The Fresh Loaf

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pmccool's picture
pmccool

Every so often, I like to make a batch of sourdough English muffins.  My go-to recipe is one from the King Arthur 200th Anniversary Cookbook, which I have blogged about previously.  Today's post is just a series of photos showing the muffins as they cook for your viewing pleasure; something only a bread-head would love.

Up first, the muffins waiting their turn on the griddle:

After feeling the heat for a little bit:

Still growing:

Ready to turn:

And just after being turned:

And yes, they smell good too!

Paul

pmccool's picture
pmccool

Last weekend, I had a number of errands to run and it occurred to me that I could plan a route that allowed a stop at Fervere Bakery and then go on to the River Market and (since it was close by) The Planter Seed and Spice Company.  Think of it as a trifecta for a foodie.

Fervere is a not-so-old bakery in an old neighborhood to the south and west of downtown KC.  They are known for turning out some of the best breads in the area and for a rather quirky business model.  For pictures and a lengthier description of their products and process, I'll refer you to their website.  There's also a short video on youtube that you can watch.

Having heard a lot about Fervere and their breads, I was eager to try some.  I chose their pain de campagne, reasoning that I would be tasting the bread without any other influences (although I have to say that I sampled their orchard bread and it was wonderful!).  It turned out to be a really good choice!

The loaf is round and miche-like in shape and size, like this:

I would guesstimate it to be about 4 inches high at the tallest point and 12-14 inches in diameter.  As you can see, the crust colors range from golden browns to deeper, more caramelized russet tones.  The bottom crust, where it was in contact with the oven sole, is darker still.  The color and size of the slash indicates an early and large expansion after the dough was loaded in the oven.  This is borne out by the texture of the crumb:

The cells are random in size and distribution.  Although some of the alveoli are fairly large, this bread worked very well for sandwiches; protecting the diner from unexpected drips of condiments.  The crust is fairly thin.  By the time I got home from all of my running around that day, the crust had softened from crisp to chewy, due to being enclosed in a plastic bag.  The crumb was very moist and cool; this is evidently a high-hydration dough.  Oddly enough, although the crumb is relatively soft, it isn't mushy.  Press gently on the loaf and it yields, then immediately rebounds.  There's a firmness, a sturdiness, to this bread.  And it has excellent keeping qualities, having lasted nearly a week at the present cool room temperatures with no appreciable staling.  (My wife was out of town most of the week and, good as it was, a man can only eat so much bread by himself!)

Opening the bag and inhaling the aroma is almost intoxicating.  Deep, toasty caramel, roasted malts, a suggestion of chocolate, a mild tanginess and other notes that I don't have the vocabulary for.  These carry over into the flavor, which also boasts a forward wheatiness while the sourness virtually disappears.  A bite with crust is entirely different from a bite without crust.  If Wonder Bread is at one end of the chewiness spectrum and vollkornbrot is at the other, this lands just about squarely in the middle.  Firm, yes, but it yields to moderate pressure.  This is seriously good bread.  If I weren't a home baker, this is the kind of bread that I would want to buy.  Given the trek from my suburban location, I'm glad that I don't have to depend on Fervere for my daily bread but it is nice to know that it would be worth my time if I were in the vicinity.  And I would recommend that you stop in if you find yourself in Kansas City someday.

Paul

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Mebake mentioned that I seemed to be a very busy baker of late and I knew that I had been caught with my dirty little secret.  I confess it isn't all me in my kitchen.  For the past 7 years, nearly 8 now, I have been fortunate enough to have a full time German Baker's Apprentice.  She is well trained and has an especially fine (if big) nose for what is good and has become my go to tester and taster for everything I make in the kitchen.  She is sort of short legged, so I have to get things down for her from the high cupboards, but that is small price to pay for the depth of skill and experience that she brings to my baking and cooking in general.

Yeah, I know!   Most posters don't have the luxury of being able to find such a well trained kitchen cohort much less be able to afford one from their ancestral homeland.  But, I think an apprentice is key to perfecting one's culinary skills.   You should consider getting one of your own, regardless of cost and resuting hassles and complications an apprentice brings to the kitchen.  Plus, you need to train the next generation in the culinary arts.  Teaching is pure generosity at its base and generosity is by far the hardest good character attribute one must have to be successful at anything, along with about 100 other ones that are slightly easier to have to hold dear. 

So don't be too hard on me for not exposing my little secret from the beginning .  I consider it a character flaw too, just like you should, but I'm the one that has to live with it and her. I hope to be forgiven by the good folks at TFL over time and wish each of you an apprentice of your own that is even better, and hopefully less sour dough and longer legged than mine.......Happy Baking ....... here's some picks of my little SD

 

Here she is after a hard day of baking - and full tummy.

Sheblom's picture
Sheblom

As stated in a past blog[LINK]. I am taking things back to basics. I am going to do the same simple recipe and try and take in what I have learned from each bake, and improve on my baking skills.

So, here I go. I have not added anything to this recipe like last time. This is just going to be a basic loaf.

The recipe is the same:

3 cups of all purpose flour

2 teaspoons of yeast

2 teaspoons of salt

1 1/8 cup water

This is how I went about making this loaf:

First off I need the essential tools

Measure out the flour

Wait for the water to reach optimum temperature

add yeast to the warm water and leave fro 5 min for the yeast to react

I then add a bit of the flour to the yeasty water to make a past

Then leave for 20min for the yeast to be come frothy

I then add in the rest of the water, flour and salt to make a rough dough ball. I then knead on a floured surface to it becomes a smooth texture

I then write down the time and tempreture of the dough, and leave to proof for 40min

After 40 min, I fold the dough and leave for a further 25min.

After the 25min, i punch down the dough and shape in to a boule for the final proof

I preheat the oven to 230c with Pizza stone and empty roasting dish.

Once the oven has come up to temp, I transfer the dough onto the pizza stone, slash and place in the oven. I also add half a cup hot water to steam the loaf.

After 10 min I turn the loaf and take out the roasting dish.

After another 10 - 15min I take out the loaf and leave to cool for an hour.

The loaf came out quite nicely, decent shape and good flavour. 

I am thinking next time to tighten up the boule a bit on the final proof and to bake for a bit longer as the crust was a bit thin and soft to me.

Enjoyed baking this loaf and learned alot.

Please let me know hat you think!

I also received a new book to read over

And a shot of some of the tomatoes from my garden

Sheblom's picture
Sheblom

After my go at the San Francisco Sourdough[Link], I though I would have another go with my sourdough but go in a more European recipe. I decided to go French and bake the Pain Au Levain, but the purist version, no commercial yeast used at all.

One thing I did fine with the san Fran loaf that it was not as sour as I would liked it to have been. So with this recipe, I decided to do the whole process over 4 day, the fourth day being the baking day. 

So here is my process, Day 01

On day one I mix the starter as started in the recipe

Day 02

Take the starter out of the fridge and allow to warm up

Get all my equipment ready

Add starter to the bowl and add the warm water and allow 5 minutes to soften the starter.

Just a quick shot of my new toy for the kitchen. Don't know how accurate it is, but least it will be handy

One the started has softened. I add the rest of the flour and salt and Mix until I get a rough dough ball. I then knead the dough for a short time. I then leave the dough for 5 min to rest.

I then use the stretch and fold technique as the dough is quite wet and sticky

Then let the dough rest for 10 min

I do this another three times, stretch and fold, rest, stretch and fold and rest, etc

I then shape it into a boule and leave it overnight to proof.

Day 03

This is the easiest day, just punch the dough down, stretch and fold and leave over night.

Day 04

Baking day! Now to see the result of all this work! 

I punch down the dough, shape into a tight boule and then leave to rise in my banneton

After 4 hours I pre-heat my oven and pizza stone to 230c, with a old roasting dish at the bottom as well.

One the oven has come up to tempresure. I transfer the dough to may baking stone and place in the oven. I also place half a cup pf hot water in the pan to create steam.

After 10 min, I remove the tray and turn the loaf.

After about 20min you really get a decent sourdough smell wafting through the house.

After about 35- 40 min for baking from intially instertion into the oven. The loaf has changed to a nice dark brown colour.

I take the loaf out of the oven and leave to cool for an hour.

I was very happy with how the loaf came out. It has a beautiful texture and chewy crust.

I do think I have to work on my proofing with a banneton and the transfer from the banneton to the baking stone. 

Please let me know waht you think!

Also here is a shot of some fresh ricotta cheese that me made last week as well!

 

theuneditedfoodie's picture
theuneditedfoodie

 

I am on a roll and it is called the sourdough-juggernaut insane roll. I mean what else do you expect in a despondent economy like ours? For a miserable proletariat like myself, who is underemployed, partly circumstances/partly choice, what better way to spend your days than to bake up some bread.

More recently, I ventured into the bread that I have long admired, this one being the Poilane-Style Miche from Peter Reinhart. Now, Lionel Poilane as a lot of bread enthusiasts would understand is clearly the best baker in Paris and so obviously the best baker in the world. It would be any bread fanatic’s wildest dream to be an apprentice in Boulangerie Poilane, someday. To my understanding, the Boulangerie Poilane even ships their famous miche loaves to the United States. I mean it may sound truly insane, but there have been days when I have actually thought of buying it and getting it shipped. But I have been resisting, for hopefully if I can save enough by next year and my stars finally do get aligned, I would love to go to Boulangerie Poilane in person and pay homage to one of the best bakers of my time.

As I was getting started with my mission miche, I was also excited since I started my sourdough adventures it would have been my first date with an almost whole-wheat sourdough bread, since the only thing that wasn’t whole wheat was the barm (mother starter), made up of bread/ white flour. In my heart of hearts, I have always been a little scared of everything other than the bread/white flour, for usually the crumb always tends to be a little tight and dense, particularly when the percentage of whole-wheat is almost 100%.  Now, I knew about this occurrence even before jumping into mission miche, but nevertheless the idea of reproducing a miche by your own hands was seductive enough for me to get into it.

My first major issue in the process came upon while going through the windowpane test. I mean I have successfully administered the windowpane test for the bread/white flour; however, I seriously started questioning during this procedure- if a windowpane process actually exists for whole-wheat flour? I mean, I understand it is a lot harder for the gluten to develop in whole-wheat, but at the same time I didn’t want to over-knead my dough. 

 

Also, with issues of kneading, proofing and baking, I had cut the original quantity in half. This way it was much easier to control the beast.  My final fermentation of the dough took place in a glass bowl, which I have started to question is a good idea or not, for some reason it tends to lose shape often, though not so much in this case, perhaps it was something to do with whole-wheat.  Just before launching my miche in the oven, I made some cuts or let’s say tried to. Now, I am not sure during making cuts, if one should just do it once and let it be, or actually sometimes go back and try to go deeper in the second or third turn. During this attempt, I went with the latter.

The miche stayed in the oven for slightly shorter time than Reinhart had suggested in the book, since my quantity had been cut into half from the original amount. Just to be on a safe side, I did check the temperature of the loaf and it had reached 205 degree Fahrenheit, before I took it out.  The miche looked good, not exactly like the Reinhart one or perhaps anywhere close to that but just about satisfactory. 

Cutting into the loaf the next day was a slight challenge, definitely had to use some strength to open it up. And even though the crumb was slightly dense as predicted, the flavors were amazing; you could really taste the sourdough in it. Also, the crust was wonderful. The interesting aspect was that even though the loaf was considerably heavy while holding it, while biting through it- it actually felt pretty light!

 

louie brown's picture
louie brown

A number of years now reading and posting here and the sentence that rings in my ears as the best advice I've ever had in home baking is Pat's "Get the fermentation right," which I guess could also be said as "Watch the dough, not the clock." Now that the rest of you have moved on to the nicely controlled environment of proofing boxes , I am left to my analog temperature probe and the vagaries of kitchen temperatures. So I've practiced on some basics, watching the dough. Here are three recent examples: A basic boule, Tartine-ish for the relatively young starter and for the covered cast iron bake; Silverton-ish for practicing the half moon score. I'm liking the cast iron right now. Proofed overnight in the fridge and baked from cold.

 

A combination of Hamelman's five grain and his seeded levain. This one has whole wheat, steel cut oats, wheat germ, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds. Need to bear in mind that when fewer cereals go in the soaker (and more seeds not needing to be soaked are used,) the water for it should be cut back. As it is, the dough took some more flour and turned out fine. It's not for nothing that Hamelman says this is one of the most delectable of breads. Despite all the inclusions, the crumb is light and properly aerated. Again proofed overnight in the fridge, but not baked from cold because they hadn't come up enough. I like the zigzag scoring on the large one. Next week I think I'll add a couple of tablespoons of dark rye and/or buckwheat to this formula, just to see what they do to the taste and the form.

 

Wet baguettes. For a long time, I had mixed feelings about these. I couldn't put my finger on it. But now I think I know what's bothering me: this isn't a baguette. A dough this wet, one that can't be properly shaped or scored, doesn't really fulfill the complete idea of the baguette, with its beautiful pointed ends and caramelized ears. This is more likely to be a baton, a long narrow loaf that doesn't need to be scored. Its natural form is ciabatta. Next week, I may try these as batons. If you picture these loaves below, a little wider and a little shorter and unscored, that's the idea. I hydrated the non pre fermented flour and water for 24 hours in the fridge. I also fermented the bulk dough for 24 hours in the fridge. I proofed the formed loaves for too long on the bench, about six hours. So, the appearance is a work in progress, but the taste from the long cold fermentations is fantastic. The crumb speaks for itself.

edited to add: Maybe the nicest baguette-type crust I've produced in an all sourdough version. Pretty thin and very crispy.

Simisu's picture
Simisu

so to put a long story short (and what better way to do it then photos?)

the result:

the recipe i followed:

  • 150g spelt (20%)
  • 300g white wheat flour (40%)
  • 300g whole wheat flour (40%)
  • 525 grams water (70% hydration)
  • 15 g salt 2% 
  • 15 g instant yeast 2%
  • 45 g flex and sesame seeds 6% (after a night´s soak in 80 gram water)
  • total flour 750g (100%)

the poolish

  • 150g spelt (20%)
  • 150 g water
  • 3 g yeast (20%)

so that leaves for the final dough

  • 300g whole wheat flour
  • 300g white flour
  • 375g water
  • 15 g salt
  • 12g yeast
  • 45g flex and sesame seeds with around 200% hydration 

 

now i still have to fix a lot of things but bueno... i´m quite pleased with the outcome as it is, its mostly cosmetic from now on (well more or less) first off it was certainly too wet (i originally thought to hold on on the water for after putting the seeds inside but i accidentally spilled all the water in before... also i think i made a mistake thankfully and put only 350g instead of 375g) and hard to work with but finally it was rising! i baked for 50m at 190C which wasn´t enough! and trying to shape the dough was almost impossible for me...

i think i under mixed the poolish but it seemed to be working just fine! here´s a photo of the poolish after about 16 hours outside (at low temps) you can click the thumbnail to view the full one...

the essential crumb shot:

i like this consistency but it was a little under baked and a little too wet, i also had a few problems with the shaping which resulted in broken loaves :O/

its hard to see but there´s a tear going through all the side (maybe my fault for how i took it out of the pan but still...)

all in all, better then the bricks i produced last time! using a slightly altered recipe (here they are)

further conclusions...

  • a little less water (accounting for the seed water anyway)
  • mix the seeds in with all the ingredients
  • maybe knead more as i´m not sure i had it developed enough...
  • bake on 240 for 20 minuets and then go down to 190.
  • split the dough into 1/4 and 3/4 so that they fit into the small and big molds and i could bake them together!

any comments are more then welcome!

Simisu

 

mwilson's picture
mwilson

Anyone who has seen my blog knows I make naturally leavened panettone often. I have tried a new recipe by Massimo Vitali which includes cocoa butter. The recipe also calls for milk powder which I don't keep, so I left it out. I made a few other adjustments with water and flavourings but other than that it's as described in the formula.

Finished dough.
 

 

Baked. The dough surface was very tight and ruptured in the oven. More water next time!
 

 

Crumb.
 

 

Formula.
 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

I took isand66's SD Avocado Bread, cut it half for one mishapen and poorly double Y chicken foot slashed loaf and then gussied it up even more than isand66 managed.  I didn't have enough bread flour so I subbed the missing with AP instead.  Since isand66 said the dough was very wet I cut 15 g from the amount in the recipe.  I also added 1 clove of minced garlic, 1/2 of a chopped fine green onion 1 tsp of finely chopped rosemary and 1 T of  finely chopped sun dried tomatoes packed in oil  - just like I do in  Focaccia Romana or Pizza Dough.  Also added about 20 g of sunflower seeds, holding  some back for the crust and also milled all the other grains from whole berries and used Pink Himalayan sea salt because ...eeerrr....pink is this year's cool bread color in case you didn't know and I do try to be cutting edge even if I can't take one and slash a loaf half decent for the life of me.  Since I got started late due to levain near death experience when it reached 1000 F for most of overnight and had to refresh it in the morning hoping for the best, I used PiPs easy half day bread technique for this bake instead of isand66's overnight retard.  No time!

Oddly, you would think that the avocado and yogurt would come through, at least tint the crumb a tiny bit green, but you can't taste or see them at all in the baked bread.  For some unexplained reason the bottom 1/2" of the crumb was closed but the rest was OK,  more open and fluffy.

The crust was crispy and crunchy when it came out of the oven due to leaving it in the oven for 10 minutes after turning the oven off and leaving the door open.  It softened and was chewy later.  The taste was very subtle, nicely savory.  The bread was baked on a stone and steamed the normal way with a Pyrex loaf pan half full of water and a 12" cast iron skillet heating up for 45 minutes at 500 F.  When the bread went in to bake a cup of hot water was tossed into the skillet.  The oven was down to 450 F for steaming 15 minutes.   Then the steaming apparatus was removed, the oven turned down again to 400 F,  the convection was turned on to bake until the center of the loaf was 208 F. 

A nice bread that I will make again.  I like breads with barley, WW and spelt taking up some room with the white but, I will skip the avocado next time.  I guess I will keep the yogurt to help wit the sour which was medium for this bread and pleasant.  It toasted nicely and was, of course, even better.  This is a good sandwich bread for sure.

Thanks to isand66 for the recipe and inspiration.   Check his blog for the other recipe details. 

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