Blogs

Panettone season is starting up again --- exciting, huh? I know some people bake it year-round, but I think my last one this year was last January and one colomba in the spring. It's a multi-day project, so for me, I need to be able to shoehorn it into my schedule and this year it didn't happen. But this week that finally changed and I tried something new that worked so well I thought I should share.

I saw this panettone baking tray some months back and was intrigued by how it would make flipping the loaves so much quicker and less precarious, not to mention, all loaves at once. The tray would fit in my oven, but unfortunately, not my proofer (or my price point). But I wasn't ready to give up on the concept so I took a tour around my kitchen to see what could serve the same function.

I spied this layer cake cooling rack and thought, upside-down, the feet should hold the skewers nicely. It does!

There are no cross braces to interrupt the flat surface of what is actually the underside of the rack, and the skewers fit perfectly through the feet and over the rim. This was very secure, but I didn't really want to use the basso form this time, and I am out of 1K altos right now. The 750g alto is a little too small for this skewer spacing (although I have since figured out how to support it across the middle -- no matter, moving on).

The location of feet and crossbar on this longer rack made it unsuitable to use the feet as in the previous one, but then I thought of these metal binder clips. What a perfect solution! And this rack fits inside the B&T proofer. You could even use the rack that comes with the proofer for this.

Binder clips and cooling racks are oven safe and what a joy it was to pick this up with gloved hands and securely turn it over as it was coming out of the oven. Two chairs back-to-back complete the hanging frame.

But here's the aha --- you could clip your pre-skewered forms to the rack after they come out of the proofer, so you can use any rack that fits in your oven. It doesn't have to be limited to what fits in the proofer. If your rack is a small grid like my large cooling racks are (i.e., the clips don't fit), you could use metal twist-ties to secure the skewers to the rack and fit as many forms on as you have space for. Or even use a perforated sheet pan. A lot of flexibility here, and cooling racks can be set in or on a sheet pan if you need to shield the bottoms.

Happy Baking!
dw 

Today's bake: Pumpkinseed Rye   Kurbiskernbrot (Germany)

Source: The Rye Baker by Stanley Ginsberg

Notes: Increased dough to make 3 loaves @ 721gr each.

Substitutions: None

Discussion: Another nice rye bread from 'The Rye Baker'. This is a relatively easy bread to make consisting of a soaker, a sponge, and main dough. It has a nice mild-sour taste and Stanley describes it best "A medley of pumpkin seeds, crunchy flaxseed, and chewy coarse rye meal, all encased in a tender wheat rye crumb. The pumpkin seeds dominate its flavor profile, their sweet richness accented by the burnt notes of black rye malt and moderately sour finish".

Make again? - Yes, definitely.

Changes/Recommendations:  More flour in the bannetons, scale the dough for larger loaves.

*** The Images can be made to full size by placing your cursor on the image and right clicking, and then, open image in a new tab.

Ratings:

I’ve seen these Dutch Babies before but never had one let alone made one.  Most of the ones I have seen are sweet, I decided to make this savory one for us tonight for dinner.  It was quite easy and delicious.  It is sort of like a pancake but made more like a Yorkshire pudding in a way.

IMG_3814.jpeg

I do not recall where I found this recipe unfortunately.  But here it is.

SERVES 4 TOTAL TIME: 50 MINUTES

A traditional 12-inch skillet may be used in place of the nonstick skillet; coat it lightly with vegetable oil spray before using.

Ingredients

1¾ cups (8¾ ounces) all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon table salt

1½ cups milk

6 large eggs

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

10 inch skillet

1.5 cups AP flour

0.83 tbsp sugar

0.4 tsp salt

1.25 cups milk

5 large eggs

2.5 tbsp unsalted butter 

1. Whisk flour, sugar, and salt together in large bowl. Whisk milk and eggs together in second bowl. Whisk two-thirds of milk mixture into flour mixture until no lumps remain, then slowly whisk in remaining milk mixture until smooth.

2. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position. Melt butter in 12-inch ovensafe nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add batter to skillet, immediately transfer to oven, and set oven to 375 degrees. Bake until edges are deep golden brown and center is beginning to brown, 30 to 35 minutes.

3. Gently transfer Dutch baby to cutting board. Let cool for at least 5 minutes before topping. (Dutch baby will deflate.)

For a Lush, Custardy Dutch Baby, Start in a Cold Oven

Most Dutch baby recipes call for baking in a preheated oven, but that can lead to a thin, insubstantial center. In a hot oven, heat immediately begins to set the gluten and egg proteins on the surface of the batter, forming a flexible shell. Water inside the shell then turns to steam, prompting the pancake to balloon. Meanwhile, the batter at the circumference, which is in direct contact with the sides of the hot skillet, rapidly rises up and out of the pan, drawing some of the batter from the middle of the skillet with it and resulting in a paper-thin center. Starting in a cold (not preheated) oven means the batter warms gradually, so the center has more time to set (and maintain its stature) before the oven gets hot enough to inflate the rim. Not only is the substantial center luxurious to eat, but it’s also able to support a generous amount of toppings.

SAVORY DUTCH BABY WITH SMOKED
SALMON, SOUR CREAM, AND CUCUMBER

SERVES 4 TOTAL TIME: 25 MINUTES

Prepare the topping while the Dutch baby bakes.

1 small shallot, sliced thin (3 tablespoons)

½ teaspoon table salt, divided

½ cup sour cream

1  tablespoon capers, plus 1 tablespoon brine

1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill, divided

1 English cucumber

1 recipe Savory Dutch Baby

8 ounces smoked salmon

1. Combine ½ cup water, shallot, and ¼ teaspoon salt in small bowl. Stir well and let sit for 5 minutes. Drain shallot and discard liquid; set aside. Combine sour cream, caper brine, 1½ teaspoons dill, and remaining ¼ teaspoon salt in second bowl.

2. Using vegetable peeler, shave cucumber lengthwise into ribbons on 1 side until you reach seeds. Turn cucumber 180 degrees and repeat on other side; discard core.

3. Spread sour cream mixture evenly over Dutch baby. Arrange smoked salmon on top of sour cream. Scatter cucumber ribbons over Dutch baby. Sprinkle with shallot, capers, and remaining 1½ teaspoons dill. Cut into wedges and serve.

IMG_3813.jpeg

IMG_3815.jpeg

IMG_3816.jpeg

My Index of Bakes.

Every now and then I go after open lacy crumb in my breads. Now, I'll be first to admit that I love my bagels, flat-breads, whole-wheat and all rye breads too! So, a lot of the time I'm not interested in open crumb at all. But, the first time I made a sourdough bread that had a dark, almost-burnt crust, and a light interior that was like a "web of crumb" held up by the crust, it was a bit of an "aha" moment. So, that's what other bakers were going on about, it isn't only an Instagram thing!

Lately, I've had a couple of things on my mind when baking the sort of loaves for which open crumb becomes a consideration - both things revolve around getting loaves that are more well proofed.

The first has been about building the levain so that it is vigorous and more capable of expanding the loaf to a large size before becoming too acidic. And, pairing that with keeping the hydration low and using a vigorous machine mix. So, a dough that will be capable of inflating well, paired with a strong levain.

The other thing is something I guess we all think of - it is what Paul recently called "loaves (that) felt light for their size" and what I think of as loaves that have a light hand-eye feel! My batard bannetons normally take about 800-850g of dough, but I've found that I can reduce that to about 750g of dough and just extend final proof longer until the banneton is filled to the same volume as before. For this bake it was 768g dough per loaf.

474 open crumb thoughts formula.png

sliced bread on plate.jpeg

-Jon

Not a misprint, but I thought why not use two bigas? One yeasted for loft, one SD for flavour. Both in the same tub, to save space and washing up. So that's how it went!

 Both bigas made in the kenwood with K beater. I refreshed my SD starter prior to use at 100% to make mxing it into the biga easier.

Overall dough hydration was 69%.

Main dough was made at 12.30pm, bulk was 1hr 35m at 25c and FP was 1hr.

And here's some pictures:

Quite pleased with this one - nice and light, with some flavour. Next time I'd up the Kamut from 10 -> 15% and also put a touch more malt in - the biga process really exhausts the flour.

Lance

I'm beginning to wonder whether I bake better when the weather is cool.  This is the second bake in a row to turn out very well.

The bread is based on a rye levain that matures overnight.  It also has a hot soaker that consists of cracked rye, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, oats, and all of the salt for the formula.  For this bake, I subbed bulgur wheat for the cracked rye since I have more on hand than I can easily use up other ways.  The soaker is allowed to rest overnight. 

The next morning, the levain and soaker are combined with the rest of the ingredients. The final dough includes a smalll yeast kicker to ensure a good rise.  After the dough was kneaded (I used my KA mixer), it was put in the proofer to rise for an hour.  It was then given a letter fold and allowed to rise for about another hour. 

I elected to shape the dough into three medium size loaves, rather than two larger loaves.  Given the inherent stickiness of the rye in the dough, I dusted the shaped loaves with rye flour so that the plastic wrap draped over them wouldn't stick.  That turned out to be a good call.

After proofing, the sheet pan containing the loaves was placed in the preheated oven with steam.  Although well risen, they still had a substantial oven spring that caused two of the loaves to "kiss".  Once baked, the loaves felt light for their size, which was another indication of having been well proofed. 

On the cooling rack, I could hear faint crackling noises as the loaves "sang" while they cooled:

One might look at the crumb and think "That should be more open."  I think the combination of the rye levain and the soaker militate against a lacy crumb.  Still, it is moist and firm, with a very pleasing chew because of the soaker additions.

This is a seriously good bread that serves just as well in a sandwich as it does as an accompaniment for a bowl of homemade soup.

Paul

It might seem somewhat incredulous that there would be yet another bachelor party bake within two weeks of the previous one, but yes - seems many men in our circle are getting married. 

This was a somewhat small party of 5 men, so I produced but 2 durum semolina matera-type loaves and 2 five-grain five seed/nut loaves. These went down very well, with the semolinas being the clear preference.

WhatsApp Image 2024-11-12 at 13.32.20.JPG

Interesting points on the bread bake:

1. The semolina loaves had 30% levain and the multi grain/seed/nut loaves had 40% levain. Before mixing, I measured the pH of the levains. The semolina levain came in at 4.43 and the other at 4.88 (both had the same ratios and were mixed 10 hours before).

2. After mixing, both doughs ended up with the same pH: 5.13!

3. Due to the morning rush, I baked them a little earlier than I usually would. I baked the nut/seed ones, then the semolina. Both were baked at 4.45. My semolina loaves had the craziest oven spring ever!

_ _ _

I also decided to reproduce a macaron bake that I had attempted a few days ago for a gluten-free party. These took me three tries! (pic above)

To make 28 single shells

1. Prepare 70g of egg whites (from about 2 eggs). Briefly warm up over bain marie.

2. Blend 93g of blanched almonds with 93g of icing sugar. Pass through a fine sieve twice.

3. Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt and 55g of caster sugar until stiff peaks. Invert the bowl above your head to be sure.

4. Mix almond-sugar mixture in three parts. Use a folding movement rather than a stirring one. Keep folding until the mixture flows from the spoon barely breaking but still keeps a figure 8 in the mixture that stays for a couple of seconds. If the mixture feels like soup or if the figure 8 disappears within a second or two, it is overdone. For me, this step took about 15 folds.

5. Pipe and let the shells dry on the tray until they are dry to the touch. Bake at 145 degrees for about 12 mins.

6. For the filing: I did a lemon buttercream and chocolate coconut buttercream. 

Notes for reference

1. Egg whites should be slightly warm. Do not skip this step.

2. Blending almonds and icing sugar is very important. Do not skip this step even if you're using almond flour. 

3. Inverting the bowl is a great test for stiff meringues. Very important that beater and bowl are completely clean. Even if you believe they are clean, it's better to wash and dry them again before using. 

4. While piping - if the mixture seems thick and doesn't settle into nice circles (e.g. tips remain visible and don't sink), give the mixture another fold or two and it should be fine.

5. Drying the shells is important. Don't skip this step.

6. Baking on a steel pan produced the best results. Aluminium failed me.

I've had more than my fair share of experimental failures lately! This is the curse of being an experimental baker. My failures of late have included, amongst others and going through my baking notes, a 90% biga with raisin yeast water that took too long to rise, a sourdough made with a cool and stiff preferment, and a sourdough made at warm temperatures with a very very low inoculation. Some bakes have had whacky hydrations too...

So, I needed to bag a win, and going through my baking notes again I realized that I don't actually have a base-line bread recipe to return to anymore. For this bread I decided to play it safe, keep the hydration down, give it a normal duration ferment with an amount of levain in the conventional range. And, at the same time keep an interesting flour base starting with the idea of about 76% bread flour, 16% wholewheat and 8% rye which I picked up from Trevor J Wilson. Since my bread flour here is a weakish 11.5% protein I did supplement with some vital wheat gluten and introduced malt as well because I like what it brings to both flavour and dough handling. And it has been a while too since I've done a true autolyse, lately I've been adding the levain upfront into the water for the final dough, but I'm still somewhat on the fence whether that is better than a true autolyse. For this bake I brought the autolyse back.

These breads were then made with a two hour autolyse with no salt. Then the autolysed dough, the salt, and 'only' 15% levain were mixed all together using the dough hook only for 2 minutes, just to mix the ingredients which is easier than by hand. I then gave it only 30 slap and folds, which I prefer to machine sometimes, so here I've got a combination of both machine and hand mix.

#462 my new standard loaf.png

Then a small amount of water was bassinged in, a couple of coil folds during the earlier part of bulk and a longish bulk until pre-shaping of 5 hours, followed by another 2 hour 15 minute rest of bannetons in proofer before going into the fridge overnight and baking the next day.

Crumb counter.jpeg

Although I didn't do anything wild with making these breads I was fairly experimental with the seed toppings. The one loaf had golden linseeds, whereas the other has white sesame, chia and basil (subja) which brought in a savoury flavour.

Crumb, bread boad.jpeg

It was nice to enjoy bread with a soft open crumb again! And, when next I deviate into the experimental wilderness, I'll remember this bake as a point to return to for making breads that I love.

-Jon

This was hectic. Baked 12 loaves (2 of each type) and 3.5kg of granola for the bachelor's party that the husband was organizing. Prepped the levains all in the morning before I left for work (cycled to the train station in record time), and started mixing dough the moment I was home at 8 pm. Was done baking 10 loaves at 3:30 am, and then had to bake the oat loaves at 8 am as they need a much longer rise.

WhatsApp Image 2024-10-27 at 10.44.59.jpeg

Recipes:

60% rye

40% einkorn-emmer malt

100% durum semolina

50% oat

50% spelt (I replaced the 30% autolysed emmer in the original recipe with 20% red spelt)

The holey white was a request from my brother-in-law AKA the groom for whom the bachelor party was organized. When asked what bread he would most like me to bake, he said "a very holey mostly white bread with a thick crust". 

I initially went with a simple full white SD loaf, 20% levain, but I was really disappointed with the taste. It surely was holey, but after eating really colourful grainy loaves for so long, it's very hard to go back to a full white loaf.

I then decided to do a 90% white and 10% wholewheat. I thought that with a mostly white bread, a good long poolish for most of the white and a little bit of SD complexity with the wholewheat might be interesting. So that's what I did, and it tasted fabulous. I was very pleased with it. For the sake of completeness, this is the very basic recipe:

Holey white 

For a 800g loaf

Make a 24 hour poolish with 300g of white flour, 300g water and 1/10 teaspoon of IDY. 

Make a 10 hour levain with 50g of wholewheat, 4g of starter, and 45g of water.

When mixing the dough, simply add enough white flour to the levain and poolish to make a manageable dough. I ended up mixing 89g of flour, making it 78% hydration. Add 12g of salt and 1/8 teaspoon of IDY.

BF took 4 hours and proofing took 1.5 hours. I should have scored this deeper than my usual wholegrainy type loaves as the oven spring with this was tremendous. Baked it at 220 C for 40 mins. 

And yesterday, for a little treat with my parents-in-law, we decided to have some molten chocolate cake (picture above). My go-to quick dessert for extreme satisfaction. 

Molten dark chocolate cakes

For three individual cakes

Melt 60g of chopped 70% dark chocolate with 30g of unsalted butter over hot water. In the meantime beat 1 egg and 1 egg yolk with 3 tablespoons of sugar until very thick, about 8 mins (whisk leaves very clear trail in batter when lifted).

Mix the chocolate+butter into the egg batter gently, then also gently whisk in 1 tablespoon of flour. Put about 3 big tablespoons of this into each ringform which has been buttered and floured (it should come up to about half the form), each set on a square of baking paper.

Chill in the fridge until you need to eat, heat up oven to 200 C then put these in on a baking tray for about 9-11 mins. Keep an eye on them at the 8 mins mark - you know they are ready when you see the sides rise, and the middle is only slightly set, still very wobbly. I transport each to a plate, pull off the baking paper below while holding the form, and gently encourage the cake to slide down the form as I pull it up (use a small knife to dislodge any small sticky sides).

This recipe uses way less sugar and butter than most others, so increase amounts if you want something sweeter and more molten...

Oct

I adapted this from my porridge bread formula but used a small % of starter and soaked the grains overnight instead of cooking them as a porridge. I used fresh milled and sifted Butler’s Gold WW and Danko Rye with some KAF bread flour.

The Harvest Grain mix from KAF consists of Whole Oat Groats, Rye Flakes, Wheat Flakes, Sunflower Seeds, Sesame Seeds, Flaxseed, Poppy Seeds, and Hulled Millet.

I included all the boiled water in the soaker as part of the overall hydration at 93%.

I was too tired to wait for the bulk to hit 30% so I shaped at 25% and let the shaped dough sit in my proofer at 80F the next day for 1.5 hours.

I was very pleased with how this turned out. The crumb was nice and open and the fermentation was spot on. The flavor was excellent with the added Harvest Grain mix.

Formula

Levain Directions 

Mix all the levain ingredients together for about 1 minute and cover with plastic wrap.

Let it sit at room temperature for around 6-7 hours or until the starter has almost doubled. I used my proofer set at 76 degrees so it took around 5 hours for me. Either use in the main dough immediately or refrigerate for up to 1 day before using.

Scald Directions

Measure the grains mix and pour the boiling water over them to cover. Soak for a couple of hours until they are soft. Drain any remaining water.

 Main Dough Procedure

Note: I use an Ankarsrum Mixer so my order of mixing is slightly different than if using a Kitchenaid or other mixer. Add all your liquid to your mixing bowl except 50-80 grams. Add all your flour to the bowl and mix on low for a minute until it forms a shaggy mass. Cover the mixing bowl and let it rest for 20 – 30 minutes.   Next add the levain, salt, Harvest Grain soaker, maple syrup and remaining water as needed and mix on medium low (about speed 3) for 12- 24 minutes. 

Remove the dough from your bowl and place it in a lightly oiled bowl and do several stretch and folds.  Make sure the dough is as flat as possible in your bowl/container and measure the dough in millimeters and take the temperature of the dough as well. Based on the chart from www.thesourdoughjourney.com, determine what % rise you need and make a note. If you have a proofer decide what temperature you want to set it at and what rise you are aiming for. If the dough is fully developed you don’t need to do any stretch and folds, but if it’s not, do several sets 15-20 minutes apart.

Once the dough reaches the desired bulk rise, pre-shape and let rest for 15-20 minutes. (Note: I only let the dough go to 25% before shaping and let the final proof finish after the overnight rise in the refrigerator in my proofer set to 80F for 1.5 hours). Finish shaping place in your banneton, bowl or on your sheet pan and cover it so it is pretty airtight. You will then place it in your refrigerator so you don’t want the dough to get a crust on it. I usually don’t leave the dough in the refrigerator for more than 12 hours because of all the fresh milled flours but it is possible to go longer.

When you are ready to bake, an hour beforehand pre-heat your oven to 540 F and prepare for steam. I have a heavy-duty baking pan on the bottom rack of my oven with 1 baking stone above the pan and one on the top shelf.  I pour 1 cup of boiling water into the pan right after I place the dough in the oven.  Remove your dough from the refrigerator and score immediately.

After 1 minute lower the temperature to 450 degrees.  Bake for around 35-45 minutes or until the breads are nice and brown and have an internal temperature of around 200-210 F. 

Take the bread(s) out of the oven when done and let them cool on a baker’s rack for as long as you can resist.