golgi70's blog

Well my hiatus is over.  The full market has begun and I'm ready to return to the weekly trading routine.  Been hooked on the stiff levain lately so i decided I'd switch in up and build a liquid levain and then do a second build and use a young levain to keep it mellow and sweet.  I had honey in the formula and opted to omit and allow the young levain to bring the sweetness.  I kept the pre-fermented flour low to give enough time to gently build the gluten.  The dough was lovely and easy to work with and after bulk was full of life and ready for a nap in the fridge.  This one is a keeper. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spelt Levain
------------

Levain: 3-4 hours (76F) 11% PF
----------------
40 Seed (50% Spelt/50% FLOUR MIX) --> (78% Bread Flour, 20%Wheat, 2% Rye)
40 Spelt
40 FLOUR MIX
80 H20
----------------
200
----------------
Dough: (76F)
----------------
405 Spelt
405 FLOUR MIX
600 H20 (hold back 50g to add with salt)
19 Salt
----------------
1429
----------------
Total Flour:     910               (50% Spelt, 39% Art, 10 % Wheat, 1% Rye) 11% PF
Total H20:       700               (77%)
Total Dough: 1629               (12 @ 810g)
-----------------
Autolyse with Levain 1 hour
Add Salt and 50g h20 and squeeze through until well incorporated.
6 SF @ 30 minutes, rest 30 minutes
Divide and Rest 30 minutes
Shape and Retard 8-12 hours
Bake 500 with steam for 15 minutes and vented for 20-25 longer.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bounty Local dehydrated Shitakes, Local Mytakes sp???, dried soup herb blend (so good), local eggs, fresh raw goat milk, organic local merlot, spicy greens, a bunch of dried figs (fignfennel comin up soon), and some ground lamb owed to me.  Thank you for the land I live in and the wonderful things produced here.  

Cheers

Josh

Well after seeing dmsnyder's post on J.H.'s 5 grain levain from "Bread" i had to give it a go.  I also thought it would be fun to finally follow  a recipe from a book (or not).  Since i couldn't get Cracked Rye I couldn't resist but make a small modification.  

To keep the same percentage of Rye in the recipe (9.2%) I just used some Rye Sour as a portion of the Levain.  In place of this I used some Bulgar in the soaker.  

I ran into trouble quickly as the dough was much drier than I anticipated and i was hand mixing a 10KG batch of dough for trading. I added nearly 4% more h20 to get a dough i could manage. I used the pincer method followed by 2 s/f to make up for the lack of mechanical mixing.  The dough actually felt okay by shape time but I think it could have been better devloped.  Not nearly as nice looking as David's but 

The flavor and crust of this loaf are so good.   After baking the first set straight from the fridge I remembered Davids caution and paid the price and had a few loaves broken at the score that never really filled in.  The following I pulled 1 hour befoer baking and went much better. I will certainly make this again but increase the H20 by another 2-4%.  

Spring/Summer Market starts back up next week so I'll be getting back out to some regular trading.  

Happy Baking 

Josh

Another batch of Pane Maggiore. This time with no intention I made another change. i built the levains (1/2 rye sour stiff/1/2 white wheat liquid) and got exhausted by mix time so i retarded them to finish the following day. I decreased my total pre fermented flour in the recipe to about 15% as this dough gets very active and this would give the time for folds in accordance with ferment times. 1 hour autolyse followed by a soft finished mix. Then three sets of folds at 50 minute intervals and divided at the 3 hour mark. Unfortunately the dough got a bit too strong this go which made for a tougher shape and finer crumb. My mind makes me think this could be due to the retarding of the levains and bringing more acidity to the dough than regular. So i could have gotten away with just 2 folds @ 1 hour marks.  All this followed by about 10 hours in the fridge before a late nite bake.  PVM seems to be good no matter the variations as long as the central theme stays intact.

Happy Baking All

Josh

Well I have milled some fresh Kamut for my 100% Kamut loaf and have given a it a couple goes so far.  The first resulted in a very flat pancake but round 2 went better.  Probably take a couple more goes before I'm ready for the test of repeated success but If my next attempts improve like take 1 to take 2 I'm well on my way.  It's a tricky flour with lots of extensability and fragile gluten.  For this project I've added a third to the family.  Now I have a 100% Kamut levain that is happy and healthy and keeping the rye company (both maintained in smaller quantities than the wheat starter)  together they fear not the mother dough.  

Well with all this discard of kamut starter (2 feedings a day) why not make a Pane Maggiore but replace the wheat with Kamut?  And so I did and with splendid results.  I actually used 1/2 Stiff Kamut Levain (65%hyd) and (1/2 rye sour 100% hyd) to  raise this bread.  I opted to skip the overnight retard of the loaves and proof at room temp while I was at it (mostly cause i wanted some fresh bread).  Crust a bit softer as it didn't get the cold to help but the flavor was lovely and sweeter than the previous takes.  And the Kamut helped open the crumb maybe more than any of previous attempts.  I will make this variation again if Kamut remains in my life.  

finally I made some Spelt Croissant Dough and made some croissants and bear claws.  The bear claws I totally should have got a picture of the inside but they were eaten to fast.  Inside was a piping of almond cream, raspberry jam, and a strip of chocolate cake to sop it all up while baking.  They were out of this world.  And these are some of the tastiest croissants I've eaten/made to date.  The honey and spelt really just made for tons of flavor to go with the butter.  

On that note some photos   Header photo is some Spelt Croissants, 20% Kamut Sour, Asian Chicken Salad, and a                                                   good beer.  

Pane Maggiore with Kamut

These are round 2 of my 100% Kamut.  Needed a longer proof and maybe a few other tweaks.  Gettin there.  

This is a 20% Kamut Basic Sour loaf.  Extra levain is hard to toss sometimes.  

Finally some bad pics of the Spelt Croissant/BearClaws.  

Happy Baking 

Josh

Hiatus goes well but I did a small bake so i can gift a few loaves to my farmer friends this week.  Many moons ago I found a recipe for a "Poilane" styled loaf that sounded good and fiddled with it at work.  Do to limitations at work adjustments were made and an approved bread resulted.  We call it our "Whole Wheat Sour".  VWG and commercial yeast are among quite a few changes to make this bread come about. It's 50% whole grain (29WW/11Rye/10Spelt) and rolled in poppy seeds.  It's actually a nice sandwich bread with a finer crumb.  It's soft and even with the added yeast the true Whole Wheat Levain gives this loaf great keeping quality.  

I decided to make a rendition of this flour blend but without the added VWG or commercial yeast and with added hydration.  After all the talk on Pane Maggiore this is actually quite similar with a 10% increase in whole grains, a small increase in Whole Wheat, and the addition of Whole Spelt, while reducing the Rye a touch.  Okay quite a few changes but it is quite similar in its eating quality with one major difference.  It's much less sour and has a pleasant sweetness instead.  I'll add some photos of the loaf I make at work as well.  Also I'll include a shot of the Country Sour I made this week using a stiff 100% Wheat Levain which produced another excellent loaf.  

Now for the Whole Wheat Sour i make at work.  Maybe a touch underproofed. Crumbs usually a bit more open. 

\

And finally for the Country Sour (20% Wheat, 2 % Rye)

Happy Baking All

Josh

Finally we are getting some rain and I'm still on semi hiatus with the Farmer's Market trading and took another week off.  Even after making bread 40 hours a week and taking this off i find myself wanting to play.  I suppose I have a lot of inspiration with "end of the year gifts".  I received Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast, Tartine 3, Pizza, How Baking Works for my book collection.  I also got a Cuisinart Burr Mill Ginder so I'm now geeking out on making perfect coffee.  I make coffee on my scale now.  And it feels good.  And finally I have access to CM High Extraction Flour and most recently we've begun grinding our own spelt flour.  Hard part is deciding where to start.  So instead of the market I've done a few test batches with some great and some mediocre successes and I figure I'll share.  

Happy Baking 

Josh

First Up the Miche from "Bread" with the only change being the use of a liquid white levain and adjusting hydration to maintain the remainder of the formula.  I only made this change out of convenience.  A bit ugly as we didn't flour the couche enough and the tops got stuck creating a cave at the top of each loaf but they bounced back quite well and the loaf was superb.  

I highly recommend the making of this loaf as it is of the finer breads I've tasted.  

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next up is my 60% Spelt Experiment with freshly milled spelt (ground 1 hour before mix)

This loaf needs some help but was a fun experiment and quite tasty in the end.  I'll increase hydration in steps til I find how much the fresh milled spelt can handle.  I also combined with strong flour and may switch over to a standard bread flour before changing the hydration.  

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next up:  High Extraction Sesame Wheat (50% T85 50% Whole Wheat and 20% mixed Sesame Seeds)

My oven was not heated well enough and maybe the loaves a touch overproofed.  I'll have to try this one again.  And even at 95% hydration I think it could have used more.  Will continue to tinker. 

And Finally Maybe my favorite of the bunch (well the miche was just as good in its own right)

High Extraction Walnut Rye:  48% T85, 30% White, 19% Rye, 3% Whole Wheat  

Happy Baking All

Josh

Winter Market 2 for me (I've missed quite a few as I'm taking my weekend back for a bit).  Yet another variation on the Pane Maggiore that I so adore (rhymed)  This variation came out of necessity.  Instead of an 18 hour wheat levain at 1:10:10 I used two levains.  One a whole wheat 1:2:2 for 8 hours and an equal portion of ripe white starter.  Yet again a fantastic loaf.  this may be the best of the bunch but if I recall the one made with 1/2 rye sour and 1/2 white starter was also pretty darn fantastic.  The mix was ideal (except the loss of perfect temp due to chilly kitchen) but the fresh grains kept fermentation vibrant.  I really love this loaf and highly suggest it to all.  The base formula can be found in previous posts of the same loaf.  Of my favorite breads and its 40% whole grain!!!

 Also I'm gonna add some pics of the Pearled/Barley, Steel Cut Oat/Flax Porridge Bread with the T3 as inspiration (used half the porridge he does and my flour blend is 78white20wheat/2rye as I don't have any high extraction flour and didn't want to make it.  Pretty tasty loaf with great keeping quality. 

Pane Maggiore

And The Barley/Oat/Porridge 

Tartine 3 is really a fantastic book with great inspiration for utilizing whole grains and still attaining an open crumbed loaf of bread.  

Josh

Been a while.  I actually did one other winter market but didn't take photos or notes and it was a loaf I did earlier in the year so I haven't written about it.  Been enjoying the oddly warm winter(not that it gets very cold here) for some time.  I'm sure the rain is on its way and we need it.  So this the Brown Rice Porridge Loaf from Tartine 3 with a few changes.  First off the rice.  I used some Forbidden Black Rice I found at Costco some time back.  I looked it up and this stuff is really good for you.  Here I wasn't sure whether to cook as for "eating" or overcook following the book directions.  I went with the latter.  The bread does make a mess of my knife and is very moist so maybe this was a mistake???  I also changed up the flour blend as I don't have high extraction flour on hand.  Used a mix of 78/20/2 white/wheat/rye. The rest follows the formula.  With so much rice this is much more of a wholesome bread than 22% wholegrain might imply.  

It's very moist with an excellent crisp crust and a pleasant finish of nutty rice flavor.  The book implies this bread has excellent shelf life and I believe it.  I never did buy his first couple of books because the information is so readily available online there was no real need for it.  This book offers a comprehensive list of new or less frequently used grains and a few ways to utilize them.along with some cool pastry ideas using whole grains.  I'm excited to get my own copy and play with more of these formulas

Happy Baking All

Josh

So with all the rave and some down time I thought I'd give this FreshLoaf classic a try.  I believe I followed David's (dmsnyder) most recent update which includes whole wheat.  I strayed from the procedure only in that I mixed the dough with my stand mixer opposed to by hand (slap and folds). I also used excess starter I had on hand which is of the sour variety and I think this may be a bit better with a less assertive levain.  But then again I prefer balance to overly sour white breads.  Some really love the sour punch.  Outside of that I gave it two stretch and folds at 45 and 90 minutes followed by 21 hours in the fridge.  

I made a larger batch tripling the formula posted.  I got 4 larger loaves (700g each) plus some scrap dough to use as pate fermente which I'll put in some pizza dough later this week.   I shaped two into batards and two into oval bannetons.  Had some loading issues with the batards so not quite as handsome as I'd have liked but certainly the preferred shape for this loaf.  And my last mistake was not baking them darker as they softened up a bit mroe than I'd hoped.  This is a very sour sourdough (maybe due to my levain???) with a wonderful crust while its still crunchy. I'll have to tinker with this a bit more.  

the somewhat mangled batard with half an ear.  Other looked even more mangled.  

crumb from the batard

From the oval banneton which if it was a longer bowl may have worked out nice.  Its a bit too scrunched and tall for this type of bread.  

and the crumb from the loaf in the bowl.  Not quite as open.  Might have needed a slighltly longer proof but the batard was ready in 40 minutes and i followed suit as it seemed ready. 

Josh

Times are busy.  Went up to Portland, OR to see Pearl Jam for the holidays and ate some great foods.  With only a few days in the city and so much good food to eat I barely scraped the surface.  Some good mentions.  Fressen and German bakery was a hidden gem that I'd highly recommend.  Tabor Breads was wonderful and probably the best bread I got to try.  Tasty n Sons was an epic dinner.  

Anyone when i returned home my computer was broken and now its back up and runnin (just the power supply). 

So my first winter market I opted to keep it simple and make a good wheat loaf.  With the exception of the dough comin out of the bowl cooler than I'd wished (only 72F when i wanted 75-76F)  All went well and the bread was actually quite good.  

 Happy Baking

josh