The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Weekend Experimenting

HeiHei29er's picture
HeiHei29er

Weekend Experimenting

Two experiments this weekend.  One I've been wanting to try and one a friend asked me to make.  I"ll try to get a more detailed method loaded in the next day or two.

 

 Garlic Onion Oregano and Turmeric
This is one I've been wanting to try.  Didn't know for sure how much of each inclusion to add, so this is the starting point.  Smelled wonderful coming out of the oven.  Seems to have lost those aromatics as of this afternoon.  Haven't tried it yet.  The Red Fife and Kamut were milled on my Mockmill.  

EDIT:  From my perspective, the texture was spot on but the flavor was lacking.  Shared half a loaf with a friend.  She thought it was delicious and made great paninis, but couldn't discern any flavor other than onion.  Next time, I will increase the inclusion amounts.

 Method
1)    Combine levain ingredients and ferment at 70 deg F for 12-14 hours
2)    Coarsely mince garlic and chop green onion.  Combine and sautee in 1 tsp olive oil over low heat to avoid burning the garlic.  Sautee until aromatic.  Add oregano and turmeric to the sautee, stir well to combine, and cook for 1 minute to bring out the aromatics in the herbs.  Remove from heat and cool.
3)    Combine all final dough flours and final water.  Stir gently until flour is just wetted.  Cover and autolyse for 30 minutes.
4)    Add levain, inclusions, and salt to autolyse and combine with pinch and folds.  Continue until levain is well mixed into autolyse.
5)    Develop medium gluten.  I used 3 sets of bowl kneading with 10 minute rests.
6)    Bulk ferment at 76 deg F.  Folds every 30-45 minutes (30 min if dough strength is low, 45 minutes if dough is reasonably holding its shape) until dough is starting to get "puffy".  Allow dough to expand to roughly 75-90%.
7)    Degas dough and pre-shape in a boule.  Bench rest for 20 minutes.
8)    Final shape round or oval.  Final proof at 76 deg F until dough has roughly doubled and is "jiggly".
9)    Pre-heat oven at 465 deg F; steam oven: bake at 450 deg F (5 mins), 425 deg F (15 mins); vent oven and remove steam; 425 deg F (10 min), 400 deg F (10-15 min)

Unfortunately, the yellow in the crumb didn't come through to this file upload.

 

Garlic inclusions

 

 

Bacon Egg and Cheddar
A friend asked me to try this one.  My choice on yeasted or sourdough.  I went with the RYW/SD combo in my levain.  Wasn't sure how much inclusion to add for this one either.  Like the Garlic Onion Oregano, the bacon was noticeable when it was pulled from the oven, but that aroma has subsided. 



Comments

Ming's picture
Ming

Nice experiments with great results. Kamut and Red Fife are some of my favorite wholegrains so far, not sure if I even need WW anymore, working with Turkey Red at the moment. Cheers!

HeiHei29er's picture
HeiHei29er

Thanks Ming!  I haven't had my mill too long and have only used the Red Fife a few times and never by itself.  I need to do something like a Vermont Sourdough with the Red Fife to get a better grasp on its flavor.  Agree on needing the WW though.  :-)

Martadella's picture
Martadella

Very very nice! 

HeiHei29er's picture
HeiHei29er

Thank you!

headupinclouds's picture
headupinclouds

Looks good. I'm curious to hear about the taste of the garlic loaf.  I'll bet it will be nice toasted with olive oil.  Slow roasted garlic would be an interesting inclusion.

HeiHei29er's picture
HeiHei29er

This is how I eat the majority of my bread.  :-)  I agree though, toasted with olive oil would be very good.  Or...  Might even skip the toasting and just dip the bread.

The flavors were there, but underwhelming.  The aroma from the sliced loaf was there but not that strong.  This first test was a complete guess on the inclusion amounts.  Wanted the flavors to be there, but not any one flavor to be overpowering.  Think I'll double them all for the next go around and maybe mince the garlic a little larger so you get a nice little treasure when you find a piece.  :-)

 

Benito's picture
Benito

These loaves look and sound amazing Troy and the yellow crumb definitely comes through in your photos!

I’m interested in your levains though, They are basically RYW levains with a SD kick and they are more than 100% hydration 119% hydration if I’m not mistaken.  Theoretically this should favor lactic acid, but with your RYW making up half of the liquid I’m wondering if the yeast proportion is much higher than usual and whether you can taste the contribution of the LAB from the starter?  Interesting method.

Benny

HeiHei29er's picture
HeiHei29er

Thank you Benny.  The garlic loaf has promise.  Need to tweak the inclusion amount higher, but a good first start.  In the top view photo, the yellow crumb is very noticeable right at the score line, but it didn't quite come through.  :-)

I've used the RYW/SD levains a number of times.  It's hard for me to tell much of a difference on this loaf will all the inclusion flavors.  However, in something like a Country Loaf, you can definitely notice the difference in sour flavor.  It is still there, but more subdued.  To keep the levain times at the same 12-14 hours at 70 deg F, I use half the typical SD inoculation and half the water as RYW.  My guess is you could tweak it from there, but I haven't messed with that yet.  Besides the flavor, the other big thing I notice is the "tightness" of the levain.  With a straight SD, the levain tends to be frothy with visible entrapped bubbles.  With the RYW/SD combo, the levain is more pillowy (if that's the right description).  The entrapped bubbles are noticeably smaller and the levain is "tighter" for lack of a better word.  Maybe something closer to a marshmallow spread.  Certainly not that thick, but leaning that way.  My guess is that's from the higher yeast population and a lot more but smaller gas bubbles.

Benito's picture
Benito

Yes that difference in levain handling makes sense.  With less acid the levain gluten will degrad much less during a long fermentation.  It is similar to what I find with the stiff sweet levain, the levain is still strong in terms of the gluten matrix.

happycat's picture
happycat

Delicious looking breads Troy and you're mastering yet another leavening method.

Not sure how you did inclusions. 

I wonder if toasting the garlic in butter then spreading it over rolled out bulk fermented dough, then rolling it up might pack more of a punch.

Each slice would have a concentrated spiral of toasted garlic butter goodness.

HeiHei29er's picture
HeiHei29er

Thanks David!  And thank you for the reminder…. I need to get methods posted!

I slowly sautéed the garlic and green onion together in a bit of olive oil.  Gave half the loaf to some friends and they agreed for the most part.  They thought the oregano was good and gave a nice undertone (I think it needs more) but thought it just needs more garlic and onion.  They really enjoyed it though, so this one will be a repeat for sure!