Danni3ll3's blog

I took my inspiration for this loaf here. I changed it slightly and used my usual way of making bread but I was not aware that cinnamon impeded the yeast action! My bulk rise took 9 hours at cool room temperature! I never did get the dough to double but it rose to about half again the original volume. After shaping and putting it in bannetons, I let the loaves rise for an hour on the counter before putting them in the fridge for the night. The next day, I let them rise more on the counter for another couple of hours. The loaves are a bit flat but boy, are they delicious. Next time, I will greatly increase the amount of preferment flour and see if that makes a difference. I will also put the dough in the oven with the light on instead of using the counter. Hubby was making ribs so the oven was not available for my usual proofing box.

Here is the recipe:

1. Soak 250 g of dried cranberries, 150 g of raisins, 60 g of butter in 240 g of hot water. Let cool.

2. Autolyse all of the above with 500 g water, 650 g unbleached flour, 302 g fresh milled Selkirk wheat, 8 g cinnamon, and 200 g of pecan halves.

3. Mix in 16 salt, 266 g of 80% levain and 50 g water.

4. Do four sets of folds a half hour apart and let bulk ferment. I like it let it go till it is doubled but 9 hours later, the best I got was 1.5 the original volume.

5. Preshape, let rest a few minutes and do final shape. Put into baskets and let rise on the counter for an hour before retarding them in the fridge overnight. The  next morning, let rise for another couple of hours on the counter before baking in preheated dutch ovens. I like to bake them till fairly dark and an internal temperature of at least 205 F.

I will redo these and hopefully, I get a better oven spring next time.

I saw MutantSpace's loaf from a question he/she asked and loved the look of the crumb. I do plan to make it as posted but I needed a few loaves this weekend and thought I would just adapt it to sourdough. I think I may have messed up in the salt though and not put enough in. I will know when we taste it.

This recipe made 4 quite small loaves although you could divide it 3 for larger loaves. I wasn't sure that the larger loaves would fit in my Dutch ovens and I wasn't making any for sale so the smaller loaves were just fine. 

1. Toast 75 g each of Sesame seeds and sunflower seeds. 

2. Soak toasted seeds with 225 g rolled oats, 90 g honey, 75 g butter in 360 g hot water. Let sit still almost cool. 

3. Autolyse (not a true autolyse but oh well...) all above with 550 g water, 75 g freshly ground flax, 550 g unbleached flour, 200 g freshly milled red fife, and 202 g multigrain flour. Let sit a couple of hours. 

4. Mix in 22 g salt, 266 g levain and 50 g water. I used pinching and folding to integrate everything. 

5. I do 4 series of folds 30 to 45 minutes apart and then I let rise until doubled. 

6. I divided the dough into four portions and did a quick preshape. I let it rest 10-15 minutes and then did a final shape. 

7. The dough was but into bannetons and covered with a plastic bowl cover. This is new to me. I usually use a large ziplock bag but I found these covers at the dollar store. They look like shower caps. They worked beautifully and are a lot less hassle than the huge bags that I have to dry out each week. 

8. The loaves proofed overnight in the fridge. I keep my fridge at 37F so it is quite cold.

5. 14 hours or so later, they were baked straight out of the fridge in preheated Dutch ovens (475F). After I load the dough, the temp is dropped to 450F for 25 minutes although the second batch was done at 475F because I forgot to drop the temperature. Then the lids come off and the loaves were baked for another 20 minutes at 425F. 

I want to thank MutantSpace for the inspiration! Crumb shot to come later if I remember!

This is a repeat of one of the multigrain breads from last week. I changed the method a bit but the recipe, aside from the water amounts, is the same. For some reason, the bread this week needed quite a bit more water than last week. I guess this reinforces the adage to be conservative in the hydration and adjust as needed.

1. Toast 150 g of Porridge Oats and Ancient Grains hot cereal. Soak in 275 g of hot water overnight.
2. The next day, autolyse the above with 30 g local yogurt, 550 g water, 550 g of unbleached no additives flour, 100 g fresh milled red fife, 100 g fresh milled Kamut, 100 g fresh milled Spelt, 50 g fresh milled rye and 52 g multigrain best for bread flour. Let sit for a couple of hours.
3. Add in 22 g sea salt and 266 g of 3-stage 80% hydration levain as well as 55 g of water (the dough felt quite stiff hence the extra water here). Mix well using pinches and folds.
4. Do 4 sets of folds a half hour apart and then let rise till double for bulk fermentation.
5. Divide into 3-775g boules and preshape. After letting it sit for 10-15 minutes, do the final shape and put seam side down into baskets or bannetons.
6. Place the bannetons in plastic bags and then put to bed in the fridge for the night.
7. After proofing for 12 hours or so, preheat the oven with the Dutch ovens inside to 475 F for at least 45 minutes. 
8. Place parchment rounds in the bottom of the Dutch ovens and gently place the boules inside. Because the boules are now seam side up, I don't score them. I like the rustic look that the bread gets by doing this. 
9. Place back into the oven and immediately drop the temperature to 450F. Let bake covered for 25 minutes
10. Uncover the Dutch ovens and once again, drop the temperature to 425 F. Let bake for a further 25 minutes for a nice dark crust.

I normally do a 4 stage levain but I had some left over from last week's baking that I had stored in the fridge so I used that instead of my NFNM starter. Doing 3 stages with levain that was 80% hydration rather than 4 stages with ~65% hydration levain didn't seem to affect the rise, the timing, nor the results.

This is my process for the 4 stage levain.

1. Thursday night, take 5 g of NFNM starter and feed it 5 g flour (preferably whole rye or other whole grain) and 5 g filtered water.
2. Friday morning, feed it 10 g whole grain flour and 10 g filtered water. 
3. Friday night, feed it 20 g whole grain flour and 20 g filtered water.
4. Saturday morning (this is my dough making day), I feed it 27 g of whole grain flour, 106 g unbleached flour and 106 g of filtered water.
5. The levain usually triples in 4 hours at around 70 F and I use it at that point.

Since I was on a roll making bread, I thought I would make a simple loaf with just flour and no add-ins. The plan was to have a couple of these loaves as testers for baking in the portable pizza oven that one of my brothers made for us.

So here goes:

1. Autolyse 575 g of water with 30 g local yogurt, 550 g unbleached no additives flour, 300 g fresh milled einkorn, and 102 g Robin Hood Multigrain Best for Bread flour. I let that sit for a couple of hours.
2. Then I added 22 g of salt and 266 g of a four stage levain (80% hydration), as well as 50 g of water.
3. I did four sets of folds 20 to 30 minutes apart and then let rise till double. That took about 6 hours since I did part of the fermenting on the counter and part in the oven with the door cracked open.
4. I divided it into 3 loaves, let rest for a while and then put into baskets. 
5. The loaves proofed overnight in the fridge.
6. The next day, I baked one of them as per usual... heat oven to 475 F with pots in, load pots, lower heat to 450 F, bake 25 minutes, remove lids, drop heat to 425 F and bake a further 20-25 minutes.

The other two I tried to bake in the pizza oven. This is a steel oven with two cavities. One where you build the fire, and the chamber above where we normally cook pizza. Hubby lined the upper part with fire brick and my brother built a sleeve that would keep the smoke off the bread. Hubby was not in the mood to do this but fired up the oven anyhow. He then informed me that he didn't have enough wood to keep this going for very long. The oven was at 600 F and even though I knew it was too hot, I slid the loaves onto the firebricks. We put the cover back to keep the heat in and I went back in the house to mind the loaves that were cooking in the oven. Well, less than 20 minutes go by and hubby comes to tell me that he is smelling burnt bread. It was burnt alright! It looked like a lump of charcoal! I cut it open and was actually surprised that it was actually cooked even though it didn't rise very much and the crumb wasn't all that bad after all.

So just for laughs, here are some picts:

You can see how badly the one loaf got burned. The other has parts of it that are rescuable (is that a word?).

I cut into it while still warm so the crumb is a bit smooshed.

This is the bottom of the second loaf.

This is the pizza oven.

I have been away from baking due to an unexpected work commitment. After 6 and half weeks, I couldn't settle on what to make so I decided to make one multigrain flour mix and try different add-ins. It was interesting to see how the add-ins affected the hydration of the dough.

Basic Multigrain Mix

• 550 g unbleached flour
• 100 g fresh milled red fife
• 100 g fresh milled kamut
• 100 g fresh milled spelt
• 50 g fresh milled rye
• 52 g Robin Hood Multigrain Best for Bread flour (I checked that this bag wasn't one of the recalled ones)

Add-ins

Multigrain with Amaranth, Millet and Bulgur

• 50 g toasted amaranth
• 50 g toasted millet
• 50 g bulgur
• 200 g hot water
• 30 g local yogurt

Multigrain with Porridge Oats and Ancient Grains 

• 150 g toasted Porridge Oats and Ancient Grains Mix
• 200 g hot water
• 30 g local yogurt

Multigrain with Infused Fruit and Seeds

• 30 g toasted sunflower seeds
• 30 g toasted pumpkin seeds
• 30 g chopped dates
• 30 g cranberries
• 30 g raisins
• 200 g hot Earl Grey tea
• 30 g local yogurt

Method

1. The night before, I milled my flour and toasted and soaked the add-ins in the hot liquids only.
2. The next morning, I added the yogurt to the add-ins and did the last feeding of my 4 stage starter (80% hydration).
3. A couple of hours before the levain was ready (when it is tripled), I autolyzed the add-ins with the flour mix. The amount of water differed as follows: The amaranth, millet, bulgur mix needed 550 g of water, the porridge oats needed 600 g of water, and the fruit, seed mix only needed 500 g of water. The dough after mixing was rather stiff.
4. When the levain was ready, I added 22 g of sea salt and 266 g of levain. Once again, the various mixes needed differing amounts of water for the dough to feel right. The amaranth, millet, bulgur mix needed an extra 20 g of water, the porridge oats needed an extra 30 g of water, and the fruit, seed mix did not need any extra water.
5. Once everything was well mixed, I did 4 sets of folds 20 to 30 minutes apart and let the dough rise till double. This took 5 to 6 hours depending on where I had the dough. I slow down some loaves by leaving them on the counter while I am doing the folding and others, I put into the oven with the light on and the door cracked open.
6. I divided each batch into 3 loaves (so a total of 9 loaves), and let them rest for a few minutes before doing a final shape and putting them into baskets. 
7. They proofed overnight in the fridge.
8. The next morning, I preheated the oven to 475 F with the dutch ovens inside. I baked the loaves at 450 F for 25 minutes and then removed the lid and lowered the temp to 425 for an additional 20-25 minutes.

Most of these loaves are being frozen for Father's Day and 3 are going to my favourite soup kitchen. We are keeping one for ourselves and I hope to post a crumb shot of that one shortly. I was really happy with the oven spring on these so the crumb should be good too.

This is the last bake that I am making for sale until I am back to being retired so I am super happy how it turned out in spite of a few hiccups. I am not sure how much bread I will be making for us so it might also be a while for that too. We will see. Might have to stick to one day recipes...

Anyhow, this is the recipe:

1. Soak 30 g each of cranberries, raisins & chopped dates in 100 g Earl Grey tea. Cool and add 30 g of kefir. 

2. I didn't do this but the plan was to toast 25 g each of walnuts, pecans and pumpkin seeds. 

3. Autolyse all above with 585 g of water and 652 g unbleached flour, 200 g freshly milled red fife, and 100 g light rye. Let sit for about one hour. 

4. Mix in 22 g salt, 266 g 80% hydration levain and 25g water. Make sure everything is well integrated. 

5. Do 3 sets of folds (usually 30 minutes apart) and let rise till double. I had to run out so gave two rushed folds and I left the dough on the counter. Four hours later, it hadn't risen at all. So I gave it another fold and put it in the oven with the light on and the door cracked as usual. That fixed it!

6. Divide into 3 loaves, do a preshape, rest 15 minutes, shape and put into bannetons. Place in fridge overnight to proof. 

7. Preheat oven to 475F with Dutch ovens inside. Place parchment paper rounds in Dutch ovens and place loaces inside. Drop temp to 450F. Bake 25 minutes, remove lids, drop temperature to 425F and bake another 20 minutes. Shut oven off and leave in oven for 5 minutes. I did the last because they seemed to be browning very quickly with convection on. Might not need to do that if you bake without the fan. 

I had a few slices when it cooled of and all I can say is: "Yum!!!"

My bread baking over the Easter weekend was a disaster! I baked the loaves I was making too soon; I panicked when I saw how quickly they were rising in the fridge so I baked them that evening instead of waiting till the next morning. They didn't have great oven spring at all.

Then I was making cornmeal buns for dinner and I managed to burn the bottoms of all of them. My daughter came to the rescue and made Prospector Buns which were awesome!

So I did another bake yesterday morning because I had promised my daughter that I would make more bread for one of her friends. That turned out to be a bit of a panic during the baking because my brother called me in to work for him at the last minute (Twit had a stroke and went to work anyhow. By the way, he got lucky and has no deficits aside from his left peripheral vision and he got diagnosed with atrial fibrillation), So hubby got instructions on how to finish my bake. Loaves are beautiful and I am very happy with them. 

So I am back at work full time for likely a month or more. I need to get my brain back into school mode. Ha ha!

So here is the recipe... nothing too complicated this time!

1. Soak 150 g of Daybreak Mill 12 grain cereal in 200 g of boiling water. Cool and add 40 g organic yogurt. 

2. Autolyse all above with 550 unbleached flour, 402 g multigrain flour and 525 g water for a couple of hours. 

3. Mix in 22 g salt and 266 g of levain. I think my levain was closer to 90% hydration. It was leftover levain from my weekend bake that I had thrown in the fridge so it had been retarded there for a couple of days. 

4. Do four series of folds 30 minutes apart and then let rise till double. 

5. Divide into three ~700 g loaves, preshape and rest 15 minutes. Do final shape (I really degas my dough) and place in bannetons. 

6. Proof in fridge overnight and bake as usual the next morning. (You can check my other recent loaves for baking instructions if needed)

I am very pleased with these loaves. They look like Danni bread, not like those flat alien things that came out of my oven on the weekend! ;-)

I love my combo starter! It is a blend of Duluth's Best Bread (Michaellily), JamieOF and mine. The thing doubles in 2 hours and triples in four when I do my final levain build. The boules are full and have almost a balloon quality when I take them out of the fridge to bake.

This week, I think the boules actually hit the lids of the Dutch ovens because they are a bit flat on top. The loaves feel really light so I think the crumb should be pretty good. 

This bread is similar to my Brenda's Bread as it has Oats and Toasted seeds. I decided to toast the Oats too. Hopefully, that will enhance the flavour!

Recipe: 

This makes 3-750 g loaves (650 g baked). 

1. Toast 75 g of rolled oats and then soak in 250 g boiling water. When cool, add 50 g kefir and let sit for 30-60 minutes. 

2. Combine seeds (10 g Black Sesame seeds, 25 g pumpkin seeds, 25 g sunflower seeds and 25 g Hemp hearts) and toast in a dry frying pan until seeds start to jump and they start browning. 

3. Autolyse all above with 500 g warm water, 550 g unbleached flour, 202 g multigrain flour, and 200 g fresh milled einkorn flour. Let sit for 2 hours. 

4. Mix in 22 g salt, 266 g 80% hydration levain and 25 g water. Use the pinch and fold method to incorporate everything well. 

5. Do sets of folds every half hour for a total of 4 times and then let rise till double. This took 4 hours from mixing time for the ones that were in the oven with the light on and the door cracked open. The ones that spent the first two hours on the counter took 5 hours. (I delay a batch due to lack of shaping and resting space). 

6. Do a preshape, a 15 minute rest and a final shape. Place in rice floured bannetons and put to bed in the fridge for 12-14 hours. Be sure to place baskets in a plastic bag. 

7. Bake directly out of the fridge in preheated 475 F Dutch ovens for 25 minutes (drop temp to 450 F as soon as you close the door), remove lids and bake another 20-25 minutes at 425 F. (Thank you Lazy Loafer for those instructions. The loaves bake perfectly!).

I also put rounds of parchment paper in the bottom of the pots to prevent sticking. It also keeps my pots nice and clean. 

Like I said, I was really pleased with the oven spring on these! They should be delicious. I am curious to see how the einkorn taste since I have only ever used it in very small quantities before. I ordered 5 kg of berries from Daybreak Mills since getting tiny quantities from Toronto when I daughter visited just didn't cut it. Either way, that stuff is not cheap!

ETA: Oat and seed types as well as quantities. I was posting in a hurry and noticed hours later that I had no quantities for the Oats and the seeds as well as not listing which seeds I used. Not very helpful if you wanted to make this up! ;-)

I really enjoy using multigrain cereal in bread and thought I would combine it with some rye sprouts. So here goes:

1. Sprout 75 g of rye berries. This took 3 days.

2. Toast 75 g of Bob's Red Mill 10 grain cereal and soak overnight in 140 g of boiling water. The next morning, stir in 30 g of kefir and let sit for a few hours.

3. Autolyse all of the above with 650 g water, 550 g no additives unbleached flour, 202 g white whole wheat flour, 100 g fresh milled red fife flour and 100 g Robin Hood Multigrain Best for Bread flour. Let sit for approximately one hour.

4. Mix in 22 g of sea salt and 266 g of 80% levain. (I recalculated to see what my levain was since I do 3 builds at 100% and one build at 80%, and it is actually a 84% levain but 80% is close enough!).

5. Do four sets of folds 30 minutes apart and let bulk ferment for a total of 3.5-4.5 hours or until doubled. I do this in my oven with the light on. The batch that I put into the oven doubled in 3.5 hours, the one that I left out on the counter for 2 hours before putting into the oven took 4.5 hours. For some reason, this was faster than usual. 

6. Divide into 3 770-gram loaves, preshape, rest and do a final shape. Place in bannetons and into fridge for a 12-14 hour proof. 

7. Set the oven on convection bake, Preheat oven and Dutch ovens to 475 F, load dough in pots, and immediately drop temp to 450F for 25 minutes. Remove lids, switch the Dutch ovens from lower to upper rack and vice-versa, drop temp to 425 F and bake for another 25 minutes. I baked them a little bit darker than last week. 

Crumb shot coming later! We haven't cut into them yet!

Like the title says, the weekend loaf was so good, we were out of bread by Tuesday. And since I had some levain left over that I had kept (I was thinking of making sourdough cinnamon rolls with it), it was conscripted to become a loaf to fill in the gap. 

This is not my normal routine for making bread but it still worked. No idea what the crumb looks like yet. It could be pretty interesting.

So here goes:

1. Toast 50 g of bulgur and 25 g of amaranth. Soak in 150 g boiling water and let cool until just warm. 

2. Autolyse the above with 300 g unbleached flour, 150 g multigrain flour, 100 g white whole wheat flour, 250 g water and 30 g kefir. Let sit just over an hour. 

3. Mix in 135 g levain and 11 g sea salt. The dough felt a bit stiff so I added a bit of water as I was mixing. 

4. I folded the dough every half hour for 2 hours and then put it in the fridge in a covered container. I left it there for about 19 hours. 

5. There was not a lot of rise so I let it continue to bulk ferment on the counter for another couple of hours. 

6. I did a preshape, a rest and then a final shape into a batard. Into a banneton it went and into the microwave with a cup of hot water.  I let it proof about an hour and three quarters. 

7. I flipped it out onto parchment paper, scored it and baked on a preheated pizza stone covered for 30 minutes and uncovered for another 15 minutes. The first 20 minutes were at 500 F and the rest were at 450F. 

So now we should have bread till I bake again on the weekend!