February 15, 2014 - 4:55am
new tools and more coffee experiments!
crumb shot of a SD coffee baguette. I upped the coffee intensity after the last loaf and other than the deeper gorgeous colour, the flavour is just amazing!! i am hooked on this coffee phase - and i have to say, the final loaves are also softer/ more moist. and also, after a brilliant suggestion from DavidEF, have also begin maintaining a starter fed with flour and COFFEE!
so this baguette came out of a few new 'baking toys' i found in the store last night, Mason Cash Baking Set and Stone and a Silicone Baguette Tray. 
the new silicon baguette tray that really works some magic. The crust and oven spring is amazing.
SD starter fed with coffee. will continue to see where this goes!
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baguette I have seen in some time ....since some of my original rustic attempts. which weren't very dark or pretty :-) Would love to taste these so, will have to make them. Well done and
Happy baking
thanks, :) coming from a great baker like you! :)
Can I feed my starter with any strong coffee instead of water ? And AP flour or ?
I like your terra cotta. Can the bowl be used as a cover over the stone when you bake ?
Thank you - Merlie.
Hi Merlie,
yes.. Any strong coffee. i fed mine with rye or WW flour. But i am guessing AP flour will do too. it has been bubbling very well and very active although i have yet to use it yet.
only the lid which actually doubles as a baking stone can be used in the oven. The person at the store told me not to use the bowl in the oven. i am still using a covered casserole dish when i want to do 'dutch oven' covered style baking.
Hope this helps! Let me know how your coffee starter go!
Hi Mycroft,
I fed my starter with strong coffee instead of water, and bread flour. I also added 2 teaspoons sugar as I was afraid that the coffee might be too bitter. I then followed Hamelman's formula for sourdough baguettes. (hence the choice of bread flour) It was a VERY wet dough!! Did three stretch & folds and almost threw it in the bin! It was "shaped" LOL on parchment ,left for an hour, Impossible to score and helped into a 460 degree oven (with steam ) on the peel. I expected it to run all over the stone and drip off the edge - but it rose instead ! I managed to wait until it was nearly cool and sliced it.....for the first time ever I had big holes ! It is really delicious, The coffee flavour is perfect - We can't wait for breakfast......THANK YOU so much for your help.
Merlie
yeay!! good to hear. cant wait to see pictures, if you and hubby havent devoured everything already! :D now maybe we should experiment with coffee yeast water as DavidEF is discussing below. :)
Mycroft,
Have you noticed any difference in the activity of your coffee starter compared to using plain water? I'm nearly certain mine is more active. But, there might be something else I'm doing differently and not realizing. I guess what I really should do is keep my 'plain' one going at the same time. Right now, it's in the fridge, while the coffee one is on the top of the fridge, at room temp.
That is a very dark baguette! How'd you get it so dark? Is it just the coffee, or is there another ingredient that adds color? Using just the coffee with white bread flour (and a little salt), mine isn't nearly that dark. But, I use a light/medium roast coffee. The coffee you have in the picture does look a lot darker than mine. Also, like you, I've noticed my loaves are softer/more moist with the coffee in them.
If we really wanted to get weird, we could cut the flour out of the starter, using some raw sugar instead, and thereby convert it into a coffee-based Yeast Water! Imagine making sweet breads with that! Forget cinnamon-roll flavored coffee, we can make coffee-flavored cinnamon rolls!
Hi David!
yes, it is definitely more active, i see more bubbles although it rises and collapses much quicker than the standard starter. i have put it in the fridge after 3 days of it out on the counter. I am going to take it for a spin this weekend for some bread baking! about the Yeast Water, i have never tried it before actually, i am gonna need to do some research on that (read: searching the forum!)
the dark baguette, it is just the coffee and no other ingredient, although I forgot to add that it is 100% spelt flour (with the exception of the rye starter) so the recipe is spelt flour, coffee, salt and starter. But i have to say, i really did upped the intensity of the coffee, it is a very strong coffee mix. 3 TBSP coffee to 2.5 cups water. and yes, isn't it amazing how the coffee produces softer loaves?! loves!
I think I told you in the other post that I read that the yeast lives longer. If that is the case, then there will always be more living yeast in the coffee culture versus a culture using water, with everything else being equal. That means they will reproduce more, too. Basically, more parents means more babies. With all that extra yeast involved, the starter should produce more bubbles, and rise faster, then subsequently fall faster. The whole cycle is accelerated as they eat more food in less time.
One of the cool things about Yeast Water is that it is (basically) completely liquid. There is no flour in it at all. That means, there is never any spent flour in it! When you add Yeast Water to your recipe, you are only adding liquid. So, all of the flour in your recipe can be fresh food for the yeast to devour and make CO2 to raise the bread. You can even replace Yeast Water for some or all of the water in the recipe, in addition to using your sourdough culture. this makes your bread raise faster and better than SD alone.
Another aspect of Yeast Water is that it isn't sour. It doesn't make sour bread. So, it is good to use in sweet breads, where the sour taste is not wanted.