breadbakingbassplayer's blog

Hey All,

Just wanted to share with you my Big Bad Batards from my 2/22/10 bake.  These are approximately 850g-900g and 16" long.  They are big!  Some of the nicest looking breads I have made in while.  I could have let the bulk fermentation go a little longer and upped my hydration... These were about 70% hydration.

I did some interesting stuff with these.  I used a still levain, along with instant yeast.  I mixed the levain the night before and refrigerated it until I was ready to mix the dough.  Also, I mixed all the remaining flour and water the night before and refrigerated it for about 24hrs.  On the bake day, I kneaded in the salt, stiff levain, salt, instant yeast, and went about my normal procedure...  I'm not sure I would do it this way again as it was difficult to knead in the levain and salt.  I was not sure if I kneaded it all in evenly...  Anyways...

Enjoy!

Tim

Hey All,

Just wanted to share with you some more stuff.  This is my own improvisation of Pain de Beaucaire.  I decided to make them more stick like, which actually made them resemble the Chinese fried doughnut "yauh tiuh".  For more info, please check out the following websites:

http://www.breadcetera.com/?p=121

http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2009/04/13/pain-de-beaucaire/

Enjoy!

Tim

Pain de Beaucaire Sticks

Ingredients:

95% AP Flour (1194g)

3% WW Flour (38g)

2% Rye Flour (26g)

63% Water (792g)

2.2% Kosher salt (28g)

10% Firm Sourdough Starter (60% Hydration) (126g)

1/2 tsp Active Dry Yeast

Coarse wheat bran

Makes 2204g dough.

Directions:

6:55pm - Mix all ingredients into a ball with no dry bits, transfer to oiled plastic bin, cover, autolylse for 30 mins.

7:30pm – Turn dough in bin, cover.

8:00pm - Turn dough in bin, cover.

8:30pm - Turn dough in bin, cover.

10:30pm – Divide dough into 2 equal pieces, roll out each piece into an 8” x 15” rectangle.  Make slurry with water and some AP flour.  Brush slurry onto each piece of dough, sprinkle coarse wheat bran on one piece, and turn the other dough piece on to the other.  Cut into 4 strips that are approx 2” wide, transfer to lightly floured linen couch and proof for 1 hour.  Strips should be proofed with each layer on top of each other.  Cover in cloth and plastic.  Arrange baking 2 stones on separate levels (1 one space from bottom, 1 two spaces down from top, and the long side of the stone should be front to back) and steam pan in oven, preheat to 550F with convection. (I use an aluminum loaf pan filled with lava rocks for my steam pan)

11:40pm – Gently turn loaves onto side transfer loaves to a peel or flipping board, place directly onto stone in oven.  When all the loaves are in, Add 1 cup of water to steam pan, close oven.  Turn down to 450F with convection and bake for 15 minutes.  Rotate, turn down to 450F with convection and bake for another 15 minutes or until internal temp reaches 210F.  Cool completely for about 2 hours or overnight before cutting and eating...

 

Hey All,

Catching up again on my blogging here and post some pics of some ciabatta and country miche from my 1/21/10 bake.  I'll post recipes if requested...

Enjoy!

Tim

Ciabatta Recipe:

Ingredients:

60% AP Flour (674g)

35% Bread Flour (674g)

3% WW Flour (34g)

2% Rye Flour (22g)

75% Water (842g)

2.2% Kosher salt (24g)

10% Firm Sourdough Starter (60% Hydration) (112g)

1/2 tsp Active Dry Yeast

Makes 2100g dough.

Directions:

Night 1:

11:10pm - Mix all ingredients into shaggy dough with no dry bits, transfer to oiled plastic bin, cover, autolylse for 30 mins.

11:40pm - Turn dough in bin, cover.  (Do not use extra flour.  Use lightly wet hands)

12:10am - Turn dough in bin, cover.

12:40am - Turn dough in bin, cover.

1:10am - Turn dough in bin, cover /refrigerate overnight (40F)

Morning 2:

6:45am - Remove from fridge, turn out on to floured surface, divide into 4 and stretch out to approx 15”-16”, proof on to well floured linen couche, cover with cloth towels and plastic, proof for 1 hr.  Arrange baking 2 stones on separate levels (1 one space from bottom, 1 two spaces down from top, and the long side of the stone should be front to back) and steam pan in oven, preheat to 550F with convection. (I use an aluminum loaf pan filled with lava rocks for my steam pan)

7:55am – Gently and quickly transfer loaves to a peel or flipping board, place directly onto stone in oven.  When all the loaves are in, Add 1 cup of water to steam pan, close oven.  Turn down to 450F with convection and bake for 12 minutes.  Rotate, turn down to 425F with convection and bake for another 13 minutes or until internal temp reaches 210F.  Cool completely for about 2-3 hours before cutting and eating...

 

Country Miche Recipe:

Ingredients:

70% AP Flour (504g)

25% WW Flour (180g)

5% Rye Flour (36g)

5% Wheat Germ (36g) 

85% Water (612g)

2% Kosher salt (14g)

25% Firm Sourdough Starter (60% Hydration) (180g)

1/8 tsp Active Dry Yeast

Makes 1562g dough.

Directions:

Night 1:

11:15pm - Mix all ingredients into shaggy dough with no dry bits, transfer to oiled plastic bin, cover, autolylse for 30 mins.

11:45pm - Turn dough.

12:15am - Turn dough.

12:45am - Turn dough.

1:15am - Turn dough/refrigerate overnight

Morning 2:

6:40am - Remove from fridge, divide into 2, preshape, rest 20 minutes.

7:00am - Final shape, proof in linen lined baskets, place basket inside plastic bag for 2 hours.

8:40am - Arrange baking stone and steam pan in oven, preheat to 550F with convection. (I use an aluminum loaf pan filled with lava rocks for my steam pan)

9:00am - Turn boules onto peel, slash as desired, place directly onto stone in oven.  Add 1 cup of water to steam pan, close oven.  Turn down to 450F with convection and bake for 22 minutes.  Rotate, turn down to 425F with convection and bake for another 28 minutes or until internal temp reaches 210F.  Cool completely for about 3-4 hours before cutting and eating...

 

Hey All,

Just wanted to catch up on my blogging here and post some pics of some 80% WW bread and ciabatta from my 1/19/10 bake.  I'll post recipes if requested...

Enjoy!

Tim

Ciabatta Recipe: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/16361/12210-ciabatta-and-country-miche

80% Whole Wheat Bread Recipe:

Ingredients:

80% WW Flour (1014g)

20% Bread Flour (254g)

85% Water (1078g)

2.2% Kosher salt (30g)

8% Firm Sourdough Starter (60% Hydration) (100g)

1 1/8 tsp Active Dry Yeast

Makes 2500g dough.

Directions:

7:30pm - Mix all ingredients into shaggy dough with no dry bits, transfer to oiled plastic bin, cover, autolylse for 30 mins.

8:05pm – Knead dough using French fold method 8x, cover, rest.  (Do not use extra flour.  Use lightly wet hands)

8:35pm - Turn dough in bin, cover.

9:05pm - Turn dough in bin, cover.

9:35pm - Turn dough in bin, cover.

10:15pm – Divide into 4, preshape.

10:30pm – Divide into 4, final shape, place into linen lined baskets, proof 45-60 minutes.  Arrange baking 2 stones on separate levels (1 one space from bottom, 1 two spaces down from top, and the long side of the stone should be front to back) and steam pan in oven, preheat to 550F with convection. (I use an aluminum loaf pan filled with lava rocks for my steam pan)

11:30pm – Gently and quickly transfer loaves to a peel, slash as desired, place directly onto stone in oven.  When all the loaves are in, Add 1 cup of water to steam pan, close oven.  Turn down to 450F with convection and bake for 20 minutes.  Rotate, turn down to 425F with convection and bake for another 18 minutes or until internal temp reaches 210F.  Cool completely for about 3-4 hours or overnight before cutting and eating...

 

 

Hi All,

Just want to start out by thanking both MC, and Shiao-Ping for their detailed postings and directions on making the Gérard Rubaud Miche.

Also, since so many people have tried out this method, I figured that I'd try it out too...  And my hand crank grain mill arrived a few days ago, and today was a snow day, so no work...

So here is my attempt that came out of the oven earlier today.  I have to say that it is the most amazing bread that I have made so far...  I probably should have let the loaf age for 1 day before cutting, but I was impatient and cut into it when the internal temp almost hit 80F.  I was not disappointed.

Please find the pictures and recipe below.  Also, I didn't really follow MC's or Shiao-Ping's instructions on building the levain, or on mixing, etc...  Lemme know what you think.  Thanks.

Enjoy!

Tim

Special tools:

Small Iron Grain Mill from Lehman's as described on MC's blog about Gérard Rubaud

2 - 8" linen lined bannetons or brotforms

2 baking stones

Steam tray or method to create steam.

Ingredients:

600g AP Flour (60%)

100g Bread Flour (10%)

150g Organic Winter Hard Wheat Berries (15%)

100g Organic Spelt Berries (10%)

50g Organic Rye Berries (5%)

250g Firm Sourdough Starter @ 60-65% hydration (25%) See notes below.

750g Water (75%)

20g Kosher Salt (2%)

Total Dough Weight: Approx 2000g

Yield: 2 x 800g loaves after baking

Evening of Day 1 - Preparing the Firm Sourdough Starter

8:00pm

Ingredients below not included in above recipe.)

- Grind 25g wheat berries, 15g spelt berries, 10g rye berries with a grain mill.

- Take 100g of your firm storage starter from the refrigerator, mix with 150g AP flour, and 50g of the freshly ground wheat/spelt/rye berries, and 130g water.  Cover and let rest on counter for 2-4 hours.  Starter should double...

11:30pm

- Measure out all ingredients.

- Grind the wheat/spelt/rye berries.

Day 2 - Mixing Final Dough and Baking

12:00am (Midnight)

- Put water, and 250g of firm sourdough starter in large mixing bowl, place dry ingredients on top, mix with wooden spoon until all combined into shaggy dough.  Knead dough in bowl using wet hands using the french fold method for 1 minute making sure to squish out any dry bits or lumps.  Do not add any extra flour.  Dough should be pretty smooth.  Put dough into oiled plastic container, cover and let rest for 15 minutes.

12:20am

- Turn dough in plastic container using wet hands, cover, let rest 25 minutes.

12:45am

- Turn dough in plastic container using wet hands, cover, let rest 20 minutes.

1:05am

- Turn dough in plastic container using wet hands, cover, let rise overnight on counter.  Go to bed.

7:30am

- Check dough to see if it has doubled in size.  Also press dough with we fingertip.  If impression remains, dough is ready to be divided and preshaped into 2 boules approx 1000g each.  Cover with towel and let rest for 15 minutes.

7:45am

- Final shape into tight boule, then place into lightly floured banneton/brotform seam side up and place into large plastic bag so they don't dry out, and proof for 2 1/2 to 3 hrs.

9:45am

- Arrange 2 baking stones on racks in oven, one should be the 1st space from the bottom, and the next should be 2nd from the top.  Arrange steam pan.  Preheat 550F with convection.

10:15am

- Remove proofing baskets from plastic bag, and cover with dish towel.

10:45am

- Lightly flour the boules before turning them out onto a peel, slash as desired, place directly on baking stone.  Repeat for 2nd loaf.  Add 1 1/2 cups of water to your steam pan, close oven door.  Turn oven down to 450F with covection and bake for 25 minutes.  After the 1st 25 minutes, rotate the loaves between the stones and bake for another 25 minutes with convection at 425F.  Loaves are done when the internal temp reaches 205F to 210F.

11:45am - Take loaves out of oven and cool for 3-4 hours or until internal temp is 80F.  Loaves should weigh approx 800g after baking.

Notes: for the AP flour, I mixed Whole Foods 365 AP, and Gold Medal Unbleached AP.  The bread flour is King Arthur.  The organic whole grains are from Fairway Market in NYC.  The grinder is really cool!  Hard wheat is hard to grind.  Spelt is easy, and rye is about as hard as hard wheat...

 Submitted to Yeastspotting on 2/11/10

Hey All,

Just wanted to share with you some baguettes that I made last night...  Nothing fancy, but I think they turned out pretty nice except for the slightly burnt bottom on a few of them...  These are 65% hydration using a firm 60% hydration sourdough starter and active dry yeast...  I think it's a variation on Eric Kaiser's Baguette Monge, but using American flours, and a firm sourdough starter instead of a liquid one...  It's probably closer to Dominique Saibron's baguettes that do use the firm sourdough starter... 

Also, the 2nd one from the right is the one I cut into.  It slid off my peel before I even opened the oven door.  I caught it before it hit the ground, but in doing so stretched it out, and ruined my slashes...  It tasted fine, but looks a little skinnier than the other 7...  Posting the recipe below.  Enjoy!

Tim

Ingredients:

Total Dough Weight: 2850g

Yield: 8 x 15" baguettes at 280g weight after bake

75% AP - 1140g (Whole Foods 365)

20% BF - 304g (KA Bread Flour)

5% Graham Flour - 76g (Bob's Red Mill)

20% Firm Sourdough Starter - 304g (straight from fridge fed day before)

65% Water - 988g

2% Kosher Salt - 30g

0.4% Active Dry Yeast - 6g (1 1/2 tsp)

Directions:

Day before:

Feed sourdough starter, or convert liquid starter to firm starter.  Leave on counter at room temp for 4 hrs, refrigerate until ready to use.

Bake day:

1.  Measure out all ingredients.

2.  Place water and sourdough starter cut in pieces in large mixing bowl.  Then, add all dry ingredients at once, mix with wooden spoon until all is combined in a shaggy dough, knead in bowl with wet hands for about 5 minutes, cover and autolyse for 30 minutes.

3.  After autolyse, knead dough 50 strokes in bowl with wet hands, cover and let rest for 30 mins.

4.  Turn dough in bowl, cover and let rest for 30 mins.

5.  Turn dough in bowl, cover and let rest for 1 hr.

6.  After rest, dough should have doubled in size.  To test, poke dough with a floured finger.  If impression remains, dough is ready.

7.  Divide into 8 pieces approx 356g, preshape and cover with cloth and plastic, let rest for 15 minutes.

8.  Final shape baguettes, place 1st 4 in (lightly floured) linen couche on a tray, place in plastic bag, and retard in refrigerator for 30 minutes.  Shape remaning 4, and proof for 30-45 minutes in linen couche.  Also place these 4 in large plastic bag so they don't dry out.  Arrange 2 baking stones in the oven along with a steam pan, and preheat to 500F with convection.

9.  When oven reaches 500F and 1st set of baguettes are proofed, carefully turn baguettes onto wooden peel, slash 5 times, place in oven.  When all baguettes are in, pour 3/4 cup of water into steam pan (use oven mitts), close door and bake for 8 minutes at 480F with convection, rotate and bake at 450F with convection for another 12-15 minutes or until internal temp reaches 210F.  Take out 2nd set of baguettes from fridge while these are baking.

10.  When first set of baguettes are out of the oven, preheat oven to 500F with convection.  When oven reaches temp, bake the 2nd set.

11.  Cool for 1 hr before eating.

Notes: I preheated my oven to 550F with convection...  This probably caused a few of them that were started on the bottom stone to have slighly burnt bottoms...  Also, my firm sourdough starter was started with organic rye flour, and then at some point converted to AP or bread flour.  Now it has some graham flour in it...  I feed it every few days with either 50g AP, and 30g water, or 100g AP and 60g water, leave it on the counter for 4 hours, feed it again, and return it to the fridge.  I usually use it 1-3 days after the last feeding...

Also, I have been seeing a few thread suggesting that you can bake breads in cold oven without preheating it to 50F to 100F above your desired bake temp...  I just have to say that that is bull-crap! at least for making baguettes, which need that initial high heat from the oven/baking stone to get the full oven spring, and rich carmelized crust...

 Submitted to Yeastspotting on 2/9/10

Hey All,

Just wanted to post my bake from 2/7/10... 

It is based off of this recipe: http://www.applepiepatispate.com/bread/sourdough-italian-french-bread/

But of course, I don't really follow recipes to the "t"...  It's not perfect as there were a few blow-outs, but the crust, crumb, and slightly sour flavor were pretty darn amazing...  Here are the pics first.  I will post the recipe in a few days...

Enjoy!

Tim

Hey All,

I'm sure you've seen my post here venting about my breads not turning out very well:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/16100/perfect-baguette-eludes-me-my-breads-are-getting-worse

Anyway, I was inspired to try a Pain a' l'ancienne Baguette from here:

http://www.applepiepatispate.com/bread/pain-ancienne-french-baguette/

Of course, I can't seem to stick to recipes, so here is what I did instead:

Total Ingredients:

350g AP (Whole Foods 365)

100g BF (KA Bread Flour)

100g Graham Flour (Bob's Red Mill)

350g Water

10g Kosher Salt

100g Firm Sourdough Starter (60% Hydr. straight from fridge)

2g Active Dry Yeast (1/2 tsp)

Total Dough Weight 937g

Directions:

Day 1

Make soaker with the following:

175g AP

100g BF

50g Graham Flour

325 g Cool Water

-Mix all ingredients, place in a bowl or plastic container, cover and refrigerate for 24hrs.

Day 2

650g Soaker from Day 1

175g AP

100g Firm Sourdough Starter

25g Cool Water

10g Kosher Salt

1/2 tsp Active Dry Yeast

-Mix all ingredients in large bowl, cover and let rest (autolyse) for 20-30 minutes.

-Knead 50 strokes in bowl, cover and rest for 1 hr.

-Turn dough on lightly floured surface, return to bowl, cover and let ferment for 2 hrs.

-Divide into 3 equal pieces, preshape into loose ovals, cover and let rest for 15 minutes.

-Place baking stone on 2nd rack from top, arrange steam pan with lava rocks under stone, off to side, and preheat oven to 500F with convection.

-Shape baguettes by rolling and stretching them gently until they are betwen 15-16" long.

-Proof for 45 minutes on linen couche.

-To bake, place them on peel, slash using lame or sharp razor/knife, place in oven directly on stone.  Add 1 cup of water to steam pan, close oven door, bake for 10 minutes at 460F with convection.  Rotate and bake for another 18 minutes without convection, or until internal temp registers 210F.  Cool for at least 30 minutes before eating...

Notes: I should have baked them at 480F and then at 460F after rotating.

Enjoy!

Tim

 

The Perfect Baguette Eludes Me...  My Breads are Getting Worse...

Argh!

I have come to the realization that I don't like bread flour...  Let me clarify this by saying I don't like making bread with all bread flour...

I recently acquired a 50lb bag of King Arthur Bread Flour through the generosity of Will Slick...  It has 12.7% protein...

I find that breads made with all bread flour are too chewy for my taste.  I have found that my sweetspot for bread flour is not more than 30% with the remainder in AP flour.

Also, I find that if I'm making breads with mostly whole wheat flour, using AP flour in the remainder works just fine...

This just means that the bread flour will last me a lot longer, and I still will have to buy AP at the market unless I can get my hands on a 50lb bag of AP...