Benito's blog

It is time for another two pizza nights as it had been some time since our last pizzas.  If you haven’t tried tuna on pizza you owe it to yourself to try it.  Make sure you buy good Italian tuna in olive oil, not the North American canned tuna because the Italian tuna is so much better.  Since trying it several years ago I just can’t eat other canned tuna anymore, they are just lacking something in both texture and flavour.

For 4 9” pizzas NY style thin crust 200 g each 

Levain Build 100% hydration 35 g needed 

Baked in 9-10” cast iron skillet 

433 g 00 flour

43 g Whole grain flour (50:50 whole spelt:whole wheat)

4.76 g Diastatic malt 1%

252 g water and

41 g water hold out

8.43 g salt 1.71%

2.5 g sugar 0.5%

4.8 g olive oil 1.0%

Total flour 493.5

Total water 310.5 

63% hydration water only

64% including olive oil

(1) In your mixer bowl(or by hand) dissolve the Starter in all of the Final Dough Water except the HOLD OUT Water.  (Add diastatic malt too)

(2) Mix in the flours until well hydrated 

(3) Allow to fermentolyse for 1hr 

(4) Mix in the remaining HOLD OUT Water, salt, and sugar mix until well-incorporated. 

(5) Slowly drizzle in the oil until well combined. 

(6) Beat or knead by hand until dough is moderately developed. The dough will be sticky and elastic. If kneading by hand, use slightly wet hands and avoid adding more flour. 

(6a) Allow to ferment for 1 hour before proceeding to (7)

(7) Oil your hands and a suitable container. 

(8) Shape into a tight ball.  I divide the ball into four smaller ones each for one 9” pizza at this point.  Each goes into a small oiled bowl and allowed to proof for 1 hour before starting cold fermentation.

(9) Cold ferment in the refrigerator for 48-96hrs. 

(10) Remove to warm up to room temp for at 3-6hr or so before use at room temperature, or you can ferment 2-3 hours at 80ºF.  One hour before the dough is ready, pre-heat your oven to roast at 550°F or as high as it will go.

(11) Stretch the balls into your desired size.  Top your pizzas, brush the cornicione with water then roast at 550F (as high as your oven will go) until the crust is browned and the cheese has melted. Spin the pie at least once to avoid burning due to oven hot spots. 

(12) I bake in a preheat cast iron skillet that heats in the oven while it is pre-heating.  I set the oven to roast and bake the pizzas in the cast iron skillet on my baking steel so that the skillet is quite close to the top of the oven.  It only takes 6 mins to fully bake my pizzas.

I like to top with grated low moisture mozzarella cheese, then top with the marinated mix vegetables.  I used a combination of artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, hot banana peppers and Kalamata olives.  I tossed these in a bowl with some cracked peppercorns and a little red wine vinegar and make sure I give each handful a squeeze to rid them of excess liquid before putting them on the pizza.  The tuna which has been drained and loosened in a bowl is placed on the pizzas last in small clumps prior to baking.  I had some left over parsley that I sprinkled on the pizza prior to slicing.  I often like to put something on the pizza that isn’t baked for some contrast.

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My final bake of 2021, a bit overproofed I’d say based on the bit of spreading. We’ll see when it is sliced, it could also have more hydration than the flours could take, that is another possibility to explain the spread. Without the porridge the hydration is 80% with the porridge the hydration is over 100%.
Unfortunately I didn’t weigh the grains, black sesame seeds with the water and milk in the pot prior to cooking them, so I don’t know what the final weight was since I had to add quite a bit more milk to compensate for the water cooking off.

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The levain is put together prior to bed and allowed to ferment at 76°F.

In the morning, the whole wheat flour is added to the water and salt to dissolve the salt and quickly hydrate the bran in the whole wheat. 30 mins later when the levain is at peak, it is added to the slurry and the levain is broken down as well as you can with your hands or a silicone spatula. Next the bread flour is added and mixed. After a brief rest slap and folds x 150 were done to start to develop the gluten. Next the dough was placed back into the bowl and the hold back water was added and Rubaud mixing was done until the dough fully absorbed the water and there was good gluten development. After a 30 mins rest, the porridge with black sesame seeds were added to the dough through a series of stretch and folds until it was well incorprorated. The pH at this point was 5.48. The dough was moved to the proofing box to ferment at 80°F.

30 mins later a bench letterfold was performed. Then every 30 mins a coil fold was done until the dough felt strong. 4 were required. The dough was left alone until the pH reached 4.37 at which point it was shaped and placed in the banneton and allowed to warm proof until the pH reached 4.11. It was then transferred to the freezer.

While the dough chilled, the oven was preheated and setup for open steam baking at 500°F with the cast iron skillet in the oven. 30 mins later boiling water was poured into the loaf pan with Sylvia towel in place and moved to the oven. Once the oven reached 500°F the dough was flipped out of the banneton, rice flour was brushed off and the dough was misted with water. Dark cocoa was then sprinkled on the dough. Excess was brushed off and then the surface was rubbed with a hand to create a thin paste. Water was once again misted on and once again rubbed in by hand.

The dough was scored and transferred to the oven. 250 mL of boiling water was poured into the cast iron skillet. The oven temperature was dropped to 450°F and dough baked for 25 mins. The oven was vented removing both the cast iron skillet and the loaf pan with Sylvia towel. The oven temperature was dropped to 425°F and the bread is baked for another 25 mins rotating as needed.

I’m not sure why I pushed the fermentation further than I should have, I usually shape when the pH drops 1.0 and then bake when the pH drops a further 0.3. Oh well, should have trusted my previous bakes and the pH data gleaned from them.

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I received a 2 kg bag of Anita’s Organic Mill sprouted whole spelt last week and was excited to try working with more spelt than I have in the past. I haven’t had the best of results with spelt. As you know The gliadin/glutenin ratio is significantly higher in spelt at 3.5, than in wheat at 2. As a result spelt’s gluten is more extensible and less elastic. This typically results in spelt loaves spreading and not achieving good oven spring. That has been my experience with whole spelt. To try to counter this one can combine spelt with a stronger flour, reduce the hydration, bake in a pan or add vital wheat gluten. I’m sure there are other things one can do, but I tried three of these four things to see if I could bake a good 100% whole spelt loaf. I did alright, but think that more VWG might still be helpful.

Sweet Stiff Levain
• 53g whole spelt flour (stoneground)
• 24g water
• 18g light brown sugar
• 18g sourdough starter ~100% hydration
1:1.33:2.9:1 starter:water:flour:sugar

Tangzhong classic 1:5 ratio
• 89g milk
• 18g Whole Spelt flour (Stoneground)

Dough Dry Ingredients
• 15 g vital wheat gluten
· 424 g whole spelt four (Sprouted)
• 30 g sugar
• 7g salt 1.6%

Dough Wet Ingredients
• 180g milk (I added 181 g)
• 50g egg beaten (about 1 lg egg)
• 60g butter melted

Pre-bake Wash
• 1 egg beaten
• 1 Tbsp milk

Post-bake Wash
• 1 Tbsp butter (optional)

Instructions
Levain
Mix the levain ingredients in a jar or pyrex container with space for at least 300% growth.
Press down with your knuckles to create a uniform surface and to push out air.
At a temperature of 76ºF, it typically takes up to 10-12 hours for this sweet stiff levain to be at peak.
Tangzhong
In a sauce pan set on med-low heat, whisk the milk and flour until blended. Then cook for several minutes until thickened, stirring regularly with a spoon or heat-resistant spatula. Let cool in the pan or, for faster results, in a new bowl. Theoretically it should reach 65ºC (149ºF) but I don’t find I need to measure the temperature as this gelatinizes at this temperature.

Dough
In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the milk, egg, tangzhong, salt, sugar and levain. Mix and then break up the levain into smaller pieces. Next add the flour and vital wheat gluten. Mix on low speed and drizzle in the melted butter. Once incorporated increase the speed gradually to medium. Mix at medium until the gluten is moderately well developed, approximately 10 mins. Add the sesame seeds gradually and then continue to mix until the dough is fully developed about 10 mins. You should be able to pull a good windowpane, not quite as good as a white flour because the bran will interrupt the windowpane somewhat.

Shape the dough into a tight ball, cover in the bowl and ferment for 2.5-3.5 hours at 82ºF. There may be some rise visible at this stage.
You can next place the dough into the fridge to chill the dough for about 1.5 hours, this makes rolling the dough easier, remember if you do so they final proof will take longer. Alternatively, you can do a cold retard in the fridge overnight.

Prepare your pans by greasing them or line with parchment paper. Scrape the dough out onto a clean counter top. Lightly flour the bench. Transfer the dough onto the bench and divide it into four. I like to weigh them to have equal sized lobes. Shape each tightly into a boule, allow to rest 5 mins. Using a rolling pin roll each ball out and then letterfold. Turn 90* and using a rolling pin roll each out to at least 8”. Letterfold again from the sides so you have a long narrow dough. Then using a rolling pin, roll flatter but keeping the dough relatively narrow. The reason to so this extra letterfold is that the shorter fatter rolls when placed in the pan will not touch the sides of the pan. This allows the swirled ends to rise during final proof. Next roll each into a tight roll with some tension. Arrange the rolls of dough inside your lined pan alternating the direction of the swirls. This should allow a greater rise during proof and in the oven.

Cover and let proof for 6-8 hours, longer time if you chilled your dough for shaping. I proof until the top of the dough comes to within 1 cm of the top edge of the pan.

Preheat the oven to 350F and brush the dough with the egg-milk wash. Just prior to baking brush with the egg-milk wash again.

Bake the loaves for 50 minutes or until the internal temperature is at least 190ºF, rotating as needed to get even browning. Shield your loaf if it gets brown early in the baking process. After 50 mins remove the bread from the pan and bake a further 10 mins by placing the loaf directly in the oven on the rack with the oven turned down to 325ºF. You can brush the top of the loaf with butter if you wish at this point while the bread is still hot to keep the top crust soft.

This loaf isn’t too bad for a first try with 100% whole spelt. What do you think I can do to improve it? I’m thinking of using a bit more VWG say increase it to 20 g.

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We are visiting my in-laws for Christmas, it has been so long since we’ve done this, and we have to bring bread right? A baker cannot arrive empty handed. So with my sister in law’s taste in mind I had to bake a sandwich bread. She practically lives on buttered toast. To try to make a variation on my other whole wheat Hokkaido loaves I decided to add my favourite seeds to this loaf, black and white sesame seeds. I realized it has been ages since I’ve added seeds to my breads so it was long overdue. I reduce the dough weight a bit to compensate for the addition of the seeds. I added the seeds after the dough was moderately developed. The rest is my usual MO.

Recipe for a 9”x4”x4” pullman pan

Sweet Stiff Levain
• 53g whole wheat flour
• 24g water
• 18g light brown sugar
• 18g sourdough starter ~100% hydration
1:1.33:2.9:1 starter:water:flour:sugar

Tangzhong 1:5 ratio
• 18g Whole Wheat flour
• 89g milk

Dough Dry Ingredients
• 8 g vital wheat gluten
· 400 g whole wheat
• 30 g sugar
• 7g salt 1.6%

Dough Wet Ingredients
• 191g milk
• 50g egg (about 1 lg egg)
• 60g butter

60 g of mixed black and white sesame seeds

Pre-bake Wash
• 1 egg beaten
• 1 Tbsp milk

Instructions
Levain
Mix the levain ingredients in a jar or pyrex container with space for at least 300% growth.
Press down with your knuckles to create a uniform surface and to push out air.
At a temperature of 76ºF, it typically takes up to 10-12 hours for this sweet stiff levain to be at peak.

Tangzhong
In a sauce pan set on med-low heat, whisk the milk and flour until blended. Then cook for several minutes until thickened, stirring regularly with a spoon or heat-resistant spatula. Let cool in the pan or, for faster results, in a new bowl. Theoretically it should reach 65ºC (149ºF) but I don’t find I need to measure the temperature as this gelatinizes at this temperature.

Dough
In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the milk, egg, tangzhong, salt, sugar and levain. Mix and then break up the levain into smaller pieces. Next add the flour and vital wheat gluten. Mix on low speed and drizzle in the melted butter. Once incorporated increase the speed gradually to medium. Mix at medium until the gluten is moderately well developed, approximately 10 mins. Add the sesame seeds gradually and then continue to mix until the dough is fully developed about 10 mins. You should be able to pull a good windowpane, not quite as good as a white flour because the bran will interrupt the windowpane somewhat.

Shape the dough into a tight ball, cover in the bowl and ferment for 2.5 - 3.5 hours at 82ºF. There may be some rise visible at this stage.
You can next place the dough into the fridge to chill the dough for about 1.5 hours, this makes rolling the dough easier, remember if you do so they final proof will take longer. Alternatively, you can do a cold retard in the fridge overnight.

Prepare your pans by greasing them or line with parchment paper.
Scrape the dough out onto a clean counter top. Lightly flour the bench. Transfer the dough onto the bench and divide it into four. I like to weigh them to have equal sized lobes. Shape each tightly into a boule, allow to rest 5 mins. Using a rolling pin roll each ball out and then letterfold. Turn 90* and using a rolling pin roll each out to at least 8”. Letterfold again from the sides so you have a long narrow dough. Then using a rolling pin, roll flatter but keeping the dough relatively narrow.  The reason to so this extra letterfold is that the shorter fatter rolls when placed in the pan will not touch the sides of the pan.  This allows the swirled ends to rise during final proof.  Next roll each into a tight roll with some tension. Arrange the rolls of dough inside your lined pan alternating the direction of the swirls. This should allow a greater rise during proof and in the oven.

Cover and let proof for 6-8 hours, longer time if you chilled your dough for shaping. I proof until the top of the dough comes to within 1 cm of the top edge of the pan.

Preheat the oven to 350F and brush the dough with the egg-milk wash. Just prior to baking brush with the egg-milk wash again.

Bake the loaves for 50 minutes or until the internal temperature is at least 190ºF, rotating as needed to get even browning. Shield your loaf if it gets brown early in the baking process. After 50 mins remove the bread from the pan and bake a further 10 mins by placing the loaf directly in the oven on the rack with the oven turned down to 325ºF. You can brush the top of the loaf with butter if you wish at this point while the bread is still hot to keep the top crust soft.

Enjoy the beautiful scent of this bread with hints of toasted sesame seeds.

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I’ve never had Bara Brith before, it is a traditional Welsh bread, however, it can be made more like a cake using baking powder.  A baker from the UK posted her recipe which seemed so simple so I decided to try baking it.  As I kid I hated Christmas cake, but as with so many things as I’ve gotten older I’ve grown to like more things I used to dislike.  The original recipe calls for soaking the fruit in tea, however, I’m used to Christmas cakes having fruit soaked in liquor so I used a combination of things left over in my liquor cabinet, Irish Mist, 12 year old rum and Sortilege which is a maple syrup blueberry liquor.  For the fruit, I used raisins, sultanas, currants and dried sour cherries.  The original recipe was for a smaller pan so I adjusted the ingredients for a larger pan.  It also called for self raising flour which I do not have, so I’ve approximated it in the recipe below.  Finally, I do not have spice mix which I understand is a staple in Britain.  I instead made a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, coriander, ginger and allspice.  Usually this blend include mace which I did not have.

This is a very simple and tasty fruit cake from Wales called Bara Brith which literally means “mottled bread”. 

There are two traditional recipes for this, one which uses yeast and and the other which does not. The first is more like a bread and the second more like a cake. Both are delicious sliced and served with plenty of butter.

The following recipe is the yeast-free version so it’s very quick. But the day before you make it the fruit needs be to soaked in tea or (liquor). This adds flavour and makes the cake beautifully moist.

Ingredients for 8.5” x 4.5” pan  

38.25/30.375 = multiply by 1.26

504 g dried mixed fruit 
378 ml or 1⁄2 pint warm black tea or (liquor)
189 g muscovado sugar (or brown sugar)
1 ¼  tsp mixed spice 
⅝  (½ + ⅛) tsp cinnamon 
315 g self-raising flour =

(291 g flour + 13.8 g salt + 9.7 g baking powder)
1.25 (62.5g) egg, beaten

Method

In a large bowl, soak the fruit in strained tea and leave overnight.  You will be adding all the other ingredients into this bowl so a large bowl is necessary and measuring the soaking liquid is necessary as well as most of the liquid in the recipe is the soaking liquid.
Next day, preheat the oven to 180°C/360°F/Gas mark 4/5 .
Grease a large 900g/2lb loaf tin, and line the bottom with baking parchment (sticking it to the sides with little dabs of butter).
Mix the remaining ingredients into the fruit mixture and beat well.
Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 1-1.1/2  hours, or until a cocktail stick inserted into the middle comes out clean. 
Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then depan and  place on a cooling rack, removing the baking parchment. Serve with cold butter. 
Wrap in foil to keep moist and place in a cake tin. This cake keeps extremely well.

www.theenglishpantry.uk

I think in retrospect the cake needs butter included in the recipe.  Marie says that one traditionally butters each slice when eaten, but I’d like my butter in the crumb.  

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We are having Christmas dinner with my side of the family this evening and I offered to bring bread, of course.  My partner and I often make a meal out of roasted vegetables and butternut squash is in the rotation.  Some of these squashes are huge and more than we can eat at a sitting so we have leftovers.  Incorporating some of this into a bread seemed a good way of using up some leftover squash so I decided to make these rolls.

8 buns in 9” round pan

Ingredients

Sweet Stiff Starter 

• 45g bread flour 

• 20g water 

• 15g light brown sugar 

• 15g sourdough starter ~100% hydration 

Tangzhong classic 1:5 ratio

• 85g milk 

• 15g Whole Wheat flour   

Roasted Mashed Butternut Squash

• 70 g

Dough Dry Ingredients 

• 212g bread flour

      · 91 g whole wheat        

• 34g sugar

• 5.88g salt 

Dough Wet Ingredients 

• 125g milk 

• 50g egg beaten (about 1 large egg)

• 56g butter melted. 

Pre-bake Wash 

• 1 egg beaten

• 1 Tbsp milk

Post-bake Wash 

• 1 Tbsp butter

Instructions

Starter 

Mix the starter ingredients in a jar or pyrex container with space for at least 300% growth.

Press down to create a uniform surface and to push out air. This reduces drying and allows you to see actual CO2 aeration over time.

At 76ºF, it typically takes 10-12 hours for this sweet stiff levain to be at peak.

Tangzhong 

In a sauce pan set on med-low heat, whisk the milk and flour until blended. Then cook for several minutes until thickened, stirring regularly with a spoon or heat-resistant spatula. Let cool in the pan or, for faster results, in a new bowl.

Dough 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the milk, egg, tangzhong, salt, sugar and levain.  Mix and then break up the levain into smaller pieces.  Next add the flours.   Mix on low speed and drizzle in the melted butter.  Once incorporated increase the speed gradually to medium.  Mix at medium until the gluten is moderately well developed, approximately 10-15 mins.  Next add the mashed butternut squash gradually mixing until we’ll incorporated and the gluten well developed. You should be able to pull a good windowpane, not quite as good as a white flour because the bran and squash will interrupt the windowpane somewhat.

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Shape the dough into a tight ball, cover in the bowl and ferment for 4-6 hours at 82ºF. 

You can next place the dough into the fridge to chill the dough for about 1.5 hours or overnight, this makes rolling the dough easier, remember if you do so they final proof will take longer.

Prepare your pans by greasing them or lining them with parchment paper. You can make 8 rolls in a 9" round pan as.

Scrape the dough out onto a clean counter top. There is no need for more than a tiny amount of flour.  Divide into 8 equal portions the. Shape tightly into boules. 

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Cover and let proof for 2-4 hours (more if you put the dough in the refrigerator).  I proof until the dough fills the pan and passes the poke test. 

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Preheat the oven to 350F and brush the dough with the egg-milk wash.

Bake the rolls uncovered for 30-35 minutes or until the internal temperature is at least 190F. Cover if your rolls get brown early in the baking process.

Remove the bread from the oven but not the pans, brush the tops with butter while hot, and then let cool for 10 minutes before pulling the bread from the pans. You may need to slide a butter knife down the sides of the pan to loosen the bread, but I have found parchment paper to be unnecessary.  Sprinkle with fleur de sel if you wish after brushing with butter. 

After the bread is completely cooled, store it in a plastic bag at room temp for a week or longer.

I haven’t had tons of success with spelt in any great quantity, but didn’t want to give up on this ancient grain.  It seems to taste good when paired with Kamut aka khorasan also an ancient grain.  Gluten is made up of gliadin and glutenin.  Gliadin is the substance that gives the stretchy feel to dough, and glutenin provides the elasticity and the structure to ensure that it holds its shape.  While wheat has a balance of gliadin to glutenin , spelt has a higher ratio of gliadin to glutenin. This makes the gluten in it much more fragile, which means it breaks down more easily.  To try to combat this I’ve added vital wheat gluten to try to help improve the quality of the gluten in this bread.

I once again sifted the bran out in order to develop the gluten in the sifted flours separately.  However, this didn’t go exactly as planned.  I decided to sift both the whole spelt and whole Kamut, but I didn’t take into account the larger particle size of Kamut.  As a result quite a bit of the Kamut ended up being sifted out with the bran.  I went ahead and scalded the bran/Kamut with 200% by weight of boiling water.  Unlike the fluffy bran that usually results from this scald, the bran/Kamut scald was much heavier so definitely had Kamut flour in it in addition to the flours.

As a result of such a great portion of the water going into the scald, there was much less water to hydrate the levain and sifted flours, the hydration would have been far to low.  So instead of the planned 80% hydration I gradually added water when mixing the levain and flours and the resultant hydration of this bread went up to 92%, which was much much higher than I thought would work for a spelt loaf.

Whole Spelt 325 g

Whole Kamut 117 g

VWG 17 g

Salt 9.7 g

Levain build overnight 76ºF 60% hydration

Starter 11 g + Water 26 g + Whole Kamut 44

10 hours pH 4.17 in the morning at mix.

Scalded Bran

Bran sifted 124 g and 248 g boiling water then refrigerated overnight

Dough mix in AM

174 g water, 9.7 g salt and all levain - break down levain in water

Next add sifted mix of spelt, Kamut and Vital wheat gluten rested 15 mins.  Kneaded to moderate development.

Add scalded bran/kamut through a series of stretch and folds in the bowl and then kneaded on the counter to fully incorporate.  Rest 30 mins.  pH 5.5

Bench letterfold pH 5.5

Then a series of coil folds every 30 mins x 3.5 (the last set was a half coil) pH falling from 5.5 to 5.25 after the last half coil.

Shaping was done when the pH reached a delta of 1.0 or pH 4.5.  Placed in a banneton and allowed bench proofing until pH reached 4.22 then placed in freezer until oven heated to 500ºF for baking.

Bake with steam x 25 mins 

This is where I made another error, I was distracted and forgot to drop the temperature during the bake so rather than my usual 450ºF then 420-425ºF the temperature stayed at 500ºF for the whole of the bake.  When I realized this there was 5-10 mins left of baking but I noticed how dark the crust was and pulled the rather dark loaf out of the oven.  I wonder if the oven spring could have been better if I had baked at a lower temperature?

In any event, decent oven spring with very little spread, so I’m not too mad about this bake.

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Recipe for a 9”x4”x4” pullman pan

Sweet Stiff Starter 

• 53g whole wheat flour 

• 24g water 

• 18g light brown sugar 

• 18g sourdough starter ~100% hydration 

1:1.33:2.9:1  starter:water:flour:sugar

Tangzhong classic 1:5 ratio

• 89g milk

• 18g Whole Wheat flour   

Dough Dry Ingredients 

• 8 g vital wheat gluten

      · 400 g whole wheat      

• 30 g sugar 

• 7g salt  1.6%

Dough Wet Ingredients 

• 180g milk 

• 50g egg (about 1 lg egg)

• 60g butter 

Raisin soaker 

60 g Raisins misted with water and microwaved very briefly to hydrate, this worked really well.

Pre-bake Wash 

• 1 egg beaten

• 1 Tbsp milk

Instructions

Starter 

Mix the starter ingredients in a jar or pyrex container with space for at least 300% growth. 

Press down with your knuckles to create a uniform surface and to push out air.

At a temperature of 76ºF, it typically takes up to 10-12 hours for this sweet stiff levain to be at peak.

Tangzhong 

In a sauce pan set on med-low heat, whisk the milk and flour until blended. Then cook for several minutes until thickened, stirring regularly with a spoon or heat-resistant spatula. Let cool in the pan or, for faster results, in a new bowl.  Theoretically it should reach 65ºC (149ºF) but I don’t find I need to measure the temperature as this gélatinées at this temperature. 

Dough

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the milk, egg, tangzhong, salt, sugar and levain.  Mix and then break up the levain into smaller pieces.  Next add the flour and vital wheat gluten.  Mix on low speed and drizzle in the melted butter.  Once incorporated increase the speed gradually to medium.  Mix at medium until the gluten is well developed, approximately 15-20 mins.  You should be able to pull a good windowpane, not quite as good as a white flour because the bran will interrupt the windowpane somewhat.

Shape the dough into a tight ball, cover in the bowl and ferment for 2.5 hours at 82ºF. 

You can next place the dough into the fridge to chill the dough for about 1.5 hours, this makes rolling the dough easier, remember if you do so they final proof will take longer.

Prepare your pans by greasing them or line with parchment paper.

Scrape the dough out onto a clean counter top. Lightly flour the bench. Transfer the dough onto the bench and divide it into four. I like to weight them to have equal sized lobes. Shape each tightly into a boule, allow to rest 5 mins. Using a rolling pin roll each ball out and then letterfold. Turn 90* and using a rolling pin roll each out to at least 8”.  Top each rolled out dough with a quarter of the raisins.  Roll each into a tight roll with some tension. Arrange the rolls of dough inside your lined pan alternating the direction of the swirls. This should allow a greater rise during proof and in the oven.

Cover and let proof for 6-8 hours, longer time if you chilled your dough for shaping. I proof until the top of the dough comes to within 1 cm of the top edge of the pan.

Preheat the oven to 350F and brush the dough with the egg-milk wash.  Just prior to baking brush with the egg-milk wash again.

Bake the loaves for 50 minutes or until the internal temperature is at least 190ºF, rotating as needed to get even browning. Shield your loaf if it gets brown early in the baking process. After 50 mins remove the bread from the pan and bake a further 10 mins by placing the loaf directly in the oven on the rack with the oven turned down to 325ºF. You can brush the top of the loaf with butter if you wish at this point while the bread is still hot to keep the top crust soft.

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This one is a present, so no crumb shots unless the recipient sends me a photo.  Same procedure as my previous bake of this recipe with the only deviation being sprinkling sesame seeds on top of the dough after the second application of the egg wash.

For the detailed recipe click this link.

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"These traditional French butter cookies are a snap to make. They positively melt in your mouth and make a great addition to any holiday cookie lineup. The cardamom-and-orange combination is perfect for the holidays, but if you aren’t a fan, you could simply omit those flavourings and add a bit more vanilla."—Giselle Courteau, co-owner, Edmonton

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I’ve only heard of Sablés before and never had them.  When my brother in law sent me this recipe in interested me and since I have some cake flour that I seldom think of using I thought it was a good time to put it to use make these.  The most challenging part of making these is transferring the dough onto the cookie sheet and spreading it evenly onto the cookie tray particularly since I do not have the recommended size cookie tray.  I eventually prevailed and was able to get a pretty decently even sheet.

**I found the instructions a bit odd in that the butter and sugar aren’t creamed as is the usual method of these sorts of recipes so I put in asterisks what I did**

Prep 20 min 

Total 1 hour 50 min 

Makes 16 cookies 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups cake and pastry flour , (180 g) 

2 tsp baking powder 

1 tsp  ground cardamom 

1/2 tsp salt 

3  large egg yolks 

2/3 cup granulated sugar , (128 g) 

1 tsp vanilla 

1/2 cup + 2 tbsp unsalted butter 

1 tsp orange zest 

Topping

1 egg yolk , beaten 

2 tsp , sanding sugar 

Nutrition: 

INSTRUCTIONS: 

Line a 9×9-in. baking pan with parchment, leaving overhanging edges on 2 long sides. 

Sift flour, baking powder, cardamom and salt into a large bowl. 

Combine 3 yolks and granulated sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until thickened and pale yellow, about 2 min. Beat in vanilla until combined. Beat in flour mixture, butter and orange zest just until combined. 

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I’m not sure about the instructions, I think the dry ingredients as above are fine.  But the order in the mixer should be cream butter and sugar, then add eggs, vanilla and orange zest.  Next add the sifted flour, baking powder, cardamon and salt mixture.

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Transfer dough to prepared pan. Press down with your hands, working dough into all corners. (You may need to sprinkle a little flour on
top so it doesn’t stick to your fingers too much.) Using the flat bottom of a cup, smooth top. Refrigerate for 1 hour. 

Position rack in centre of oven, and then preheat to 350F. 

Topping: Brush top of cold dough with beaten yolk. Run the tines of a fork across dough horizontally and vertically to create a design. Sprinkle generously with sanding sugar. 

Bake until cookies are golden-brown, 25 to 30 min. Remove from oven. Immediately run a knife between parchment and pan. Lift overhanging parchment and transfer sablés to a cutting board. Cut into 16 squares. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool completely, about 30 min. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week. 

These are quite delicious and they do melt in your mouth to some degree.  I would definitely make them again.

Benny