Experimental baguettes, Pain de Campagne, and Jamaican sandwich bread
Experimentation with baguettes never seems to end. Today I decided to try a one day sponge instead of my usual poolish. In addition, I let the rest of the flour and water (that not being occupied fermenting in the sponge) have a one and one half hour autolyse. I then did a double bulk ferment, the first in the fridge for two hours, the second at room temperature for another hour after folding the dough.
Last week I let the dough ferment in the fridge out of necessity (the wife wanted me to take her somewhere, I forget where now), and the bread was great. I decided to try a more structured approach to determine the optimum fermentation. It seems to lack the dark crust I prefer, so next time I will scorch it. I didn't turn the oven on soon enough, and it's always fritzy anyway when it comes to temps. Ah, well, two are gone already, so all in all a definite step forward on the journey to a perfect personal recipe.
Next I made two loaves of white bread for family sandwiches and suchlike. I usually use one of two recipes. The first comes from Julia Child's Baking with Master Chefs. The other is a Jamaican hard do. I chose that for today's bake. I added a little powdered milk and vegetable oil to the basic recipe to give it that little extra oomph.
Finally, my favorite sourdough. Pain de campagne. Made in a Dutch oven. Perfection.
*Edit: As I thought, the picture loading problem was my own weariness. It has been rectified (both the sleepiness and the inability to understand how to load pictures), and I have attached a few photos of the breads.
-Matt
Comments
That sure looks delicious
It is all quite good. The baguettes are about gone, as is fitting. They go stale quickly, and should be gobbled right away. The sandwich bread will probably last until Tuesday. Then the ladies will be clamoring for more.
What did the Jamican turn out like?
Recipe for the sourdough in the dutch oven? Andrea
The Jamaican is quite nice. It's similar to a Pullman loaf. It does not get soggy, making it excellent bread for moist sandwiches. I made some blackened burgers on the grill this evening, and they were nestled between slices of this stuff. My daughter squashed her burger down, and squealed in anticipation when juices gushed out of the meat and onto her plate. The bread held its integrity and, as promised, did not become a gooey pile of beef flavored mush.
The sourdough is a mix of:
Flours: 410 grams bread flour, 45 grams of red whole wheat, and 45 grams of rye
Water: 350 grams
Mix the flours and water into a shaggy ball, wrap tightly, and let autolyse for about an hour.
After an hour, cut into golf ball sized pieces (so it is easier to incorporate the starter) and add in a mixer (or mix by hand) with about 200 grams of bubbly liquid levain. Mix until the whole is well blended, then add salt. I use gray sea salt, and crush it to make it dissolve more quickly. Use about 11 grams.
Continue to mix until the dough is developed. The one hour autolyse makes the development stage go by quite quickly. Transfer to a fermentation container (I use a greased glass bowl covered with plastic wrap) and let ferment for three to four hours.
Remove from the bowl, degass, and preshape the boule. Turn the oven to 550 degrees.
I proof the round in the Dutch oven, so I place parchment paper in it to aid in release. You can probably get away without it, but I have not tried yet.
Shape the dough and place in the Dutch oven. Put the lid on. Let it proof while the oven heats for one hour. Then bake for 10 minutes, and then reduce the heat to 500 degrees for about 40 minutes. Remove from the Dutch oven and let it cool on a rack after checking for doneness.
Let me know how it works out!
Odinrider
Can we also have the Jamaican Recipe? Your breads look very yumy. I am going to try the above recipe. However I have a long to go until I get to the perfection everyone here already have.
1 1/2 lbs of bread flour
2 tsp yeast
1 tbsp salt (again, I use gray sea salt and crush it to help it dissolve)
3 tbsp powdered milk (optional)
2 tbsp oil (any kind, but I'd stay away from strong flavors, ie. olive, and also optional)
1 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water.
Dissolve the yeast, then mix all ingredients into a hard, smooth dough. Let it ferment for an hour or two until doubled, then degass and shape. Proof covered in loaf pans for 40-50 minutes until the loaves crown the pan. Score the tops if you want for a more decorative look, or not, as you like. Bake for 30 minutes at 350. Remove from pans to cool on wire racks.
The loaves do not get large, and the tight crumb helps this be all the sandwich bread it can be, so don't overproof. Also, there is very little oven spring due to the low moisture content, so don't let that throw you. The dough itself should be firm but pliant and very smooth. Hence the name, hard do(ough).
What's cool about this bread is that unlike store bought sandwich bread, it does not get gummy in your mouth. Enjoy.
-Matt
I don't have a "liquid levain", but a 100% hydration sourdough starter that is pretty runny. Will that work? Or do I have to make it more liquidy? Andrea
P.S. the sourdough cinnamon rolls turned out good, but the ciabatta that took all day didn't get much oven spring. I may have under-proofed it. The recipe said to stretch and push it down before putting it in the oven and it would bounce right back up. Nope, no bouncing. Taste is good...terrible crumb.
Your 100% hydration starter should be fine. That is essentially a liquid levain anyway. You can adjust the water in the final dough if you think it is too dry (I doubt it will be) to get it to a soft tacky stage.
Sourdough cinnamon rolls. My belly rumbles. I may make some sourdough croissants a la Dan Leader's recipe. They are good, good, good! I make a cinnamon sugar butter to go with them.
For the ciabatta, you may have under proofed, or underdeveloped. That stuff needs to be mixed for a long while. What was the consistency after mixing? It should be a thick puddly blob that tries to run away from you and attack anything nearby.
Come to think on it, I may make some ciabatta or focaccia next weekend, too.
I had a nice runaway blob, hard to handle, used the dough scraper. I have a hard time being patient with the last rise of sourdoughs having grown up with basic yeast breads. It was compressed and not open crumb.
I am feeding my starters, going to make your Dutch Oven sourdough tomorrow....
I want to try the Jamaican too. I should make a wheat also since I fed my sourdough. Maybe the basic 123? or other ideas?
Andrea
I made a nice soft white wheat honey sourdough yesterday. Sorry, no recipe yet. It was a first experiment. It came out nice, though, so next weekend I'll make it again with proper measurements. It has a good flavor, which is what I was concentrating on. I find wheats have a tendancy to be boring, and I wanted to get away from that.
So next weekend I'll have something new for you. I'm going to do another blog entry on my other breads soon, namely Pane Toscano and, of course, baguettes.
-Matt
For whatever reason have not been my best effort. I stopped trying and moved on and now I think I have a better grasp of how the dough should feel and look. It was a very cold dry winter and I did not hydrate enough. If you have time, please post your baguette recipe. Your sourdough recipe is on it's final rise in the Dutch oven. Andrea
Andrea,
Tomorrow I will do another blog entry about this last weekend's breads. I will post my baguette recipe as well as some pictures.
Matt