trailrunner's blog

I am biking from St. Augustine FL to SanDiego CA. I am using this as an opportunity to raise awareness of hunger in this country . My local Food Bank, Food Bank of East Alabama, is helping me by placing barrels in local spots in my town of Auburn/Opelika AL. I am trying to raise 3100# of food as well as $ 3100 since the trip is 3100 miles. We will take about 60 days to do this so it is also a personal celebration of my 60th year on this earth. I am in Day 7 today and we are in Marianna FL. at the library. I will check in periodically. Here is my log so far . If you want to follow my progress you can get on Face Book for the Food Bank of East ALbama and see the updates. It would be wonderful if any of you would like to make donations to your local food banks in honor of my "Pedaling for Food". Caroline Donnelly

I have had a busy but very productive day . I made the decision to do a large bake of the Nury so that I could really study the wet dough and make adjustments as the day went by rather than having to wait 1-2 weeks to bake again. We have a large party coming up so the bread will be perfect for that. Gotta watch my Saints win the Super Bowl !

I took a lot of pics in sequence so that you can have an idea of how the dough should look at different stages. I know this has helped me a lot in dealing with the artisinal breads . I hope it will help others too. I didn't get picks of the levain or the dough during folding...sorry..I will get the amazing windowpane next time I promise.

I made enough levain so that I could make 3 double batches. I then made 3 large loaves from each double batch so the loaves came out really nicely sized for sandwiches etc.  You will also see that I used rice flour on the counter when cutting the wet dough. The first batch this was an experiment since I don't like the way flour works at all on a counter under wet doughs. After seeing how splendidly this worked I will use it always. Almost none of the rice flour sticks to the dough but the dough , in turn ,doesn't stick to the counter at all so transfer to the parchment is simple . I sprayed the dough cutter with water and wet my finger tips. This prevented anything from sticking to anything else. I had semolina on the parchment because we like the taste so much with the rye bread. I also learned that the dough cutter makes an ugly straight sided loaf so after the 1st one of those I took my wet fingertips and reshaped the cut sides/ends of the loaves after transfer.

Here are the pics...starting with the dough as it came out of the fridge. You will note there are 3 buckets. I took one out waited 45 min and took another out and waited again 45 min and then took out the last. You will see the difference in the dough as it bubbled up while attaining room temp. The 45 min wait between each batch gave time for the 30 min bake and then upping the temp in the oven to 500 again and allowed time to cut and transfer the dough. The formula says to bake at 350 but if you preheat to 500 and then immediately turn back to 460 it allows for misting the bread w/o cooling the oven too much.

just out of fridge after 24 hr. retarding: after 1 hr: all three buckets--45 min. lag between them starting from left to right : dough poured out onto rice flour : cut with wet dough cutter--note straight sides of dough...didn't make this mistake again :) into the 500 degree oven and quick spritzt with water several times and turn back temp to 460: great oven spring ! first 3 finished loaves: gorgeous open crumb: my reward:

I used the rice flour in a linen lined basket and WHAT a difference. Sunddenly, as you said, the loaf comes out like teflon and the slash...well all I can say is WOW ! I used about 1 tsp of rice flour and lightly rubbed it into the linen napkin. I turned the shaped pain de campagne into it seam side up and waited 1 1/2 hrs, preheated the iron pot for 30 min at 500 and then turned the loaf out and slashed. Placed in pot/closed/reduced oven to 460 and baked for 30 min lid on and 15 min lid off to 207 degrees. The loaf carried on like crazy when I got it out of the oven,,,snap, crackle, pop and I got GORGEOUS cracks too. Who would have thought that someone who has baked bread for this many decades could still get so excited ?? Thank you again Hans for the rice flour tip...my baking will now move forward at a different pace as far as slashing...you are the best. c

risen/slashed note linen lined basket w/ rice flour:

fresh from oven :

old iron pot for cloche baking:

This is the rest of this weeks' bake. This is my 2nd attempt at the Nury rye and I can definitely see a huge difference in both my abilities w/ wet dough and my starters. They are older as am I :) The bread has been commented on at length on this site so all I will say is that everyone is right...this is a fantastic bread. Thank you Zolablue for your original post, and David for his follow up comments and pics .

crust:

crumb:

I found this formula on Sourdough Companion and used it as a starting point for my bread. http://sourdough.com/recipes/raisin-breadbasic-fruit-loaf..here is the link. I subbed the dates and pecans for the dried fruit. I also changed the spices . I used 400 g KA bread flour and 100 g KA ww flour. Sorghum syrup from TN for the sweetener. I baked it as one large loaf at 375 for 1hr. No steam and no stone this bake and no slash.

This is the most amazingly good sourdough I have made so far. The dough comes together like silk. I could handle it with ease and the folding of the fruit into the dough was simplicity itself. I used rice flour for the 1st time on the linen napkin with which I lined the basket. I will always do that from now on. It makes the dough literally fall off of the cloth w/ just a light dusting remaining. Things I will do differently...I will use a larger basket next time or else make 2 boules, I will slash...I didn't as I was afraid the fruit would burn. Turns out the charred dates are so YUM that it is a good thing when they caramelize. I will also go ahead and steam and stone although it is fine w/o but I want to see the difference. So here goes...formula "my way" and pics.

400g KA bread flour

100g KA ww flour

200g starter ( I used my 100% hydration white)

162g warm milk ( I used 1%)

162 g warm water

20 g sorghum syrup ( you could use honey)

10 g Kosher salt

7 g mixed spice ( 5 g cinnamon,1g cardomom,1g nutmeg)

250 g mixed dried fruits/nuts ( I used 1/2 chopped dates and pecans)

Mix all but fruits/nuts in KA just till moist and autolyse 20 min. Use mixer on setting 2 for 1 min to knead bread x 3 with 10 min rests between. May need to add a few drops of water depending on your ww flour and your moisture in your home. Dough should clean the bowl right away and be soft,pliable and silky almost from the start. Ferment 1 hr . Do 2 stretch and folds at 1 hr intervals on the counter. Return to oiled covered bowl after each.  Remove dough from bowl and flatten to a large rectangle. Dough is so smooth and soft that this was a pleasure. Strew the nut/fruits over the dough and roll up to a long tube and then gently fold in ends and sides to make a smooth ball. Return to oiled covered bowl 1 hr. Remove and shape as desired... 1  large boule, batard or 2 .Place in cloth lined basket. Let rise in a warm place for 3-4 hrs, I use the mantle in my kitchen above the fireplace. Bake in preheated 375 oven one hour for one large loaf or to 200 degrees internal temp...see my notes above...steam/stone etc are optional. Finished loaf :

crumb shots:

When nothing seems to be rational in my life and I have lost all of my center I can always turn to baking...and so it has been for 37 years or so. I made my first Challah in 1976 or so...here it is again...almost every week since then. I had some extra "discard" starter and bananas and applesauce that I made last summer and lo and behold it becomes bread and muffins. My freezer is full and for a little while the demons are held back.

The formula for the "discard" banana bread has been posted before in this blog and also elsewhere on TFL. I would be glad to tell you how it came about if you like. The Challah are from a recipe...no formula for this...cups and measures...if you like that too can be posted. c

This is winging its way to NYC for my best friend to use at her celebration Friday evening. I have been making Challah for well over 35 years now but only learned how to do this braid last year. Thanks to TFL for that info . Hope you enjoy and have a blessed holiday.

I haven't posted in ages . Been baking but no time these days to get on the computer. I had to post this though. I used Lildice's Ciabatta crust recipe from the pizza forum...she posted it in 2007. All I can say is...a picture is worth a 1000 words. Her inst. are perfect and this is the best pizza I have ever eaten, let alone made. I will never use another crust.

I had an abundance of discard yesterday so got creative and made some delicious treats. My discard is made up of "alto" and "sax" a white and a rye wild yeast starter. I add to it on a weekly basis. I regularly make the banana nut bread that I have posted before. I wanted to try a bread solely made from the discard. I used the 1-2-3 formula and 2% salt also added 2 scant tsp inst. yeast for good measure. The final dough was 500g starter discard- 1000g tap water-1500g GM bread flour- 30g Kosher salt. I dissolved the starter in the water and added the inst yeast. Mixed and autolysed for 30 min. Added the salt and did folds every 20 min x 4 times. Retarded overnight. where it quadrupled in the buckets. Removed this AM and shaped and let proof for about 1 1/2 hrs. While it was proofing I made the waffles that I had started yesterday evening from the discard. Recipe is on the KA site . It is a fantastic recipe and a great way to use discard. Oven preheat to 500 and loaves were slashed and very heavily sprayed with water. I don't do any other steaming and have found the crust and oven spring are perfect. Bake 10 min and lower to 460 and bake an additional 25 min to 210 degrees. The loaves "sang" for 10 min on removal from the oven. The crust is very crisp and the crumb very tender and quite flavorful. Pleasantly sour and lots of grain flavor came through. I am well pleased with my experiment.

I haven't been taking pics lately but have been baking as usual. Wanted to thank David and also document how wonderful this formula is. I have a starter , thanks to Gaarp, that doubles in one hour. I take it out of the fridge 1x a week and feed it q 12h for a total of 2 times and it is fantastic. I also have a rye starter and a bowl of "discard". The San Joaquin is great. Here are pics. Perfect sour for us as we are not wild about lots of sour. I have found that my starter is very happy in the fridge. At least it works for me.

I will pass along one tip that we discovered along the way. We make a lot of breads from Il Fornaio, a great Italian Bread Book. I have stopped making preferment, biga, poolish....I only use my discard...it works wonders. Believe it or not. The bread rises and has the most wonderful complex sweetness. My discard is a blend of both of my starters...rye and white ( alto and sax) and they are both 100% hydration. Try it. Take out the required amount of your discard and sub it for your biga/preferment/poolish...what a treat.

discard as "biga"