SylviaH's blog

My first attempt at these loaves from Daniel T. DiMuzio's book 'bread baking An Artisan's Perspective'.  An excellent book and one of my favorites.  I used the formula for Baguettes with Liquid Levain.  I made one small baguette for dinner before bulk fermenting the rest of the dough for 24hrs.  My husband had crunched it in half and was eating it before I had finished putting dinner on the table and said yumm this is delicious.  I made 2 french breads also 'called parisiennes in the book when scaled into 500g (18oz).  The french 2 loaves weighed 16.3 oz. each after being baked.  The flavor is delicious, sweet, buttery and no sourness with a creamy mouth feel and nice chew to the crust.

             After searching I found the photo taken of the crunched baguette.  So I added it for reference.  In MHO it is very similar to the Baguette Monge I did with the same 69% hydration level.  There is no added organic white wheat in this baguette.  I will add it next bake because the taste is so delicious and closely resembles in appearance and flavor that of the E.K.B.M. I baked.

               Sylvia

These sourdough loaves are from Beth Hensperger's 'The Bread Bible'.  There are two different books titled 'The Bread Bible'.  Rose Levy Beranbaum's 'the bread bible' is one of my favorite books. 

This  sourdough bread recipe was designed to bake in loaf pans.  It makes a very nice tasting basic sourdough bread for everyday use for sandwiches and toast.  It was my first attempt at making it and I changed a few things.... next time I will omit the yeast and give the loaves an  overnight in the frig. 

Makes two 9X5 inch loaves

B.H. Recipe

1 1/2 cups warm water 105F to 115F - I used 168g cool water

1 Tablespoon - l pkg. active dry yeast - "  " 1 teaspoon IADY

1 Tablespoon Sugar -                          "  " 1 TBsp. Honey

1 Cup Classic Sourdough Starter            "  " 180 gms - sourdough

8 Tablespoons unsalted melted butter   - ( 1 stick )

1 Tablespoon salt                                "  " 1 Tbsp. sea salt

5 1/2 to 6 cups unbleached all purpose flour or bread flour  -  125 g per cup of Gold Medal Bread Flour

Baked at 350F oven preheated  -  35 to 40 Minutes

You can add 1 to 2 cups of raisins or dried blueberries, or 1 cup of granola to the dough.

I mixed my dough with the paddle in my KA just until shaggy and let it sit covered for 25 min. added salt and with the kneader blade kneaded for until the dough came together and cleared the sides of the bowl and was smooth for about 3 minutes.  Removed and placed it into a greased bowl and did Stretch and Flolds until the gluten was developed.  Divided into 2 pre-shaped loaves rested for 15 min., shaped and placed in pans for final proof.  Baked in a pre-heated convection oven 400 and adjusted heat as loaves browned. 

                                       Pictures taken under kitchen lights so they have yellow cast

Sylvia

My fig tree gave me it's first lovely figs of the summer.  For tonights dinner I made a pizza with figs, goat cheese, pine nuts and a lovely sweet thick basalmic glaze.  I had some frozen pizza dough and the recipe for the dough is right on the TFL front page list of recipes or just click Here.    

I stretched the dough nice and thin and thicker for the crown.  It made a lovely crispy pizza crust.   

I first drizzled a little extra virgin olive oil.  Then a drizzle of delicious balsamic glaze, topped it with sliced fanned out figs,  dollops of fresh goat cheese and a sprinkly of fresh pine nuts.  All the flavors just blend so deliciously together.  This pizza makes a delicious appetizer.

Baked it in a one hour pre-heated 550F convection heat oven with a pizza stone until nicely browned and a little char. 

                  My Jack Russell 'Joey' eats the low hanging ones on the tree..He also pulls off my cucumbers he can reach and eats the whole thing!

                                                                                 The Pine Nuts toasted up nicely while the figs carmelized

                   Bottom nicely browned and crispy

                                         The Fig and Goat Cheese Pizza made a great start with the Cucumber salad and Chicken Parmesan Dinner

                                        Fig and Goat Cheese Pizza Submitted to Yeastspotting

I have decided to give the recipe for this wonderful pound cake I have been baking since 1964 and only given the recipe out to family in the past 45+ years.  It is very close to the same recipe given by Paula Deen called mama's pound cake.  I think only the milk and salt differs a little.  I have referred to this recipe always as 'Grandma Turners Pound Cake'.  It was given to me by my mother in law Elsie Turner in 1964 and was given to her by her daugter in law from Atlanta, GA.  What is so great about this pound cake and the reason I don't turn it upside down out of my large bundt pan or angle food cake pan is it has a cookie crunchy crust that is fabulous and I think very desirable on a pound cake.  It is a very large cake and can be made nicely also in loaf pans.   We love it with fresh sliced strawberries, sprinkled with a little sugar to bring out some juices...yumm.  A real family favorite for over 45 years.

1.  2 sticks of butter

2. 1/2 cup vegetable oil

3.  3 cups all purpose flour

4. 3 cups of Sugar

5. 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder

6. 1/2 teaspoon vanilla -Added-vanilla extract used 

7. 5 Eggs

8. 1 1/4 cup whole milk

Bring your eggs and butter to same room cool temperature - so the butter is fairly soft -this helps prevent the curdling effect you get when mixing the batter together at different temperatures.

By hand or electric mixer

Grease and flour pans - Preheat oven to 325F - I use convection oven and bake for 1 hour and 20 min. for my 10+ cup large non-stick bundt pan.  Testing with a spagetti noodle poked down into the cake and coming out dry.  The crust will be a nice dark golden brown. 

Sift flour, salt and baking powder together in a bowl '3 times' now I just shake it though a wire sifter once.  In a large bowl or mixer, Cream butter, oil and sugar until light and fluffy - Add eggs one at a time to creamed mixture ' I lightly beat them - Add milk and flour to creamed mixture alternately. I end with the flour.  Add vanilla extract.  You can also use lemon extract. 

After the cake is baked.  Cool for about 5 minutes.  Lay a cooling rack on top of the pan and invert.  Lay another cooling rack on top of the bottom of the cake and flip back over to see the cookie crust side...try not to eat it all!

                  ADDED - These freeze great.  I wrap them up in plastic wrap and then foil.

                                                                 Gets crunched a little more when removing but you can see why I prefer this top to the

                                                                  molded bundt top.  It's hard not eat this delicious crunchy cookie crust top.

                   Sorry we didn't have any whipped cream today.  The strawberries make a nice juice when sliced with a bit of sugar sprinkled over them.  Or you also make a lovely puree strawberry sauce to go with some sliced strawberries. 

Sylvia                            

Today I fired up my wfo oven to make pizza and this morning I made the recipe for my 'Sandwich Buns'.  I needed hot dog buns for Mondays cookout and since the wfo was hot I retarded the shaped hot dog buns in the refrigerator until tonight when the oven had reached a temperature of apx. 400F and falling.  I removed them for about one hour to finish proofing and placed them into the wfo for 20 minutes to bake.  I wanted to get them into the oven right away because they had proofed a little more than I wanted, so as I brushed them with an egg yolk glaze and asked my husband to sprinkle on the seeds..I think he actually enjoyed it and I enjoyed watching him enjoying it ;)  I will post a crumb shot later. 

                                                     Beginning to brown

                                                   20 minutes baked

                                                         Added crumb photo   

                                                      Ready for tomorrows hot dogs...I haven't had a hot in ages and looking forward to toasting these on the grill!

             Sylvia

My first attempt at some loaves from my 'bourke street bakery' book.  A bakery in Australia and their book was discussed in Shiao-Ping's blog posting.  It's a beautiful book filled with lovely color photos and recipes from this Australian bakery.  My first attempt at the 3 sourdough boule's and one large Apple and Oak battard, listed in the derivative breads chapter.

  My husband was very happy with the flavor and crumb of the boule and I loved the Apple and Oat with cream cheese for a nice breakfast toast.

Ingredients for the plain sourdough boule's

405 g (14 1/4 oz) white starter

765 g 91 lb 11 oz) organic plain flour - I use KAAP

400 ml (14 fl oz) water

20 g (3/4 oz/2 Tablespoons) sea salt

                    Mix the dough in the afternoon and retard in the refrigerator through the night.  Placed the loaves in warm humid place for 1-4 hours and bake to have fresh bread for lunch/ in our case early dinner.  Baked and steamed in a hot pre-heated oven on stones for 30minutes.

                               Three nice little sourdough boules

Apple and Oat loaf  -  I experimented ' because we were going out for the evening and I had no time left for bread making'  with this loaf by mixing and bulk retarding the dough and shaping the loaf the next morning before baking.  All in all it turned out tasting very good.  The stones were pre-heated at 500F before the temperature was reduced for steaming and baking. They were a little to hot for the loaves as the bottom was browned a bit dark.

If you wish, you can play around with the ratio of oats to dough in this loaf and change its texture.  Reducing the quantity of oats will mean it will not be as dense and can be cooked for a little less time.

Ingredients

70g (21/2oz) organic rolled oats

40 ml (1 1/4 fl oz water) This water is to soak the oats in for about 5 minutes.

715 g ( 1 lb 9 oz) sourdough  dough

185 g (6 1/2 oz) apples, peeled, cored and cut into 2-3 cm (3/4-1 1/2inch) pieces

Alternately, you can place the loaves on a baking tray lined with baking paper, seam side down.  Place in the refrigerator loosely covered with a plastic bag for 8-12 hours.

   Baked on stones in a pre-heated steamed oven 450F reduced to 425F for 35 minutes for two loaves.  I baked a little longer for the single battard.  For not getting all the attention this recipe deserved it turned out pretty tasty.

                Sylvia

This is what I baked today!  I started out this morning making some sourdough waffles for the freezer.  Mike likes to have a ready snack of frozen waffles.  While I was making some of J.H. Vermont sourdough bread I spotted a couple of pears that were just perfect for poaching, aahhh a pear tart for dessert tonight.  Since I was going to busy baking, I saved one portion of the bread dough for a pizza dinner tonight..the oven and the stone all would be nice and hot and it would be an easy dinner so I could tend to my baking.

                                                                         Pear Tart with Amaretto Liqueur 

                                                              J. H. Vermont Sourdough 

                    One very large Pepperoni Pizza made from some saved bread dough!

                Sylvia

After reading in 'Baking Artisan Pastries & Breads Sweet and Savory Baking for Breakfast, Brunch, and Beyond' Ciril Hitz forward by Peter Reinhart>

Gibassier - This little-known breakfast bread hails from the Provence region in France and is, in CH wife's opinion, one of the best breakfast breads ever to have graced our table.  She is not alone, most everyone that has been lucky enough to taste a gibassier falls in love instantly.  Perhaps it is the light, buttery texture of the aroma of orange blossom water mixed with the selicate hint of aniseed.  Whatever it is, this little baked gem has the potential for a cultlike following among bakers everywhere....and it goes on...well I just couldn't wait to give it a try. 

Pre-ferment (Biga)                                                                                Yield - apx. one dozen individual loaves -

1.  Bread Flour - I used King Arthur All-Purpose Flour - 180 gms                  350F convection oven mode - 10 -12 minutes

2.  Whole Milk -  I used 2 % - 110 gms

3. Instant Yeast - Osmotolerant - 0.01 - pinch

Dough

1.  Eggs whole 130 grams or 2 Eggs plus one yolk

2.  Olive Oil - 65 gms

3.  Orange blossom water - 38 gms

4.  Water - 25 gms

5.  Bread Flour KAAP used - 400gms

6.  Pre-ferment - All of it

7.  Granulated sugar - I used Bakers fine sugar - 100 gms

8.  Salt - 7gms sea salt used

9.  Instant yeast preferably osmotolerant - 2 teaspoons of osmotolerant used or 10 gms

10.  Unsalted butter - 70gms - Land O Lakes I used

11.  Aniseed - 6 gms - 1 1/2 tsp.

12.  Candied orange peel 1/4 inch cubed - 70 gms - 1/2 cup -  I make my own from organic oranges

13.  Granulated sugar for topping  -  As needed

14.  Clarified butter - 113 gms - 1/2 cup

Night before baking

• Combine all the pre-ferment ingredients in the bowl of a 5-quart stand mixer and mix at low speed until a smooth consistency is achieved.  Remove from bowl and place in an oiled container and cover with a lid or plastic wrap.  Allow to stand overnight (14 to 16 hours) at room temperature.

Baking Day

• Bring the Eggs, Olive Oil, Orange blossom water, and water to about 60F. 
• In the bowl of a 5 - quart stand mixwer, pour in the warmed liquids, add the pre-ferment and then add the bread flour, granulated sugar, salt, and instant yeast.  Using a dough hook, mix together at low speed until the dough comes together (about 4 minutes).
• Increase the mixing speed to medium and mix for an additional 4 minutes.
• In the meantime, soften the unsalted butter to a plastic state by hammering it with a rolling pin. 
• Slowly add the softened butter to the mixing dough in stages.  Be sure that each portion of butter is completely incorporated into the dough before adding the next portion.
• Mix the dough until the dough is fully developed.
• When the dough is fully developed, reduce the mixing speed to low and add the aniseed and candied orange peel.  Continue until all is evenly distributed.  About 2 minutes.
• Turn the dough out onto a work surface and lightly shape into a round.  Place in an oil-sprayed container and cover.  Bulk ferment for 1 1/2 - 2 hours. 
• Using a scale and bench scraper, divide the dough into 90 or 100gm units and work into rounds, then cover and let rest for about 20 minutes.
• Shape into torpedoes and then press them flat.  They should be shaped like a half circle
• Place the straighter edge of the dough near to you and use a 2-inch wide putty knife - I used a plastic card - somewhat like a credit card you might like to cut up : )
• Cut 3 slits starting in the middle and one on each side.  Cut 4 slits about 1/3 the the way down into the outer edge of the dough, splitting the difference in between the major slits.  You'll have 4 cuts along the outer edge.
• Pick up each unit, open it with a gentel stretch,  place on parchment lined sheet pans.  Let it proof, covered with plastic for about 1 to 1/2 hours.  Mine did not take that long.  My kitchen was pretty warm today.
• Pre-heat a covection oven to 350F for about 30 minutes. 
• Pre-pare the clarified butter
• Proof
• Bake until golden
• I made a mixture of one egg about 3 Tbsp. milk for a egg wash prior to putting into the oven..on 2 of my last baked Gibassier and I liked the way they came out much better than the unglazed ones..they rose higher and looked more golden brown.
• Remove from the oven and brush the hot gibassiers with clarified butter.  After the butter has set, toss in a bowl with grandular sugar to coat while still warm.  Then set on wire rack to cool.

                      Candied Orange Peel I made from my neighbors organic orange trees.

                           Candied Orange Peel and Aniseed

                                Delicious with a delicate flavor of orange and aniseed.  Ciril Hitz wife was right!  What a perfect breakfast or tea pastry to

                                grace a table.

                                                                      Submitted to Yeastspotting

I was so inspired by Beth Hensperger's recipe for making a 'Shallot and Poppy Seed Braid' it's in her book 'Baking Bread Old and New Traditions'.

I love the sourdough challah by M.G. and the recipe is posted on dmsnyder's blog Here.  It's a wonderful recipe and I'am thankful to David for posting it as I have not yet purchased M.G. book. I have made a sweet version with golden raisins that is posted on my blog Here and now wanted to try it with a savory touch.  With summer approaching I thought this bread perfect and it's described under 'Picnic Breads' in B.H. bread book.  I used the recipe she posted for the filling.  The recipe for the bread in B.Hensperger's book is a one day enriched bread that sounds and looks delicious.  I haven't made it yet but I can tell just by looking it has be fantastic.  I have been wanting rustic, savory and summery breads.  This is a great tasting combination!

My first go at this combination and will definately be making it again.

  The filling of Shallot and Poppy Seed

1.   4 TBsp. unsalted butter

2.   2 TBsp. olive oil

3.   2/3 cup (about 6 medium to large) chopped shallots -  I thinly sliced mine

4.   2/3 cup (4 small) chopped white onions -  I used all Shallot's - they were plenty sweet after the saute with butter and oil

5.   3 TBsp. grated Parmesan cheese 

6.   5 Tbsp. poppy seeds

I highly recommend to increase these measurements a little so you can eat some and there's enough left for the two loaves!

Egg Glaze -  I used one egg with 2 TBsp. water - dash of salt would be nice though I didn't add it.

1 TBsp. poppy seeds for sprinkling

While your dough is rising prepare your filling -

In a medium skillet or saute pan, melt the butter and oil.  Add the shallots and white onions.  Saute until just limp and translucent but not browned, or the filling will be bitter.  Remove from heat and stir in the cheese and poppy seeds. Set aside to let cool to room temperature.

Try not to eat to much...it's addicting!   

I used a 3 rope braid.  To fill two braided loaves -  roll each section into 3 to 4 inch wide strips and carefully spread the filling down the center leaving about a one inch margin of dough all the way around.  Fold over the edges and pinch them together, encasing the filling.

                              Savory and very delicious with all kinds of good flavors going on and even a little added crunch. 

            Beth Hensperger has a 'Picnic Menu' to go with her bread..it would be fabulous with this sourdough version.

                  Beet, apple, and endive salad

                  Cold roast Cornish hens stuffed with grapes and garlic

                  Pecan tartlets

                  Chilled sparkling wine 

                                                                  Submitted to Yeastspotting  

Sylvia