Breads for weekend brunch
My mid-week baked for the coming long weekend gathering/brunch. Daisy_A’s rye bread , I baked the bread before by using Guinness beer, they were delicious but I was hoping to improve more on producing thinner crust for the bread. I’m slowly getting to the point I want them – just right not too thick or too thin. I like dried fruits and nuts in my rye breads because I can eat the whole slice without butter/jam especially if I’m in the hurry for work. I like this bread so much because they are moist and keep nicely for about a week. I used freshly milled whole rye and sifted some whole rye roughly 60g in the total weight for this batch of dough. They turned out nicely.
I’m eyeing David miche for a long time till recently I read about his recent blog here. I used 500g AP flour and 86 freshly milled whole wheat flour in my final dough because my AP flour is not malted; I was worried my bread would not browning nicely after baked. I shaped them into two small bâtard per batch. I did double David's recipe so I had four small loaves. Two of them stayed to close with each other and as a result the edge was glue together. I love the overall flavor but prefer larger miche size in general. We are going to make sandwich from these breads with ramps pesto and homemade cured meats and sausages.
When Breadsong posted the blueberry maple walnut spelt bread recipe on the blog section, I wrote the recipe down immediately. I used freshly milled spelt flour for the recipe. My dough rose very fast and I had difficulties with freshly milled spelt flour before. I think they ferment really fast, anybody who has good ideas/suggestions about how to deal with freshly milled spelt flour please do give me any feedbacks. I thank you in advanced. I hope Breadsong doesn’t mind with my over proofed bread and I love to serve them with labneh that I bought from my favorite farmer market.
For the last batches of breads to bring with me for the upcoming gathering, I use Andy’s recipe - Faye's Award Winning Nettle Bread. Finally my CSA box has some fresh nettle so I use them in my bread dough. While the breads were baking, my apartment smelled heavenly; I will make a pot of curry to go with the breads. I think the flavor will go well together. Thanks Andy and Faye for the wonderful recipe.
Happy Weekend and Happy Baking,
Kimmy
Comments
Hello Kimmy,
I love all of the breads you've baked - what a post!
The rye - you did such a nice job baking that rye loaf. Lovely crumb and distribution of seeds! I note your comment re: crust thickness - I've wondered how you can prevent having a really thick crust for rye bread?
The miche - shaping, scoring, crust color and crumb - wow!
The blueberry spelt bread - I'm so glad you tried this - I think your bread looks lovely. Spelt does proof quickly but I don't think your bread suffered at all! How did you like the flavor?
The nettle bread - once again, what wonderful shaping, scoring and crumb! Wasn't that nice of Andy to post Faye's Award- Winning Formula?!
Kimmy, what a treat to see all of your pretty loaves.
:^) from breadsong
Breadsong,
Thank for your kinds comment. My oven has hot spot so I need to play around with my oven during baking. It is tricky but I adjust my oven temperature during baking (slightly lower and longer) for this particular bake and I have to move my breads around during baking. I use a larger pan for this batch because I need to bake 6 loaves (a decent size) for my friends to take home. I had thicker crust in my last loaf because the oven temperature maybe too hot and I didn’t move them around during baking. I also use small loaf pan in the past perhaps that may be my main issues/problem. These were the only change that I make for this batch of dough. Your spelt breads are very good and tasty; I will bake them more often in the future. I love them with labneh maybe a drizzle of honey if you like, simple and delicious way to enjoy my breakfast in the morning. I think I should use your method to incorporate my dried fruits and nuts for my next batch of dough. My fruits and nuts kind of expose to heat and slightly burned during baked and I never solve this particular problem yet since I started baking. I hope to improve more in the future. When baking nettle breads at my small apartment, the only thing in my minds was making curry to go with them. I think both of them pair well with each other’s. I never thought of using nettle in my bread dough at all. Yes, Andy is indeed very nice to post his students recipe in the TFL and I do thank him for his kindness. Your latest Chive Blossom Bread is killing me, beautifully presented and will bake them when I can get fresh chives here.
Kimmy
Hi Kimmy, Thanks for letting me know how you bake your rye.
Re: adding fruits and nuts to dough, Ciril Hitz wrote in his book Baking Artisan Pastries and Breads "...a good gluten structure...captures the chunks of fruit and nuts and creates a nice membrane layer over them during the later phase of shaping." It may have been in the DVD accompanying the book (my memory may not be correct here!) where he mentions this helps to prevent the fruits and nuts from being exposed to too much heat while baking. I do try to make sure the fruits and nuts are really worked into the dough before shaping so none are exposed on the top side of the loaf. For firmer doughs, I'll spread out the dough, spread over some of the fruits/nuts, letter fold, knead in, and repeat once or twice more depending on much I'm adding to the dough. For wetter doughs, I'll fold them in on the countertop or in the bowl.
Andy posted an interesting technique for incorporating fruits and nuts too, for his Toasted Almond, Fig and Prune Bread (video!).
So glad you like the Chive Bread! I'll be on the lookout for ramps now...!
:^) from breadsong
Hi Breadsong,
Wow, you have so many breads books in your bookshelves and they are very nice collections too. I’m buying my bread books slowly after I tried at least 50% of recipes in my old book before my next new bread book. Thank you so much for the tips about adding nuts into bread dough. I think I should do more practice on them and try couples of your recommended methods first and I will report back. Sometimes I’m too greedy by adding more fruits and nuts into my dough as a result my nuts and frits get burned on top and bottom easily. I need to remind myself all the times during mixing my dough. I’m thinking to fold in dried fruits and nuts during shaping stage at least I can control them overall. Have you try this method before? I think you will enjoy ramps especially on top of flatbreads or pizza or using them in Franko recent recipe - Sicilian Cheese and Tomatoes Pie will taste very good too. I make a lot of flatbreads and pizza using ramps before and they are gone in no time. I also use ramps in my Chinese style scallion pancakes. The others thing that you may consider is garlic scapes. They are going to show up in my farmer market soon. I hope you don’t mind my suggestion. I hope you have a great weekend.
Kimmy
Hi Kimmy,
I haven't tried adding fruits and nuts at the shaping stage.
I like your recommendations for using ramps! I hope I am able to find them.
Maybe I'll be able to find some seed and grow a few next year.
Last year I participated in a Community-Supported-Agriculture program, and garlic scapes were included in our produce share during the spring season. We enjoyed them very much.
Kimmy, thank you for your suggestions - it's so nice of you to share good ideas!
:^) from breadsong
i have only one thing to say - can we invite ourselves for brunch?
WW,
You can come to our brunch as long as you are willing to fly out here – US, you are welcome to join us.
Kimmy
Kimmy, that is a beautiful collection of breads, not to mention the excellent photo work !
Ron
Hi Ron,
Thank you for your kind words. I hope to post my yeast water breads soon.
Kimmy
Beautiful breads, all of them Kimmy! That rye, in particular, makes my mouth water, but all of them demonstrate excellent control of fermentation, shaping and scoring.
I have never heard of ramps pesto, but it sounds very interesting. All the best for your brunch, :)
Syd
Hello Syd,
Thank for the kinds word. I hope I can meet you in person when I visit your lovely country (my plan is not 100% sure yet), perhaps we can bake Daisy Rye recipe together. I can bring you a couples pounds freshly milled rye flour to play with the recipe if you don’t mind. I love ramps and I came across them about 8~9 years ago. A flavor that can best be described as something in between green garlic and sweet onions. When I was making my pesto, I wished I had your squid ink breads on hand because they definitely went well together. Too bad it is very hard to find fresh whole squids here where I live now. Here is my pesto picture and the look of ramps:
Kimmy
On spelt...
I too ran into the fast rise when using spelt. I bake a lot using Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads so when I use spelt I know the grains have had a long soaking time prior to mixing the final dough. What I have ended up doing is going straight into shaping and proofing the loaves after the final mix - no bulk ferment at all. It works.
But I have also done the bulk but watch it very closely.
I make sure it only proofs about 50% - 70% before baking too or I end up with a fallen loaf - but my kids love the fallen loaves as much as the fully risen ones so it is no big deal...
I assume you also know that spelt requires less water - about 25% less than wheat and that it is more delicate therefore doesn't need the long kneading time either....
That said - your loaves look great - even your spelt one :-)
Take Care,
Janet
Hi Janet,
Thank you so much for the detailed information. I think my bulk fermentation was a bit too long perhaps I should skip the bulk fermentation and went into shaping and final proof then baking. I willing to eat any flatten loaves of breads as long as they had flavor on themJ. I use stretch and fold for my spelt breads so I don’t think I’m over knead them at all. The spelt berries that I buy often differ so greatly and it is very hard to tell until I bake a batch of them. I do need a lot practice in this particular grain to get a good hand feel of them in order to produce nice bake loaves in the future. Thank you again.
Kimmy
I have made a lot of flat loaves. :-) In fact, I now call them my frisbee loaves but my family and the people I give them to all like them because they are still very flavorful and light. (Anything homemade is way better than what one can buy in a grocery store!) They like having a 'small' piece of bread!
Let me know if it works for you to skip the bulk fermentation. With PR's method the grains have already had a lot of wet time due to sitting for 12 hours before being mixed into the final dough so they have released a lot of flavor and developed more gluten strength.
I am going to have to practice some more with my spelt now that there are more formulas to try with it!
Janet
Hello Janet,
You call your flat loaves as frisbee loaves, I called mine flatbreads. I have to agree with you anything homemade taste better than store bought and the most importantly is that you know what ingredients you are using during the entire process. I will let you know when I bake my spelt recipe next time. I also think I need more practice on spelt before I really can get the feel of them. I would like to hear more about your baking adventure when you use them in your future recipe. Thank you so much for the information.
Kimmy
All of them Kimmy!
For a less crusty rye, Breadsong, a lower temperature of baking should do the trick, with steady supply of moisture in the oven. Obviously, high water in the paste necessitates longer baking anyway. Baking in lidded sandwich pans makes it easier still.
Regarding the spelt. High ash content engenders the rapid fermentation. I'm afraid that freshly milled flour will only exacerbate this. Your only real means to control this are in the amounts of fermentative materials included and the time allowed; or to allow some ageing between milling the flour and using it. Choice has to be yours here; it's a balancing act, but this is the root of the industrial choice to include a bleaching agent in flour. An abomination in my eyes, but it helps explain and give reason to why your bread is proving too quickly.
Really good to see anyone baking Faye's bread. Given the inclusion of cumin and coriander in her formula, I'm sure it would be great with curry.
Great post on bread variety
Best wishes
Andy
Hello Andy,
Thank you for the comments and advices for the rye and spelt breads. I really appreciate your help/inputs. I think I need to do a couple experiments to see which one is best to suit my busy schedule. I do think about the factors you pointed out but I didn’t have enough time to test all of them yet. I will do a test soon. My lamb curry is cooking on my stove right now and the curry is going to pair with Faye’s nettles breads. Thank you so much.
Kimmy
Hello Andy,
Thanks for your pointers re: baking temperature/moisture for rye.
I remember the crust on my raisin rye bread being a challenge :^)
Your advice will be helpful for next time!
from breadsong
Very nice bake. Nice photos, too.
Hello louie brown,
Thank you for the nice comments. I hope you have great memorial day weekend.
Kimmy
All breads look wonderful. You did really well making them and taking great photos to give them the justice.
Those will surely make a great brunch for your friends and family.
Have a good long weekend!
Sue
http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com
Hi Sue,
Thank you for your comments. My friends love my rye loaf and they disappeared quicker than I would think because some of them don’t like rye very much. We had a great brunch with my friends and farewell party for some of them too. I wish I had some of your Lemon Madeleines to bring with me.
Kimmy
What an adorable collection of Loaves, Kimmy! I LOVE that Pain au levain .. what was the steaming setup for it?
The rest of the loaves are great too!!
Best,
Khalid
Hi Khalid,
Thank you for your nice comments. I use SFBI steam method but I use pie weight instead of lava rock. I have a lot of pie weights in my apartment after helping my friend baked so many mini tarts for her wedding a couples years ago, seriously I don’t know what to do with them so I utilize them in my bread baking for the past two years. I try my best to use all my tools as much as possible. They seem to be fine and I never have a problem with them at all (maybe a few pieces broken into small pieces). I tried the hot water steam method too and my Pain au levain turned out to look exactly like the picture shown above. I hope I answer your question correctly. Thank you for the detailed write up on starter ripening problem. I wish you have a great weekend.
Kimmy