not.a.crumb.left's blog

Has anyone else here  also enjoyed the new audiobook by Chad Robertson and Jennifer Latham?

I have started using their double booster feeding with good results and also love their mixing schedule introducing water in steps. Now I have been doing that anyway but love the shorter intervals and tried going beyond by normal comfort zone and upping by feel..ending on 87% hydration for a loaf with 2O% WW, 30% Canadian white and the rest Shipton Mill No. 4 Strong White..

Bulk for 3 and half hour at 26c and three coil folds, 30 min bench rest and 30 ambient proof in banneton before 3 c fridge. Baked in Rofco B20 oven and then I forgot this fella and this explains the darker and thicker crust at the bottom as it was sitting in the oven..

I baked this same loaf again today as another test batch  but with an 2 hour autolyse this time rather than 30 min and boy..I only could bassinage up to 83% hydration today...we shall see how bake tomorrow goes...and let's hope I don't forget another loaf...

I used to be a big fan of slap and folds but by using this method combined with coil folds I can also build good strength ..Happy baking! Kat

Hi all, I have not been posting for a while..as a bit busy on a total new adventure and some may remember when I started baking here and baked the Champlain loaf with Dan on a community bake again and again....

I have now a little bake room at our house No. 44 and just started baking for a market as well as smaller subscriptions as I handmix only...

Just wanted to share a few random photos and I bake mainly with a new 'second hand' B40 Rofco but also still have my smaller B20 Rofco. No mixer but  a commercial fridge to finally not overproof in fridge anymore!!! Hah!  I made some shaping tables using Ikea trestles and wooden work tops.. everything is on wheels thanks to my husband making me trolleys which helps a lot...

Very early days and learning lots....biggest batch was 30 loaves for one market and happy with that...

This post is really a big thank you to the many of you here who have helped me to learn and it never stops...

Stay safe all of you...Kat

I found a package with Emmer flour in the larder that I had totally forgotten about so my weekly bake for friends consisted of 25% Emmer with the rest Marriages Strong White as I had not baked with this flour for a long time and did not want to go wild too quickly....and risk the friends ending up with disaster loaves...ha, ha....

I sadly could not cut into them and then used the same approach for another bake two days later that I almost forgot to cut into but managed to take a photo before it was all gone...

I often bake now 20% starter at 100% hydration (as colder now), 2% salt, 78% hydration which at a temp of 25C gives me a bulk of around 4 hours ish with a couple of coil folds on an hourly basis and left alone for the last hour or so...

I like to develop gluten a bit more upfront and normally do some slap and folds after I have added the salt...I can't tell anymore what the percentage of rise is but probably when I have more than one loaf bulking I play it a bit safe and don't let them go quite as high as 50% as I know the wine cooler will struggle with all those loaves and even at 4C they rise a little bit in there....

The Emmer flour was quite dark and I  loved the flavour so shall order more next time from Shipton Mill...

I always wanted to make this bread...and love that bun at the top and the character of this bread. I also have fond memories as long time ago as a student,  I cycled all the way through Galicia...

I remember well Santiago de la Compostela and the 'Jakobsweg' a path which still many people walk for pilgrimage...

Whilst there are formulas on you Tube in Spanish, I was surprised that there is not more information out there....

So I just had a go and treated it like a ciabatta at 85% hydration with a cold bulk.

The shaping of the bun seems to be the toughest bit and whilst some videos show a baker pulling with the right hand and twirling dough with the left after final shaping ...mine stuck to the bench...so more flour needed next time to prevent sticking during pre-shape. when I want to pick up the dough for twirling....he, he....

I used 100% rye and 100% WW and the rest strong White and medium strong White...I think I might use less strong flour next time to get more extensibility for this type of bread...

It is music festival season and with the exams being over I have teenagers in the house who happily demolish bread very quickly before they go off for the weekend...!

If anyone knows of a good formula that would be much appreciated...any Pan Galego bakers out there????  Kat

I have not been posting too much as might get too repetitive for your folks and also have been visiting family in Germany...

So being back nurtured that starter and tried to bake with a different Shipton Mill Organic Semolina Durum flour as the Caputo Semola Rimicinata is not easy to get hold off where I live...and I looooove that flour....

It is very fine but the glutenins seem to be 'weaker' than the Caputo and I use less water...less of an autolyse and less of slap and folds to protect the gluten that I want to develop...

This was just using what I had so about 15% Shipton Mill Semolina, 15% WW and 10% Spelt and the rest Strong white Organic Marriages.. at 76% hydration with a 100% hydration young starter using half WW and half White...

This loaf was trying a more sideways score to get a different ear rather than my usual down the middle score...and I forgot to turn the Rofco down which would have resulted in overglazed loaves but thankfully realized after 2 min without too much damage done......but I did this a lot in my early Rofco days without realizing...too much steam can also have that effect I noticed....

Then my weekly bake of five with a tiny test loaf on top....You can also spot the yellow tinge of the Semolina and white and black sesame seeds on the top......love that combination of sesame seeds and durum. A shame that the black sesame seeds are so expensive in the UK. A bit of gold dust! ha. ha....

I tend to make a mini test loaf as all the other ones go to friends!

I also still experiment what my favourite banneton size is....no conclusion yet...and to be continued....so always a bit of a menagerie...

A while ago I bought back some Swiss Ruchmehl from Germany and was curious about the

flour as Max Kugel, in Bonn bakes a lot with it in his bakery...

Last time it turned out to be an amazing bake and sadly I could not get my hands on it in UK....

But my fortune changed when I spotted Dark Swiss Flour on the Shipton Mill web site.

It did not give much information but when I baked with it, indeed it was very similar to the Ruchmehl, I thought...

The other day I saw a formula on https://brotokoll.com/recipe/?lang=en blog and after contacting Alex, he confirmed that indeed the Shipton Mill Dark Swiss Flour is a Ruchmehl...

It is difficult to find information in English on the flour but it is like a 85% extraction flour that is not quite WW but darker than a strong bread flour....The taste is rustic and deep...although I mixed it with 25% Strong Organic White Marriages and 25% Strong Canadian flour. I might try it 100% next bake...and I think it will take more water easily...

This one was 78% hydration, 20% young leaven (ph 5 when I used it), 2 % salt.. , 2 hours autolyse, 30 min before adding salt after adding levain, slap and folds to develop gluten, 3 Stretch & folds and last 1 and 1/2 dough was left alone, pre-shape, 30 min benchrest and 30 min before going into wine cooler...

It was a warm day and tried to keep dough at 23C throughout whole process.

I can highly recommend this flour should you be in the UK and use Shipton Mill. No postage if you order min of £ 30 and lots of amazing flours there at a very good price!   Kat

Time for the weekly bake and I decided that I want to improve  my shaping of a 'torpedo' style loaf

with more tampered ends. Not quite there but making a start...

Research first and I've found the following bakers on IG which shared their shaping and watched their videos endless times...

One is from @mothersoven and very much like a batard shape in BREAD, if I remember correctly...getting that tension right to be able to roll the ends - a bit like baguette -  is tough and will need much more practice...

https://www.instagram.com/p/BQFVc8jjKx8/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmYE3RxB5Th/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

I also had to change my schedule and decided to go with a premix - so mixed with salt using icecold water and then put the cold dough with salt in wine cooler at 12C for the night. Dough temp was 19C at the beginning.

Got up at 5AM and added the overnight leaven.

This was :

2250g of with 50% Shipton Mill Dark Swiss Flour and 50% Canadian Strong bread Flour

15% levain from overnight fed at 80% hydration

78% hydration (dough felt stiff considering and forgot how thirsty the Canadian flour is...)

I used gentle Rubaud when adding levain and also a gentle lamination to warm dough up and then 3 X hourly S & F.

I then had to go out and basically the dough was left alone in proofer at 21C. I came home at 11:00 and the dough was ready to pre-shape, 30 min benchrest and 30 min rest in banneton before into 4C wine cooler.

It was nice to be able to use the pre-mix and knowing the dough will not turn into soup and also helps with developing that gluten without muscle power with that much dough...

Now, all the bread was given away apart from the smaller torpedo loaf  and crumb above...I really wish I could analyse crumb better to learn....I applied @mothersoven shaping and wonder whether my rolling it creates that denser area in the middle? The shaping learning is going to be continued....

Coated with white and black sesame seeds.. 

When I saw the other day Leslie's beautiful seeded loaf based on Ru's formula I felt inspired and dived into my books and online and on this site to look at different formulas..as it was time for my weekly 4 loaves bake for friends.

In the end I settled for Maurizio's Seeded Sourdough as it included one of my favourite flour: durum...

I did not have the fennel seeds or lemon zest he included and left those out and replaced the fennel seeds with white sesame. Otherwise I more or lest stayed true to the formula and did not go rogue...as I often do with forumulas.

One think I really like about Maurizio's formulas is that he states the temperatures and what to aim for...that is really so helpful, I find.

I used Strong Canadian WW flour being aware of the risk with American formulas and British flours but the rest was Marriages Strong Organic White and De Cecco Durum flour.

After much deliberation I also toasted ALL the seed and then put them in an overnight soaker whereas Maurizio did not toast all the seeds.

It made a beautiful dough and boy did it taste good!

Seeds incorporated during 2nd Stretch and Fold...

30 min bench rest after pre-shape

I always enviously looked at posts on IG and here when I saw marbled loaves.

They remind me so much of baking "Marmorkuchen' with my Mum and evoke some of that feeling making it as a bread. I remembered a thread where Dan experimented with chocolate malt.

I could not get any so just used some dark roasted Barley malt instead with some cocoa nibs that I had in the larder and grounded. 

I mixed a Champlain, halved dough after 7 hours AL and then added salt and developed in different containers. This loaf from Trevor is like an old friend now and I use it as the basis for so many of my baking experiments with it's lovely ratio of spelt, rye and white flour.

Bulk was approx 4 hours or so at 76F with 2 -3 folds and I folded the two doughs gently together at the last fold and then let the dough bulk for another hour or so...

Pre-shape, 30 min bench rest

Final Shape, 45 min ambient proof and then 12 hours in the wine cooler at 4C

I was very happy with this as a first attempt...The taste just has a hint of cacao and quite a hearty taste from the malt....   I must try this again.... Kat

I saw this beautiful image of a Pain Fendu from a very inspired baker http://picdeer.com/media/2004093069051294434_3455206222 and this was the over ambitious and a bit impromptu attempt to recreate something similar.

I basically mixed a  80% Champlain and rolled it out in the middle, degassing the dough quite a bit and then with the split at the bottom put it into a banneton. 

Sadly both versions stuck together again (although the 'split' was floured with rye flour) and did not quite open the way I was hoping for...one looking more like a ciabatta and the other just ripped partly open...

BUT what I could not believe was how little the crumb was affected by the severe degassing of the dough? In fact, it seems that the degassing contributed to even a nicer distribution of the bubbles, I wonder?

If anyone has any good ideas for shaping a Pain Fendu, then please let me know. I did a search here any other tips are happily received...

Kat