Benito's blog

I love sour cherries and I love chocolate, so when I came across this cake recipe I knew I had to make it.

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For a 13x9-inch metal baking pan

This chocolate cherry cake recipe delivers the flavors of Black Forest cakebut requires a fraction of the commitment. There’s no days-long prep time or (let’s be honest) fussy icing, and you can use either your fresh summer cherry haul or that stash of frozen cherries you’ve had your eye on. Just promise us one thing: You’ll use sour or tart cherries, not sweet, as their tang will offset the rich chocolaty crumb. And by all means, avoid canned cherries, Technicolor maraschino cherries, and packaged cherry pie filling, all of which may contain sweeteners that could make the cake cloying.

To start you’ll toss those cherries with sugar and almond extract, then set them aside at room temperature until their juices form a flavorful syrup. You’ll only need ½ cup of this syrup for the cake batter, but save any extra to add to seltzer or use in cocktails.

For the chocolate, spring for good-quality cocoa powder since it’s the main flavoring in the cake batter. Pouring hot water over the cocoa may seem strange, but this action blooms the powder, unlocking its bold chocolate flavor. For the mix-ins, use chopped dark chocolate (bittersweet or semisweet) if you prefer it over chocolate chips.

To serve, simply dust the top of the cake with powdered sugar. Or if you want to get a little extra, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream along with chocolate fudge sauce and a dollop of whipped cream to each slice. For birthday cake vibes, decorate with swoops of cream cheese–chocolate frosting or a chocolate ganache glaze.

Ingredients

12 servings

1 lb. fresh or frozen (not thawed) pitted sour cherries (about 3 cups)

⅔ cup (134 g) granulated sugar

1 tsp. almond extract

1 cup boiling water

¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups (240-250 g) all-purpose flour

1¼ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. Diamond Crystal or ¼ tsp. Morton kosher salt

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1¼ cups (250 g) packed dark brown sugar

4 large eggs

1 cup (7 oz.) semisweet or dark chocolate chips

Powdered sugar and whipped cream to garnish (optional)

Instructions

Step 1
Toss 1 lb. fresh or frozen pitted sour cherries (about 3 cups) with ⅔ cup (134 g) sugar and 1 tsp. almond extract in a small mixing bowl and let stand at least 2 hours. Drain cherries, reserving ½ cup cherry juices.
Step 2
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 13x9-inch metal baking pan, knocking out excess flour. Whisk together 1 cup boiling water and ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process) in a small bowl until smooth, then whisk in reserved cherry juices and 1 tsp. vanilla extract.
Step 3
Whisk 2 cups (25 g) all-purpose flour, 1¼ tsp. baking soda, and ½ tsp. Diamond Crystal or ¼ tsp. Morton kosher salt in another small bowl.
Step 4
Beat 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened with 1¼ cups (250 g) packed dark brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add 4 large eggs, one egg at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture and cocoa mixture alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing at low speed until blended (batter may look curdled).
Step 5
Pour batter into pan, smoothing top, and scatter the reserved cherries and 1 cup (7 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips evenly over the batter (they’ll sink as it bakes). Bake in middle of oven until a toothpick or tester inserted in center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool cake completely in pan on a rack, then cut into squares. If using, dust with powdered sugar and serve with whipped cream.
Do ahead: The chocolate-covered cherry flavor of this cake becomes more pronounced after a day or two. Cake can be made up to 3 days ahead and kept in an airtight container at room temperature. 

This cake took 48 mins to be fully baked in the center reaching 205°F.  Although the recipe said that the cherries and chocolate chips would fall into the batter as the cake baked, that wasn’t my experience.  When I make this again I will press them into the batter a bit.

Everyone who had this cake loved it.  It is very decadent and very chocolately.  The cake did improve over the 3 days and was even better on day 3.  Make sure you use sour cherries as sweet cherries would just be too sweet for this cake.  I used dark chocolate chips and I think milk chocolate chips would be far too sweet.  I will definitely make this again, the combination of the sour cherries and chocolate are just wonderful.

Make sure your cocoa powder isn’t alkalinized (Dutch Process) as the acidity of the cocoa is needed in order to leaven the batter when it reacts with the baking soda.

My index of bakes.

I needed to get a challah baked quickly because we were hosting a last minute brunch for which I was going to bake a ham, cheese, mushroom, red pepper and onion strata.  So with little time to plan I bake this challah that relies on IDY for leavening.  I was surprised at the slight tearing that this loaf had between the strands.  At the time of baking the dough didn’t bounce back at all with the poke test.  This is usually quite a reliable sign that the challah is well fermented, but in this case it could have used a bit more time in final proofing.  Nonetheless the challah was delicious and excellent for the strata.  I cut the bread into cubes and allowed it to stale overnight, putting the strata together in the morning.

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Procedures

1. In the morning, in a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, add the IDY then water, then mix in the 4 eggs, salt, honey and oil then mix until completely combined.
2. Mix in all the flour until it forms a shaggy mass.
3. Knead the dough on the bench or in a stand mixer until it is smooth and there is moderate gluten development. The dough should be quite firm.  Mix until gluten is well developed.
4. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and cover it tightly. Ferment for about 2 hours. It should approximately double in size. 
5. To make one loaf, divide the dough into two equal portions, and divide each portion into the number of pieces needed for the type of braiding you plan to do, so divide each by 3 to make 1 six strand braided loaf.
6. Form each piece into a ball and allow them to rest, covered, for 10-20 minutes to relax the gluten.
7. Form each piece into a strand about 14” long. (I like Glezer's technique for this. On an un-floured board, flatten each piece with the palm of your hand. Using a rolling pin, roll out each piece to about ¼ inch thickness. Then roll up each piece into a tight tube. Using the palms of your hands, lengthen each piece by rolling each tube back and forth on the bench with light pressure. Start with your hands together in the middle of the tube and, as you roll it, move your hands gradually outward. Taper the ends of the tube by rotating your wrists slightly so that the thumb side of your hand is slightly elevated, as you near the ends of the tube.).  You can consider rolling each rope of dough in two different types of seeds at this point for a decorative effect, or only a few of the strands.
8. Braid the loaves.  Braiding somewhat loosely, not too tight. 
9. Place loaf on parchment paper on a sheet pan. Brush with egg wash. Cover well with plastic wrap (brush with oil so it doesn’t stick to the dough) or place the pans in a food grade plastic bag, and proof at room temperature until the loaves have tripled or quadrupled in volume. About 2 hours.
10. If it's quadrupled and when poked the dough only springs back a little, preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.  Gauge the dough again. Stick a finger lightly in the dough. If it makes an indentation that doesn't spring back, the dough is ready to be baked. If not, wait a bit more.
11. Pre-heat the oven to 350ºF with the rack in the lower third of the oven about 30 mins before final proof is complete.
12. Brush each loaf with an egg lightly beaten with a pinch of salt.  I do this twice in total.
13. Optionally, sprinkle the loaves with sesame seeds and/or poppy seeds.
14. Bake until done – 30-40 minutes rotating half way.  If baking as one large loaf may take a bit longer, bake until sounds hollow or reaches 190ºF in the middle.
15. Cool completely before slicing.

My index of bakes.

I  wanted to try adding an egg to my country sourdough again.  I’ve seen other bakers on IG post their bakes and some of them achieve quite incredible rise and open crumb when adding an egg to their otherwise lean dough recipes.  Then again, these same bakers always post super open crumb anyways, so who knows if the addition of the egg adds to this or just adds to the rise.  When adding the egg one has to compensate for the water in the egg (74%) and reduce the water used to make the dough.

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Overnight levain 

Ferment 75°F overnight

In the morning mix egg and 265 g water.  Add salt and all the stiff sweet levain.  Break levain into small pieces.

Add whole wheat and whole spelt flours.  Then finally add bread flour and mix until no dry flour remains. 

Fermentolyse for 20  mins.

Knead dough well until at least moderate gluten development, can use French folds or stand mixer.  Bassinage remaining 18 g of hold back water.

Do a bench letter fold.  Extract aliquot jar doughs one for rise and one for pH.

Every 30 mins thereafter do coil folds until the dough is strong and holds its shape well.  Since I used my Ankarsrum Assistent and built good gluten during mixing, I only needed 3 coil folds.

Rest for the remainder of bulk until an aliquot jar rise of 40% the shape the dough.  Follow the pH to ensure that the pH isn’t falling too much allowing gluten degradation.

Once shaped place in banneton.  Allow further bench proofing until rise of 90-100% before either baking or overnight cold retard.

Pre-heat oven to 500°F with cast iron skillet in the oven and set up for open steam baking.

30 mins prior to baking, pour 1 L of boiling water into metal loaf pan with Sylvia towel and place on baking steel on the lowest rack of the oven.

Once oven reaches 500ºF turn dough out of banneton, brush excess rice flour off, score and then brush with water.  Transfer to oven.  Pour 250 mL of boiling water into the cast iron skillet on a high shelf, high enough that the dough have fully bloom.  Drop temperature to 450ºF and bake with steam for 25 mins.  Then vent oven and remove all steaming gear and drop temperature to 425ºF.  Bake for another 25-30 mins rotating as needed.  

After 10 mins at 425°F I dropped it to 400°F since it was browning nicely already. Then final 9 mins down to 350°F 

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My index of bakes

I want to maintain my skills in making baguettes.  Unlike Alan and Don who has really developed their skills for the long haul, I find unless I make them every few months my skills backslide.  I haven’t made baguettes with inclusions in a long long while so decided to add a handful of poppyseeds to the dough.

I have continued to use stiff levains as they ferment more slowly so I can better control the fermentation in the heat of the summer.  For the organic T55 flour that I have, I have settled on 75% hydration.  At this hydration, the dough has enough strength and extensibility to shape nicely.  One of the baguettes still turned out a bit longer than my tray that holds them shaped in the couche.  I had to release the dough on that one before flipping it out onto the transfer board and then do a bit of reshaping, I don’t think it was any worse for the wear.  

We had one baguette tonight shared as a ham and Swiss sandwich with Dijon mustard, Kewpie mayo and sliced dill pickles.  I also made a little tomato and roasted red pepper salad with sumach.

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Added 43 g poppy seeds

In the morning, to your mixing bowl add 347 g water, 10 g salt and diastatic malt 5.2 g to dissolve.  Add levain to water and cut the levain into small pieces in the bowl.  Next add 475 g AP flour to combine.  Allow to saltolyse for 20 mins.  Slap and fold x 100 then add hold back water 21 g gradually working in until fully absorbed by massaging and then Rubaud kneading the dough, then slap and fold x 200.

Bulk Fermentation 82*F until aliquot jar shows 20% rise.

Do folds every 20 mins doing 3 folds

Could do cold retard at this point for  up to overnight. (Aliquot jar 20% rise)

Divide and pre-shape rest for 15 mins

Shape en couche with final proof until aliquot jar shows 60% rise then (optional) cold retard shaped baguettes en couche for at least 15 minutes for easier scoring.  I often do this for convenience as the oven is pre-heating.

Pre-heat oven 500*F after 30 mins add Silvia towel in pan with boiling water.

Transfer baguettes from couche to peel on parchment

Score each baguette and transfer to oven, bake on steel.

Bake with steam pouring 1 cup of boiling water to cast iron skillet dropping temperature to 480*F. 

The baguettes are baked with steam for 13 mins.  The steam equipment is removed venting the oven of steam.  Transfer the baguettes from the baking steel to next rack completing baking directly on a rack to minimize the browning and thickening of the bottom crust.  The oven is dropped to 450ºF but convection is turned on and the baguettes bake for 10 mins rotating them halfway.  The baguettes are rotated again if needed and baked for another 3 mins to achieve a rich colour crust.

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My index of bakes.

Finally home and had a chance to bake a loaf of bread.  We are really enjoying this particular blend of whole spelt and whole wheat along with a combination of nuts and/or seeds.  I decided to use walnuts, sesame and poppy seeds this time and I’m glad that I did, the flavour from these inclusions really enhance the flavour of this milk bread.

I usual I used a stiff sweet levian to reduce the LAB population in the levain and thus reducing the acidity of the bread.  I also continue to be pleased with using 200% hydration in the tangzhong and using a 20% of the total four in the tangzhong.  One would think that this might have a negative impact on the rise of this bread since the gluten forming proteins are denatured during the cooking of the tangzhong, however, I have found that if anything, making the tangzhong stiffer and at a higher proportion of the flour has had a positive effect on the oven spring.  I no longer use any VWG in making these breads even when they are 100% whole grain as it seems that the changes to the tangzhong have compensated for not using VWG.

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For one 9x4x4” Pullman pan loaf.

Instructions

Levain

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

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

At a temperature of 76-78ºF, it typically takes up to 10-12 hours for this sweet stiff levain to be at peak.  For my starter I typically see 3-3.5 times increase in size at peak.  The levain will smell sweet with only a mild tang.

Tangzhong 

In a sauce pan set on medium heat, stir the milk and whole wheat flour until blended. Then cook for several minutes until well 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 the tangzhong gelatinizes at this temperature.  You can prepare this the night before and refrigerate it, ensure that it is covered to prevent it from drying out.

If you plan on using a stand mixer to mix this dough, set up a Bain Marie and use your stand mixer’s bowl to prepare the tangzhong.

Dough

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the milk (consider holding back 10 g of milk and adding later if this is the first time you’re making this), egg, tangzhong, salt, sugar and levain.  Mix and then break up the levain into many smaller pieces.  Next add the flour.  I like to use my spatula to mix until there aren’t many dry areas.  Allow the flour to hydrate (fermentolyse) for 20-30 minutes.  Mix on low speed and then medium speed until moderate gluten development this may take 5-10 mins.  You may want to scrape the sides of the bowl during the first 5 minutes of mixing.  Next add room temperature butter one pat at a time.  The dough may come apart, be patient, continue to mix until it comes together before adding in more butter.  Again, knead until well incorporated.  You will want to check gluten development by windowpane during this time and stop mixing when you get a good windowpane.  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.  Add the nuts and seeds, then mix again until they are well distributed.

On the counter, shape the dough into a tight ball, cover in the bowl and ferment for 2 - 4 hours at 82ºF.  There should 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 to shape.  Remember, if you do so the final proof will take longer.  Alternatively, you can do a cold retard in the fridge overnight, however, you may find that this increases the tang in your bread.

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

Lightly oil the top of the dough. Scrape the dough out onto a clean counter top 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 an oiled 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 do 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, this is only done for appearance sake and is not necessary.  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  4-6 hours at a warm temperature.  I proof at 82°F.  You will need longer than 4-6 hours 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

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We are visiting family in Newfoundland for 1.5 weeks now and I wanted to bring a loaf of bread for my brother in law.  The bread had to travel well and stay fresh for a while.  A lot of people seem to enjoy a nutty seedy loaf so decided to make a milk bread.  I had sunflowers, pumpkin seeds and walnuts and wanted to amp up the walnut flavour again by adding toast walnut oil.  Not everyone likes a 100% wholegrain loaf so I decided to use whole wheat for all the levain and tangzhong and the rest of the dough would be bread flour.  Using my usual stiff sweet levain to ensure that there is less sour tang by using the osmotic pressure of sugar to dehydrate the microbes.  The LAB are affected more than the yeast so you reduce the LAB population relative to the yeast resulting in less acids produced during fermentation of your dough.

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For one 9x4x4” Pullman pan loaf.

Instructions

Levain

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

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

At a temperature of 76-78ºF, it typically takes up to 10-12 hours for this sweet stiff levain to be at peak.  For my starter I typically see 3-3.5 times increase in size at peak.  The levain will smell sweet with only a mild tang.

Tangzhong 

In a sauce pan set on medium heat, stir the milk and whole wheat flour until blended. Then cook for several minutes until well 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 the tangzhong gelatinizes at this temperature.  You can prepare this the night before and refrigerate it, ensure that it is covered to prevent it from drying out.

If you plan on using a stand mixer to mix this dough, set up a Bain Marie and use your stand mixer’s bowl to prepare the tangzhong.

Dough

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the milk (consider holding back 10 g of milk and adding later if this is the first time you’re making this), egg, tangzhong, salt, sugar and levain.  Mix and then break up the levain into many smaller pieces.  Next add the flour.  I like to use my spatula to mix until there aren’t many dry areas.  Allow the flour to hydrate (fermentolyse) for 20-30 minutes.  Mix on low speed and then medium speed until moderate gluten development this may take 5-10 mins.  You may want to scrape the sides of the bowl during the first 5 minutes of mixing.  Next add room temperature butter one pat at a time.  The dough may come apart, be patient, continue to mix until it comes together before adding in more butter.  Next drizzle in the toasted walnut oil.  Again, knead until well incorporated.  You will want to check gluten development by windowpane during this time and stop mixing when you get a good windowpane.  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.  Add the seeds and mix again until they are well distributed.

On the counter, shape the dough into a tight ball, cover in the bowl and ferment for 2 - 4 hours at 82ºF.  There should 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 to shape.  Remember, if you do so the final proof will take longer.  Alternatively, you can do a cold retard in the fridge overnight, however, you may find that this increases the tang in your bread.

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

Lightly oil the top of the dough. Scrape the dough out onto a clean counter top 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 an oiled 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 do 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, this is only done for appearance sake and is not necessary.  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  4-6 hours at a warm temperature.  I proof at 82°F.  You will need longer than 4-6 hours 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

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I first saw this type of shaped steamed bao when I borrowed Kristina Cho’s book called Mooncakes and Milkbread from the library.  My brother in law then emailed me a recipe for them out of the blue so I decided to make them.  Unfortunately my brother in law is no where near us so I’m unable to share this with him.  I’m pretty happy with how they turned out even if I didn’t do the twisting of the strips of dough prior to shaping them.

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For six bao

Overnight Levain

In a large jar, combine all purpose flour, water, ripe sourdough starter, and sugar. Cover the jar loosely and let the levain ripen overnight at warm room temperature (I keep mine around 74°F to 76°F/23°C to 24°C).  After 10-12 hours it should have peaked between 3-3.5x.

In The Morning

In a mixing bowl, add the water, milk, sugar, corn starch, oil and salt, mix to dissolve.  Add the tangzhong and stiff sweet levain and using a silicone spatula, cut the levain into small pieces.  Add the baking powder and flour.  Mix to form a shaggy dough.  Allow to rest for 10 mins.  On your countertop knead the dough until good gluten development.  This is a very stiff dough that will be challenging for your home mixer to knead.  Remove some dough for aliquot jar to follow rise.  Shape into a boule and rest in a covered bowl at 82°F until it has increased by 40%.

Garlic scallion oil

1/4 cup canola oil (substitute some toasted sesame seed oil)(This makes far more oil than needed, use only ¼ to ½ of this amount at most)

2 garlic cloves sliced 

⅛ cup finely chopped scallions 

½ teaspoon flaky salt

To make the oil: While the dough is rising, make the garlic scallion oil by heating the oil, garlic and scallions over medium-high heat until sizzling, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat, transfer to a heatproof container, and set aside until ready to use.  Remove the garlic slices prior to using, you can pass the oil through a sieve to remove the garlic and scallions as long as you have enough fresh scallions for shaping.

Prepare six 4” parchment squares.

After bulk fermentation, transfer the dough to a lightly greased surface. Roll out the dough to a roughly 10 × 16-inch rectangle. Brush the dough with the garlic scallion oil and sprinkle the crisp scallions, some additional fresh scallions and sesame seeds to taste and salt evenly over the surface. Fold the dough into thirds, like a letter so you end up with a long narrow strip of folded dough and not a square of dough. Pat out any trapped air pockets as you fold.  Brush oil on the top of the dough.  Flatten and roll out the dough with a rolling pin into a roughly 10 × 16-inch rectangle. Cover the dough with a clean kitchen towel and let rest for 15 minutes. (Don't be tempted to skip this step, as the dough will not stretch out as easily without a proper rest.)

Cut the dough into six equal-width strips (1 ½ × 10 inches), then cut in half into 1 ½ × 5-inch strips. Stack two strips of dough on top of each other and press lengthwise down the center of the dough with a chopstick. Pinch the two short ends of the dough with either hand, gently lengthen and stretch the dough, then twist the dough into a spiral. While securely holding onto one end, twist the dough around the pinching fingers, then pinch to secure the other end to the dough (see photos). Place the formed bun on a square of parchment paper. Cover with a damp, clean kitchen towel and let rest in a warm spot until they are 1 ½ times larger.

Cover the shaped bao with a damp cloth and place in a warm place and allow them to ferment until they pass the poke test.  Using an aliquot jar they should reach 120-125% rise.

Prepare your steamer setup and bring water to a boil.  Working in batches if necessary, arrange buns in the bamboo steamer spacing 2” apart.  Steam over boiling water for 10 minutes.  Turn off the heat and leave the buns in the covered steamer for 5 more minutes to prevent collapsing.  (I left them in the steamer and on the same stove element turned off). Do not lift the lid of the steamer, doing so will cause a sudden drop in temperature that can cause the buns to collapse or wrinkle or dent.  Remove the buns from the steamer and allow them to cool for 5 minutes before serving.  

Buns can be kept in an airtight container (a resealable bag works great) at room temperature for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Room temperature buns can be reheated in the microwave for 15 to 20 seconds or steamed for about 2 minutes, until soft and warmed through. Reheat frozen buns by steaming until soft and warmed through, 10 to 15 minutes.

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So I’ve gradually noticed differences between my two starters, one fed only white bread flour and the other whole rye starter.  The white starter I got from Alan (thank you Alan) and the whole rye is my own now what, four years old?  It is possible the differences I am seeing are due to differing microbes that inhabit each of the starters, or they might be purely related to the type of flour each is fed.  With the greater buffering capacity of whole rye vs white flours the LAB population will be able to replicate producing acid for a longer time before the pH falls enough to start to inhibit their growth.  As you know, the LAB are actually more greatly affected by low pH than the yeast.  So the rye starter may have a slightly greater population of LAB relative to the yeast compared to the starter fed only white flour.  In my bakes so far using either the white or the rye starter, I have started to notice this difference in the breads made.  The white starter seems to produce breads with less sour tang and that leaven the dough more rapidly while the pH falls more slowly.  This was very evident in this bake.

The formula was almost unchanged from my previous bake except that the hydration was increased by 1% from a touch more scald water accidentally added to the bran.  As you can imagine, it would be impossible to pour out that extra water since the bran absorbs it pretty quickly.  For this bake, the levain was made using the white starter while my last bake was made using the rye starter.

Some differences noted during bulk and final proof.  

The starting pH of the rye starter bake was 5.31 while the starting pH for the white starter bake was 5.5 suggesting that the TTA of the levains and dough was lower for the white starter bake.  Now of course you could say that some of that TTA was from the starter itself, but considering that the starter was 1:4 ratio to the flour for the levain and the prefermented flour of each bake was only 9% I doubt that the difference in starting pH could be fully explained by TTA of the starter used to make the levain.  

The pH change of the rye starter bake was 1.4 with a total rise of only 45% while the corresponding pH change for the white bake was only 1.15 with a rise of 115%.  Now it is quite possible that the aliquot of dough removed for the rye starter bake wasn’t totally representative of the main dough, I have seen this happen before, but the difference in rising power of the rye vs white starter bakes is quite remarkable and I would suggest is related to relatively less LAB and more yeast in the white starter vs rye starter bakes.

Now my current bake suffered from a lack of ear.  Some possible causes could be over fermentation, over hydration, too shallow a score, insufficient steam and top crust formation too early in the bake.  There are other possible causes but these come to my mind.  I do recognize that my scoring was too shallow I think that I subconsciously scored too shallow because I was concerned that the dough had over fermented even though the poke test passed and there was some rebound of the dough.  The crumb didn’t show any signs of over fermentation and I would have expected more spreading of the dough during baking if it was over fermented.  I doubt it was over hydrated as I only increased the hydration by 1%.  

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In the late evening, build the levain and ferment at 74°F aiming to use it after 10 hours.  I used my bread flour starter for this as it seems to produce doughs with less acidity which should allow for longer fermentation and greater rise.

Sift the whole wheat flour.  Scald the sifted bran with 97 g of filtered water (I suspect I can increase the scald water even higher).  After it cools place it in the fridge overnight.

In the morning the levain should have peaked, mine was 3.5 x rise and the dome was just starting to flatten.  Remove the refrigerated bran and allow to come to room temperature.

In the bowl of my Ankarsrum Assistent I added the water (not the hold back water yet) and then the levain.  Using a silicone spatula cut the levain into smaller pieces.  Add the sifted flour and then allow the Ankarsrum Assistent to mix the dough.  I continued to mix at around 2-3 setting until the dough had at least moderate gluten development.  Next I added the salt dissolved in all the holdback water, gradually allowing the salt water to be absorbed before adding more.  Once all the water is incorporated I added bran gradually, again allowing it to incorporate well before adding more.  Once all the bran is added continue to mix until very good gluten development.

Remove the dough from the bowl, perform a letterfold on the counter.  Remove an aliquot of the dough for pH measurement and set up your aliquot jar.  At 30 mins intervals perform a coil fold on the dough, watching the rise and pH.  I performed four sets of coil folds and then allowed the dough to rest and ferment until the dough rose 50% and the pH dropped by 0.7-0.75.  Shape the dough into a batard and place into a prepared banneton.   

About 60 mins prior to baking pre-heat the oven to 500°F setting it up for steam baking.

Once the dough reaches 110-120% rise, the pH drops a total of 1.15 and the dough passes the poke test place the dough into the freezer until the oven is ready.

30 mins prior to baking, pour 1 L of boiling water into metal loaf pan with Sylvia towel and place on baking steel on the lowest rack of the oven.

Once oven reaches 500ºF turn dough out of banneton, brush excess rice flour off, score and then brush with water.  Transfer to oven.  Pour 250 mL of boiling water into the cast iron skillet on a high shelf, high enough that the dough have fully bloom.  Drop temperature to 450ºF and bake with steam for 25 mins.  Then vent oven and remove all steaming gear and drop temperature to 425ºF.  Bake for another 25-30 mins rotating as needed.

I will add that I am totally convinced that doing an open bake leads to a thinner crust the more I have done open steam baking now.  I have consistently found that the crusts baked this way are thinner than the crusts I used to get when doing dutch oven baking. 

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I’m not sure but I think it might have been more than a year ago that I made a 100% whole wheat bread of this sort.  I realized that I hadn’t even used my banneton this year yet so it was really overdue.  Since I am out of practice I decided to keep the same formula as my last loaf more or less but wanted to use my Ankarsrum Assistent to develop the dough.  As with my previous 100% whole grain hearth loaves that were successful, I sifted out the bran with my #40 sieve and then did a scald of the bran.  This was refrigerated overnight.  All the bran was added back to the dough after it was well developed.  The dough was started at a lower hydration and then additional water was added by bassinage.  In the end the hydration was about 90%.

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The stiff levain was built and left to ferment overnight at 74ºF.

The next morning to the bowl of my Ankarsrum Assistent I added the water and then the levain. The levain was broken down in water and then the sifted flour was added and a short mix on slow speed was done until no dry flour remained.  After 10 mins of rest at about 2-3 speed the dough was kneaded until at least moderate gluten development achieved.  The salt was sprinkled onto the dough and then the hold back water was added gradually until it was fully absorbed.  Next the hydrated bran was gradually added to the dough while the Ankarsrum Assistent continued to knead the dough until the bran was well distributed.  The dough was then flipped out of the bowl of the mixer and a bench letterfold was done.  An aliquot of dough was removed to measure the pH of the dough.  I am aiming for a drop in pH of about 1.0-1.1 for shaping and then another 0.3 at the time of baking.

Then at 30 mins intervals coil folds x 4 done

Pre-heat oven 500°F with cast iron skillet in the oven and set up for open steam baking in anticipation of pH targeted baking.

30 mins prior to baking, pour 1 L of boiling water into metal loaf pan with Sylvia towel and place on baking steel on the lowest rack of the oven.

Once oven reaches 500ºF turn dough out of banneton, brush excess rice flour off, score and then brush with water.  Transfer to oven.  Pour 250 mL of boiling water into the cast iron skillet on a high shelf, high enough that the dough have fully bloom.  Drop temperature to 450ºF and bake with steam for 25 mins.  Then vent oven and remove all steaming gear and drop temperature to 425ºF.  Bake for another 25-30 mins rotating as needed.

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My index of bakes

I have a new jar of yuzu tea.  So yuzu tea (or citron tea since it is Korean) is a marmalade like jelly made from yuzu that when mixed with boiling water makes a lovely drink.  I decided I wanted to make some sweet rolls and I wanted to have yuzu flavour to it so I would use the yuzu tea as the filling and I have a bottle of yuzu extract that I would use as the liquid for the drizzle/icing. Despite the name of these rolls, they aren’t very sweet.  Other than the sugar used for the stiff sweet levain, there isn’t any sugar added to the dough.  Also, to make these a bit more hearty and healthy, all the flour for the tangzhong is whole wheat.

The dough is my standard formula for sweet roll dough that I have used before.  One change I would make next time is to prepare more of the yuzu filling, perhaps about 25% more and to use more of the flour sprinkled on the filling, again 25% more.

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Sweet Yuzu Glaze
Yuzu extract 1 tbsp
½ cup (60g) confectioners’ sugar

Make the glaze: Right before serving, top your yuzu rolls with glaze. Mix all of the glaze ingredients together. If you prefer a thicker glaze, add more powdered sugar and then add salt to cut the sweetness, if desired. If you’d like it thinner, add more yuzu extract or cream. Drizzle over sweet rolls.

Yuzu Filling 

½ cup yuzu tea

1/16 cup granulated sugar

18 g flour (sprinkled on the filling after it is spread onto the dough)

Instructions

Levain

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

Press down with your knuckles or silicone spatula 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.  For my starter I typically see 3-3.5 times increase in size at peak.  The levain will smell sweet with only a mild tang.

Tangzhong 

In a sauce pan set on medium heat, stir the milk and flour until blended. Then cook for several minutes until well 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 the tangzhong gelatinizes at this temperature.  You can prepare this the night before and refrigerate it, ensure that it is covered to prevent it from drying out.

If you plan on using a stand mixer to mix this dough, set up a Bain Marie and use your stand mixer’s bowl to prepare the tangzhong.

Dough

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the milk (consider holding back 10 g of milk and adding later if this is the first time you’re making this), egg, tangzhong, salt, sugar and levain.  Mix and then break up the levain into many smaller pieces.  Next add the flours.  I like to use my spatula to mix until there aren’t many dry areas.  Allow the flour to hydrate (fermentolyse) for 20-30 minutes.  Mix on low speed and then medium speed until moderate gluten development this may take 5-10 mins.  You may want to scrape the sides of the bowl during the first 5 minutes of mixing.  Next add room temperature butter one pat at a time.  The dough may come apart, be patient, continue to mix until it comes together before adding in more butter.  Once all the butter has been added and incorporated increase the speed gradually to medium. Mix at medium speed until the gluten is well developed, approximately 10 mins.  You will want to check gluten development by windowpane during this time and stop mixing when you get a good windowpane.  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.  Next add the zest of two oranges, that way they do not interfere with the gluten development. Mix until they are well incorporated in the dough.

On the counter, shape the dough into a tight ball, cover in the bowl and ferment for 2 - 3 hours at 82ºF.  There may be some rise visible at this stage.

Optional cold retard overnight or just 1.5 hours to chill the dough for easier shaping.

Prepare your pan by greasing it or line with parchment paper.  

This dough is very soft. Act quickly to roll, spread the filling, and cut before the dough warms and softens further. If it begins to soften, place it in the fridge to firm.

Remove your bulk fermentation container from the fridge, lightly flour your work surface in a large rectangle shape, and the top of the dough in the bowl. Then, gently scrape out the dough to the center of your floured rectangle. Lightly dust the top of the dough with flour, and using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to a 15″ x 15″ square or larger rectangle.

Brush melted butter on rolled dough.  Then spread warmed yuzu tea onto the dough, then sprinkle flour on top.  The flour will help absorb any water drawn out of the dough by the sugar in the yuzu tea.

Starting at one of the long sides of the rectangle in front of you, begin rolling up the dough as you move across. Be sure to tightly roll the dough by gently tugging on the dough as you roll.

Once finished rolling up the dough, divide it into nine 1 1/2″ pieces using a sharp knife or dental floss (my preference). Transfer the pieces to the prepared baking pan and cover with a large, reusable bag, place in a warm spot.  I use my proofing box set to 82°F.  Final proof may take 3-6 hours, be patient and wait until the dough passes the finger poke test.

Be sure to start preheating your oven about 30 minutes before you feel the rolls will be fully proofed. For me, the final warm proof time was about 3 hours at 77°F (25°C).

Bake

Preheat your oven, with a rack in the middle, to 400°F (200°C). After the warm proof, uncover your dough and gently press the tops of a few rolls.  The fully proofed cardamom rolls will look very soft. The texture of the dough will be almost like a whipped mousse. Be sure to give them extra time in warm proof if necessary. If the dough needs more time to proof, cover the pan and give the dough another 15 to 30 minutes at a warm temperature and check again.

Once your oven is preheated, remove your pan from its bag, slide it into the oven, and bake for 30 to 35 minutes.

The rolls are finished baking when the tops are well-colored and the internal temperature is around 195°F (90°C). Remove the rolls from the oven and let the rolls cool for 5 to 10 minutes in the pan.

Once fully cooled drizzle the yuzu icing onto the rolls.

These are best the day they're made, and certainly fresh from the oven, but can be reheated in a warm oven a day or two after.

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My index of bakes.