SylviaH's blog

I have been wanting to try this method for sometime and have just been putting it off until today.  Of coarse I had to pick today, my kitchen still in some construction mode after remodeling my shower, it had leaked through on the kitchen ceiling, an appointment with a glass and mirror installer...and today is Mike's birthday, so everything is in a bit of a rush.  I baked a couple of mulitigrain loaves, and upon doing this I decided to try a new method of creating steam in my oven.  I'm convinced the only way I'm going to get steam that's not continually 'vented' out of my oven is by using this method.  This is so much easier for me..a lot less effort to create constant steam.  Pictures are worth a thousand words.

Preheated the loaf pans in my oven one or two 5 1/2" X 9 1/2" dark non-stick loaf pans...I used 2 loaf pans with 2 tightly rolled towels in each pan.

Placed 2 water soaked towels into a 6X10 Pyrex glass dish.  Microwaved them for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.  Until good and hot.

I removed a pre-heated loaf pan from the oven.  Turned my pre-heating oven onto the Bake mode.

Using Tongs I placed the hot towels into the loaf pan. Placed the pan and hot towels back into the oven

Repeated for the other loaf pan and towels.

Using a 8oz. pyrex cup, I microwaved a 1/2 cup of water until it boiled.  Poured the hot water over the two hot rolled towels in one of the loaf pans.

I then repeated for the other loaf pan.  I covered my glass door with a towel and left the pans in the oven while pouring the hot water over the towels.

More or less water can be added.  I had my towels very wet with a little water on the bottom of the pans.

The oven was pre steamed and steamed.  There was constant steam coming from the towels..  Up to 10 minutes after the pans were removed from the oven, there was still steam present, lots of it.  Photos of this steam.  It's not easy to get photos of steam but I did manage if you look closely at the photo.

This is the first time I have tried this method.  It is so much easier for me and creates that constant steam I have been after, without losing it to my venting oven...there's always steam present until the pans are removed.  I think one pan would work nicely too. 

My bread is still cooling.  Mike and I are off to enjoy the evening out.

            Tongs should have been included in this photo.  A couple of  large multigrain loaves was todays's baking.

                  Microwave heating the wet towels in a the pyrex dish

                                                           Steaming the oven

                                                        Steam coming from towels, apx. 10 minutes after being removed from the oven

          ADDED: A little better photo.  Steam coming from the towels several minutes after being removed from the oven.

                                  As I said in the post to Larry, there is some scientific reason

why the steam vapors are not as visable in a hot oven..something I think to do with the air being hotter and so the vapors do not show like they do in cooler air...something like that!  But the steam is in the oven, even though you can't notice it as much as you do outside the oven.  I think I will try a little less steam in my next bake.

         Sylvia                                                     

These loaves are from http://www.northwestsourdough.wordpress.com.  The recipes can be found on Teresa's Blog.  The Mill Grain @100 was so delicous and disappeared so fast, lots of lovely grains, poppy seed, sesame seed, whole oat berries, millet, rye flakes, wheat flakes, flax and sunflower seeds, from KAflours, is the grains I used and they are just delicious, this time I made 2 loaves, still to warm to be sliced.  I would like to try this mix in a JH formula for his mix grain loaves...whats a few extra grains! 

The Rye Sourdough with Roasted Cracked Wheat, is my first attempt.  I made 3 small loaves and had to slice into one as soon as it cooled.  I cracked my wheat and it toasted up very nicely and smelled so good.  The flavor is delicious without being bitter or sour, a lovely complex flavor with a sweetness of the wheat and little added soft chew with some larger pieces of the cracked wheat thoughout.  I thought the loaves a little flattish looking but the crumb seemed nice for these small loaves. 

                                               Rye Sourdough with Roasted Cracked Wheat

                                                             2 large Mill Grain loaves and  3 Rye Sourdough loaves w/roasted cracked wheat

                                               Crumb of Rye Soudough w/RCWheat

                                                                  Added crumb of Mill Grain loaf

                                                                   Sylvia

Seeing all the latest posts on seeded levain breads and there looking very tasty with fall approaching I thought I would give this fairly new recipe an attempt,  from http://www.northwestsourdough.com  it is posted on Teresa's blog and called 'Northwest Mill Grain @100'.  

This is my version using KAFlours handy and lovely fresh all natural highfiber blend of, whole oat berries, millet, rye flakes, wheat flakes, flax, poppy seeds, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds, I also added more whole wheat flour and upped the hyration slightly.  I halfed the recipe and made one loaf. Perfect for fall, a hearty, delicious loaf,  with a nice crust and just the right amount of chew. 

                                                                                      Packed full of tender fresh seeds

                                 Sylvia

I baked some loaves for friends today and also a dozen of my 'Buns for Sandwiches' for this week-ends bar-b-que holiday.  I had to use my bottom oven for the buns.  It is not convection and the buns come out more evenly browned and bake a little faster in the convection oven setting.

The recipe for these delicious and Basic White Sourdough loaves with 100% hydration starter is HERE and the Buns for Sandwiches is http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/17329/buns-sandwiches .

                                                                 ADDED this should read 100% 'Levain' hydration

                                            Delicious full of flavor with just the right amount of sourdough tang and sweet flavor at the end, that melts in your mouth.  Crusty, crunchy crust...my husband loves it and raves about the flavor..I must have hit his 'sweet spot' : )  I've also made this bread with added rye and it is also delicious...I have to say it... the all white is our favorite!

            Have a great weekend!

                   Sylvia

The sourdough boulé is the same recipe I baked on my last post, except I made a few little changes replacing some of the bread flour with 120g of whole rye, honey instead of sugar and upped the hydration slightly.  I made two large loaves instead of three so I could make better use of my oven today.  The flavor was delicious and we enjoy very much both versions of this sourdough.  I had 5 very large ripe banana's perfect for doubling the recipe for 'Banana-Nut Bread' from the book 'Williams-Sonoma Bread', this is a great tasting banana bread, today I left out the nuts.  The fried apricot hand pies were made a couple of days ago.  I make them once a year, guess why!  I boil sweetned fresh apricots with a bit of lemon juice into a thick lumpy puree for the center filling or sometimes I use dried apricots for the puree, both are delicious.

              Sylvia

                                       A nice recipe from Northwest Sourdough for a basic white sourdough, using 100% hydration starter, final dough in recipe is 65% hydration.                                               

                       I baked these loaves on my pre-heated oven stones and used the lava rock/iron pan steaming method and adjusted my oven

                       for baking temperatures and times better suited for my oven.  I made 3 loaves.  These will come in handy!

             Sylvia 

Very delicious and fairly simple to make, these appealing cookies make a very nice accessory cookie to an elegant dessert or just simply to snack on alone.

With 'Mis en Place' I made these while preparing dinner, placed them in the oven to slow bake.  The recipe is HERE updated..this link should work, scroll down to the recipe.

                      Sylvia

I used Daniel T. DiMuzio's formula from his book 'bread baking An Artisan's Perspective' for making his Double Raisin and Toasted Walnut loaves, changing it to go with a combination I have been wanting to taste.  I substituted the double raisins and walnuts with, half the amount of dried natural, chopped Blenheim apricots, a very big favorite of mine is the Blenheim apricots from CA. especially fresh.  I also added 1/2 cup of Millet seeds for a little soft crunch.  The combination is delicious with the apricots not being overly sweet like raisins can sometimes taste.  The little soft crunch and mild flavor of the millet seed was an added plus, all went delicious toasted this morning with a smear of cream cheese.  I was very pleased with the combination of the apricots and millet seed and plan on trying it in some other recipes.

These loaves were baked yesterday with the Greek bread I posted earlier.  I baked both the apricot and millet seed loaves together and wanted to steam them with my steaming lid, I have not used in a very long time.  The two loaves would not fit under the steaming lid, I did not want to stay up any later and bake them individually, so they were not properly steamed which I think contributed towards the paler crust on the second loaf.

                           Sylvia 

This is my version of the recipe from HERE 'Im having trouble getting this to go directly to the recipe, in search type Crusty Greek Country Bread'. I have never made a bread containing goats milk, I thought this a good choice instead of the water called for in the recipe, and I have to say what a very pleasant surprise.  It turned out just as I hoped it would.  The flavor with levain and goats milk was delicious and I've never tasted anything like it before.  It had a sweet creamy taste from the goats milk and duram flour with the added nutty flavor from the sesame seeds.  The crumb was just as I wanted just open enough, I coated the egg wash on extra heavy and all the way down the sides to hold an extra heavy sprinkling of the sesame seeds.  This bread will be outstanding toasted or for sandwiches, whatever way you choose to enjoy it.

Sponge: set aside to rise for 2 hours.

208 gm liquid levain - 100% hydration

84 gms scalded and cooled goats milk - 

62 gms Bread flour

Dough:

671 gms Bread Flour

240 gms Duram Flour - You have your choice of flour combinations - Duram is one of my favorites 

420 gms Scalded Goats Milk - cooled

2 Tbsp. Honey

2 Tbsp. Olive Oil

1 Tbsp. Sea Salt

Adding the sponge, I used mechanical and hands with my KA and a combination of Stretch and folds. 

Glaze: One whole egg with 2 tsp water and wisked till foamy - 1/2 cup sesame seeds -

 two round linen lined baskets were used for proofing and then turned onto parchment paper on paddles and slid onto hot oven stone.

Preheat oven and stone 450F convection setting for one hour

Because the loaves were heavily coated with glaze I only spritzed my oven after putting in my loaves....no steaming device was used.

Baked for 45 minutes adjusting my oven temperature from 450 convection off 10mins. reducing down to 425 and 375F.

                      Sylvia

I made these today along with Larry's 'Wally' wonderful English Muffin recipe.  Since I had a cup of levain left and wasn't about to waste this lovely bubbly..I decided to try it in my 'Buns for Sandwiches'  for even more added flavor.  They turned out delicious.  I added the measured one cup or 8oz measure of levain I had left and 4oz less water and 3oz less 'KA bread flour was used' to the original recipe.  I didn't write down my calculations, just figured in while preparing dinner and making the EM's.  They turned out wonderful for an unplanned bake. The are full of flavor and the hydration was perfect.

                Great oven spring from the flat disks

                                                                                                                  Larry's delicious English Muffins with levain - more on his blog

                              Sylvia