Getting ready for our camping adventure over Easter with family. Baked these Hamelman's Traditional English Hot Cross Buns today. I may have to bake another lot. These are 75-gram dough each; formula below.
I took another shot at Vermont Sourdough today. After my attempt a couple weeks ago, I wanted to see if the tweaks I made to my starter maintenance would speed up the bulk ferment. Ironically, I think it actually went slower.
Overall, can't complain. Got decent oven spring, a nice color and crispiness to the crust, and the aroma is pleasant with just a bit of tang. I think it will taste good. Was shooting for my typical sandwich loaf type crumb, and will see tomorrow if I hit that.
March 20, 2021.
almost time for Easter breads/braids (not that it’s a thing in our house but I like playing with the bread calculator over at FoodGeek’s site - recipe here)
This was made with an overnight preferment instead of my usual TZ method. I’m gonna double the recipe for a wreath version next. Maybe with some eggs wedged into the dough like “Pane di Pasqua”.
The lil swirls got smooshed!?
This started out as Eric’s Sourdough Deli Rye, but I started to worry about my KA mixer after I added the levain to the developed initial dough as is just wasn’t building any strength. My KA mixer is a newish model with the plastic gears so I didn’t want to kill it just to bake this as a hearth loaf. So I decided to make my first lean sandwich loaf. I poured the dough (it was pretty loose) into the greased pullman pan, smoothed the top and placed it into the proofing box. I baked it after it had risen to 1 cm below the rim of the pan.
Some of you maybe familiar with anko, but for those of you who aren’t it is a paste that is made from azuki beans and sweetened with sugar and is a popular component in many Asian desserts. For this bread, I made a Koshian Anko (smooth anko) but a Tsubuan or chunky anko could be used as well. If anyone is interested I can post the recipe for the anko.
Overnight levain build
14 g starter + 86 g cold water + 86 g bread flour left to ferment at 77ºF overnight.
For the Black sesame powder
This was on my list of things to bake. It was good, though the anise flavor was a bit srong for me (and I like anise!). It overpowered everything else. It was a new jar, and likely more fresh than the fennel and caraway I had on hand.
I followed the recipe as described, but made it in a small pullman pan instead. So much easier for sandwiches and toast! It was fantastic toasted with butter and marmalade.
Now my second post of a bread from the Kingdom Bakery videos. The prior was for a polenta based bread. And his method of mixing and folding this dough had me curious enough. Also this employs a poolish, something I hadn't done before with ciabatta, as it was always either biga or levain.
This is our favorite currently. Even with the lower hydration than what we are used to, it’s a delicious bread!
This is Bertinet’s version:
Preferment (Fermented white dough 10 - 12 hours)
Dough
and this from Bake-Street.com
