Blog posts

Introducing the Sweet Dough Arm™: Elevate Your Baking with Precision Fat Incorporation

For over four decades, I’ve been immersed in the art of baking. My journey began when I was just 15 years old, bidding on my first Hobart 60-quart and 20-quart mixers at auction. Soon after, I added a cobalt blue KitchenAid K5SS to my home kitchen, which my parents thoughtfully converted from a laundry and sewing room into what is now the Dough Wright Test Kitchen.

Almost had a top on but circumstances dictated a topless loaf . All whole grains Yecoro Rojo, Spelt , and Rye with purchased Golden Temple Fine Durum Atta. 600g of flour combo , 150g of Trinity ( used date nectar as sweetener and buttermilk and EVOO) 360 g very very active levain . Misjudged the amount of H2O the flour was quite dry and needed to add +200g so 1600 g loaf in a 1400g pan! Ooops. Topless is the way to go. 

Today's bake:   Gotland Rye -  Gotlandskt Slagbrod (Sweden)

Source:   The Rye Baker by Stanley Ginsberg

Notes: 

From  TDW: 1302gr - 1 Pan(s)   Pan Size: 9x5x3 In / 22.86x12.7x7.62 CM  
To  TDW: 2430gr - 2 Pan(s)   Pan Size: 7.88x4x4 In / 20x10.16x10.16 CM
 

Substitutions: 

Following up on our recent speculations about using Cream of Wheat, I made a loaf with 50% COW. It worked out very well, though there was an unplanned extra 4 1/2-day bulk fermentation in the fridge (it was supposed to be only overnight).

I didn't know how well the COW would absorb water, but I suspected that it would take longer than usual. I started with 62% hydration. I would use a little less next time since the dough ended up a little sticky and didn't want to hold its shape quite well enough. Still, a good result.

What do you call the time between Easter and Christmas? Exactly! Time to practice making panettone!
I just couldn’t resist without baking another panettone — or in this case, colomba. This time with cranberry and white chocolate.

Took me 4 attempts to get this done! The first one was disaster (underbaked, too many components, cloying sweet, and too rich), the second one I scraped the levain away (I went overboard with extremely low hydration and extremely high osmotic pressure starter, became too proteolytic and had so little leavening power), the third one was portioning issue, and here is the fourth one!

Friends are coming over after we go out for dinner.

I've been tinkering with the Pain de Rémésy recipe off and on and am sharing a modification that seems to work better and more reliably.

Here goes:

83% strong bread flour

2% rye flour

15% whole wheat flour

1% salt

2.5% sourdough starter

Less than a gram of instant baker's yeast (~0.6-0.7 per kilo of flour). I use a bit less than 1/8 a teaspoon for a 600g loaf. This is added in a supporting role, to help ensure a decent rise.

This experiment was suggested by Tom, here.

Conclusion: Excellent 

I was going to use 75% bread flour, but goofed and used a/p.

90g ap flour

30g CoW

66g egg (big farm egg)