The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Recent Blog Entries

Kingudaroad's picture
Kingudaroad

Flour, water, salt and yeast. How can this simple recipe be so hard to perfect. I have been seriously baking bread for about 8 months now and have attempted baguettes with poolish a dozen or more times. The shaping and scoring videos make it look so easy and many on this forum have absolutely mastered the art. 

Usually my loaves are very tasty and I can consistently get a very open crumb, yet the visual appeal, with the beautiful grigne and the perfect bloom from precise scoring, has certainly eluded me.

In my latest attempt, I decided to shape a bit more aggressively and make as long of a loaf as my stone would allow. I got a bit over aggressive and the actually hung off the edge of my baking stone about an inch on each side. It didn't hurt them too much besides having little legs on each side. All in all, the shaping went well. Now see if I can proof and score correctly.

I have been using a home made lame with a double edge razor blade to score, but wanted to try something new. I have a slicing knife with about a 14" blade, made for thin slicing roasts or turkey or whatever. I sharpened it with my steel and used the long blade to have a sweeping cut that hopefully would not snag. I would have to say it was my best baguette scoring yet.

This was just a basic 68% hydration recipe with a third of the flour used for the poolish. It is beginning to get easier and I am very pleased with the results.

Thanks for reading my blog.

 

Keith

 

deweytc's picture
deweytc

Just thought that I would let you all know that at Thermo Works, the Thermapen is on sale at $89 and free shipping.  I have been wanting one for a long time, but did not want to pay $95-$100 and a shipping fee, making it well over $100.  I am excited about getting my new toy.

Duane

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

I have read so many bread baking books and viewed so many videos on shaping boules, but I didn't really "get it" until I saw our instructor, Miyuki, do it in the SFBI Artisan I workshop I attended a couple weeks ago.

I will attempt to show what I learned in still photos with descriptions. I hope that viewing these and then reviewing some of the excellent videos available might help others who are struggling with this technique.

Mis en place

You will need:

1. a batch of fully-fermented dough

2. a lightly floured "board" on which to work.

3. a scale, if you are dividing the dough.

4. a bench knife or other cutting implement, if you are dividing the dough

5. prepared bannetons or a couche on which to rest the formed boules for proofing

 

 

Procedure

 

1. Weigh your dough

2. Divide it into equal pieces.

3. Pre-shape each piece gently, incorporating any small pieces of dough on the inside. 

4. Rest the pre-shaped pieces, seam side down and covered with plastic or a towel  on the board for 20-30 minutes.

5. Prepare your bannetons or couche for receiving the shaped boules.

 

6. After the pre-shaped pieces have rested, shape each as follows:

* Pick up the piece and turn it smooth side down.

* Gently fold the long ends together under the piece.

* Rotate the piece 90º in your hands, and fold the other two sides together.

* Place the piece on an un-floured board, smooth side up.

 

 

* Cup your hands around the piece, and gently drag it 3 inches or so towards you in such a way that the edge closest to you sticks to the board and is dragged under the dough, thus stretching the top of the piece into a tight sheath containing the dough.

 

Note the position of the markers before stretching

After the stretching, the marker at the apex of the boule is unmoved, but the one that was at about 40º North, is now about at the equator.

* Rotate the dough 90º and repeat. Do this 3-4 times until the bottom of the boule is relatively smooth and the whole boule has an unbroken, smooth sheath.

Note that there are no visible seams on what will be the bottom of the boule, after the procedure described.

 

* Place the boules in bannetons, smooth side down, spray with oil and place each banneton in a food-grade plastic bag to proof. (Alternatively, place the boules seam side down on a couch and cover with a fold of the couche, plasti-crap or a towel.)

 

 

Well, there it is. For me, being able to visualize the stretching of the "skin" of the boule between a fixed North Pole and a point on the side, using the board to "grab" the bottom of the boule as I dragged it towards me was the "aha moment." I hope it makes sense to others.

The goal (to form a tight gluten sheath) in forming other shapes is fundamentally the same, but the method is entirely different.

Comments and questions are welcome.

Happy baking!

David

 

 

 

 

 

ehanner's picture
ehanner

This past year has been very interesting for me. I made learning rye breads a goal at the years end, and while I now know enough to understand it's going to take a lot longer, I'm making progress. Recently I did an experiment with scalding rye that worked out well. We have had some great threads here on the benefits of autolyse and mixing patterns. I was reminded of a post from Shiao-Ping where she  made a Gerard Rubaud bread and another one from James Macguire that utilized long cool ferment at high hydration.

One thing that these breads have in common is hydration in the area of 80% and small amounts of yeast. This combination requires longer fermenting times and allows the development of flavorful acids. When handled gently, the bread that develops is airy and moist with great color and nutty after tastes.

I decided to make a single 900 gram loaf at 80% hydration. My plan was to start with a 90/10 ratio of AP/Dark Rye so it would darken well and hold moisture better than a straight white loaf. This is a plan for a small miche (if there is such a thing). Only the basic ingredients of flour, water, salt and yeast.This was a hand mixed dough. Just a plastic scraper, wire whisk, larger bowl and my hands were used. A key element to making this dough behave like I wanted was to control the water temperature so as to end up at a desired dough temperature of 70 degrees F. The natural reaction of the water being absorbed by the flour raises the temp by around 4 degrees F. So it's important to start near 70 at the warmest. My ambient room measures at 75F along with the flour.

The formula for adjusting the variable (water) follows. 215F - room temp - flour temp -5F = Water temp. For me this looks like 215F-75 -75 -5= 60F. When everything is mixed together the dough will be at or near 70F. Prof. Calvel and James Macguire both have made a point to stress that correct dough temp is the MOST important and critical aspect of making the dough you want. You just can't treat that as idle chatter form the masters and expect greatness in your oven. I like this bread because it can be made in a single day. In fact if you start at 11 AM, you should be done by 4ish, in time for dinner. The methods employed are from the old European school. My next batch will be with only 5% dark rye

Ingredients:
450g AP flour
50g Dark Rye flour
1/2 teaspoon Instant Dry Yeast (IDY)
10g Sea Salt
400g Water (cool)

Method:
Start by measuring the room and flour temperature and doing the calculation for the water temp. If you need to use ice to cool the water to arrive at a DDT of 70F, so be it.

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl and make sure the flours are well combined. Add water all at one time and stir with a spoon, switching to a scraper. This should involve no more than 2 minutes and should result in a rough mass with no dry flours in the bowl. Cover and rest for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, fold in the bowl for 8-10 repetitions rotating as you go. Alternatively, pour on the counter and fold with a scraper using double letter folds.Return to the bowl and cover.

Repeat the folding process every hour for a total of FOUR folds. That means 4 more folds after the first. When it is time for the last fold, don't fold, dust flour around the seam between the dough and the bowl and using the scraper, loosen the dough ball up so you can pour it out on a floured counter.

Brush any loose flour off the top of the dough and cover it with the bowl for about 20 minutes. Removing the bowl, pull the edges up to the center around the dough to tighten the lower surface and roll the ball over to the seamed side down. Prepare a linen lined basket with flour rubbed into the fabric and lightly dust the top of the dough. Roll the dough into your hands and place it into the basket seems up. Cover with a towel and proof for around 45 minutes. The dough will have become light and puffy and will test with the finger poke test.

Pre heat the oven to 450F when the dough goes into the basket using a stone and steam producer.

Load dough when it is ready and steam normally for 15 minutes. LOWER oven temp to 350F after the 15 minutes and start checking for done around 45 minutes total bake time. The idea is to bake the interior more slowly and not to over do it with color.

I left the loaf in the oven with the heat off and door ajar for another 5 minutes to help draw the moisture out. Remember it was an 80% hydrated mix. Cool and enjoy.

Eric

breadbakingbassplayer's picture
breadbakingbass...

Almond Milk Bread with Dried Cherries

This recipe was inspired by a friend who gave me some dried cherries to bake something with, my recent success with brioche, and a box of unsweetened almond milk that just doesn’t taste very good to drink straight…

Recipe:

1000g Bread flour (Gold Medal)

600g Liquid (3 eggs + almond milk to make up amount)

200g Liquid levain (100% hydration storage starter from fridge)

150g Granulated sugar

150g Slivered almonds

230g Dried cherries

100g Unsalted butter

20g Kosher salt

10g Instant Yeast (3 tsp)

2 tsp Vanilla extract

 

2460g Total Dough Yield


Tools:

Digital scale

Large stainless steel mixing bowl about 15L size

Rubber spatula or wooden spoon

Plastic dough scraper

Bowl of water

Large plastic bag

Plastic tub with cover (4L or larger)

3 loaf pans 9” x 5” loaf pans

Large plastic bag

Baking stone (large rectangular)

Egg+ water for egg wash

Butter for greasing plastic tub and pans

 

Instructions:

Weigh out all ingredients, cut butter in to small cubes, butter plastic tub, toast almond slivers in a pan and let cool.

7:45pm – Place eggs, almond milk, vanilla extract in large mixing bowl.  Then add the bread flour, granulated sugar, Kosher salt, instant yeast.  Mix well using rubber spatula until a shaggy dough comes together.  Knead in bowl using slap and fold method for about 5 minutes.  Then add all the butter and continue kneading using slap and fold method for another 5 minutes.   Then add almond slivers and dried cherries.  Transfer to buttered plastic tub and let rise for  2 to 2 1/2 hrs or until doubled. Turn dough every 30 minutes.  (I put it in the fridge for 1 hour due to scheduling of another bake).

9:30pm – Place plastic tub in fridge for 1 hr if necessary due to scheduling.

10:30pm – Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface, divide into 3 equal pieces (800g approx).  Shape into loaf, place in buttered loaf pan. Place all pans in large plastic bag, cover and proof for 90 minutes.

11:00pm – Place baking stone on 2nd rack from bottom, preheat oven with convection to 400F.

12:00am – Brush loaves with egg wash made from 1 egg and a little water.  Turn convection off, place loaves into oven, turn down to 380F and bake for 40 minutes or until internal temp reaches 190F or more.  Cool completely before eating.

Enjoy!

jgrill's picture
jgrill

I baked two sourdough loaves yesterday, using my recently acquired, and fed KAF starter (reported to come from starter that began 250 years ago in New England). 

the bread is the best sourdough I've ever made, and perfect for sandwiches. I followed the KAF recipe that came with the starter, except for to changes. I had the starter in  the fridge, and just used one coup of it, but did not throw out a cup, and refresh the starter before using it in this batch. Also, in the deep south, it is not possible to let a sponge or the dough rise in a room at 68°–70° F. I couldn't afford the power bill if I kept my house tht cool in the sumer. Actual room temperature was more like 78°. So, the sponge  reached its time for overnight refrigeration in less than the anticipated 5 hours (it was more like 3 hours), and likewise, the next day, the dough, and then the loaves did not need as much time to rise as anticipated. 

A photo of the bread and the recipe are here:  http://jeffgrillsblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/kaf-rustic-sourdough_26.html

 

mimifix's picture
mimifix

We visited Nashoba Brook Bakery in West Concord MA and had a chance to see the oven - up close and personal. It was quite an experience. We do bakery tours for fun but this was the first time I ever got close enough to touch the oven. (Yes, it was hot.)

Mimi

breadbakingbassplayer's picture
breadbakingbass...

Hey All,

Wanted to share with you something that I have been working on for the past 2 days or so.  I was poking around my local Gristede's supermarket the other day and found Hodgson Mills Stoneground Rye Flour for $5.99.  I usually only go to Gristede's if I'm lazy or desperate as there are much better places to get groceries in NYC.  Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to find what I did.  Also, I have some organic spelt berries that I'm trying to get rid of or use as it's not my favorite grain.  So, when I got home I consulted Hamelman's Bread book along with the Hofpfisterei München website looking for some inspiration.  I found the following.  If you click on the links on their website as follows: Sortiment => Natursaurteigbrote => Pfister-Oko-Dinkel-Grunkern-Volkorn...  It's a 92% spelt(dinkel) and 8% rye(roggen) bread...  I was inspired by this, but did the complete opposite and thought it was a 92% rye bread...  Anyways, my inspiration doesn't need to be correct, right?

Anyways, back to the 90% rye/ 10% spelt bread that I'm making.  I've tried to make a very detailed photo documentation for all of you.  So here goes!

This is what started it all.  The Hodgson Mill Rye Flour I found at the local Gristede's around the block from me.  $5.99 for 5 pounds.  Not a bad find...

My recipe page 1

My recipe page 2

8/25/10 - Stage 1 (Freshening)

16g Rye Flour

24g Water

8g Sourdough Starter (100% Hydration)

48g Total

7:00pm - Mix all, cover, let rest for 5 hours.

8/26/10 - Stage 2 (Basic Sour)

100g Rye Flour

78g Water

48g All of stage 1

226g Total

12:00am - Mix all, cover, let rest for approx 17 hours.

Stage 2 after mixing a bit

Stage 2 smoothed over with water before covering and letting rest for 17 hrs.

Stage 2 after approx 17 hrs

Stage 2 after approx 17 hrs - detail of what's inside

8/26/10 - Stage 3 (Full Sour)

270g Rye Flour

270g Water

226g All of stage 2

766g Total

6:45pm - Mix all, cover, let rest for approx 3-4 hours

Stage 3 mixed

Stage 3 smoothed over with water before covering and resting

Hand grinding spelt grains for final dough with a hand crank grain mill

Spelt flour close up out of the hand crank mill

Stage 3 after 3 1/2 hrs

Stage 3 side view - gas bubbles

Stage 3 - inside texture

8/26/10 - Final Dough

514g Rye Flour

100g Spelt Flour (freshly ground)

408g Water

18g Kosher Salt

766g All of stage 2

1806g Total

9:15pm - Mix all, cover, bulk ferment for 20 minutes.

Stage 3 in pieces in large mixing bowl with pre-measured amount of water

All ingredients of final dough in mixing bowl

Mixing with rubber spatula

More mixing

More mixing and mushing...  Just mix well so everything is well combined...

For nice ball with spatula, smooth over with water...

Place in plastic bag, bulk ferment for 20 minutes...

Final dough after 20 minute bulk ferment

Inside texture of dough after bulk ferment

9:45pm - Divide dough into 2 equal weight pieces

Form into boule, dusting lightly with rye flour to prevent sticking

Place in linen lined baskets for proofing

Place in baskets in plastic bag for proofing, approx 1 hr.  Place baking stone on 2nd rack up from bottom, place steam tray, preheat oven to 550F with convection.

Boules after proofing.  Notice cracks on surface.

Close up of cracks

Turn out on to peel

Dock loaf with chopstick

10:50pm - Turn off convection.  Place loaves directly on baking stone, add 1 cup water to steam pan, close oven door.  Turn oven temp to 500F and bake for 10 minutes without convection.  Then remove the steam pan, turn oven down to 410F and bake for another 60 minutes or until internal temp of loaf reaches 205F or more.  Sorry for the blurry shot...

I'm tired...  To be continued...

Continuing...

This is about 10 minutes into the bake right before I remove the steam pan.  Notice the oven spring...

 

Loaves out of the oven 1 hr after removing the steam pan

Crumbshot!

Thanks for reading...  Enjoy!

Yippee's picture
Yippee

 

I’ve been having lots of fun with my new tools.  They have brought additional peace of mind to the bread making process and have put an end to my frustration about oven temperatures. More importantly, they’ve delivered good results. Loaves in this bake all turned out crackly with a color that was neither too dark nor too light, and was just right to my liking. They were light in feel and the superb oven spring made them puff like a cute blowfish. 

 

I learned of the impact of subtle temperature changes on a loaf by baking several sourdough pain de campagne in a roll and established my reference.  I usually don’t make too much bread at a time. This was my largest production ever.  Not only did we have abundant slices to put on the grill, but I also had surplus to gift away to my friends who came to our end-of-summer BBQ.    

 

Again, I used a simple formula very similar to that  I’ve been playing with since the beginning of this year.  It was of 68% hydration, 17% prefermented flour from an un-refreshed pate fermente, which was also at 68% hydration.  I felt a big relief when all the old dough that didn’t make it to a bake long time ago was finally put to use.  My next bake will be geared toward learning how to utilize my new tools on dough that is leavened by systematically built levains.

 

Fermentation schedule

Bulk ferment:                                           86F – 3hrs

Final prove:                                              59F - refer to pictures of each loaf for timing

 

Bake

Oven preheated to 485F

Baking temperatures and timing:                also varied, refer to individual pictures as well.

 

 

Here are some pictures:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41705172@N04/sets/72157624809186674/show/

 

 


 

thegrindre's picture
thegrindre

Hi all,

I promised I'd share my honey white/wheat bread recipe with you so here it is.

What this recipe yields is one loaf of soft crusted soft crumbed sandwich bread that is really great and very easy to make and created for us old folks that can't eat hard crusted tough crumbed breads anymore.

Now, since I start with 3 cups of flour then add the liquid, it doesn't even need to be measured all that closely.

So, here goes;

I start with about 3 cups King Arthur flour in a large glass mixing bowl, (I say 'about' because all I do is grab a 1/2 cup measure and dip out 6 half cups of flour.), 2 cups all purpose white & 1 cup whole wheat. I then add 2 rounded teaspoons of Fleischmann's active dry yeast, 1 rounded teaspoon sea salt, then whisk all together well. (Nothing exact here. At this stage, all I need to be is close.)

Meanwhile, I'm warming up a scad short 1 cup milk, 3 Tablespoons of real butter and 1 Tablespoon of raw buckwheat honey,. (My honey source is, http://www.ebeehoney.com/ Wonderful people who sell wonderful honey products, btw.)

When the milk mixture is warm, NOT hot, I slowly start pouring it into the flour mixture, stirring it with a wooden spoon until it forms the dough ball. (I like this part because there's no real measuring involved. I just add the liquid until the dough ball forms.)

I then knead the dough, right in the bowl for a few minutes until it all comes together nicely adding more milk mixture as needed. (I then drink the leftover milk mixture. What's that they say about milk & honey and the Gods?)

I give the bowl and the dough ball a flour dusting, cover it with a wet warm towel, then set it in my oven to raise for a good hour. (My oven warms up to exactly 100 degrees with the light on.)

When double in bulk, (It sometimes quadruples within an hour), I knead it again, right in the bowl for a few minutes to clean up the extra flour I used for dusting. (How easy does this get? Clean up as I progress along.)

Using a rubber spatula, I liberally coat the inside of the pan with lots of real butter then shape the dough to fit the pan using my fingers to 'squish' it into all four corners, (No smooth store bought looking bread here.), to raise again in my oven until it just peaks the top of the pan rim. (Maybe 30 minutes. Watch it! It'll get away from you.)

Using that same spatula, I now liberally coat the top of the dough and sometimes will even slit the top. (I also place a pot of almost boiling water in with it instead of covering the dough in the pan. The almost boiling water gives off plenty of warm mist to keep the dough from crusting.)

Since I was using my oven for rising the dough, I now simply remove the pot of hot water then turn the oven on to 350 degrees F. and bake it for 40 minutes. (Oops! I wasn't watching it. It got away. It rose a bit too much but still made a great loaf of bread. (That, by the way, was a 20 minute rise.))

 

 

As you can see, clean up is a dream come true, too. All I have to clean up is one bowl, one measuring cup, one spoon, one spatula, and one bread pan. No floured surfaces or flour scattered anywhere. It was all done in the bowl.

Recipe Ingredients:

1 cup milk heated up to about 100 degrees.
3 Tablespoons real butter.
1 Tablespoons raw buckwheat honey. (Or your favorite)
2 cups King Arthur All Purpose Flour.
1 cup King Arthur Traditional Whole Wheat Flour.
1 rounded teaspoon Sea salt.
2 rounded teaspoons Fleischmann's Active Dry Yeast

And, there you have it. Simple and easy soft Honey White/Wheat sandwich bread.

Comments are very welcomed... I'm sure I'll get a few as unorthodox as this recipe is.

Enjoy!

Rick

Pages

Subscribe to Recent Blog Entries