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July 10, 2011 - 10:31am

ananda

Celebrating Rye Breads

Celebrating Rye Breads

This weekend has involved multiple home bakes as I feed up my leavens in preparation for the 2 day “UK Fresh Loaf” course which I will be running at the College on 19th and 20th July. Many thanks, in particular to ruralidle for suggesting this in the first place, and for his work to make it happen. It will be my swansong at Newcastle College, as I am leaving at the end of this month in search of more exciting professional adventures in the wake of the savage cuts currently being inflicted across the board by the ruthless and deeply unimaginative Government currently in power over here. The result is that the College has re-structured to continue to attract sources of funding without being brave enough to find ways to continue to fulfil a key aspect of its traditional role in UK education. I am not short of ideas and leads, so am optimistic that a far more exciting future lies on the horizon. The only definite part of the plan is to make sure I complete my MSc in Food Policy between January and August of next year.

So, the show, very much, goes on. Here are the breads I made at home over Friday, Saturday and Sunday [8th – 10th July], having started refreshing the 2 leavens on Thursday evening, 7th July 2011.

1. Caraway Rye with Blackstrap Molasses

This is a bread I first developed and made some time ago, not long after joining the TFL community and beginning this Blog. You can read about it here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/16273/carawy-rye-bread-black-strap-molasses-superwet-ciabatta-too This version is, however, quite different in that the leaven is wheat-based, with Dark Rye being added at the dough stage. The original used a Rye Sourdough with only wheat flour added to the final dough. There is half the amount of caraway in this formula, as this is all the stock I currently had in. More detail on taste is given below. I made 2 large miche type loaves from this dough; the recipe/formula and method detail are shown below:

Material	Formula [% of Flour]	Recipe [grams]
1. Wheat Leaven Refreshment One	18:15, Thursday 07.07.2011
From Stock		40 [25 flour, 15 water]
Marriage’s Strong Organic White Flour		100
Water		60
TOTAL		200
2. Refreshment Two	13:30, Friday 08.07.2011
Wheat Leaven [from above]		200
Marriage’s Strong Organic White Flour		300
Water		180
TOTAL		680 [40 retained as stock]
TOTAL used		640 [400 flour, 240 water]
3. Final Dough	19:00, Friday 08.07.2011
Wheat Leaven [from above]	40 [25 flour, 15 water]	640 [400 flour, 240 water]
Carrs Special CC Flour	50	800
Bacheldre Organic Dark Rye	25	400
Organic Blackstrap Molasses	6.25	100
Salt	1.75	28
Caraway Seeds	0.9	14
Water	50	800
TOTAL	173.9	2782
% pre-fermented flour	25	-
% overall hydration	65	-

Method:

Weigh the dough water, and dissolve molasses and salt into that. Add the flours and caraway seeds and mix until clear. Autolyse for one hour.
Combine the leaven and autolyse and develop the dough. As Shiao-Ping originally noted, the empirical feel of the dough is akin to much higher hydration than that actually used. This is the effect of using molasses and 25% rye flour making the dough very sticky indeed. Persevere with slow and gentle mixing, avoiding adding any flour at all to the dough. I used Bertinet’s slap and fold here, mixing for almost an hour, but with lots of resting phases along the way.
Bulk ferment for 2 hours
Retard for 7 hours, overnight.
Scale, divide and mould the dough pieces. I scaled one at 1550g and the other at 1200g and placed each piece upside down in prepared bannetons. The large loaf stayed out for proof, and the other went back in the chiller for a further 2 hours to give a manageable production schedule, with the second bread following, then another bread after that. Final proof time for loaf one was just short of 4 hours, and for loaf two exactly 5 hours.
I cut the tops of each loaf with a diamond pattern and set them to bake at 220°C using plenty of steam. For the bigger loaf, I baked it for 15 minutes at 220°C, then 20 minutes at 200°C, then a further 15 minutes at 180°C. The smaller loaf baked the same, but for 40 minutes instead of 50 minutes.
Finished loaves cooled on wires, as always. The baked loaves had a finished weight which showed moisture loss of just under 10%. I achieved a core temperature of 96°C for both loaves.

Some photographs of the finished loaf are shown below. Regarding analysis of the finished bread, this is one of Alison’s absolute favourite loaves. There is sourness and bitterness coming from the rye and molasses. There is sweetness too, and plenty of aroma from the caraway. The crumb colour is particularly lovely, and the moistness brings great pleasure to the final eating quality. We took one of these loaves along as a gift to some friends’ house last night, as we had been invited round for dinner. That was the first chance we had to sample the bread, but we had a slice each for breakfast this morning, with just a thin coating of butter.

2. Borodinsky – The Auerman Formula [or thereabouts anyway]

I have now tracked down a supply of Red Malt, and managed to find a way to fit the more complex 3-stage build used for this bread into my home schedule for the last couple of days. It’s something I have long wanted to do, have been slightly taken to task for previously on TFL, and am really happy with the finished result; subject to tasting and crumb analysis which I have yet to carry out.

I made one large loaf, in a Pullman Pan, weighing just over 1660g

Material	Formula [% of flour]	Recipe [grams]
1. Rye Sour Refreshment	18:15, Thursday 07.07.2011
From Stock		70 [26 flour, 44 water]
Bacheldre Organic Dark Rye Flour		60
Water		100
TOTAL		230

2. Full Sour	13:00, Friday 08.07.2011
Rye Sour from above		230
Bacheldre Organic Dark Rye Flour		180
Water		300
TOTAL		710 [38 retained as stock]
TOTAL used	80 [30 flour, 50 water]	672 [252 flour, 400 water]

3. “Scald”	22:30, Friday 08.07.2011
Bacheldre Organic Dark Rye Flour	20	168
Red Malt	5	42
Organic Blackstrap Molasses	6	50
Coriander, freshly ground	1	8
Salt	1	8
Boiling Water	35	294
TOTAL	68	570

4. “Sponge”	23:30, Friday 08.07.2011
Rye Sourdough [from 2]	80 [30 flour, 50 water]	672 [252 flour, 400 water]
Scald [from 3]	68	570
TOTAL	148	1242

5. Final Paste	07:30 Saturday 09.07.2011
Sponge [from 4]	148	1242
Bacheldre Organic Dark Rye Flour	23.5	197
Carrs Special CC Flour	26.5	223
TOTAL	198	1662
% pre-fermented flour	50	30 from sour + 20 from scald to make “sponge”
% overall hydration	85	-

Method:

Refresh the rye sour as directed in the table above.
Make the “scald” as follows: Weigh the red malt and dark rye flour into a bowl, add the salt, and coriander, which should be freshly ground using a mortar and pestle. Weight the molasses into a pan, and pour boiling water onto this to the specified weight. Bring this to a rolling boil on the cooker hob top. Pour onto the dry ingredients and combine well with a stout plastic or wooden spatula. Add any extra boiling water required first by checking the weight of the contents to allow for any evaporation. Cool the scald as rapidly as possible down to a maximum temperature of 45°C. This took an hour.
Combine the scald and the full sour to form the sponge. Leave this to ferment for 5½ hours. I then retarded it a further 2 hours, as it was 05:00 and I needed a bit more sleep!
Add the 2 remaining portions of flour to the sponge to form the final paste
Prove in bulk for 1½ hours, and meanwhile prepare a large Pullman Pan by lining it with silicone paper.
Pan the paste, smooth it off and dust the top with a sprinkling of freshly ground coriander. Put the lid on the Pan and set for final proof for 2 hours.
Use a pan of water in the oven and set to bake at 160°Cfor 2 hours, with a gentle supply of steam, topped up as needed.
De-pan and cool on wires. The finished weight of the cooled bread was 1400g, indicating a weight loss of 15.8%. This means that the moisture retained within the bread remains at just under 70% of the flour, and equates to 35% of the total weight of the finished bread!

Notes:

Red Malt: this is derived from malted barley, ground to a fine powder. I believe it has been lightly roasted to the levels which would be known in the brewing industry as “Crystal Malt”. In terms of amylase, it makes no contribution, as the grain has been roasted at too high a temperature for the enzymes to survive. I suspect the Russian version would use rye as the source, rather than barley, but this is as close as I can get at the moment. It looks like this:

Constructing the Scald: I did this exactly the same as I have done it in the past, except for using the red malt instead of the barley malt syrup which I have previously had to use as an alternative. The formula does not use molasses or salt in the scald. The reason I added the molasses at this stage is because I did not want to use sugar in the formula, as the “official” recipe directs. Adding molasses to the final paste would be a difficult mixing process, as there is no liquid added at this stage to use to dissolve the molasses into.
Additionally, the sponge process had to be left for longer than the 4 hours directed in the formula, on account of me requiring a bit more sleep. So I added the salt in the hope it would retard the ferment. I also hoped that the level of molasses in the formula would be sufficiently high to have a slight retarding effect too. In the event, I woke up 5 hours into the final fermenting phase, and stored the sponge in the fridge to retard it for just over 2 hours before getting up to make the final paste. This worked very well; some pictures of the dark and rich “sponge” are attached here.

Undoubtedly this is the best version of this bread I have made. You can reach your own conclusions about the origins of the term “Borodinsky” from the various stories uncovered in the research posted above. I’ve never been to Russia, and have no idea what the “official” Borodinsky produced in Soviet times, or, the older, traditional loaf of its type tasted or looked like. This version is stunning. The bitter/sweet flavours are intense, the crumb is DARK, and very moist. For all that, it is very easy to eat, and intensely “moreish”!
References: there is more information about the Borodinsky formula given below. Some of these are taken from previous discussion threads of interest on TFL. This one http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/11812/rye-amylase is of interest in that discussion is given over to the part played by the scald in the formula, and the extent to which the water should be heated before it is poured onto the flour. Here, I am left wondering if the key purpose of the scald is to fully gelatinise the starches in order to encourage maximum liquid take up in the final formula? Or, have I still not got this part right, and missed that the scald is actually a “mash” and not a “boil up”? Informative further discussion on mash chemistry and its potential impact here would be much appreciated.
I did then go on to complete the process as outlined originally by Borodin, by combining the sour and scald. However, I wonder if, because my scald was a “boil-up”, and not a “mash”, whether that meant the sponge would not work exactly as intended, and as outlined here in an earlier post on the referenced thread: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/11812/rye-amylase#comment-66360
Two clear derivations are offered for Borodinsky bread, and this topic seems to spark off heated debate about what is the “true” Borodinsky. Is it a black bread created in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Borodino, to celebrate the Russian army success in 1812? Or, is it the heavily prescribed Soviet bread of the GOST standards, as referenced here: http://www.borodinsky.com/recipe/index-r.html on this thread: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/20370/russian-sourdough-no-more My attempt here was to re-produce the latter style, and I acknowledge I have not been entirely successful. Some of this is deliberate…avoiding sugar, and replacing it with molasses. The story on the zavarkha is another matter. Can anyone provide further detail on whether the process is carried out primarily to mash, or, to gelatinise? That would be much appreciated; if we can avoid derogatory comments this time, that would be all the better.
For further information, I highly recommend reading the various discussion posts here: http://www.foodbanter.com/baking To do this, you will have to register. Then use the “Search” tab in the top menu, and type “Borodinsky” into the search box when it comes up. Select the threads you want to see from there.

For information on the very precise rye bread recipes from the Soviet era, see this table here: http://www.indiana.edu/~pollang/Russian_bread_table.pdf

I would like to dedicate this bread and post to my friend and TFL colleague Daisy_A, and pass on all good wishes for a speedy recovery, as I know you are having an operation on one of your eyes round about now. Your intellect shines through in some of the passages referenced above and these typify the enormous cultural contribution you make to the pages of TFL. “Get well soon!”

3. Pain de Campagne with mixed levains

Just a quick one, to give me an excuse to feed up the rye sour and wheat levain one more time. Recipe/formula and method below for one large loaf in a banneton. The refreshment programme for the 2 leavens is not given, however, I used the cultures leftover from the previous 2 doughs, fed them each once more, and used these to make this bread, returning small amounts of each to stock for re-generation.

Material	Formula [% of flour]	Recipe [grams]
Wheat Levain	36.1 [22.5 flour, 13.6 water]	256 [160 flour, 96 water]
Rye Sourdough	36.6 [14.1 flour, 22.5 water]	260 [100 flour, 160 water
White Bread Flour	63.4	450
Salt	1.7	12
Water	31.8	226
TOTAL	169.6	1204
% pre-fermented flour	36.6	-
% overall hydration	67.9	-

Method:

Combine all the items in the table in a bowl to form a dough. Mix by hand on the bench for 15 minutes.
Retard overnight in the fridge.
Mould round and place upside down in a prepared banneton.
Prove for 5 hours
Score the top of the loaf, and bake in a pre-heated oven with steam, for 45 minutes.
Cool on wires.

A somewhat less detailed formula to finish with. Photographs of the crust and crumb are here. The loaf has gentle flavours in comparison to the full-on tastes of the other 2 breads.

Happy Baking!

Andy

March 6, 2011 - 8:23am

Syd

Asian-Style Pain de Mie

This is a super soft, highly enriched, labour intensive, Asian-Style Pain de Mie. It involves the 湯種 (tang zhong or water roux) method and took 3 days from beginning to completion. The original recipe and instructions can be found here. The recipe makes 2kg of dough. It filled one, 1kg pullman pan and two 500g pans. I baked without the lids on because I prefer the rounded tops and I also like a bit of colour on my loaves. They always look slightly anemic when they come out of those pullman pans.

Day 1

Water Roux

milk 70g

butter 30g

sugar 3g

salt 1/8 tsp

bread flour 70g

Heat milk, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to the boil. Remove from heat. Dump in flour and stir to a smooth paste. (A bit like making choux pastry). Cover tightly, allow to cool to room temp and refrigerate for 16 hours.

16 hours later

Tear into small pieces and add:

bread flour 700g

instant yeast 2g

milk 430g

sugar 20g

Knead until it comes together, cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 36 hours but not more than 72 hours. (I retarded for 48 hours).

Baking Day

Tear it into pieces again and add:

bread flour 300g

Salt 12g

sugar 120g

nstant yeast 5g

milk 100g

whole egg 140g

It will turn into a sloppy mess and if you have a stand mixer it will be better. I don't, so I just have to make do with slap and fold (a la Bertinet). It actually comes together pretty quickly. When it has come together add:

butter 100g

Now knead it until your arms cramp up or until you get a windowpane as clear as a gossamer wing (whichever comes first). Again, a stand mixer would be of great benefit here. Bench rest 15 - 20 mins. Shape and place into pans.

Allow to rise until about 8/10ths full then cover (if you want) and bake. I baked at 180 C (convection) for 40 mins. The original author gives temps for an oven that can control both top and bottom thermostats. My oven isn't that fancy so I just went somewhere in the middle and it worked. Next time I will bake for 35 mins. I think my crust was a little on the thick side this time.

Heavenly with marmalade and a cup of Earl Grey. It tastes good on its own, too.

Syd

December 7, 2008 - 1:48pm

dmsnyder

March 3 should be a TFL holiday!

Norm's onion rolls and kaiser rolls

Norm's Onion Rolls and Kaiser Rolls

March 3 should be a TFL holiday. That's the day in 2008 that Stan (elagins) asked Norm (nbicomputers) if he had a recipe for New York style onion rolls. Norm did, and he posted the recipe the same day

I just know there are some here who have yet to bake these. No one's perfect. It's not the end of the world. On the other hand, it would be a terrible thing for the end of the world to happen, and you haven't gotten around to baking these rolls. You shouldn't be depriving yourself. You never know ...

It should be noted that the same dough that is used for onion rolls is also used for kaiser rolls (aka "hard rolls," "Vienna rolls," "bulkies"). The only differences are in the make up (how the rolls are formed), the proofing and the topping. Well, there is also a slight difference in the recommendation for steaming the oven.

I am posting Norm's recipe together with tips he contributed in response to various questions and problems others posted.

So, without further ado ...

The Dough

(Makes nine 3-oz rolls)

High Gluten Flour 16 oz
Water 8 oz
Yeast 0.3 oz Fresh or 0.1 oz Instant
Salt 0.25 oz
Sugar 0.75 oz
Malt 0.25 oz (diastatic malt powder or malt syrup. If you don't have either, just add an additional 0.25 oz of sugar.)
Eggs 0.75 oz (a little less than 2 Tablespoons)
Oil 0.75 oz (a little less than 2 Tablespoons

Combine flour, salt, sugar (And malt, if using malt powder. And crumbled fresh yeast, if using fresh yeast.)
Pour water in a bowl. (Add instant yeast, if using it, and mix. Add malt syrup, if using, and mix it.)
Mix egg and oil together.
In a large mixing bowl, preferably the bowl of a stand mixer, pour in the flour mixture. Add the egg and oil mixture and combine. Last, add the water mixture and combine.
Using the dough hook, knead on Speed 2 (for a KitchenAid mixer) or equivalent for 10-15 minutes, until the dough is very smooth and silky. (This is a very stiff dough, so your mixer may "walk." Keep an eye on it!) Depending on your flour, you may have to add a bit more water, but the dough should be rather dry. Not sticky or even tacky. It should clean the bowl sides and not adhere to the bowl bottom.
Place the dough in a clean bowl and cover tightly. Let it ferment until doubled in volume. (About 90 minutes, depending on the room temperature.)
Turn the dough onto a dry, un-floured work surface. Divide it into 2 to 4 oz pieces, depending on the size rolls you want to end up with. (For reference, a 3 oz piece will result in a 4 inch onion roll or a 3 inch kaiser roll.)
Pre-shape each piece into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and/or a towel and let them rest for 10 minutes. (This is to relax the gluten, not to rise.)
If making onion rolls, spread the topping on your work surface, a cookie sheet, a pie tin or whatever.
Flatten each piece using a rolling pin and/or the palm of you hand. They should be 1/4-1/2 inch thick.
Press each flattened piece firmly into the topping mixture, then place it topping side up on a baking pan lined with parchment paper which has been sprinkled with coarse cornmeal (polenta).
Cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap and allow the rolls to fully proof. This may take 60-90 minutes. (Failure to allow the rolls to fully proof will result in more oven spring than is desirable. These rolls should not end up spherical, but rather flat, like a discus.)
Pre-heat your oven to 450F and prepare to steam it using your method of choice.
When the rolls are fully proofed, press a finger deeply into the center of each roll.
Bake them for 5 minutes with steam. Then remove the steam source and continue baking until the rolls are well-browned - 10 to 15 minutes longer. (The tops may remain white if the onions were too wet or you had too much steam in your oven.) If desired, you can bake a bit longer to crisp up the tops.
Remove the rolls from the oven and cool on a rack.

The Topping for Onion Rolls

(Makes enough for a double recipe)

Dehydrated onion flakes ¼ cup
Poppy seeds 1 T
Salt ¼ tsp
Oil 1 T

Put the onion flakes in a bowl and pour boiling water over them.
When the onion flakes are fully re-hydrated, pour off the excess water but save it for use in the dough or in your rye sour or other good use.
Mix in the other ingredients and put aside.

If anyone has additional tips, please submit them. Collectively, we have quite a bit of experience with this recipe. I'm hoping to collect it all in one place.

Thanks.

David

January 22, 2008 - 7:18pm

BrotBoy

Converting a recipe that uses Instant yeast to a sourdough starter recipe

Can anyone tell me... Is there a simple approach to convert a recipe that uses commerical yeast to a sourdough starter , I have been very happy with the sourdough starter that i am using and now want to convert more recipes to this style of bread making,

Looking forward to some ideas

Brotboy

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July 7, 2007 - 9:56am

bwraith

Sourdough Bagels Revisited

Many thanks to Susanfnp for posting a great sourdough bagel recipe based on Nancy Silverton's bagel recipe. She also provided a number of key tips as I made these. I posted photos of the first time I did these, and now I have some photos of my second attempt, as well as a spreadsheet with more details such as bakers percentages and preferment percentages.

Sourdough Bagel Recipe (revisited version)

Ingredients:

335 grams (12 oz) 90% hydration white flour starter
20 grams (0.6 oz) sugar
12 grams (0.4 oz) malt syrup
14 grams (0.6 oz) salt (I made salt bagels, so the salt in the dough is reduced to avoid too much salty flavor. Use 17 grams salt normally)
2.8 grams (0.1 oz) instant yeast
359 grams (12.5 oz) water
186 grams (6.5 oz) first clear flour (I used KA First Clear Flour. Substitute a high ash or whole grain flour - maybe rye, whole wheat, Heartland Mills Golden Buffalo, or just use white flour)
587 grams (20.5 oz) high gluten flour (I used KA Sir Lancelot High Gluten Flour. Substitute bread flour or other high protein white flour.) This time I corrected an error in the previous version and made the hydration lower, probably around 56%, which unexpectedly made the bagel dough stiff enough that it was a bit more difficult to shape the bagels. However, I used Susanfnp's suggestion to spray the surface of each 3 oz piece with a fine mist before shaping. This makes a world of difference.

Mix Dough - Day Before Baking

I had to mix and knead these by hand, since I have no mixer in this house. While reading the Nancy Silverton recipe, the idea seems to be to get a very stiff dough. I mixed all the dry ingredients in one bowl. I mixed the water, levain, and malt syrup in another bowl and then poured the wet mixture into the dry ingredients. Using a dough scraper I worked around the bowl a few times to get the ingredients initially mixed. I then vigorously kneaded the dough, using a traditional squeeze and fold kneading technique. This was not so easy with the stiff dough, but after about 5 minutes, the dough started to become elastic and fairly smooth, even if very stiff. After a few more minutes, the dough seemed fairly similar to what I had with the mixer in my first attempt at this recipe, documented in a previous blog entry. Since the dough is so dry, there is no need for dusting the counter with flour. In fact, you should avoid any extra flour, as the dusting can interfere with the smooth sheen of a proper bagel.

Shaping

Divide the dough into about 18 3 ounce pieces. Since the dough is so dry, it may develop a dry skin fairly quickly, so proceed smartly to the shaping stage. Don't dilly dally at this point, as the dough pieces will become too puffy quickly if they are allowed to sit at room temperature for very long. However, the pieces need to rest a short time, maybe 5 to 10 minutes, so that the gluten will be relaxed enough to shape the bagels.

I was more experienced and faster at shaping this time. The first batch of nine was placed on a jelly roll sheet, and immediately refrigerated. I discovered the next day that the first batch needed to rest on the counter for about 1/2 hour to ferment enough to come to the surface while boiling. The second batch, which had risen a while longer, was ready for boiling immediately out of the refrigerator the next morning.

If you have a fine mist spray (I have an atomizer meant for olive oil that I use for water), you can make shaping easier and avoid the dry skin, particularly on the pieces you shape last, by spraying a tiny amount of water on the pieces before you shape them.

To form the bagels, roll out an 8 inch rope shape with your palms. If the dough is too stiff or you make a mistake and want to start over, let that piece rest a few more minutes, and move to the next piece. Take the 8 inch rope and hold it between your palm and your thumb. Wrap the rope around your hand and bring the other end together with the end you are holding between your palm and thumb. You now have a "rope bracelet" wrapped around your hand. Rub the seams together on the counter to seal them, then take off the bracelet, which should look a lot like a bagel, hopefully. Stretch it out so you have a large 2.5 inch hole. It looks big, but it will shrink or even disappear as the dough rises during boiling and baking. The hole needs to be big looking compared to a normal bagel.

Place the bagels on parchment dusted with semolina flour on a sheet.

This time I used coarse corn meal, as I had no semolina available. This worked fine and seemed to make no difference to my results.

Cover with saran or foil or place the whole sheet in an extra large food storage bag (XL Ziploc is what I'm thinking here). The idea is to lock in moisture to avoid any dry skin forming yet allow room for some slight expansion as they puff up. Place the sheets in the refrigerator to retard overnight.

Boiling

Bring 5 quarts of water and 1 tablespoon of baking soda in a good sized stock pot to a boil. Place a bagel in the pot and make sure it floats to the top. If so, you can do 4-6 bagels at one time. They should only be in the water for about 20 seconds. Push them under periodically with a wooden spoon, so the tops are submerged for a few seconds. In my case, I never managed to get the bagels out before about 30 seconds were up, but they came out fine. If the test bagel won't float, lift it out with a slotted spoon, and gently place on a rack to dry and allow the bagels you have removed from the refrigerator (I did 6 of them at a time) to sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes and try again.

In fact, the batch I had shaped first the night before did sink to the bottom when I tested one. So, I left the first batch out for about 1/2 hour before it was ready. I then put them back in the refrigerator, since the baking and boiling process for the other batch was extending beyond 1/2 hour. I could tell the first batch was beginning to be ready, since I could detect a very slight puffiness in them after 1/2 hour.

The first batch floated immediately out of the refrigerator, probably because my second batch were formed and shaped after a rest of about 20 minutes while I was working on the first nine the previous night. Except for letting the first batch rise on the counter for 1/2 hour, I kept the bagels waiting to be boiled in the refrigerator to avoid any excessive rising. If you let them rise very much, they will puff excessively and become more like a bun than a bagel.

Dip in Seeds

Make plates of seed beds. I made three seed beds. One was 2 parts caraway seed, 1 part anise seed, and a pinch of salt. Another was 2 parts dill seed, 1 part fennel seed, and a pinch of salt. The last was poppy seed and a pinch of salt. I also made salt bagels, but those were done by just sprinkling a little kosher salt on some of them with my fingers.

Right after the bagels are removed from the boiling water with a slotted spoon, place them on a rack to cool for a few seconds. After they have cooled of slightly and dried enough not to ruin the seed bed with too much wetness, pick one up and place it round side down (the tops down), and gently press them into the seed bed. Pick them up and place them right side up on a sheet lined with parchment paper and dusted lightly with semolina flour or coarse corn meal.

This time I made only salt bagels. It wasn't convenient to get seeds, and my kids and I both love the salt bagels anyway. I just sprinkled a very, very light layer of kosher salt on them with my fingers while they were sitting on a rack just after they were boiled. The salt sticks to the wet surface, so you don't need to do anything but just sprinkle the salt on them. Careful, you can definitely put too much salt on them, even if you use a somewhat smaller amount of salt in the dough, as I did in this case.

Baking

Preheat the oven to about 400F. No preheat may work, but I'm not sure. It seems easy, from my limited experience, for them to rise too much. The result will be an open bread-like crumb, instead of the very chewy, more dense crumb expected in a bagel. So, I didn't risk a no-preheat strategy in this case.

If you have a stone, you can transfer the parchment paper on a peel to the stone and bake directly on the stone. I baked them for about 20 minutes at 400F. You can also bake them on the sheet.

Cool

Allow the bagels to cool.

Results

The bagels were chewy and delicious, as they were last time. However, I think the lower hydration was a definite improvement. I succeeded in getting a stiffer, drier dough this time. They had less tendency to rise excessively, even though I let them sit on the counter a little longer than last time. The resulting crumb was a little more dense and seemed just like the real thing this time. Last time, the slightly higher hydration gave me a slightly more open crumb, which seemed just a hair too soft and open like ordinary bread. This time, the crumb was dense and chewy and just right for a bagel.

July 1, 2005 - 11:47am

SourdoLady

My Favorite Basic Sourdough Loaf

I bake a lot of sourdough bread. Over the past several months I have been trying a lot of new techniques and trying to perfect the quality of my loaves. The recipe below is how I am currently making my white bread. Next year I may have a whole different approach, as I am constantly learning and trying new things.

Deluxe Sourdough Bread

1 1/4 cups proofed starter
1 cup water
3 T. dry powdered milk
1 T. lemon juice
1/4 cup instant potato flakes
3 3/4 cups bread flour
1/4 cup white whole wheat flour
2 T. sugar
3 T. butter or margarine
2 tsp. salt

Combine the first 5 ingredients. Mix in the flour just until the mixture is a shaggy mass. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes. Add sugar, butter, and salt and mix until all is incorporated. Knead dough until it is smooth and satiny.

Cover and let dough rest for 45 minutes. Divide dough into 2 equal portions. Pat each dough portion out into a large, flat circle. Gently stretch and fold the left side over the middle, then the right side over the middle (like folding a letter). Pat down with the palms of hands and repeat the folding with the remaining two unfolded ends. Shape loaves, always keeping the folded side as the bottom. I do free-form oval loaves and place them on parchment paper.

Spray the loaves with Pam and cover with plastic. Place in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, take loaves out and let them finish rising at room temperature. They should be very light. Do not rush it or your bread will be dense.

While bread is rising, preheat oven and stone to 400� F. I also place a shallow pan of hot water on the bottom rack for steam.

When bread is fully risen, slash top and slide onto hot stone. If you don't have a stone, just bake on a baking sheet. After 10 minutes, turn the oven heat down to 375� F. When loaves start to show color, water pan can be removed. Bake until loaves are a nice golden brown. Time will vary according to the shape and size of loaf.

Cool on a wire rack. You can brush crust with butter while still hot if you like a soft crust.

The small addtion of white whole wheat flour that I use in this bread gives it an interesting depth of flavor that I like. It does not change the color of the bread. I don't know if white whole wheat flour is easily available just anywhere. I am fortunate to live in an area where wheat is grown and milled so I have easy access to various flours.

Mar 22 2005 - 11:40am

Hot Cross Buns! Hot Cross Buns!
One a penny,
Two a penny,
Hot Cross Buns!
If you have no daughters,
Pray give them to your sons!
One a penny,
Two a penny,
Hot Cross Buns!

My recipe below.

Hot Cross Buns are a popular Lenten tradition which are believed to have originated in England 150 years ago, though perhaps they are originally of pagan origin. Most commonly they are eaten on Good Friday. They are not made after Easter.

This year I baked my buns with raisins because that is what I had in the house. In past years I've used currants, which are excellent.

If your raisins or currants are dried out, soak them in warm water for 10 minutes before mixing them into the dough.

Hot Cross Buns

Makes 1 dozen buns

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/8 cup sugar
1 cup warm (90-100 degrees) milk
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 teaspoons instant (bread machine) yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup raisins, currants, or dried fruit
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

Egg wash:
1 egg

Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice

In a large mixing bowl, mix together the flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and spices. Add the warm milk and butter and mix until all ingredients are combined. Add a little flour or milk until you achieve the proper consistency, which is moist enough that all of the ingredients stick together but dry enough that you can knead the dough without it sticking to your hands. I had to add a couple of tablespoons of flour to get to this consistency, but depending on the humidity in your area and how tightly packed your cups of flour are, your may need to add more or less.

Pour the dough onto a floured surface and knead for 5 to 10 minutes. Flatten the dough and pour the raisins or currants on top and press them into the dough. Work the dough until the raisins are well mixed in. Return the dough to a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until the dough has doubled in size.

When it has risen, pour the dough out onto a cutting board and divide into 12 pieces. Roll the pieces into balls and place on a greased baking surface (I used a 9 x 13 Pyrex pan). Cover the pan and allow to rise until they double in size again, typically 45 minutes to 1 hour.

While the buns are rising, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. When the buns are ready to bake, scramble the egg in a bowl and brush some over the top of the buns. Then put the buns in the oven and bake at 425 for 15 minutes. Remove and allow to cool for 5 or 10 minutes.

While the buns are cooling, make the glaze by combining the lemon juice with the powdered sugar (you can also use orange juice, milk, or water if you don't have lemon juice around). Use a pastry bag, a spoon, or a knife to paint the crosses on top of the buns. Eat while still hot.

Hot Cross Buns

Seasonal

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March 14, 2021 - 4:49am

Danni3ll3

Dark Chocolate with a Splash of Maple Syrup Porridge Sourdough

I don’t remember how I stumbled on this combo but I must give Kristen Dennis, from Full Proof Baking, the credit for inspiring this version.

Recipe

Makes 3 loaves

Porridge

100 g large rolled oats

200 g water

35 g Maple Syrup

30 g butter

Add-ins

200 g 50% dark chocolate chips

Dough

800 g strong bakers unbleached flour

200 g freshly milled wholegrain Durum flour

50 g freshly ground flax seeds

700 g water

23 g pink Himalayan salt

30 g yogurt

250 g levain (procedure in recipe)

Extra wholegrain and unbleached flour of your choice for feeding the levain

The day before:

1. Take 2 g of refrigerated starter and feed it 4 g of filtered water and 4 g of wholegrain flour. Place in a warm spot for about 8 hours.

The night before:

1. Mill the grains if you are using durum berries. Otherwise use the freshest wholegrain durum flour that you can find (freshly milled flour does make an incredible difference in flavor). Place the required amount of flour in a tub. Grind the flax seeds and add to the tub. Add the unbleached flour to the tub as well. Cover and set aside.

Feed the levain 20 g of water and 20 g of wholegrain flour. Let that rise at cool room temperature for the night.

Dough Making day:

1. Early in the morning, feed the levain 100 g of filtered water and 50 g of strong baker’s flour and 50 g wholegrain flour. Let rise until doubled (about 5 hours).

2. About two hours before the levain is ready, put 700 g filtered water in a stand mixer’s bowl and add the flours from the tub. Mix on the lowest speed until all the flour has been hydrated. This takes a couple of minutes. Autolyse for at least a couple of hours at room temperature.

3. Make the porridge: Add the water, the butter and the maple syrup to the rolled oats and cook on low until the liquids are absorbed and porridge is creamy. Let cool.

4. Once the autolyse is done and the levain has doubled, add the salt, the yogurt, and the levain to the bowl. Mix on the lowest speed for a few seconds to integrate everything, then mix on the next speed for 8 minutes. At the end of the 8 minutes, add the porridge as well as the chocolate chips, and mix until incorporated.

5. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and place in a lightly oiled covered tub. Let rest 30 minutes in a warm spot (oven with light on).

6. Do 2 sets of coil folds at 30 minute intervals and then one more set after 45 minutes. I usually do a total of 4 sets but this dough was moving really fast. When I went to do the last set of folds, it had risen 40-50% already so I decided to go ahead with shaping. Total bulk was less than 3 hours.

7. Tip the dough out on a bare counter, sprinkle the top with flour and divide into portions of ~870 g. Round out the portions into rounds with a dough scraper and let rest 30 minutes on the counter.

8. Do a final shape by flipping the rounds over on a lightly floured counter. Gently stretch the dough out into a circle. Pull and fold the third of the dough closest to you over the middle. Pull the right side and fold over the middle and do the same to the left. Fold the top end to the center patting out any cavities. Finally stretch the two top corners and cross over each other in the middle. Roll the bottom of the dough away from you until the seam is underneath the dough. Cup your hands around the dough and pull towards you, doing this on all sides of the dough to round it off. Finally spin the dough to make a nice tight boule.

9. Sprinkle a mix of rice flour and all purpose flour in the bannetons. Place the dough seam side down in the bannetons. Let rest for a few minutes on the counter and then put to bed in a cold (38F) fridge overnight. I try to keep final proof under 12 hours.

Baking Day

1. The next morning, about 11 hours later, heat the oven to 475F with the Dutch ovens inside for 45 minutes to an hour. Turn out the dough seam side up onto a cornmeal sprinkled counter. Place rounds of parchment paper in the bottom of the pots, and carefully but quickly place the dough seam side up inside.

2. Cover the pots and bake the loaves at 450 F for 25 minutes, remove the lids, and bake for another 20 minutes at 425 F. Internal temperature should be 205 F or more.

Holy oven spring! These really decided to explode.

August 4, 2017 - 11:57pm

Antilife

Neapolitan Pizza and Teglia Romana

Hi Guys,

my name is Stefano and i'm a pizzamaker from Italy. Every week I make some style of Pizza.... here there are some images of my works.

With Neapolitan i prefer use Sourdough, but for pizzeria the use of Fresh yeast is more easy

Other my prefered style is Teglia alla Romana, using only Fresh Yeast and studing a lot on toppings

My personal web page is : www.0059.it and every week i will add some pizza with receipt.

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May 15, 2017 - 6:28pm

Doc.Dough

Heat transfer mechanisms in typical home-oven baking

This post has no pictures and is not going to interest a lot of readers since I did it to help my own understanding of what is going on in the oven. Writing it down forced me to explain more when I didn't understand why and fix apparent inconsistencies. If it is too much technobabble, just jump out and find something interesting. For those who wade through it, I welcome comments, corrections, clarifications, and questions. Just consider it a work in progress. When you understand this, you should be able to write the versions that apply to wood-burning ovens and deck ovens with external steam generators.

CONVERTING DOUGH TO BREAD BY BAKING IN A HOME OVEN

The modes of heat transfer from oven to bread include:

Conduction (by direct contact with a hot surface)
Convection (both natural and forced mechanisms from hot oven air)
Radiation (the heat flow between the oven walls and the bread in the oven)
Phase change (the evaporation of water from, and condensation of steam onto the dough surface)

For pan bread, the sides and bottom of the loaf are cooked by conduction of heat through the pan while the top is cooked by a combination of radiation, convection, and possibly condensing steam. The relative contribution from each mode is dependent on the oven, the temperatures involved, and whether there is any mechanical stirring of the air to enhance the convective heat transfer.

For freeform loaves baked on a metal pan, the bottom is cooked by conduction of heat through the pan while the remainder of the loaf is baked by other mechanisms. When the baking surface is tile or stone or firebrick (something other than a thin sheet of typically aluminum or steel), heat stored in the baking surface is transferred by conduction to the loaf which both heats the loaf and cools the baking surface. The rate of heat delivery to the loaf is determined by the mass of the cooking surface, the initial temperature of the material, the thermal conductivity of the cooking surface, and the specific heat (cp) of the cooking surface material as well as the density, thermal conductivity and cp of the dough. The rate at which the energy stored in the baking surface is replaced from the oven primary energy source depends on the geometry, surface temperatures and convective flows, and also on what else is simultaneously in the oven (e.g., other loaves of bread or other pans above or below).

There is always some amount of free convection in any oven, driven by the temperature distribution within the oven which heats or cools air causing it to expand and rise, or contract and fall as its density changes. This results in the top of an oven generally being hotter than the lower shelf positions. Convection ovens have mechanical fans that circulate air within the oven to both increase the heat transfer rate to the food and to achieve a more uniform temperature distribution within the oven (top to bottom, side to side, and front to back). Even the small fans in widely available home ovens deliver very high temperature uniformity and shorten baking times because they increase the heat transfer rate from the oven heat source to the food. The general guidance for using a convection oven is to reduce the temperature by 25°F and bake for the amount of time that is called for if you were using a conventional oven.

For most non-convection, non-steam injected ovens, radiation from the oven walls is the principle heat transfer mechanism. The Stefan-Boltzmann law governs radiation energy transfer between the oven surfaces and the bread. It takes the form of:

Qdot12= s A1 F12(T1^4 – T2^4)

where s is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant, A1 is an increment of oven wall area, F12 is a shape factor that accounts for geometry and surface emissivity, T1 is oven wall temperature and T2 is the bread temperature (both in °K). Note that the heat transfer rate Qdot is proportional to the difference between the fourth powers of the absolute temperatures. This is not (T1 - T2)^4, but T1^4 - T2^4 which is a really big number at typical bread baking conditions [T1 might be 250°C (523°K) and T2 might be 15°C (288°K) at oven entry]. At these temperatures, a 30°C reduction in oven wall temperature produces about a 20% reduction in radiant heat transfer rate and about a 13% reduction in convective heat transfer rate.

In steam-injected ovens, condensation of water on the surface of the dough delivers a lot of heat. The enthalpy of vaporization for water (2250 J/g), is more than five times the energy required to heat the same quantity of water from 0°C to 100°C (418 J/g) and is delivered directly to the surface of the dough when steam condenses. Steam does two things for you; it brings water directly to the dough which helps to fully gelatinize the starch forming a shiny, waterproof, gas tight membrane that prevents CO2 from escaping through the surface (thus forcing dissolved CO2 in the dough just under the skin to form blisters when it comes out of solution as the dough temperature rises to exceed the temperature at which the CO2 can remain dissolved). The cooked surface is also physically strong and cannot stretch to accommodate expansion of the trapped CO2 (oven spring) and will thus facilitate fracture along the lines defined by your lame when you slashed the dough (or randomly at weak spots if you forgot, or slashed ineffectively).

During the first few minutes in the oven, the dough is cool enough to condense steam on the surface, and the more steam there is in the oven the more effectively and rapidly it cooks what will become the crust. If there is inadequate steam, the dough will still cook, but the starch will not be fully gelatinized so that the crust is not as shiny or gas tight as you might desire and the coloration will be different and generally dull.

When the surface temperature of the dough gets high enough that it exceeds the local water vapor saturation temperature (oven dew point) steam no longer condenses on the crust. At this point, while the specific heat (cp) of unsaturated steam is somewhat higher than dry air (by about 2x), the dominant heat transfer mechanism in a non-convection oven switches over from phase change (condensing steam) to radiation (from the oven surfaces). In convection ovens, the size of the fan and the capacity of the heating elements will determine whether radiation or convection will be dominant. In most home ovens, the convection fan is adequate to maintain uniform temperature throughout and does increase heat transfer by about 15% above what it would be with radiation plus free convection, but does not provide sufficient air velocity to raise convective heat transfer to a point where convection dominates radiation as the mechanism for transferring heat to the bread. In commercial convection or combination ovens, the situation is reversed and since the heating elements and the convection fan are big and powerful, they transfer heat via convection considerably faster than radiation alone.

Gas ovens (with burners that share the bread baking volume) suffer from the absolute need to exhaust combustion gasses when the fire is on and in the process sweep out both the steam that is generated by combustion and any steam that is added to the oven (by both your steam generator and by evaporation from the bread dough itself). The conventional solution is to preheat the oven to very high temperature, include some additional heat storage capacity in the oven (tile, brick, stone, scrap iron), then turn off the gas and plug the vents after loading the bread until there is no additional value from further steam. At this point you can unplug the vents, re-ignite the flame, and remove your steam generator from the oven.

Crust thickness is determined by the depth to which the baking bread has been depleted of moisture, and is generally a function of both oven temperature and oven cycle time. If the oven is too hot, the bread will over-brown before it develops a thick crust. If the oven is too cool, the crust will be light in color even though it may be relatively thick.

When generating steam by boiling water inside the oven, some energy that would otherwise go toward raising the oven temperature is used to boil water. This can be a major factor in small ovens and is important to understand.

Bread loses about 15% of its initial weight to evaporation of water during the bake cycle, thus a 750g loaf will lose ~110g of water. It takes 2.13 BTU/gm to evaporate the water so you expend about 235 BTU in the process. That 235 BTU is about 68 watt-hours of energy, which you can allocate over the bake cycle and think of as reducing the effective power of the oven. For a 30 min bake cycle that is like reducing the 2500W heating element by 136w to 2364W except that the effective reduction is bigger at the beginning of the cycle than at the end because there is more water to easily evaporate at oven entry.

If you consume a pint (pound) of water in a steam generator, you will use 1000 BTU or 0.3 KWH to convert it to steam (plus 1 BTU for every °F that the initial average water temperature is below 212°F). A 2500W oven will take about 7 minutes to recover the heat lost to the steam generator, and for a 4.5 cu ft oven, it takes about 75g of water to produce enough steam to fill the oven. You will have to make an assumption about how tight your oven is but it would not be a bad assumption to guess that you lose one oven volume of steam per minute of active steaming. My observation is that after the first five minutes in the oven, the surface of the dough stops looking wet, and for rolls and small diameter loaves, they have completed almost all of their oven spring (note that there is an alternate view that says you should steam until the dough begins to brown – just figure out what works for you).

Seventy five grams of water takes 3.84 KW-minutes to boil, but you need 75g of steam per minute (about a pint for five minutes of steam if you leak at one oven volume per minute), so with a 2.5KW oven, if you don’t want to substantially cool off your oven in the process of making steam, you need some energy storage in the oven. Lava rock has a cp of around 0.2 so it takes a bit more than a pound of lava rock at 400°F to generate 5 minutes of steam, but that is not unreasonable since you will heat the rock up during your normal pre-heat cycle (I am assuming it takes 1 hr @ 500°F to get the lava rock thermally charged to 400°F in a non-convection oven). And you will want to use boiling water to charge the steam generator so that you don’t use another 20% of additional energy to heat the water up to boiling.

The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

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Celebrating Rye Breads

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March 3 should be a TFL holiday!

Converting a recipe that uses Instant yeast to a sourdough starter recipe

Sourdough Bagels Revisited

My Favorite Basic Sourdough Loaf

Hot Cross Buns

Dark Chocolate with a Splash of Maple Syrup Porridge Sourdough

Neapolitan Pizza and Teglia Romana

Heat transfer mechanisms in typical home-oven baking

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Most bookmarked

Celebrating Rye Breads

Asian-Style Pain de Mie

March 3 should be a TFL holiday!

Converting a recipe that uses Instant yeast to a sourdough starter recipe

Sourdough Bagels Revisited

My Favorite Basic Sourdough Loaf

Hot Cross Buns

Dark Chocolate with a Splash of Maple Syrup Porridge Sourdough

Neapolitan Pizza and Teglia Romana

Heat transfer mechanisms in typical home-oven baking

Pages