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25% Semolina Sourdough - 12/7/09

 

Starter Build 1

50g - stiff starter (active)

50g - semolina (Bob's Red Mill)

50g - bread flour (KA Organic)

100g - water

 

Starter Build 2

250g - all of starter build 1

100g - semolina

100g - AP flour (Whole Foods or Hecker's)

100g - water

 

Final Dough - 2296g total dough weight @ about 72% hydration

550g - all of starter build 2

500g - AP flour

250g - bread flour

250g - semolina

720g - water

26g  - Kosher salt

 

Instructions

Starter Build 1

-Mix ingredients for Starter Build 1, cover and let ferment for 8-12 hours or until doubled, bubbly and sinking in slightly at center.

 

Starter Build 2

-Mix ingredients for Starter Build 2, cover and let ferment for 8-12 hours or until doubled, bubbly and sinking in slightly at center.

 

Final Dough

-Mix all ingredients in large metal mixing bowl with a wooden spoon, cover and let rest (autolyse) for 20-30 minutes.

-After rest, knead dough in bowl using wet hand using the French fold method for about 5 minutes working out any lumps.  Cover and let rest for 20-30  minutes.

-After rest, turn dough using stretch and fold method in bowl with wet hands.  Do not add any flour.  Let rest for 15 minutes.

-Repeat stretch and folds 4 times at 15 minute intervals.

-After last turn, place dough into lightly oiled container, cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

-Turn dough one last time after 15 minutes, and return to refrigerator for 21 to 24 hours.

 

Bake Day

-Remove dough from refrigerator, divide into 4 pieces (574g), shape into boule and transfer to bowl lined with a lightly floured tea towel/linen, or floured bannetton.  Place proofing bowls in large plastic bag to prevent dough from drying out.  Proof for about 2 hours or until dough passes the poke test...

-45 minutes before loaves are finished proofing, place baking stone in oven on 2nd shelf up from bottom and preheat to 550F.

-When loaves are proofed and oven has reached 550F, place loaves on to peel, slash, and place directly onto stone, steam, turn oven temp down to 450F, and bake for 50 minutes, rotating loaves halfway through bake.  Loaves are done when internal temp is between 205F to 210F.

-Cool completely before cutting and eating.

 

Notes

-These turned out really good!!!  4 loaves are a very tight fit on a 14" x 16" baking stone, but it will work... 

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

I love challah and have never tried Glezer's sourdough version.  I don't have her book.  I was so inspired by David's post I thought I would attempt it.  I added some golden raisins because I knew my husband would love them in the loaf so I added some to the 3 braided challah.  The round 4 strand loaf is plain but my favorite shape.  I only did a couple of things different.  I used the lesser amount of starter 200 gms.  I hand mixed everything and didn't use a rolling pin in the final shaping..I guess that comes from not ever wanting to use one on my pizza dough.  It took them nearly 6 hours to proof.  It's pouring cats and dogs here and pretty cool in my kitchen today.  I've been out most the day running some errands so the long proofing time worked out perfect.

Here's what I got and I will post a crumb shot a little later when they are cooled.

I also posted J. Hamelman's Country Bread..I think it has a wonderful flavor..maybe it's all that pre-ferment..but it's delicious! 

The Crumb and tasting!  This is a very, very delicious Challah.  The addition of the golden raisins complimented and added to the complex flavor of this bread that my husband and I both love..that little burst in your mouth really is great.

to add the raisins with my hands I shaped the dough into a round flat circle and laid them on top and then rolled the dough up firmly and then rolled and lengthened it into the rope.  When I do this it keeps my raisins from going on the outside of the loaf and burning. 

Sylvia

Jefferey Hamelman's Country Bread   I will definately make this bread again...and with a little more patience..the flavor is very nice!

Sylvia

 

 

 

I

ericb's picture
ericb

 

A few weeks ago, I posted a question about using soft winter wheat for baking artisan bread. Here's the brief story. My wife and I are somewhat passionate about local food. Since we can only grow soft wheat here in Kentucky, I always assumed that I would have to buy flour milled from wheat grown in Kansas or the Northern Plains.

 

Fast forward to Monday when I was at the market and saw this:

... a bag of All Purpose flour from Weisenberger Mills, Midway, KY. Now, I have used their flour in the past, specifically their bread flour milled from hard red spring wheat, and it has performed beautifully. Check out the sticker on this bag, though:

 

 

Yup. Kentucky Proud, made from wheat grown in Woodford County, KY (also home of a fantastic bourbon, Woodford Reserve). I decided to throw out everything I thought I knew about flour and try to bake artisan bread with it.

 

The end result?

 

Not bad, right? I chose Hamelman's Baguettes With Poolish. I think this recipe provides a decent baseline, and really lets the flour speak for itself.

 

 

I will be the first to admit that this is far from my best loaf. The crust is a too pale and the scoring is nothing to write home about (I may have gotten a bit anxious and threw it in the oven too soon, but 30 minutes into proofing, it started to feel a little dead to the touch). The crumb is perfect for dipping in olive oil or slathering with spread. The flavor is quite nice, with just a hint of tang from the poolish, an almost buttery finish, and the subtle taste of wheat typical in a simple white bread such as this.

 

I think I will try a more advanced recipe next time, and see just how far I can push this flour. 

 

DonD's picture
DonD

Background:

My fondness for Brioches dates back to my years growing up in Saigon where French Bakeries and Pasry Shops were quite common there. These shops were owned and operated by French people so their products were quite authentic and more importantly they were made with real butter. Fast forward to the late sixties when I went to college for a year in Switzerland where I was really spoiled with an abundance of excellent  breads and pastries. Afterwards, I came to the US and was hard pressed to find a true French Baguette let alone a Brioche. However, my yearly trips to Montreal to visit friends would alleviate my craving for Brioches. Gaston Lenotre had a Bakery and Pastry Shop there (since closed) and I would indulge in his wonderful Viennoiseries and Pastries. Several trips to France would further reinforce my love for Brioches. In the late seventies and early eighties, we started to find Brioches in the US but somehow they tasted bland and lean. Even now, I have not been to find a commercial Brioche that tastes like the real thing. About 15 years ago, we invited a French Chef to dinner at our home and the next day, as a thank you, he gave us a Brioche Nanterre (a Brioche Loaf) that he had baked. That was the best Brioche I have ever had, it was light and airy and the buttery richness was unreal. That prompted me to start baking my own Brioche. Over the years I have experimented with various recipes from Lenotre, Jacques Pepin and Michel Roux with relative success. Recently I tried the recipe from Nancy Silverton from the Baking with Julia book and TV series and was very happy with the results.

Last weekend in anticipation of the Holidays, I made a batch of various types of Brioches using NS's formulation with some minor tweakings. I used a total of 6 eggs instead of 5 and I increased the butter amount from 1 1/2 sticks to an 'artery clogging' 2 1/2 sticks. It's the Holidays and I only make them 3 or 4 times a year!

Pics:

Shaped Brioches ready for proofing

 

Large Brioche a Tete (Brioche with Head)

 

Brioche Nanterre, Brioche Mousseline, Medium and Small Brioches a Tete

 

Brioche Crumb

 

Happy Holidays!

Don

occidental's picture
occidental

Inspired by Txfarmer's post ( http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/14636/auvergne-rye-baguette-bacon ) last week I baked Leaders Auvergne Rye with Bacon today.  I didn't have the really open crumb txfarmer had but I'm pleased with the results.  These loaves were proofed in the fridge overnight which, if anything else developed a good 'skin' that made scoring easy.  I expected more of a bacon flavor - I'd say there is a hint of flavor but not much more - which is disapointing after adding seven slices of bacon!  I can't say this is one of my favorites from Local Breads but I may try it again some time.  On to the pictures...

 

From bread

From bread
Paddyscake's picture
Paddyscake

We spent yesterday taking our granddaughter Jewels to hear Mrs. Claus reading stories and her first visit with Santa. Being 17 months, she wasn't all that enthralled with the story time, but did enjoy marching around and having a great conversation with herself and whoever else wanted to listen. The babbling cracks me up, she is so expressive with her hands.

The holiday season brings those once a year baked goodies. I found a recipe for Guiness Stout Ginger Cake and wondered if it would be as wonderful as Qahtan's Guiness Stout Chocolate Cake. This bread is richly dark and the aroma is incredible. Tasting will have to wait until it has cooled. It has stout, molasses, fresh grated ginger, fresh grated nutmeg, cinnamon, cardomom, ground ginger, cloves.


Also baked off a couple loaves of sourdough English Muffin bread.


Would love to hear everyone's favorite once a year holiday bakes. I'll be baking off the requisite cranberry orange breads, our holiday fruitcake (this one is awesome, honest!) gingerbread popcorn and something new that you might suggest?

Thaichef's picture
Thaichef

Hello Everyone:

   I live in a small town in VA, and on a yearly basis new books are purchase for the library.  I requested the Bread Baker's Apprentice( because of the high recommendation from this site) for the library since we have nothing remotely close to what being recommended on this site. I copied Floyd's book review and  gave the list to the librarian who has to submit to the committee.  Well, the verdict came two days ago!

"No! the book is too old". They are going to buy " a quick bread book by Peter Reinhart since it is newer.  I believe that I read on this web site about the book that it is not very good.  The librarian asked "who are this people whom you said that you got the review from?" I gave her the Fresh Loaf web site but I don't know if she will ever look at it!!!! 

  I am very frustrated!  The bread book that they will buy for the library is recommended by the group thathave never bake! So this library has 50 books of quiltings and 3-4 "coffee table" bread books.  I know I searched and borrowed the bread books only to return quickly because it is "not" for people who are actualy bake (like me).  It dirves me crazy.

Any commments of how to make them see the light and perhaps buy the book?  I could buy the book myself eventually but it is still a lot of money for me!

  I will be teaching "bread baking" class at the same library on Dec.15.  Should I encourage the participants to help?

mantana

 

 

txfarmer's picture
txfarmer

This bread has two sources of inspiration. First is the basic sourdough formula from BBA, which is this week's recipe for the BBA challenge (yes, we are still hanging on, the end is near though); the other is the mexcali heat bread from the ever so helpful sourdough home website:http://www.sourdoughhome.com/chipotlebeanbread.html

 

From past experience, I know it's not easy to adapt flavor combos into breads. For one thing, bread tends to dilute the flavors somehow, on top of that some ingredients may not play well with flour and yeast in the dough. This one is a winner though. Black bean really adds great flavor, as well as makes the crumb very moist. The amount of chipotle pepper and other spices are just right, noticable but not overwhelming.

The crumb is moist and reasonably open, begging for some guacamole or sour cream

I like how the "crown" shape turned out. I must've cracked the top surface accidentally during shaping, which caused some cracks in addition to my scoring mark, but it still looks good.

Here's my made-shift proofing basket, I put the dough inside bottom side up

I basically just halved the recipe in BBA, use black bean cooking liquid instead of water, add porportional amount of black beans and other spices. Gotta say I am not a fan of the sourdough procedure in BBA, it requires making a firm starter the night before, babysitting it until double (4+ hours), putting it in fridge, taking it out the next day for at least one hour to warm, then mixing into the main dough. Much more touble than making a firm starter then leaving it at room temperature for 12 to 16 hours like in other books, or just using the 100% starter directly like what I usually do. 

 

inlovewbread's picture
inlovewbread

 

As of late, I have been taken by the flavor of durum flour in my breads. Most often I make Susan's sourdough and use about 15% rye and 5% durum along with the bread flour. I had been using more than 5% of durum flour but got a bit carried away. The flavor enhancing effect turns into flavor dominating if you go above 10%.(imho) Less than 10%, it adds a slight buttery flavor and beautiful color to the crumb.

But I digress. I had the question not too long ago about durum flour vs. semolina. My family likes the Semolina Sandwich Loaf (Dan Leader's "Local Breads" formula) and it takes half of the bag to make. Not having a local source for durum flour I had to order from KA and found the $8.50/3lb price to be a bit high. I am however, able to find bulk Semolina at a reasonable price. So I researched the internet and TFL for answers about durum flour and semolina. There seems to be quite a few terms to describe the same thing as well as milling terminology that muddies the waters on this subject. I did find one link where it mentions someone having luck with grinding semolina in their coffee grinder. However, no commentary or photos were provided (which are most helpful to me). I still had questions about how durum flour would perform versus semolina flour ground finely in my home mill. There was only one way to find out, and so I set about my own side-by-side comparison.

Just to consolidate some of the information I have found, here is a brief explanation of terms:

Semolina: In the U.S. describes the coarsely milled endosperm of durum wheat. Semolina actually refers to the type of grind/milling in the rest of the world (example: farina (Cream of Wheat) is same grind but from softer wheat). 

Durum Flour: Finely ground endosperm of the durum wheat berry. 

 

For a more thorough explaination, try these sites:

http://www.theartisan.net/sicilian_bread.htm

http://www.joepastry.com/index.php?s=semolina

 

Additionally, if you type in "semolina durum" in the search on TFL you will get most of the threads that I read on the subject. I also googled, "grinding semolina into durum flour" and found some info. but not much.

Most of the information that pertains to this post as well as the Semolina Sandwich Loaf formula, pictures and discussion with more pictures can be found here:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/4213/semolina-sandwich-loaf

 

So Here's what I did:

1: Ground semolina in my Whisper Mill home mill. (Ground using the pastry setting)

2: Mixed dough for Semolina Sandwich Loaf (Dan Leader's "Local Breads" formula) with finely milled semolina.

3: Mixed dough for Semolina Sandwich Loaf with KA Durum flour.

*The two doughs were mixed about 40 minutes apart so that I could bake them individually.

 

This test has a couple control flaws; one being that I don't have two of the same metal 81/2 x 41/2 bread pans. And second, the durum flour was purchased from King Arthur Flour and the semolina was purchased in bulk from WinCo. A better experiment would have been if I had two of the same exact bread pans and if I had ordered the semolina from KA as well. But time and money did not permit, and I also needed to use the WinCo semolina as this is my regular source. I also was curious to see how the bread pans would compare. 

Finely ground semolina on the left, Durum flour on the right.

 

The ground semolina was still a bit course even after milling on the finest setting. The durum flour is finer and silkier and less yellow in color. More like regular bread flour.

This picture shows the difference in bread pans. The loaf on the left is the ground semolina and the loaf on the right was made with durum flour. The oven spring was pretty much the same, as well as the coloring.

left: semolina        right: durum flour

 

Again, semolina on the left and durum flour on the right. Slight difference in color. 

My family tasted each one and spent a lot of time going back and forth trying to see if they tasted different. There was a slightly different taste to them- hard to describe. I don't think we would be able to tell the difference had I baked these on different days. But because we were tasting them in a side-by-side comparison- there was a subtle difference but neither was better than the other; just different. My husband thinks the difference in flavor could have been from the type of semolina I used. He thinks maybe it was a bit stale because I purchased it in bulk out of a bin and the bin was almost empty at the time. Could be. 

Bottom line: both tasted great and I think that finely ground semolina is a good substitute for durum flour. HOWEVER, in the future if I were to make this loaf again using ground semolina, I would add about 10%(?) bread flour to it. I think this would lighten it up and make it the same texture as the durum flour. 

CaptainBatard's picture
CaptainBatard

When you have a lot of time on your hands and want to test yourself....this a good bread to try. I originally saw this bread posted at Wild Yeast when Susan was having a giveaway for the SFBI book Advanced Bread and Pastry. I was very taken by those beautiful pictures of Caramelized Hazelnut Squares. I entered the giveaway (twice) and counted the days till I would have the book in hand to start those beautiful hazelnut pillows....well....you know the ending...I did not win....but Susan was nice enough to send me a lengthy excel sheet with the formula and a few mixing notes. I had no idea what I was getting into! I started with the preferments which consisted of 2 stiff levain and 2 stiff sponges that eventually got added to a very wet dough....I was totally over my head on this one! I did not have the detailed instructions that were in the book but I proceeded to work my may through her excel sheet and put it together following her advise "think of it as  ciabata with nuts". After several folds with wet hands and a scraper and lots of flour on the bench...I managed to get it off the bench and into the oven...what you can not see is the part that oozed off the hearth and formed on the oven rack!

When I finally pulled them from the oven, a smile came to my face and patted myself on the back! The flour encrusted loaves reminded me of the snow that had just dusted the ground. I have to be honest...I could not wait for them to cool...The first taste I had was with a smear of Nutella ummmm. It does not get much better than that...except for the second tasting which was a slice of brie on the still warm bread. I have to add...I  just broke down and ordered the book today to see what the recipe really said...

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