Mebake's blog

This is the first time I ever use Bread flour, i'll admit. Organic dover farm's Wtrong whole meal flour (Made of Red Hard Spring Wheat) With 12.6% Protein.

Ingredients:

SOAKER:

 - 560g Whole Meal Bread Flour

 - 420g Water

 - 18g fine Sea salt

BIGA / PREFERMENT:

 - 240g Strong White bread flour

 - 180g Water

 - 5g Instant dry yeast

Soaker was autolized for 24hrs, but i couldn't bake, so into the fridge it went for another 24 hrs.

Biga Was fermented in the fridge for 48 hours.

 Both where out 2 hours to dechill, cut into pieces, mixed, and kneaded (french kneading) until dough is silk smooth. Then fermented for 2 hours , with stretch and fold in the bowl each 1/2 hour (4 times). the dough was then preshaped, and then shaped into a boule and into a banetton for 45 minutes (should have been 1 hour at least, especially with only 5g yeast to start with).

Any way, i devised this covered baking yesterday. A pirex deep dish covered with an inverted stanless steel cookware. when the dough was ready i inverted the banetton and let the dough fall into the hot pirex with parchment, covered it , and into the oven for 30 min. Last 15 minutes where without cover to evenly brown.

Khalid

Great thing about baking is that you learn something new with every bake.

This was a 100% Wholewheat boule milled from Red hard spring (I think) Wheat. The wheat was milled too fast too fine, and i found the hard way, that finest stone milling causes starch damage. The results were as this:

This is the Wheat i milled (Hard Red Winter?).Very hard, like durum. I suspect that this wheat is a damaged crop. Frost maybe?

This is the pathetic Boule i spent 2 days preparing (No rise whatsoever), and baked under stainless steel bowl on a stone:

 The so called crumb:

 On another account, i have baked a successful (40% White WW, 30% Spelt, 30% AP)

(The Dough stuck a bit to the brotform because i pressed it in when i first put it):

After scoring:

Baked under a stainless steel Bowl on a stone for 15 min. uncovered for 25 min:

The crumb:

All I can say, it tasted Wonderfull, with soft creamy yet chewy crumb. I made a biga and a soaker for this. Then 24 hrs later, i combined both and did the (slap and fold french folding technique..hehe),followed by the fold in the bowl method i learned here. The overall dough hydration was 73%, and after the folding it was silky and smooth, with good gluten body.

A Loaf of 100%Rye sourdough in a pan.

lovely!

This is getting really exciting, beside being a daily food!

I baked this on friday. I stayed upto midnight to get it out of the oven because i don't have a space in my refrigerator for a proved dough.

It is basically a 75% hydration dough with 40% all purpose, 15% Rye, 45%  frshly milled whole hard wheat. The batard was baked under an aluminium foil pan for 25 minutes, and without for 30 minutes, oven door left open at the end of the bake for more crust.

David (dmsnyder), i love your idea (or was it?) of using an aluminum foil pan to trap steam. It worked!

Here the loaves proofing en couche:

Yesterday was a milestone in my Bread Baking quest. The seemingly defiant Wholewheat has been brought to its Knees, Well at least to me.

This was a 100% Whole Wheat Sourdough Boule i Baked yesterday. Constituted of 100% White Whole Wheat flour i milled, and baked under stainless steel bowl on a stone. It is very mildly sour, and very tender and creamy/ nutty somewhat moist crumb.

Credit and props go to:  thefreshloaf.com, and its members: David (dmsnyder), and ShiaoPing (ShiaoPing), for enlightening me on the stretch and fold method.

 Scoring did deflate part of the dough, as evident from the second slice.

Mebake

Yesterday I baked this Boule... With 33% Rye this time. Success!

I have had the best oven spring because of using an improvised cloche. A ceramic clay oven pot i bought off a store, and replaced the cover (which was vented) with a stanless steel bowl on top, and preheated both to 250 C.

Now i know how baking accomplishment feels.

Hats off to Susan't magic bowl idea, and Eric..at that.

A failed endeavour this time, when i hoplessly tried to braid a wholewheat challah as per Peter Reinhart's Wholegrain book, and ended up fusing the braids into a lump of dough and making a boule instead! I may have to reduce the hydration in the challah next time, and the braids may well hold shape.

Anyway, into the Boules i ventured, and this is how i made it:

(All directions are in accordance with P.R Wholgrain breads)

1- Day (1):

- Warm water 1.25 cups + Yeast 1 tsp (not recom. by P.R)+ fine wholegrain flour 3.1 cups

- Mixed by hand, Autolyzed for 10 min, shaped into a ball and set into an oiled bowl, covered with plas. wrap.(BIGA)

- Same ingredients as above but with salt (1 tablespoon) instead of yeast. (SOAKER), shaped and covered with a plastic wrap.

- First (BIGA) goes to fridge or a really cool place, for at least 4 hours and maximum 3 days.

- Second (SOAKER) goes anywhere you want except v. cold or v. warm. for 24 hrs. More than that it has to go to fridge.

2- Day(2):

- First Dough (BIGA) is to be removed from the fridge 2 hrs prior to mixing into dough 2.

- After 2 hrs, cut BIGA, and cut SOAKER into small pieces flouring them as you do so that they won't stick to each other. Mix pieces into a large bowl interchangeably, then add honey (2 tbl)/ Butter/ oil whatever you may savour, and mix vigorously.

- allow the final dough to rest for 1/2 hour.

- Cover with a plastic bag, and allow to ferment until 1 1/2 - double.

-after 45 min or so, scrap the dough into a floured/ oiled/ watered space, and shape into a boule, degazzing as little as possible.

- put the boule into a basket mold/ banetton/ brotform/ to hold shape while fermenting the final time. Meanwhile preheat your oven.

- When boule has risen in 20 minutes to 1.5 its size, put it in the oven on a stone/ cookie tray.. and pur hot water into a hot skillet to generate steam.

- and you all know the rest.. 

I swear, the taste of this bread is far far superior than the storebought... no comparison, i could it this all day!!

Boule 1 (well a hybrid batard/boule) Just out of the oven:

Boule 2: baked in a thick iron skillet:

and ofcourse, the crumb of boule 1

I came back from vacation!

I made this Barley batard (1/3 barley , 2/3 Whole Wheat), hearth bread.

Al though i used volume measurements, it turned our more or less sufficient. here it goes:

1 cup naked barley flour (1/3)

2 Cups Whole Wheat flour (2/3)

1 table spoon salt

1/4 teaspoon yeast

1.85 Cup of water, so roughly the final dough is 62% hydration (i could not elevate the hydration further because of the barley flour which kind of hinders the shaping process).

I used peter reinhart's method of delayed fermentation: i.e. split the doughs of each flower into halves, one contains yeast and goes to the fridge for 24hrs, while the other contains salt and remains outside in a warm place for 24hrs.

24hrs later, i combine the Biga (yeasted one) with the soaker (salted one), and make the bulk dough , and leave it to ferment for 1.5 hours until roughly 1.5 X the size.

Then, i scrape the fermented dough into a workspace WITHOUT de-flating it, and formed a Batard. At this point i heated the oven to 500 F, or 260 C while the bartard is left to ferment the final fermentation.

Half an hour later I used lava rocks in a Teflon cake mold and pured hot water to creat steam, and put the batard onto a parchment paper, and into the oven. the batard streched sideways, but oven rise compensated!

50 minutes later : VOILA!        VERY TASTEY

The loaf

Crumb

I delayed this bread long enough, i thought to myself. It was, afterall, the inspiration behind baking craziness. The bread is 1/3 Barley and 2/3 Wholewheat.

Taste? mmm.. it was sourdough, though some 1.6 tsp of yeast was used in the final dough. The bread tastes: Wholesome- Soury- Fibery- damp- chewy - Crusty. Thats is the way i felt when i took a bite. Regrets? Would skip the  Wholewheat starter and go for a yeast poolish to somewhat reduce sourness, though the bread was mildly sour.

Ingredients:

150 g Whole Barley flour

300 g Whole Wheat Flour

80 g Ripe Stiff Wholewheat starter

1 tsp sea salt

2 tsp Active dry inst. yeast

1 tsp molasses

265 g water

**************************************

As instructed by Peter Reinhart's Wholegrain breads, i made a biga and a soaker.

Soaker: 150g WholeWheat flour + 75g Whole Barley Flour + all Salt + 130g water

Biga: 150g Wholewheat Flour + 75g Wholebarley flour + all starter + 130 g water

I let them sit for 1 hour, then i refrigerate them for 24 hours.

Next day, i removed the two doughs, biga and soker from the fridge and let them sit for 2 hours to warm. Next, i mixed the two doughs thoroughly , added all the yeast and 5 grams water, and knead  until both incorporated evenly (the final dough.)

I oiled a bowl and put the final dough in for bulk fermentation. This took 1.5 hours. I carefully scraped the dough into a floured workspace, and began shaping the dough into a Boule. Initial shaping was followed by final shaping, and into the proofing basket upside down it went. I preheated the oven to 450 F or 240 C with an empty load paf for steaming and a cast-iron skillet as a baking stone.

1 hour later I removed the Hot cast iron skillet, and inverted the dough from the basket to a parchment and unto the skillet. Into the oven it went and i poured hot water into the hot loaf pan to creat steam and closed the oven.

1 hour later, i turned the oven off, i opened the oven door for 10 minutes with the bread in for extra crust, and then removed it unto a cooling rack.

The Boule in the oven after 8 minutes

Sourdough Barley Bread

A crumb Shot

Another Crumb shot

Mebake

Ever since he left germany, my father has always been a fan of german sourdough ryes, aren't we all?

The store bought Seeded Sourdough rye my father often buys is so called (nordic or norlander bread). I thought that i could mimic the taste and appearance of the said bread, i tried twice and failed.

Venturing into starter world and sourdoughs helped develop my baking skills, and Rye baking was especially successful. Credit goes to God almighty and freshloavers.

 Yesterday, 16 days into mixing water, Rye flour and perparing a starter, my most successful rye loaf was born. It is inspired from "Norlander bread" which in turn is inspired from sourdough seeded german rye breads, and its my german-variation Rye bread

The loaf was 70% wet, and contained: 100% wet Sourdough Rye starter, sea salt, pre-soked whole rye berries, fennel seeds, caraways seeds, aniseed, rye flour, and mixture of presoaked  seeds.

bulk proofing took 6 hours, and final shaping proofing was 65 minutes. (obviously the crust caved in in oven, indicating an overproof)

The taste? although i should wait for the recommended 24 hours to slice the loaf, i could not wait (Typically human!), and it was heavenly tastefull with a pleasent sour rye taste and delicious seeds.

Pictures follow:

Fresh Loaf out of the oven

A cross section

A Close look

I will sure duplicate this experience in the near future.

Mebake