Tang Zhong, Ricotta, Scalded Multigrain with and without, Cranberries & Pecans
We use a lot of cranberries around here mainly as part of our snockered fruit bled we put in so many baked good. Evon published her beautiful cranberry bread she made her Mom and we have been making a bunch of different breads with dried fruits and nuts of late. The only ones we missed were cranberries and pecans. Then we saw a beautiful cranberry and pecan batard at Whole Foods when we were there stocking upon whole grain berries.
That sort of moved the cranberry and pecan bread up to the top of the list. My apprentice just couldn’t leave it at that so she went - with whole; rye, spelt and wheat in the levains only along with some corn flour in dough. We are trying to get out tongue around corn flavor wise and have seen it so many bakes of late like Janet’s Anadama Bread.
Lucy found some apricot soaking water from the last bake (which we added the cranberry soaker water to) and ricotta cheese in the fridge. She also scalded up multigrain berries as she does for just about every bread. It must be a German thing. She also used our normal flavor, color and rise enhancers of malts, Toadies and VWG. Not including the multigrain scald, we kept to our healthy and tasty minimum of 30% whole grains.
Because of the Tang Zhong, ricotta, scald and re-hydrated cranberries, this dough does not look or act like a 70% hydration bread. It is very wet feeling, like 78% or more - so not quite ciabatta. The Tang Zhong took 25 g or the flout mix and 125 g of water not included in the formula to make the roux.
We built 2 separate levains over 3 stages. One a YW and the other a rye sour. Both levains had doubled at the end of 2nd 4 hour stage. At the beginning of the 3rd stage, right after feeding, we refrigerated the levains for 12 hours. The next morning we took them out of the fridge and allowed them come to room temperature and double again in 4 hours.
We did our usual 4 hour autolyse, starting when the levains came out of the fridge, including everything except; salt, ricotta, YW and rye sour levains, the scald, cranberries and pecans. When the autolyse met the 2 levains, we added the salt and did 10 minutes of slap and folds. After a 15 minute rest we did (4) sets of S&F’s on 15 minute intervals. On the first S&F we incorporated the ricotta. On the 2nd we put in the scald.
After the 2nd we divided the dough in half. On the 3rd we added the cranberries and on the 4th we made sure everything was incorporated for one half. The other half of the dough was S&F’ed without the fruit and nuts. This way we get a breakfast toast and a lunch sandwich bread.
After an hour of counter fermentation the dough was retarded in the fridge for 15 hours. In the morning they were retrieved from the fridge and allowed to come to room temperature for 1 hour before being shaped into a batard for the fruit and nut version and an oval for the plain.
Both were placed into a trash can liner to proof for 2 hours before Big Old Betsy was fired up to 500 F with Sylvia’s steaming pan and David’s CI Lava Rock steam in place. Once Betsy beeped she was at temperature we waited 20 minutes before un-molding the bread, scoring and placing onto the bottom stone.
After 5 minutes we turned the oven down to 475 F. Our oven reads 25 F low so adjust your temperature accordingly. After a total of 15 minutes of steam we removed it and turned the oven down to 425 F, convection this time. We rotated the bread every 10 minutes and after 20 minutes without steam the bread reached 205 F in the center.
We turned off the oven and left the bread on the stone, with the door ajar for 10 minutes to crisp the skin before removing it to a cooling rack. The crust browned nicely with small blisters and went from crisp to softer as it cooled. The spring and bloom were OK too. The cranberry, pecan version browned more for some reason.
The crumb of both versions was about the softest, moistest and tastiest we have ever managed to bake into any bread. it is just fantastic as a sandwich bread and we hope it toasts just as well for breakfast in the morning. It is like eating two different breads one more cranberry sweet and pecan nutty. Both are terrific! Thanks Evon for the cranberry inspiration, to Ian for the cheese and to my apprentice for the nuts.
We love spaghetti and meatballs. Hopefully the plain version will grill up nicely for garlic toast or bruschetta or breakfast.
Formula
YW and Rye Sour Levain | Build 1 | Build 2 | Build 3 | Total | % |
Yeast Water | 40 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 7.21% |
Rye Sour Starter | 20 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 2.37% |
Spelt | 13 | 13 | 13 | 39 | 4.62% |
Dark Rye | 34 | 34 | 39 | 107 | 12.66% |
Whole Wheat | 13 | 13 | 13 | 39 | 4.62% |
Water | 20 | 60 | 25 | 105 | 12.43% |
Total | 140 | 120 | 90 | 350 | 41.42% |
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Levain Totals |
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Flour | 195 | 23.08% |
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Water | 155 | 18.34% |
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Hydration | 79.49% |
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Levain % of Total | 19.14% |
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Dough Flour |
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Corn Flour | 50 | 5.92% |
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AP | 600 | 71.01% |
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Dough Flour | 650 | 76.92% |
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Salt | 12 | 1.42% |
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Apricot/Cranberry Water 100, Water 300 | 400 | 47.34% |
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Dough Hydration | 61.54% |
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Total Flour | 845 |
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Apricot & Cranberry Water 100 & Water | 555 |
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T. Dough Hydration | 65.68% |
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Whole Grain % | 30.89% |
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Hydration w/ Adds | 70.15% |
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Total Weight | 1,829 |
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Add - Ins |
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White Rye Malt | 3 | 0.36% |
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Red Rye Malt | 3 | 0.36% |
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Toadies | 10 | 1.18% |
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VW Gluten | 15 | 1.78% |
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Cranberries | 75 | 8.88% |
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Pecans | 75 | 8.88% |
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Total | 317 | 37.51% |
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Weight of cranberries and scald berries are pre re-hydrated weights |
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Scald |
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WW Berries | 33 | 3.91% |
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Rye Berries | 33 | 3.91% |
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Spelt Berries | 34 | 4.02% |
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Total Scald | 100 | 11.83% |
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Tang Zhong 25 g of flour was included above but the 125 of extra water was not | |||||
Comments
Great write up and pictures Dabrownman
and good looking bread to boot, worth both the weight and the wait i'd reckon. It looks like you have some fine collabarators there too
regards Yozza
My only baking help around here is my apprentice Lucy. Being German, she want to pumpernickel everything she can lay her paws on. Here is her latest picture doing what she does best. She is shy adn refuses to look at any camera. But she is not shy with her baking:-)
Happy Baking
Lucy looked exhausted after working so hard!! she is a beauty :)
evon
to be exhausted most of the time. Sleeping and eating can really take it out of her :-) She was pleased i didn't post a picture of her belly this time........
Another great looking bread DA...I just made some rolls using the Tang Zhong proccess. Your crust and crumb look perfect and nice and open and moist.
Great bake.
Ian
with Tang Zhong in January. I've decided that we are going to include it in every bake since it makes the crumb so soft and moist. YW and a soft cheese doesn't hurt either. The few bakes have been dried fruit, nut and seed bakes. Each turned out some awfully good bread. My apprentice is starting to get get hang of this and still manages sleep most of the time - quite unlike the rest of us as we grow older:-) This bread reminded me of your recipes a lot.
Glad you liked it and happy baking Ian.
Oh and did I mention I love pecans!
pecans in some olive bread you could tolerate the olives and eat the bread ?
Hi Mr D,
NIce looking breads once again. You comments on how you like each loaf remind me of my neighbor who gets loaves I bake on a regular basis. She most always calls to let me know that the latest loaf was now her #1 favorite loaf. Last week she added a new distinction and declared that the German Fruit Loaf I had just given her was her #1 ALL TIME favorite. *-) Nice to read that these loaves are the best you have ever had....but now where do you go if you have reached the top?
I imagine your apprentice is thinking hard on that challenge and I am sure you two will pull another winner out of your trusty oven in no time at all :-)
Thanks for the post.
Take Care,
Janet
inspiration for this bread. I'm thinking about putting it into all the multi-grain breads. It really rounds out the flavor. This is the softest and moistest crumb we have ever baked. It isn't the best crust by far but the crust isn't to bad either. The fruit and nut version makes a fine breakfast toast. All it needs is butter since the jam is baked in!
Tang Zhong, YW and a soft cheese make for a crumb very similar to an enriched Japanese White Bread. Can't wait to try them out on my Wonder Enriched Bread experiment. Maybe it will get closer to replicating it.
The best bread is always hard. There are so many different kinds. Comparing a pumpernickel to a white bread or a nut and fruit bread to a baguette or a whole grain one to a white one is really apples and oranges. It is good to be able to bake all of them well though and know what makes them all great. Should take another 850 bakes of different bread for me to realize there isn't a favorite my apprentice and i can agree on:-)
Glad you liked the bread Janet Happy Baking.
My 'evaluation' of my neighbor and her bread tastes is that she is simply a bread lover. It has been my observation that for a true bread lover there really isn't a loaf that isn't a favorite.
I hereby give you my permission to use my observational summary to take the pressure off of yourself and your apprentice and declare all of your loaves 'favorites' since it is obvious that you both are true loaf lovers *^ }
The woman I purchase my grains from bakes daily for her family. She told me that she now adds a bit of corn to her loaves too for the flavor and texture it imparts. Amazing what a bit of something can do. I have yet to add it to all of my breads but who knows. I await your report on how your experiments with it turn out.
Take Care,
Janet
of this bread thing, it is pretty hard to bake a bad one in my view, but if we do I always have an apprentice, who doesn't seem so Hoity Toity like me about it and will eat just about anything. Right now she is outside trying to eat all the geckos in the back yard. Sadly, there are oh so many of them and only one of her. She isn't a quick as she once was and her belly seems closer to the ground for some reason too.
I say, if you made it, the best bread is always the one you are eating.
Looks, and sounds, great.
is very tasty and the plain version is pretty good too. Have you eaten at Heavenly Resturant In Vancouver yet? It is sort of a dim sum, site made noodle kind of a hole in the wall. i just saw it featured on the cooking channel on Drive Ins, Diners and Dives. . It looked really good.
Happy baking Floyd
I don't think so.
There are soo many good Chinese restaurants here, from seafood places and noodle joints to hot pot and dim sum... I've barely managed to scratched the surface yet.
-Floyd
Hey Floyd. Your dim sum comment caught my eye. The one BEST dim sum place in Vancouver would be Sun Sui Wah Seafood House. A must try!
John
wow wow WOW !! really made all the effort worth while. beautiful loaves, looks so delicious. shiny n open crumb studded with fruits n nuts. i go NUTS about these loaves.
HIgh five!!
evon
recipes come together. This one is a keeper. The crumb is just the cat's meow. Now I can get back to trying to make a knock off of Wonder Bread :-) If Wonder Bread had any multi whole grains in it it would be the plain version of this bake. I like the fruit and nut breads too but after doing dried plums, figs apricots, raisins and cranberries with: brazil, walnuts, almonds and pecans with all kinds of seeds - I think we will move on to more fertile bread ground. i do want to remember the corn flour in this bread - a nice addition to any multi-grain from a flavor point of view. I keep forgetting to make a nice design of seeds in the bottom of the basket before dumping the dough in to final proof :-(
I think we will tang zhong and YW a durum semolina Altamura bread next. Thanks for the cranberry inspiration Evon.and happy baking.
There are a few breads I like that might benefit from the moisture-retaining effects of the technique.
Love the breads!
Paul
ever get around to making unleavened Scottish Oat Cakes, I'm guessing that would be a good place to use Tang Zhong Paul :-) I have been trying it out on different breads for the last 3 months and haven't found one it didn't help develop a soft moist crumb. Yeast water does the same thing too. With the two, you can get similar effects as an enriched dough without the fat and cholesterol. I like the taste of the corn flour too. We have learned a lot these past few months.
Glad you like the breads Paul. Enjoy your Tang Zhong experiments.
I haven't tried the Tang Zhong method either or YW but after seeing how well you develop your breads with it I am going to have to give it a try. Have put off the YW since we are gone so much..it needs attn :) I will try to get it going in May and then no more excuses. How long have you left it with no attn and found that it was still viable ? c
I feed it half and apple, some orange sections or this time some cut in quarters big globe red grapes with the seeds removed, I keep 2 T of old water, 1 T of honey, 1/2 tsp of sugar and few pieces of old fruit then fill up the peanut butter jar with water 3/4th full. Once it is fed and sits on the counter for 4 hours I move it to the fridge. After 3 days it is ready to go. I use it as i need it never more than 50 g at a time for a levain and do not replace the water. When it gets down to 2 T I feed it again. I have gone 3weeks easy between feedings but it will last longer. Once it is going it is impossible to kill like SD. It is another fun wild yeast to use in baking. You never get sour with it which is great for any recipe where sour is not wanted or needed. Combining the SD with YW is a whole nuther can of bread baking worms that is fun and you get the best of both worlds, You will have all kinds of fun.with YW - a whole, new baking world.
Glad you loiked the post and Happy Baking Trailrunner.
as part of the regular water in the formula ? I thought I read that but may have misunderstood. Was wondering if you could just use a couple 100 grams as I did the whey to simply lubricate the dough. Will have to give this all a whirl..I thought i was adventursome till you and Ian and evon :) c
use YW as part of the dough liquid. You treat it just like a SD levin. To make a SD levain from a stiff starter like I have in the fridge, you would take 20 g of seed starter, add 20 g of flour and 20g of water for the first total 60 g build. 4 hours later you would add 40 g each of flour and water to the first build getting to a total of 120 grams. 4 hours later you would add 60 g each of flour and water to get to 240 g of levain and in 4 hours, 12 hours total, you would be ready to make a loaf of bread and the levain would have doubled in the last 4 hours, You could go with (2) 6 hours builds by lengthening the first build to 6 hours and combining the 2nd & 3rd build amounts into one 6 hour build. Depends on your schedule. You can do (1) 12 hour build by combining everything and just stir it down every 4 hours.
You do the same thing with YW. You would start with 40 g of YW and add 40 g of flour making an 80 g first levain build, The 2nd build would be 40 g of flour and 40 g of water getting you to 160 g total after the 2nd 4 hour build. The last build would be 40 g each of flour and water each again getting you to 240 g of levain. It would double in the last 4 hours and be ready to make a loaf of bread after 12 hours of levain building. You can also do( 2) 6 hour builds instead of 3. Or (1)12 hour build by combining everything - Just stir it down every 4 hours. Some folks like to use YW for the liquid in the 2nd and 3rd builds too if they are in a hurry, but it isn't necessary. If I am doing (1) 12 hour build I might use 80 g of YW and 40 g of water.
YW is just as flexible as SD when it comes to building levains for bread,
Hope this helps.
I think "wow" has become a standard comment for your breads. What else is there to add? I usually use either one or both RYW and TZ for my sandwich bread, but taking inspiration from your earlier bakes, I added SD in my bread rolls this time. Of course, I am too much of a wimp to take the sour of my SD on its own, so I built it up with RYW as I do for my SD hearth breads. Everyone loved the slight tangy after taste. My daughter's friends asked her the name of the deli from which she bought her ham & cheese rolls :). I think I will add SD regularly to my soft breads from now on.
for me about having YW and SD is the 3 different flavor profiles you can get from tangy to sweet adn something in between if you combine them. By not having one of the two we miss out on 2/3rds of the possibilities. With Tang Zhong you have the same flexibility for crumb softness and moisture.
I used to kid Ian that anything you can find in the grocery aisle can go into bread but, in his case, that might also include the auto parts store :-) I once made a bread using Cocoa Puffs and Lucky Stars. Made great breakfast toast :-) Once you know the basics of bread - anything is possible and the combinations of commercial adn natural yeasts, dry and wet ingredients and all the add ins is really endless. Every ones in a while you can come up with a new bread that turns out to be a keeper,
Glad you liked the bread. Happy baking Alpana. The ham and cheese rolls came from Alpana's Deli of course and I hear you can find some pretty fine breads there too :-)
Will have to pick up the organic raisins to get started. We don't keep organic in the house so need to make a special trip to Health Food store. I will give this a whirl..literally ! thanks db !
Hey man these look nice! Whenever I see your photos, I crave a hearty bread. I want to throw away my Tartine loaf and bake an 80% rye stuffed with seeds!
Happy baking.
John
whole grain but it had the soakerr fruits and nuts. Of all the fruit and nutty breads my apprentice has come up with lately, I like this one the best. Even the plain loaf was very good. Your Tartine turned out very nice, one of the best we have seen for that famous white bread.
Next week we are going lighter but not quite white..... we are going to max out the yellow to the nth degree to see what pure cowardice does to peace and love in the bread world .
Happy Baking John
love it:)
greedy. It was delightful. I guess it is getting to be pretty close winter where you are since it is getting near summer here. Haven't seen you posting lately and this bread reminds me of one you would do....Happy Baking
You are right. I moved house/job/life in NOV/Dec so have been caught up settling in as we moved 300kms south from a large city of 1.8 million to a town of 16000. A BIG change!! Very hot summers here as we live one street from Lake Taupo now and very cold in winter.Ski fields only 50 minutes away now rather than 6 hours!! Yippee!! I started looking at my breads again the other day as it is getting cooler. It is great here temperature wise for sour dough starters which up till i came here, I had extreme difficulty with. I have just started making a pumpkernickel bread today with a 18 day rye mash starter...& I have a rye, a wheat and a whole wheat starters in wee jars hibernating in the fridge!! Bliss...Now this bread here I am going to do next so stand by for questions!! It looks far too divine not to do:)