alfanso's blog

Last week I posted about Abel's Semolina with pistachios, and I wasn't all A-Ok with my results, so back to the drawing board for me.  MTloaf correctly pointed out that I had miscalculated the overall hydration at 70%, rather than the 75% it would seem to be.  The correction to the formula sheet was made.  

I still stubbornly stuck to my tritordeum T150 levain but decided that the pistachios weren't the ticket for me.  Pistachios were subbed out and replaced by an equal weight (not percentage) of toasted pine nuts.  While reliving the occasional problem child my parents found in their stead, I also went whole hog and added both fennel seeds and soaked (and drained) golden raisins.  Also decided to roll the two baguettes in sesame seeds for the coupe de grâce.  The third in the line-up is a batard.  Still filled with the same internal goodies but no sesame seeds.

The baguettes are somewhat flat, potentially from the amount of fruit and nuts.  As before, the additions create a problem however minimal, for getting a straight barrel on the baguette.   Minimally open crumb, again the suspected culprit may be  the amount of additions.

Regardless, this is one delicious bread, a fantastic combination of seeds nut and fruit with a great flavor profile, almost like a dessert.  A perfect bread to slather a soft cheese across and break out a bottle of wine.

As of now, I still haven't cut into the batard to review the internal workings.  I've been on and off experimenting with proving the dough on the couche seam side up, something that I've virtually never done until very recently.  As promoted by Abel and a few baguette compatriots here.  So far I'm not sold on the change. 

340g x 2 long batards, 720g x 1 batard. 

Abel Sierra (abelbreadgallery) posted a new creation of his the other day.  Liking what he posts, as well as semolina breads, I knew I'd be jumping right on it.

Instead of his recommended Caputo #1 for the levain I used some remaining tritordeum flour, which seems to have WW character.  With no step by step to go by, I relied on my standard sesame w semolina methodology.

• 3 stage levain build
• Autolyse with levain 30 min.
• Basinage with salted water, ~10%.  Rest 5 min.
• 50 French Folds, 5 min. rest, 50 FFs.  Into covered oiled bowl.
• Letter folds at 50 & 100 min.  Final 20 min. rest.  Pistachios incorporated at first set of LFs.
• Divide, pre-shape, 20 min. rest, shape & onto floured couche.  Cover and retard for 16 hours.
• Preheat oven 480dF, pre-steam, load dough, oven to 460dF for bake.
• 13 min steam, release steam and rotate loaves, 12 min. plus 2 min venting. 

The crumb is curiously dense.  The population of pistachios is significant, for a baguette shape the nut seems a little too large.  For whatever reason not overly impressed with this one, although the shaping and scoring seem fine. When fruit or nuts are incorporated into a slender form, as these are, the sleek barrel shape is more difficult to achieve.

They could have been baked a half shade darker, but being semolina based, they exhibit a golden color naturally.  I'll leave it to Benny to show us how bake this with an open crumb.

300g x 4 skinny long batards

MTloaf touted this bread to me recently and while I didn't immediately get on the stick, I kept it off the back burner.  So here goes.

MT was right.  This is a fantastic tasting bread.  As I hand mix, it was a bit of a fight to perform French Folds, adding  two Letter folds at 50 & 100 min of a total of 150 min BF.  

Immediately divided and pre-shaped using my very recently acquired Abelbreadgallery method.  A 20 min rest and shaped.  Very easy and the dough, for all of its semi-stiffness, was a simple pleasure to roll out.  Couched and retarded for about 16 hours, and baked from retard with just a 15 minute warm-up.

Being a new formula, especially one with lot of seeds, I didn't know what to expect, but it baked just beautifully.

I kept to my brand new regimen of a 3 stage build for the 100% hydration all AP levain, limited my FF total to 125 with a 5 min. rest halfway, and continued to exhibit kid gloves on the subsequent handling of the dough.

This bread is surely a keeper.

~340g x 3 long batards, plus two teeny batards.  Just for fun. 

Rustic/Country Baguettes with Sunflower Seeds.

Abel Sierra (Abelbreadgallery) sent a DM to me last week with a link to his new video where he makes this bread.   I asked if I could post this and he said yes.  And of course I wouldn't post it without giving it a whirl myself.  In this case, three whirls to get a version of the formula that I was satisfied with.

On the first run I soaked both sunflower and flax seeds.  Attempting to incorporate during the tail end of 200 French Folds the sliminess of the flax seeds created a problem, and I wasn't happy with the outcome.  For the second run I eliminated the soaker part as well as the flax seeds, and bumped the hydration up a few clicks.  Still not content, I ran this third time, dropping the FFs down from 200 to 125, incorporating the toasted seeds at the first and only Letter Fold.  I also combined a 20 minute proofing on countertop and 2 hours of retard.

Abel's formula is posted at the bottom.

My changes to his formula:

• 100% hydration WW levain instead of Abel's AP.
• French Folds - limited to 125, split in two.
• No soaker, just toasted sunflower seeds.
• Combine countertop and refrigerator proof.
• Rolled out to the longer 20 inch version, 50% longer than my standard long batards.  Lost 1 inch during bake.

Note, these don't like to exhibit a dark and rich color on the crust.  For a 27% WW flour mix, these had a moderately open crumb.  The flavor is quite nice and rich and the crust is thin and quite crunchy.  Still working on shaping, a bit more difficult due to the seeds.

350g x 3 baguettes. 

Here is a screen capture from Abel's video.

And the formula as given to me by Abel.

Ingredients:

700 gr bread flour, 300 gr wholewheat flour, 700 ml cool water (10-12ºC), 200 gr liquid levain, 21 gr salt, 6 gr fresh yeast, 150 gr of soaked seeds (toasted sunflower + raw flaxseeds + water)

Method:

- Make autolyse mixing bread flour, wholewheat and cool water, just 1-2 minutes in slow speed. Let rest 30 minutes.

- Add levain, salt and yeast. Mix 7-8 minutes in slow speed, and then 3 minutes in second speed. Add seeds at the end of the mixing process.

- The temperature of the dough should be around 24-25ºC at the end of the mixing process.

- Let the dough rest 1 hour. Make one fold and let rest 1 hour more. 

- Divide in pieces of 350 gr. Preshape and let rest 15-20 minutes.

- Shape baguettes and place over linen couche with the seam up.

- Let proof 45 minutes to 1 hour.

- Bake at high temperature. I suggest 17 minutes at 260-240ºC, then release the steam and reduce temperature to 230-210ºC the last 6 minutes.

I guess this V3.0, or V2.1, or V1.2.  Who's knows, and more importantly who cares?

Plans and results laid out the other day, I thought I could do better.

Changes from last time:

• Shorten BF from 70 min to 45 w/folds at 25 and 45 minutes.  Because...
• Place BF vessel into retard for about 6-8 hours.
• Divide and placed on couche, back into overnight retard.
• Exhibit even greater gentle care in handling the dough both onto and off the couche.
• Scored the slightly stiffer dough with my regular lame other than the other day's ceramic blade. 

Otherwise, all other aspects of the process were the same.

Results:

• Better and more consistent shaping
• Darker crust
• Much less raw flour on surface
• Some amount of oven spring, these are certainly a little more robust than prior
• Noticeable bloom, although still relatively slight.

Unsure of whether the flavor profile was enhanced due to extended BF and retard.  But I think that this is the method I'll use when these come up on my "what shall I bake next" wheel.

Formula is in the link the top.

The "cover" photo is just prior to bake, what they look like on my new wide oven peel (used for full length baguettes).

Today, vs. the other day.  Richer crust coloration.

Today, vs. the other day.  Due to lack of any surface tension, these are delicate and more difficult to score.

95g x 8 dinner / hamburger rolls

Another back burner bread I'd wanted to get around to.  I've made the Weekend Bakery version a few times, but never in the "true" rustique spirit of things - basically a simple nearly unshaped AP bread.  Dump the BF dough on the counter, square it off nice and neat, and divide into rectangles or squares.  Nothing more.

The Hamelman version also uses a 50% fermented flour poolish but is a few clicks wetter at 69% hydration.  After the second of two folds during the 70 minute BF, it's time to ensure that the oven is fired up and preheating as things move fast. A final 20 minute rest after the second fold, then divide and another mere ~25 minutes before bake time.  

I made this yesterday, but was: 1) learning the error of my ways, and 2) underwhelmed by the basic blandness of the bread.  In fairness, this is a pretty unsophisticated dough as the name and description suggests.  

Time to do a reset and a V2.0.  Last night, in an effort to drive up the flavor, I dosed the poolish with all 10% of the swapped in rye flour.  Divided into "dinner / small hamburger roll" sized portions, rather than the suggested big rectangles in the Hamelman formula,  I ensured that they had a good roll in the flour to ward off yesterday's problems with sticking.  The dough at this point is so soft and fragile that the quick diagonal score across the surface looked good going in, but only allowed for the dough to expand a little.

Baked at 460dF with 13 minutes of steam and an additional 10 minutes, they plump up nicely with a crisp crust and opened well for an under 70% hydration dough.  The added rye gave the anticipated boost to the flavor.  Although they have a distinctly ciabatta-like appearance, they are definitely not the same bread.

The kids nestled in for their short nap.

Just another mini lunch sandwich.

1000 g x 9 dinner rolls.

Yes, I've posted this before, but this is a slight mod.  2 changes from my past excursions.  This is a first time combining two distinct olives into one bread.  Okay, minor news.  More importantly, since enduring my Martin Philip Classic Baguette w/IDY marathon, I've changed out the timing on divide and shape.  

Whereas I always would retard the dough for a few hours pre-divide, I now go the more traditional route - complete the BF and then go right into the divide, pre-shape and shape phase.  It adds an additional up front half hour onto my "work day" but I really have been enjoying the comfortable feel of taking the dough directly from BF to shape without the intermediary retard for x hours first.  And I like the feel of the dough in my hands at this stage.

*For clarity - I should note that once the dough is shaped and placed on the couche it is then retarded for 12 or so hours before baking. * (added June 13)

I think I'll stick with this method for a while going forward.

370g x 4 baguettes/long batards

If you are new to SD baking and still having problems with high hydration and complicated doughs, don't get your knickers all in a knot.  Instead drop the hydration down and get a solid footing with lower hydration breads first.  Although these are baguettes, the dough can easily be adapted to batards or boules.  So...

Two easy formulas that I recommend for you to get that feeling of accomplishment and dough handling skills are:

• Jeffrey Hamelman's Vermont SD at 65% hydration
• and this lovely bread, Jeffrey Hamelman Pain au Levain with WW at 68% hydration.

Make these in whatever shape you wish and feel an instant accomplishment and surety as another step to moving up the hydration ladder.

410g x 3 baguettes/long batards

Another blog entry aimed at our wave of new levain/SD bakers on TFL.

What happens when I don't refresh my starter, but then decide to make a bread?  I last refreshed my 100% hydration AP starter either on April 24th or May 1st.  My refresh history chart is a little unsure of itself.  But I had plenty of starter/levain ready to use.  Now, I know the drill because I've been there before, but many of you may not.

As you can see, my 3 or 4 week old levain, which sits in the back of my refrigerator is generally as potent as had I refreshed it the prior day.  There are a lot of new folks here who seem get somewhat bent out of shape if their itching to bake but their starter isn't refreshed just that day.  

Do not worry.  While it is true that my levain has been around for a few years, just make sure that your levain is robust enough.  And then skip a day, or two, or seven days after your last refresh.  And then scale it out and add it to your mix.  You may just be surprised at how strong your starter/levain is!  

Hamelman Vermont SD.  90% AP flour, 10% rye, 65% hydration.  310g x 4 baguettes.

Again, for those who think that you can't get open crumb without high hydration.  This is 65% hydration...

For all the hundreds of baguettes that I’ve made these past 5 plus years, it is a curiosity that I have never made a traditional French baguette.  For the record, as enticing a standard French baguette may be, they are often too unexciting, flavor wise.  

They may be a national symbol, akin to the Eiffel Tower and the beret, their place well cemented in the culture.  The best of them carry a bright and sparkling if not forceful flavor, and the rest serve as a landing pad for a sandwich or honored place at the dinner table.

Once I became enamored with the Bouabsa baguette, there was no turning back.  I never looked to create the French baguette.  Until now.  Recently Dan posted a link to some King Arthur videos of isolation baking, including one by Martin Philip that I homed in on.  Here he is creating the french baguette, and thus inspired me to take my own shot at it.

And after 8 bakes, I think that I am finally there, each bake modified slightly in order to create a baguette that meets my standard.  My first bake was a wild goose chase due to the wrong formula link under the video.

I rewatched the video where I saw that the formula being held up to the camera was not the same as the one in the link!  Time to go with bake #2.  And so on, each time trying a little something different.  Until finally I started to piece the puzzle together.  8 bakes in 11 days.  I am decidedly not a natural, but rather one who is often willing to put the time in to figure it out piece by piece.  Usually I get lucky on a first bake, but not here in these uncharted waters.  And not dissimilar to my multiple consecutive bakes in search of an acceptable pan de cristal.

One problem I had was that I was pussy-footing around the shaping phase too much.  Trying to be gentle with this soft and pliable dough, I was not creating the appropriate surface tension.  But that began to resolve on bakes 7 & 8 after another video review of Mr. Philip’s shaping technique.

Here is the BBGA formula based on the KA recipe page... Note that I accidentally excluded the addition of the salt at mix time!

 Highlighted are a few notes on each and the progression.  Only changes from previous run are noted.

Bake #1.  375g each. Wrong formula.  Too big, too long BF, 2 S&Fs, log pre-shape, overnight retard, too low oven temp - 425dF, tight crumb.  Bland color, bland taste.  I thought the overnight retard would improve flavor.  No!

Bake #2. Mr. Philip's referenced formula.  310g each.  23% AP poolish, 90 min BF, 1 S&F, boule pre-shape, too hot oven temp - 500dF, tight crumb.  Scorched from excessive heat, flavor improved slightly due to the "roasted" aspect.  Comparing bakes 1&2 here.

Bake #3:  23% AP/Rye poolish, 80 min BF, 460dF oven.  Improved everything - but got away from basic formula with addition of rye flour in poolish.  First good scoring.

Bake #4.  23% all AP poolish again, continued good scoring.

stubby image for unknown reason...

Bake #5. 50% AP poolish, sticky mix due to amount of liquid preferment, back to log pre-shape, rolled in flour before couche, reverted back to less impressive scoring.  I though the increased preferment would improve flavor.  Not really.

Bake #6.  Back to 23% poolish, log pre-shape again, continued overly gentle handling of shaping - created a lack of surface tension, displayed in unimpressive scoring.

Bake #7.  Improvement over #6 due mostly to familiarity of process and dough handling, more aggressive shaping to force better surface tension, 

Bake #8.  putting it all together!  Short log pre-shape, retard for 4 hrs.  Still not as open a crumb as expected, but flavor has now improved significantly over original bake.

again, stubby image...

 This is what happens when the wife wants to see if we could vacuum seal a baguette to "keep it fresh longer".  Don't try this at home kids!