min, take away cast iron pot lid or take out the pan with water, keep baking for another 25min. Turn off oven and crack the door open a bit, and leave the breads inside for 10min before taking out.

Good volume with nice score and ear.

Crumb is surprisingly open for a 68% hydrated dough

Love those big chunks of cheese, great flavor from the combo of feta, spinach, and rye. A full meal right there.

November 3, 2011 - 11:08am

Szanter5339

White bread

White bread.
I hope I write well in recipes? I do not know English and turn machine.
Send a few photos because he was angry a lot of photos!
I'm sorry, I do not want others to take the whole page!

700 ml of water
6 tablespoons of oil
2 tablespoons vinegar (20%)
6 teaspoons of salt
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1600 gram flour
40 grams of yeast
In yeast +

Preparation of yeast, 1-2 days before cooking.

yeast:
140 ml of water
150 grams of flour
1 tablespoon oil
½ teaspoon salt
20 grams of yeast

November 2, 2011 - 2:27pm

SylviaH

Pugliese and new Brod & Taylor home proofer

RLB Bread Bible - Pugliese with durum flour.

This is a recipe from one of my favorite breads. I baked this bread about the same time to the day last year. Here it is posted with a link to another posting with a recipe in the blog as, you can see, I do enjoy eating and baking this bread.

I proofed the biga, dough and final proof in my new Brod&Taylor home proofer.

It's was very nice to be able to set the temperature of the bread proofer, to get things going at a more predictable time..so I wouldn't be up to late. Worked perfectly as you can see from the photos, I set it at 80F to speed things up just a bit.

I had plenty of flavor using my 2 day biga...which was warmed up in the proofer, after being removed from the refrigerator.

I doubled the recipe and it made one nice big pugliese loaf.

*My hydration levels are adjusted slightly for various reasons...dryness of flour, ect.

I did make extra Biga

The version I used two times the original recipe

1. Biga

KAAP flour - 150gm

IDY - 0.4 gm

Water - 118 gms

6 hrs. to 3 days ahead make the biga - Set aside at room temperature for about 6 hours - Stir down and refrigerate

I used a two day refrigerated biga for optimal flavor

Dough

1. KAAP Flour - 142 gms

2. Durum Flour - 142 gms

3. IDY - 3.2 gms or apx. 1 tsp.

4. Salt - 10gms

5. * Water - 236 gms

*You also have the option of adding malt powder..be sure and adjust for doubling or tripling the formula.

All the Biga from above

Percentages below are as listed in the Doughs "orginal formula."

*You also have the Optional: use of malt powder 1/2 t. - 1.6g

The formula above is double the orginal formula. I also 3 times the original formula for two nice sized loaves.

Flour 100% - 74% Bread - 26% Durum

Water 80.4%

Yeast 0.79%

Salt 2.2%

I placed my warmed weighed biga into the weighed room temperature water. Then I added it to the wisked flours, yeast and salt.

Mixed it slowly for a couple of minutes till all was moistened. Up the speed of my mixer gently and mixed until I had a smooth, sticky dough..about 5 minutes..adding a teaspoon of flour if needed.

The dough will be very sticky. On a well floured, use durum flour, flour about a 6 inch square on your board. Using a scraper or well floured hands, scrape out the dough onto the floured area. Dust the top of the dough with a little more durum flour. Rest a couple of minutes, the flour will absorb into the wet dough. Give it a stretch into a letter fold. Dust it again and allow it to rest for about 30 minutes.

Repeat a second and third time, folding the edges into a rounded shape in the corners and place into your proofing bucket, sprayed lightly with oil.

Proof at about 75F to 80F until tripled.

Pre-heat Oven and stone - 500F for about an hour

On a counter with durum flour, very gently remove your dough onto the counter and shape into a ball and place into your basket. Seam side up, pinch the seam together.

Proof until ready to bake.

The loaf is baked on a parchment lined sheet pan. For the (first half of the bake). Then you can remove the pan. I used my long handled bar b que spatula. I also use my pizza pan. You can cut a round of cardboard to help you gently remove the proofed loaf and flip onto the parchment lined sheet pan. Don't put your cardboard round into the oven like I did..oh well, no harm done.

Pre-steam and steam your oven.

Turn the oven down to 450F after the first 5 minutes. Bake until bread is deep golden brown and tested done. I baked my large loaf about 35 minutes and left it in the oven with door ajar and oven off about 5 minutes before removing it to the cooling rack.

My Biga warming up in the B&T proofer