The Fresh Loaf

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aptk's picture
aptk

I'm really having a problem getting the insert picture thing to work.

Laura T.'s picture
Laura T.

I haven't been around on here for a while with my gluten free creations as I've been trying to sort out my health once and for all. After switching to a different medical practice, I have found out that my diagnosis of coeliac disease was not justified and that all my issues were in fact down to something much simpler which can be treated with regular supplements and diet (I already had a healthy diet, but need to incorporate more of certain foods). Whilst I am annoyed and frustrated at having spent so much time, effort and cash and gluten free foods for the last 6 months or so, I am very happy to say:

I CAN EAT BREAD AGAIN!

I'm sure I'll be around a lot more as I get back to proper baking. I even have a bread stall at a craft fair next weekend! Now I just need to re-learn m=some old techniques and try to acquire some new ones...

Casey_Powers's picture
Casey_Powers

Today I tried 2 different doughs to begin understanding the feel of dough.   Well, 75% hydration and I are like mud and gum.  I should video this poor attempt.  I am so visual.  I wish I could watch this recipe on you tube. 

They did have good crumb, but I forgot to use the lame.  The 75% hydration does not hold shape like txfarmer's does in her photos.  I wonder if baking in Hawaii has a higher humidity and I need to increase my flour.?

The regular dough sticks and if I were calculating up numbers I bet it is a higher not quite 75% hydration.  I used extra flour to function.  I did remember to use the lame.  I forgot to add the water on top. I did get a little ear.  

I am doing so many things wrong that I am a book of errors. However, I know if I keep doing this I will learn from it.  I just want the dough to hold some tension.

aptk's picture
aptk

Used 30% oat flour in my basic sourdough recipe. It's a very dense loaf with a wonderful flavor.

aptk's picture
aptk

Today I'm making straight up sourdough bread. I use a very wet starter which I keep in an old clear glass coffee carafe. I was a bad sourdough momma and had to revive my starter, and I now believe it's all the way back.

After making my bread dough this morning, I fed my starter 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of water, because I need enough sourdough for pancakes tonight. After I fed it and stirred it all up, I had a little over 4 cups. Three hours later and it's bubbling happily away, is now showing about 8 cups and smells wonderful!

The point I'm trying to make is that if you had a really good starter that you totally neglected, it is possible to bring it back! Happy breading everyone!

Skibum's picture
Skibum

Well I got delayed on my shopping today and this is a great example of an over proofed loaf.  It was ready to bake when I got home, but the oven and DO were cold, call this one 45 minutes over proofed.  It was the blob upon removing it from the plastic proofing bowl. The seam was totally sealed despite proofing in 4 layers of linen, so I scored and it was nearly impossible to get a clean cut -- WAY over proofed! I need to get off of my wallet and get a wicker banneton.

I love the flavour profile of this Forkish bread and well the crust and crumb didn't turn out shabby:

I will give this one another go and pay closer attention to my proofing. Ken recommends 4 folds, 3 in the first 11/2 hours or so and another later. I found the dough @ 78% hydration very slack and somewhat lacking in development. I did the s&f's in the bowl with a wet hand as he recs in this book. I am somewhat tempted to do a couple of more folds, but will hold off on that change until I bake at the perfect proof stage. Not all of my bakes go perfectly, but hey I am just an old skibum . . .

Regards, Brian

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Continuing our merry end of the work weekly bread bakes, we kept to or recent 100% whole grain multigrain bread formula inspired by Karin’s recent challenge.  The twist this time was to limit the whole grains to Kamut, wheat, spelt and rye since we ran out of farro (einkorn).

 

For dough liquid we used the left over whole berry soaking water from last week’s bake and we added additional seeds of the aromatic kind: Caraway, anise, coriander and fennel.  Karin also got us using them in higher percent rye breads and we thought this bread was over 20% rye so why not toss some in?

 

We added some honey this time because Lucy wanted to and you don’t mess with that without risking a vicious ankle attack when you least expect it.  We dropped the red malt because we ran out last week and forgot to get around to sprouting  and roasting any more this week  Age has it’s privileges especially if you are lazy like my apprentice – who is off to the beauty parlor today and AWOL from today’s bread bake.

 

The starter smelled especially sour this time when coming out of the fridge.  It’s been in there for 3 weeks and getting more and mote sour in the cold.  We followed or usual levain build by grinding the grain for this bake in our trusty little Krup’s coffee mill and using the sifted out 25% portion of the hard bits to feed to the starter.

 

In this case, we ended up with 72 g of hard bits and we used 15 g of starter instead of our usual 10 g.   The levain ended up being 19% of the total weigh instead of our usual 12%.  Since the temperature in this AZ kitchen is now down to the mid 70‘s from the mid 80’s (after last weeks break in the weather to the mid 90’s )everything takes 25 % longer.

 

Our normal 3 stage 2.5 hour each  levain summer schedule is now 3.25 hours each in the fall.  Once the levain had risen 25% after the 3rd progressively larger feeding, it went into the fridge for a 48 h\our retard to increase the labs in comparison to the yeast by a factor of 3 which results in much a more sour producing levain.

 

Once the levain came out of the fridge it took 3 hours for it to finish doubling.  That time was used to make the scald by simmering the berries for 25 minutes and letting them soak and by autolysing the 75% extraction flours and the rest of the ingredients less the scald.

 

Once the levain and the autolyse came together we did 3 sets of slap and folds, per Josh’s recent example we have been following, of 8, 4 and 2 minutes that were spaced 10 minutes apart in order to develop the gluten.  At 86% hydration this was a wet dough in the beginning but not too difficult to work with after the first set of slap and folds.

 

We then did 3 sets of S&F’s, 4 stretches each time from the cardinal compass points, on 15 minute intervals to develop the gluten further and to incorporate the scalded and soaked berries on the 2nd set.  The scaled was fully incorporated by the end of the 3rd set.

  

Home made bacon wrapped Ahi Tuna - Yum!

We pulled out 65 g of dough before the scald went in to use for old dough for Saturday’s pizza.  We added 35 g each of AP flour and water to this whole grain old dough and let it double before making a 72% hydration AP dough for the pizza crust = which we will retard for 48 hours too.

 

After a 10 minute rest the bread dough was pre-shaped and then shaped into a squat oval to fit this week’s basket and into the fridge it went for an 18 hour retard. We have been using a 20-24 hour retard and the dough has been proofing to 100% in the cold so we thought a little less time would be better.

 

SD pancakes go well with any sides and set up a healthy, tasty lunch.

The bread warmed up on the counter for an half an hour before the mini oven was fired up to 500 F and Sylvia’s steaming cups were heated in the microwave which takes 15 minutes.  The dough was un-molded onto the top of the mini’s vented broiler pan that was covered with parchment paper.

 

Mis en place for Thai green chicken curry.

It was slashed, with a single edge razor, in a basket weave pattern we saw Josh use in his last post.  Sadly, our slashing technique, even on this cold dough, was hampered because of the scalded seeds getting in the way and a lousy slasher holding the blade.  Where is Lucy when you need her?

 

Into the mini the poorly slashed dough went with 2 of Sylvia’s steaming cups.  We tossed in 1/4 C of water into the bottom of the oven to supply some instant steam before closing the door and let the bread bake with steam at 500 F for 5 minutes before turning the oven down to 475  F.

 

At the 15 minute mark the steam came out the temperature was turned down to 425 F, convection this time.  After 20 more minutes rotating the bread 180 degrees every 5 minutes, the bread registered 203 F and the oven was turned off and the bread removed from the oven to a cooling rack when it reached 205 F.

 

It had browned up boldly with the typical mini blisters the whole grain breads seem to get in the mini oven.  Not much bloom or spring though.  It sure smelled great when baking due to the aromatic seeds.  The crust was crunchy and di not go completely soft when cooled.  It was very tasty and thick - just the way we like it.  Will have to wait on the crumb but expect it to be like the other whole grain breads.  Well the crumb hots are in and while not as open as some this crumb is very moist, soft and open.  The chew of the scalded berries is especially nice. 

What makes this bread better than other recent interactions that have beer, whey, YW additional grains and nuts is that this bread tastes the best. More earthy and deeply sour,  less confusion with the nuts gone from the mix but, the aromatic seeds are what put it over the top and made it better.  This is a fine natural, nutritional,  healthy whole grain bread that tastes too good - to be that good for you .  This is possibly the best whole grain bread we have managed and that is saying something  since we have baked so many of late - all were good though.  Maybe the bread turned out better than the rest because Lucy was missing and getting her hair done.

Formula

This bread made for a fine lunch sandwich with the usual suspects for sides. 

 

 Build 1Build 2 Build 3Total%
Multigrain SD Starter1500153.73%
Whole Rye468184.47%
Whole Kamut468184.47%
Whole Wheat468184.47%
Whole Spelt468184.47%
Water1624327217.89%
Total47486415939.50%
      
Multigrain SD Levain %   
Flour8019.75%   
Water8019.75%   
Hydration100.00%    
      
Levain % of Total18.97%    
      
Dough Flour %   
Whole Spelt256.21%   
Dark Rye256.21%   
75% Extraction Multigrain22455.65%   
Whole Wheat256.21%   
AP245.96%   
Dough Flour32380.25%   
      
Salt71.74%   
Soaker Water28069.57%   
Dough Hydration86.69%    
      
Total Flour403100.00%   
Soaker Water 280, Water 8036089.32%   
T. Dough Hydration89.32%    
% Whole Grain100.00%    
      
Hydration w/ Adds86.17%    
Total Weight838    
      
Add - Ins %   
Honey163.98%   
White Malt40.99%   
Toadies81.99%   
Ground Flax, Sesame Seed143.48%   
Aromatic Seeds153.73%   
VW Gluten122.98%   
Total6917.14%   
      
The Multigrain extractions are equal parts of whole:   
Kamut, rye, wheat  and spelt    
      
Aromatic seeds include: caraway, fennel, anise and   
coriander     
      
Weight of Scald is the dry weight of the seeds.   
Wet weight was 197 g. Weight of dough was   
933 g with wet scald and 65 G of Old dough removed.  

 

ldavis47's picture
ldavis47

The photo is the fifth try at a bread loosely related to Forkish's Field Blend.

The smell was sweet and rich; crust crunchy; crumb was soft but chewy and very flavorful. I think it is the best levain bread I have made. Dough is 75% hydration, starter 100% Hydration and starter flour is 20% of total flour. The timing of steps is particularly useful for working hours if the second day is off or you like to get up early. 

My culture is an abused creature. It is 100% hydrated AP flour, refreshed once weekly 10/100/100 fermented overnight, and stored in the refrigerator after the ferment. But it thrives and makes great bread.

AM 1 (starter)

  50 g culture

  175 g water (90deg F because of the cold rye)

  175 g rye (I use a course rye some would call pumpernickel, stored in refrigerator)

mix well, starter temp 73, ambient temp 72. Ferment 8hrs or more. Should have bubbles underneath and holes on top. Fruity smell. 

PM 1(when the starter is ripe, at least 8hrs)

  100 g whole wheat (stored in freezer)

  700 g any combination of AP and bread flour (this try had 300 bread/400 AP)

  550 g water (warmed to about 85 deg)

mix until all flour incorporated, cover and rest at least 30 minutes. Dough temp about 75.

  15 g salt

sprinkle salt over dough and squeeze in with wet hands. Once there is no more gritty feeling from the salt, do a SF(stretch and fold), cover, wait 30 minutes and do SF, repeat wait and SF two more times.

Immediately after last SF, divide into 2 and approximately shape into rounds, cover and rest 30 min.

Dust tops, flip over, stretch and do letter fold, flip to put seams on bottom and tighten into a boule.

wait a few minutes to seal seams then place in banneton, place in plastic bag and into refrigerator.

AM 2 (12 hrs later, crown should be risen to the top of banneton, if not take out and let warm until risen, otherwise leave in refrigerator until oven preheated.)

preheat oven and covered pots to 500 F

Take breads out of refrigerator, place in pots score and cover

reduce oven temp to 450 and bake for 20 minutes, then remove covers

reduce temp to 430. (I switch to convection so bottom and tops brown evenly. With these settings the crust becomes a deep auburn in 25 minutes. Cool 10 minutes with oven off and door ajar, then cool on rack.

Of course water temps will have to be adjusted based on flour temps and ambient temps. I tried to keep the dough temp close to 75.

Lloyd

bakingyummies's picture
bakingyummies

Hello Everyone,

A new post after a long time.

Today's post is about Pull Apart Buns made with yeast, haven't yet started on the sourdough journey :-(  Actually there's some yeast left in my freezer and I want to use it up before I get into sourdoughs. For the initial rise, I refrigerated the dough overnight and the next day, shaped and gave a second rise at room temperature.

In India, these pull apart buns are called 'pavs' and are usually served with a very popular Mumbai street food called Pav Bhaji, bhaji essentially being a mixture of vegetables that is cooked with a mixture of spices and tastes just amazing. Traditionally, these buns are made with all purpose (plain) flour rather than bread flour, and so that's what I decided to go with.

 

 

 The texture was very light and fluffy as you can see in the image above. Overall I was pretty happy with the final result, just need to add a little more salt next time.

carltonb's picture
carltonb

First sours of the school year. Each student makes their own levain over the last 5 weeks.

We made a 40% and 70%

Also made sub buns as well

Carlton Brooks CCE, CEPC, ACE

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