davidg618's blog

Over the past three or four weeks I've been experimenting with small adjustments, one at a time, to my process. Three of them appear to be adding positive nuances to my loaves. They are:

• longer autolyse, prior to adding yeast (or levain) and salt.

• using  new steam-generating containers.

• warming retarded, pre-shaped dough, and final proofing at elevated temperature: 82°F

With both baguettes and sourdough loaves I've been hydrating the flours for five hours before adding yeast, levain or salt. With the sourdough I've cut the hydrated flour-water ball into cubes, with a bench knife, before adding the liquid levain. With baguettes I simply sprinkle the yeast and salt on the dough ball (on alternate sides) before resting it in the refrigerator for five hours--a trick I adapted from the USA baking team's baguette formula published by the BBGA in Bread Lines.

Recently, a TFLer posted a backyard grill "moisturizer" (?) as a potential steam-generating vessal for bread baking. I tried to find his/her post again using the search function, but couldn't find the magic words, so I can't give credit. Nonetheless, when I read it it seemed like a possible alternative for me. In response to an earlier posting I'd made Mebake commented I should be getting better bloom from my baguette scoring, and attributed the lack thereof to my using a towel-lined sheet pan, on the top shelf, to generate steam; i.e., the pan was seriously preventing radiant heat from reaching the tops of my baggettes.  I took that comment to heart, and have since been searching for long, narrow pans--two of them--to replace the sheet pan to place one on each side. Until I read the aforementioned post I'd had no success. Subsequently, I found the pair pictured on Amazon--they are longer and narrower than ones in the post. I found, loaded with hot water, they sloshed badly so I added the small towel fragment rolls on either end, and I've been using them without their lids. I'm certainly satisfied with the bloom I'm getting on sourdough loaves. Next weekend I'm baking baguettes for the first time since purchasing them. I'll also be revisiting steaming from the bottom of the oven with these new containers in another future bake.

I retard both sourdoughs and baguette dough at 54°F for 15 hours. Heretofore, I've been preshaping the loaves immediately after removing the dough from the chiller, and resting them for an hour at room temperature, which varies between 68°F and 76°F depending on the seasons. Subsequently, I'd final proof in my homemade proofing box at 76°F, or in the kitchen when the air-conditioner was controlling the temperature, also 76°F. For the past three weekly bakes I've pre-warmed the proof-box, and rested the pre-shaped dough in it at 82°F, and final proofed at the same temperature. Doing so has consistently cut 1/2 hour off of the final proof time. More importantly, I'm perceiving I'm also consistently getting a modestly more open crumb.

....and today's results.

David G

Back in November http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/25804/whole-wheat-sunday I specified what I want in a sourdough loaf's crumb...

2. Al dente crumb; i.e., when you mash it, it springs back; when you bite it, there is resistance.

3. Open crumb. Now I'm not looking for gaping holes. I want irregular size aveoles,  the biggest of which occupy no more than the thickness of a good sandwich slice--about 3/8ths of an inch radius. I frequently use sourdough breads for sandwiches. Unquestionably, sandwich-making is its singlemost use. So, I don't want mustard or mayo dribbling on my shirt front. I also think #2 is closely related to #3--if you don't have 3, you don't have 2.

I've been baking the same 50%WW sourdough formula, every two weeks,  since November without any changes, until now. Today I baked two 1.5 lb loave of 50% Whole Wheat sourdough, using the same formula and techniques, with one change: during the last 5 hours the levain build was working I hydrated (autolysed) the balance of the non-prefermented flour while chilling it too. Subsequently, as usual, I retarded the final dough 15 hours.

Specifically, I pre-chill all the flour not used in the levain build, and mixed the final dough with ice water. My target DDT is 54°F. Because of mixer friction--the hydrated dough is machine kneaded for 2 minutes on speed 1, and 7 minutes at speed 2--I never achieve DDT; the dough is always warmer. Consequently, during autolyse, the early hours of fermentation, and simultaneously with any dough manipulations (i.e., Stretch and Folds) I continue to chill the dough in the refrigerator until it reaches DDT; then I transfer it to our wine closet, where the ambient temperature is 54°F, for the remainder of its retardation. Yesterday, I mixed the balance of the dough's flour with the balance of the water, and hydrated (and chilled for 5 hours) the mix before adding the levain and salt.

I cut one of the cooled loaves, and was greeted with a crumb that is the closest to my ideal I've ever reached--although I've had a lot of "close, but no cigar" moments. Not certain I'll ever see the like again, but I'm going to try.

David G

By-the-way. I didn't photograph this bread slice, I scanned it.

D. G.

Monday: 2/6/12

Same formula, same ingredients, same techniques and process; smaller loaves: 1 lb. this time.

I'm satisfied. You be the judge.

David G

I've made croissants before now, twice: once during a King Arthur baking class, and, shortly after, at home, a bit more than two years ago.  I was nominally satisfied with both attempts, but in that same time frame my focus was elsewhere: sourdough and baguettes. With due humility I've been satisfied with my consistent successes with both baguettes, and a handful of sourdough formulae that I've felt the urge to try a new challenge: croissants--high on my "enjoy eating" list.

While studying the subject, and formulating an approach, I frequently reminded myself that it took nearly three years to reach satisfaction with my sourdoughs, and more than two in regard to baguettes. And I'm still learning. Nonetheless, it's time to stretch.

Over that last two days I've begun a new goal: consistently produce satisfactory croissants. Satisfactory means good flavor, wonderfully flaky crumb, and eye appeal, in that order. Examining those criteria I decided flaky crumb, i.e., building properly laminated dough was, initially the most challenging. My thinking was flavor was determined by ingredients, and relatively passive techniques: fermentation; poolish or natural levain vs. straight dough; and quality of ingredients. Eye appeal is primarily manual techniques, which equates to practice, practice, practice. For my first "real" home attempt at croissants I decided to focus intensely on dough lamination.

I used a straight dough formula--the same formula used in the KA classroom, a straight dough, with two modifications. Guided by Michael Saus' Advanced Bread and Pastry: a professional approach, I lowered the baking temperature to 385°F. I found the KA and SFBI straight dough formulae differed only in 2% hydration and malt powder, and baking temperature. I opted for the lower, SFBI, temperature. Additonally, I added malt powder to the mix, ala SFBI. I also used osmotolerent yeast prescribed by SFBI, although neither the sugar nor fat content in the dough demand its use.

Results: I made four basic croissants and two pain au chocolat. One can see I need practice, practice, practice.

Crumb. I had intial difficulty with the lamination. During the first turn the dough tore, and exposed the butter layer in a small area. I attribute the mistake to too much aggression rolling the first turn. Despite the dough's wound, I contined doing two more turns as prescribed.

Needless to say, I'm satisfied with the crumb, although we did find a "doughy" spot in one croissant.  I'm fairly sure it was caused by the dough rupture mentioned.

Flavorwise, I'm statisfied; more importantly, so is my wife. I used KA AP flour, and Vermont Creamery cultured butter: the primary flavor contributors.

Next effort, will include the same ingredients and techniques, but will incorporate a poolish ala SFBI's formula.

David G

This is completely off-topic.

Discounting the ocassional hurricane, and the ever increasing summer heat, Florida is a good state to live in, especially if you grow a winter garden. We generally plant cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli in late October to early November. The broccoli is always the first to mature.

Earlier in the week my wife harvested two heads of broccoli, and asked me to make Cream of Broccoli soup. I'd never done it before, and it sounded like fun. Basically, Bechamel sauce with some added cream, salt, pepper, and nutmeg pureed with lots of al dente steamed florets.

Next month: Cauliflower and Cheddar.

David G

I've been wrestling with producing a 50% Whole Wheat sourdough loaf that has good flavor and an open, chewy crumb. I've described my difficulties, and, finally a successful attempt in: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/25804/whole-wheat-sunday

I won't repeat the details here, but I'll summarize what I've learned. I believe the comments are relevant to all lean  dough sourdough breads to some extent, but the degree of importance may vary depending on the flours used.

Flavor: Flavor is developed in p1refements, and during bulk fermentation. Retarded bulk fermentation improves flavor. All of my earlier exploration flour prefermented during the levain building ranged from 15% to 25% of the flour, all whole wheat. I also experimented with retarding the doughs' bulk fermentations 0 to 15 hours at 38°F to 56°F. Most recently, I've settled on a formula that preferments 15% of the flour, all whole wheat, and retards bulk fermentation 15 hours, at, nominally, 54°F.

Crumb: Crumb development has many variables: flour types, mixing and kneading, hydration, baking temperatures, steam or no steam, and oven spring, arguably the most probable major contributors. In my 50% Whole Wheat failures I found, with dough hydrations nearly constant between 65% to 68%, the biggest influence was Whole Wheat's effect on a dough's strength. i.e., its shortening effect on gluten development. In early attempts I tried hand-mixing and post-autolyse kneading, followed by periodic S&F; and two-speed machine mixing, without post-autolyse machine kneading, followed by periodic S&F. I subsequently, tried one or two speed mixing, followed by post-autolyse machine kneading followed by periodic S&F. Not until I increased the the machine kneading time to more than twice what I use for white flour sourdoughs did I achieve the crumb we like.

Ultimately, I found mixing all ingredients (including the 2% salt) on speed 1 (Kitchenaid Pro 600, spiral dough hook), followed by a one hour autolyse, then with 7 minutes of machine kneading on speed 2, and subsequently doing 3 S&F at one hour intervals does the trick.There are pictures in the aforementioned post.

However, there is one negative side-effect from building the levain entirely with whole wheat flour. I maintain my refrigerated seed starter with KA bread flour only, and I replace my seed starter entirely every week with fresh levain, scavanged from excess intentionally into my weekly sourdough bake's levain build. Unfortunately, in weeks I build levain with other flours, I also separately build a bread flour levain to replace my seed starter.

This week, wanting to bake 50% Whole Wheat sourdough, I tried something different. I built the levain with 15% of the formula's KA bread flour, and soaked all of the formula's Whole Wheat flour in an equal amount (by weight) of the formula's water for eight hours. Subsequently, I made the dough exactly as described, and replaced my seed starter with the excess levain.

I don't know if the pre-hydrated Whole Wheat flour qualifies as a Soaker, since it was not "hydration neutral", but for lack of a better name that's what I'll call it. Soaker or otherwise, I'm pleased with the results.

Flavorwise, we didn't loose anything, It may even be a bit better than usual, and...

the crumb is everything we ask for.

David G

During the holidays, and for the first time, we baked 1-lb. loaves, one-third smaller than our usual 1.5-lb loaves. We did this because we gifted a number of family and friends that live alone, reasoning that a larger loaf would likely stale before it was consumed. Furthermore, I can bake three 1-lb per load in my household oven, but only two 1.5-lb loaves otherwise. We  baked more than was needed, so we've been consuming the leftovers. We've realized the smaller loaves serve our needs--there is only two of us--as well, or possibly better than the larger loaves. I'll continue to make larger loaves to share at our frequent community pot-luck dinners, or when we entertain.

I also like simply hand-shaping batards, and proofing the loaves on a couche vis-a-vis bannetons.

This formula is 10/45/45: Whole Rye Flour/KA Bread Flour/KA AP Flour, with  14% of the flour (all Bread Flour) prefermented in the levain build. Hydration is 68%. I retard the dough for 15 hours at 54°F.

David G

David G

Haven't been posting anything lately because we've been busy baking gifts for friends and family. Been sticking to the things I know well: my "go to" sourdough, tried and true biscotti, and Grandma's Welsh cakes. The last of the sixteen mailings of bread and cookies went out the door today. Now it's time to turn to the community cookie swap--we're the only ones who also share bread. Today I baked five loaves of sourdough: two 1-1/2 lb. loaves to restock our bread-empty freezer, and three 1 lb. loaves to share.

I recently purchased a Kitchenaid 600 Pro--6 qt., spiral dough hook. So far, I'm delighted with it. Mixed 6.6 lb (3kg) of 68% hydrated dough today with no difficulty; motor didn't even get warm.  Since my small oven can only accommodate two 1-1/2 lb. loaves, or three 1 lb. loaves at a time, I retarded half the dough an additional two-and-a-half hours while the first loaves proofed and baked. Worked out with ease, and I see no significant difference among the loaves.

Happy Holidays to all,

David G

The families--DNA'ed and extended--loved last year's bread and cookies, so we chose to do it again this year. Pictured is last week's baking. It's not everything but the freezer was chock-a-block, so we're starting shipping today to make more room. We found shipping Priority mail gets fresh or fresh-frozen sourdough--with refresh instructions (375°F oven, 5 mins.)--delivered still palatable and tasty. This year's packages hold a loaf of sourdough or Orange Pecan loaf, a dozen and a half of assorted Biscotti and, of course, a dozen of my rendering of Grandma's Welsh Cakes. This year's Biscotti: Tart Cherry-Pecan, Citron-Macadamia Nut, Almond-Ameretto, and Chocolate-Chocolate chip-Chipotle. Sixteen mailing, and then there is the neighborhood cookie swap, and special friends to gift. We love this time of year!

David G

I've been homing in on a 50% Whole Wheat sourdough loaf, made with a levain built entirely with Whole Wheat flour. This quest has been ongoing (but relaxed) for about a year, and recently I've been close: flavors are especially to our liking, crumb al dente as we like, and nearly as open as desired, but still room to improve. Today, I think I've hit it.

My previous attempts' short-falls were all dough strength related, in two words: slack dough. And slack dough directly led to shaping difficulties, flat loaves, and closed crumbs.

Getting to this point has been evolutionary.

I've only been baking sourdough a little more than two years. For the first six months I religiously mixed and kneaded doughs in my KA mixer, usually following the formulae authors' recommended mixing times and mixer speeds (generally 2 or 3 minutes on speed one, often followed by 1 to 3 minutes on speed 2). Early on, I learned about Stretch-and-Fold; never a fan of hand-kneading I adapted it quickly. I was mostly content with the results, but, prompted by TFLer suggestions, I switched to hand-mixing, and for about a year except for speciality doughs, e.g., Foccacia, Brioche, the mixer gathered dust. I learned how dough "feels" in all its various stages. I also developed a skin rash, on my mixing hand only, that may--and I emphasize "may"; I've not yet seen a dermatologist--be attributable to flours or sourdough.

For the past four months I've returned to mixing doughs in the mixer, and wearing latex gloves when I S&F, or hand manipulate dough. The rash is clearing slowly.

At the same tiime I was in the middle of my quest to bake a satisfactory 50% WW loaf. I'll define satisfactory; these are in priority order:

1. Good, strong wheaty flavor

2. Al dente crumb; i.e., when you mash it, it springs back; when you bite it, there is resistance.

3. Open crumb. Now I'm not looking for gaping holes. I want irregular size aveoles,  the biggest of which occupy no more than the thickness of a good sandwich slice--about 3/8ths of an inch radius. I frequently use sourdough breads for sandwiches. Unquestionably, sandwich-making is its singlemost use. So, I don't want mustard or mayo dribbling on my shirt front. I also think #2 is closely related to #3--if you don't have 3, you don't have 2.

4. Eye-appealing loaves. If I can have 1, 2, and 3 I'm a happy baker; if I can also have 4 I'm an elated baker.

So, back to the evolution.

Two changes from my earlier routine are, I reasoned, the keys to this success.

1. I now machine-knead the dough on speed 2 for 7 minutes, following a 1 hour autolyse. Subsequently, I still S&F 3 or 4 times at 1 hour intervals (3  or 4 depends on the perceived tenacity of the dough).

2. I retard the dough at reduced temperature (54°F) for 15 hours.

Furthermore, I believe these two changes are coupled, meaning it requires both to achieve the desired open crumb. I haven't found a corraborating "expert" reference yet, but I'm certain I perceive a change in dough's attributes occuring between S&F's and the beginning and end of retarded fermentation. I retard dough primarily for flavor development, but I'm convinced, too, it also conditions the doughs' physical behaviors.

I got the idea for this two changes from two TFL members: #1 from TxFarmer's blog, and #2 from an e-discussion with Proth5.

The formula for this bread is simple:

100% hydrated levain  30% (all whole wheat flour except seed starter)

Whole Wheat flour       35%

Bread Flour (KA)         50%

Salt                                    2%

Hydration                     68% 

Preheat: 500°F

Bake: 450°F with steam 15 mins; finish bake 450°F (steam removed)

I've also changed the way I refresh my seed starter. Following Debra Wink's guidance, now, when I build levain for baking I make enough extra to completely replace my seed starter with fresh levain. I normally build levain using bread flour. This time I built the levain using Whole Wheat flour. Consequently, I also built a small amount of levain with bread flour to refresh my seed starter for the week.

As usual, I after mixing the dough, and refreshing my seed starter I still had levain left over. I mixed the two together, fed the mix 1:3:3 with a 50/50 mix of Bread and Whole Wheat flours, and popped it into the refrigerator overnight. This morning, while I worked the bread baking, I let the leftover levain come to room temperature, and work another three hours. While the bread loaves were proofing I made a 50% Whole Wheat version of my Sourdough Biscuits ala Cookie (see http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/21536/sourdough-biscuits-trying-real-thing and http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/21967/sourdough-biscuits-trying-real-thing-take-2 ).

It's been a fun Whole Wheat Sunday

David G

It's that time of year: time to think about the upcoming holidays, the New Year, and our 6th Annual open house. Taking a note from the ancient Incas, I thought "chocolate and chili.?

Hmm-m-m-m."

Almost nailed it first try! The chipotle heat shows up late on the back of the throat. One of those, "There can't be chili in this cookie!?" moments.

David G