Recent Blog Entries

Pizza Night with the wife. Sourdough with Sausage, Roasted Onions, and Mozz. Finished off with the green pepper sauce.

Cheers,

Wingnut

Having got a bit into baking big miches recently (Hamelman's Miche Pointe-A-Caillere and Shiao-Ping's interpretation of Gerard Rubaud's formula), one of the big obstacles I faced in my home environment was to transfer a 2300g loaf into the oven.
Here is how I managed to do it:

1. The shaped dough (2300 g) sits on a couche

Cheers,
Juergen

Springtime is outdoor time.  Meaning less baking time :-(.  So I'm pleased to have worked up this 36h labor-lite levain.  It has very satisfyingly complex flavor, surprisingly light crumb and an irresistible crust when baked boldly.  Prep is facilitated by using the same flours (a modified Rubaud mix) for both levain and dough.  Many thanks to Ian(ArsP) via PiPs for novel (to me) process pointers.

Click the table below to go to a working Google spreadsheet

First Morning    
1.  Mix final levain build in 25˚C (77˚F) water.  Incubate @ 25˚C (77˚F). If possible (not essential), aerate levain and let rise 1-2X before using.                    
2. Mix final dough's flours in RT water.  "Enzymatically preferment" at 20-22˚C (68-72˚F).

First Evening
3.  Mix salt and levain into autolysed flour with pincer & FF until dough comes together.                     
4.  Bulk ferment ~2h @ 25˚C (77˚F) w/2-4 folds early.  Rest, shape & refrigerate.

Second Evening    
5. Proof 1-2h @ 20-25˚C (68-77˚F).                    
6. Bake 20' @ 230˚C (450˚F) w/steam, then 12' @ 215˚C (420˚F) with convection  (watch it), longer for loaves > 750 gr.

The "Rubaud*" flour mix is a slight modification of Gerard Rubaud's formula.  My "*" version is

35% AP
25% Bread Flour
30% Whole Wheat
7% Spelt
3% Rye

The process exploits Ian(ArsP)'s "enzymatic preferment" during Day 1.  In theory, this saltless soaker is intended to release free amino acids by proteolysis from seed storage proteins, enhancing Maillard activity in the oven.  It also performs as much conventional autolyse as any dough could ask for.  Aerating the levain (stirring it down) releases more free amino acids in the levain, and it's interesting to see it grow back up, in the couple of bakes (weekends) where I actually had a chance to do that.

As Ian(ArsP) points out in his blog, it's convenient to start the levain build and enzymatic preferment at the same time.  Easily done before leaving for work in the morning.  Mixing, folding and bulk are performed that evening, with the dough rested, shaped and refrigerated before bed.  The dough moves slowly during the 24h fridge retard, but comes back to life when retrieved to warm up while the oven is doing the same, or a bit longer. 

Earlier bakes (below) with this process were at 78% hydration.  Cutting back to 75% unflattened the profile nicely.

This one's a keeper.  I'm anxious to apply this process to formulae I've previously come to know and love.

Happy Baking and Happy Spring!

Tom

Way back when, Sylvia posted a pugliese with a lighter than air crumb.   I baked it once and loved it, then forgot about it.  Browsing through old bread pictures the other day I came upon a photograph of my old pugliese, and decided to try it again.    However, I couldn't leave well enough alone and follow the recipe.    Instead,  I tweaked it just a little.   

The original formula calls for poolish, and yet, there was ripe starter sitting on the counter with no label other than discard.   Should I discard it or did it have a place in this little pugliese?    The problem with using starter for a bread like this is that it takes up too much of the flavor room and masks the delicate taste of the durum.   A baking error one might say.   Not wanting to fall into this trap, I decided to use some of the starter, but handle it very carefully to keep the flavor nice and balanced.     

I fed the starter with some fresh flour and let it ferment for just long enough for it to start expanding, but not long enough to build up a heady aroma.    At that point, I mixed everything up, and proceeded as directed.   

This dough was very wet and somewhat difficult to handle.   I developed the dough by mixing at speed 1, 2, 3, 4 (!) in my Bosch Compact for a total of 6 minutes.    By the end, it had cleared the bowl but was very wet and sticky, and spread out again as soon as I let it rest.   I did stretch and fold in the bowl twice at half hour intervals, and for the third S&F after 30 more minutes, got my hands very wet and picked the dough up and suspended it and rotated it.  

I "shaped" the dough into a boule, which is similar to saying that one shaped a water balloon - more like a little prod here and a poke there, dusted it with durum flour and proofed upside down in a ceramic bowl.    It swelled up over the sides of the bowl (doubling in size) in an hour at which point it went into the oven unscored, as there was just no point in poking at it. 

It came out nicely - self scoring along the way - and had the subtle flavor I had hoped for, with a light, tender crumb and a  crisp crust.   All in all, a  pleasant flavor variation from the original but still a pugliese at heart.

Formula and method:

 Note:  fixed formula error - reversed amounts of KAAP and Durum in final.

Mix poolish. Ripen for 3.5 hours

Mix ingredients 6 minutes, increase to speed 4

Dough cleans bowl but still wet and sticky

S&F in bowl every 1/2 hour 3 times - final in the air

BF total of 2 hours 45 minutes - dough will have expanded

Shape into boule on counter dusted with durum flour

It is very squishy like a balloon

Proof in dusted bowl for1 hour - dough doubles

Bake with steam for 5 minutes (oven preheated to 500 then turned off)

then at 450 for 35 minutes