The Fresh Loaf

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October 22, 2022 - 9:30am
rgreenberg2000's picture
rgreenberg2000

Trevor Wilson's Holiday Cranberry Sourdough

I haven't posted anything in ages since I tend to make the same loaves on a regular basis that I have shared before.  I am still baking weekly, and I visit here often to see what creations everyone is baking up!  This week, I decided to shake things up a bit and find some loaves that would be fitting for holiday gatherings and gifts.  As it happens, Trevor Wilson got his content back on line about the same time as I was perusing TFL for ideas, and his Holiday Cranberry Sourdough struck a chord with me.  So, off I went..... :)

I stayed true to Trevor's formula (after all, first time I'm making it, so......) The only changes I made were to scale the recipe for my usual loaf size, and to reduce the hydration to 72% (my comfort zone.) I also paid close attention to the dough, and my fermentation times were a bit different than his, but this is to be expected given starter differences, temp differences, etc.  My fridge proof was a bit shorter @ 10 hours, but, hey, who is in charge here, me or the bread?!?! ;) Ok, now that I typed all that, I guess I stayed true to the SPIRIT of Trevor's formula. :)

Anyway, everything went VERY smoothly for this bake.  I mixed the dough in my Ankarsrum, and it came together beautifully.  I mixed/developed the dough for about 12 minutes before slowly adding the cranberries.  The Ank got them mixed in well in about 2-3 minutes.  I baked off the first loaf this morning, and was a bit concerned that I had shortchanged the fermentation when there was just a small amount of oven spring when I removed my inverted roaster after the steaming period.  After another 25 minutes uncovered, my concerns turned out to be unjustified.  I did get a little splitting on one side of the loaf, so, I'd guess that I under proofed things a bit.

Happy with how this turned out for a first attempt, and will only make minor tweaks when I do it again.  Thanks for a great formula, and well written instructions, Trevor!

October 22, 2022 - 6:42am
PANEMetCIRCENSES's picture
PANEMetCIRCENSES

Bran Enriched 100% WW Bread

The recipe and method used to make the bread in this post is identical to this one with one extra addition. 14g (4% baker’s percentage) of wheat bran flakes are soaked in water, kept in the fridge overnight and strained before added to the preferment along with the coarse part of the ww flour and two starters, sourdough & sourwort.

Photos from this attempt:

 

Verdict

Mmmm om nom nom, this is serious whole wheat stuff. Suprisingly airy and soft crumb despite the large amount of bran in there. You can certainly feel and taste this fiber bomb exploding in the mouth. A thick slice slathered with butter will keep you full for many hours during the day. Ambrosial.

 Savvas

  
October 20, 2022 - 9:45pm
Yippee's picture
Yippee

20221020 Simple 100% whole-wheat bread with CLAS

 

Please see here and here to learn more about concentrated lactic acid sourdough (CLAS). 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to CLAS😍😍😍, I can make delicious 100% whole-wheat bread with freshly milled flour in just a few hours without using fat, dairy, sugar, eggs, or vital wheat gluten!

 

 

 

Ingredients

 

A.

90% fresh white whole-wheat flour ground in the Vitamix, 450g

10% white whole-wheat flour from WW CLAS👇👇👇, 50g

15% water from WW CLAS, 75g

 

B.

55% water, 275g

 

C.

2% salt, 10g

0.3% yeast, 1.5g

 

D.

8% water, 40g

 

Total dough weight ~900g

 

 

Mix

 

I find the windowpane test unnecessary and usually skip it when mixing whole wheat dough. Instead, I check the dough's elasticity occasionally by tugging it during mixing. I consider the mixing done once it feels extensible and isn't stiff anymore. This method helps me create tall and airy 100% whole-wheat bread without using any enrichments or additives.

 

Mix the dough using the Zojirushi bread machine, programmed for 10 minutes - for the first 3 minutes, the paddles are just stirring gently to bring the ingredients together, and in the remaining 7 minutes, the kneading begins.

 

 

1. +A, start the machine

2. gradually +B until a dough forms; continue to mix

(1st 10-min cycle)

 

3. +C, mix to incorporate and develop gluten

4. once the dough feels strong, start drizzling D

(2nd 10-min cycle)

 

5. continue to mix and gradually +D until the dough can barely absorb more water.

(3rd 10-min cycle)

 

Bulk ferment 

32C x 120 mins

The dough doubled.

 

Shape

with wet hands

fold the dough ~4-6 times into a log

dump into a 9x4x4 Pullman lined with parchment slings 

 

Prove

33-34C x 45 mins

 

Bake

Preheat to 535F

Lower to 482F once loaded

482F x 10 mins with steam

392F x 30 mins w/o steam; cover the top with foil if it becomes too dark

unmold

392F x 15 mins directly on the stone, or bake longer until it taps hollow

 

That's it!

 

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👉👉👉How to make whole-wheat CLAS

 

 ground wheat malt: 25g

 Whole grain wheat flour: 75g

 Water T. 45°C: 140 ml

 Vinegar (5% acidity): 10 ml

 Fermentation temperature: 38°C±2°C

 Fermentation time: 24-36h

 Hydration: 150%

 End pH: around 4

 

To refresh wheat CLAS

1:7 (wheat flour in CLAS: new wheat flour), no vinegar needed

150% hydration@38+-2 C x 12 hours

I usually make about 500g of CLAS at a time with 200g of grains. It stays in the fridge until I need it to bake, and I stir it thoroughly before use. I usually warm it up with one of Zo's fermentation features while I prepare the remaining ingredients. When I've used up most of the 500g of CLAS, I refresh it using the 1:7 ratio to make another 500g, give or take. 

 

I set up a water bath (~low 40s C) in the Instant Pot, support the container with a trivet, and use the Instant Pot's yogurt feature to make CLAS:   

 

Then cover it with the lid.

 

P.S. 20230722 🤔🤔🤔

💡💡💡

I can also make CLAS in the Zo using its 'Rise 3' feature because it operates within the same temperature range as a yogurt maker. I can either take out the bread pan, place the container with CLAS in the bread machine, supporting it with a trivet, or ferment the CLAS directly in the bread pan.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 

 

🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

How I develop gluten for whole wheat dough

https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/68309/how-i-develop-whole-wheat-doughs-gluten 

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 

 The mixing is complete. 

 

It develops very strong gluten even without autolyse. CLAS rocks!💪💪💪

 

 

Just sit back and watch the dough rise. Easy peasy!

 

 

Ta-da!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 19, 2022 - 3:47pm
Karynaca's picture
Karynaca

Hamelman Harvest Bread with cranberries, raisins, and walnuts

I searched but could not find a posting on Hamelman’s Harvest Bread so I thought I’d post my experience. I baked a test loaf to see if I wanted this for Thanksgiving. I have gotten so much help and inspiration from this site over the years and I would like to extend my deepest thanks to all you bakers.

This bread requires a levain build that uses a stiff starter. I converted my 125% refrigerated starter to a stiff starter in the evening and fed again 12 hours later so that the starter was ready for the levain the following evening. (I converted my 125% starter to a 60% stiff starter using this spreadsheet convert sourdough starters.The spreadsheet was created using wayne on FLUKE’s text from his .csv file.)

The recipe also calls for a bit of yeast – I used slightly more than ½ teaspoon, ~ 1.65 grams of active dry yeast for ~ 750 grams of dough.

I opted to toast the walnuts in a 300 F degree oven for 14 minutes, turning them over a couple of times to make sure they didn’t burn. The other mix-ins were golden raisins and dried cranberries. I did not soak these.

I lowered the percentage of whole wheat (Bob’s Red Mill) from 40 to 30% to account for my husband’s tastes.

The recipe calls for 78% hydration, but the dough seemed a little too wet, maybe because I lowered the percentage of whole wheat or maybe because it was a bit humid here in San Diego. I added 8 grams of AP (King Arthur’s), which lowered the hydration to 76% and that did the trick, although it remained a very sticky dough. My final dough temp wasn’t quite at the 76 degrees, but it was close.

I bulk fermented for 2 hours (Hamelman: 1.5 – 2 hours) with a fold halfway through the bulk fermentation. I took the dough out of the bowl for the fold because I thought it needed more strength than I would have gotten with a bucket fold.

I pre-shaped, rested for 15 minutes, and shaped a boule. I did the final fermentation as best as I could at 75 degrees F using my microwave with the light on for 1 ¼ hours. (Hamelman: 1 – 1.5 hours).

I baked with normal steam on a stone at 460 F for 15 minutes, lowered temp to 420 F for remaining bake. Total bake was 38 minutes. 

My takeaways:

1. I think the bread should have risen more. I probably did not let the levain get to its full ripeness, which Hamelman indicates is key, especially for a stiff starter.  

2. I used scissors to score the bread – it was ok, but my scoring always leaves something to be desired. 

3. Fruit and nuts were not evenly distributed, but that did not detract from the taste.

4. This is a delicious bread with what I think is the right amount of chew. Hamelman says the complete flavor spectrum runs from the bitterness of the whole wheat to the sweetness of the raisins and sweet/tart cranberries and then to the crunch of the walnuts. He’s right – the taste is terrific. Next time I will use pecans because my hubby is not crazy about walnuts.

A piece is missing from the boule photo below because I forgot to take a photo before I ate some.

Harvest Bread boule

October 19, 2022 - 7:38am
PANEMetCIRCENSES's picture
PANEMetCIRCENSES

Dual Starter 100% Whole Wheat

This boule was made from 100% whole wheat flour using dual sourdough/lactic starter.

 

Whole wheat flour:    ‘Caputo Integrale’ with germ and bran (13% protein)

Sourdough starter:     Whole rye, 80% hydration, 18C, refresh rate 50% once daily, phase 60%

Lactic starter:              Sourwort Made Easy

Vital wheat gluten:    ‘vwg’ 80% protein (optional but helps)

 

Total Flour in recipe (350g)

326g whole wheat

10g   whole rye from sourdough starter

14g   vwg

 

Total Liquid in recipe (280g)

222g water

8g     water from sourdough starter

50g   sourwort freshly made

 

 

Procedure

1. The whole wheat flour is divided into two parts by sifting it with a #50 mesh. One part -call it fine- that passes through the mesh (bolted) and another -call it coarse- that doesn’t, roughly 7:1 by weight.

 

 

2. The coarse part was mixed together with both starters and left to ferment inside Brod&Taylor proofer set at 28C for 2hrs (the longer the tangier).

3. Then all ingredients sans salt were kneaded together for ~3min using stand mixer. Salt (7g) was added 30min later. Bulk fermentation at 26-28C lasted 3hrs with lamination and couple of stretches inside the basin. The shaped loaf was retarded overnight in banneton covered with plastic bag.

4. Ten minutes before scoring I transferred the covered banneton into the freezer (-18C). This short shock makes scoring easier allowing cleaner cuts to be made with no adverse effect to the dough.

 

 

 

Taste

Heavy, strong wheat notes as expected from the 100% whole wheat flour used. Flavorful, slightly sweet with gentle sour after taste. Soft and airy crumb, ambrosial.

 

Savvas

October 19, 2022 - 7:22am
PANEMetCIRCENSES's picture
PANEMetCIRCENSES

Sourwort Made Easy

In this short post I describe how I prepare sourwort (lactic starter) nowadays for bread making with emphasis given to starter freshness and simplicity of technique.

Only a small quantity is prepared at a time just enough for a single bake (no propagation, no fridge storage, no additives). Made and used fresh each time ensures greater control over starter behavior, robustness and overall microflora liveness.

Equipment requirements include a means of keeping the starter warm while fermenting and a small size French press coffee maker.

 

Procedure

 30g of cracked rye malt is washed with excess water (like we do with rice) several times letting it soak say 10min in between rinses. I do this inside the French press carafe using the plunger with its built-in filter mesh to squeeze the grains and pour away cloudy water.

A double plastic membrane is cut and opened up flat from a common food bag like shown in the photos below:

Then I pour 100g warm water (40-45C) over the strained grains plus small amount of acv (1/8tsp), stir and slowly but firmly squeeze the membrane down the cylindrical carafe with the plunger until it just touches the water surface. This ensures minimal exposure to air closely recreating anaerobic conditions during fermentation.

The coffee maker is put inside a Brod&Taylor proofer set at 28C and left in peace to ferment and sour for 24-48hrs. Freshly made sourwort is percolated as with coffee and used straight into the bread recipe (the rest is discarded).

 

 

Notes

1. Setting proofer temp to 28C is a fair compromise between lacto-fermentation and bread dough proofing so that both can run in parallel not competing with each other for proofer time. I always keep a portion of malt grains fermenting in my proofer 24/7.

2. Weights of ingredients mentioned above reflect my usual baking needs only and can be freely scaled up (most likely) or down.

3. Reaching and holding pedantically exact temperature levels shouldn’t be an issue. Just keep the fermenting starter warm, any temps between 30-40C is fine.

4. Since a relatively small amount of starter is fermenting at any time, one need not worry about temperature gradients inside the fermentable and heating counter strategies (top, bottom, radial, bathing etc). The starter readily acquires and holds uniform temperature due to its small volume anyways.

 

Keep fermenting, Savvas

 

October 19, 2022 - 6:44am
Benito's picture
Benito

Black and White Sesame Yorkville Sourdough Baguettes and Epi

I find that if I don’t make baguettes often enough I get very rusty. I haven’t made baguettes in about 4 months so was really very overdue. I’ve always thought that epis look really nice and never tried making one, so here is my first effort at an epi. I also hadn’t done a seeded crust in quite some time so that was also overdue.

For this bake of my favourite all white flour baguette I’ve increased the hydration to 75% which I have found helps with extensibility which is essential for shaping baguette. I’ve also pushed final proof by accident to 40%. I say by accident because I usual cold retard the dough when the dough has risen to 20% but because I was out and didn’t expect the dough to be so fast, it was up to 22%. You wouldn’t think that 2% would make much of a difference but it does. So when I took the dough out of the fridge today and started to do the divide, pre-shape and shaping the aliquot jar already showed 35% rise right after I shaped the third baguette. So I left them to proof at room temperature until 40%, then started pre-heating and cold retarded the dough once more while the oven pre-heated for an hour.



Overnight Levain build ferment 75°F 10-12 hours

 

When levain at peak, mix 28 g water with all the levain mixing to loosen.

In the morning, to your mixing bowl add 353 g water, salt 12 g and diastatic malt 5.8 g to dissolve, then add 527 g AP flour to combine. Allow to saltolyse for 20 mins. Next add the loosened levain, pinch and stretch and fold to combine in the bowl. Slap and fold x 100 then add hold back water 23 g gradually working in until fully absorbed then slap and fold x 100.

Bulk Fermentation 82*F until aliquot jar shows 20% rise.
Do folds every 20 mins doing 3 folds
Could do cold retard at this point for up to overnight. (Aliquot jar 20% rise)

Divide and pre-shape rest for 15 mins
Shape en couche with final proof until aliquot jar shows 40% rise then (optional) cold retard shaped baguettes en couche for at least 15 minutes for easier scoring.

Pre-heat oven 500F after 30 mins add Silvia towel in pan with boiling water.
Transfer baguettes from couche to peel on parchment
Score each baguette and transfer to oven, bake on steel.
Bake with steam pouring 1 cup of boiling water to cast iron skillet dropping temperature to 480F.
The baguettes are baked with steam for 13 mins. The steam equipment is removed venting the oven of steam. Transfer the baguettes from the baking steel to next rack completing baking directly on a rack to minimize the browning of the bottom crust. The oven is dropped to 450ºF but convection is turned on and the baguettes bake for 10 mins rotating them halfway. The baguettes are rotated again if needed and baked for another 3 mins to achieve a rich colour crust.

To apply the seeds to the dough, place the shaped dough on a damp towel to moisten the dough. Transfer it to a cookie tray that has been loaded densely with the seeds. I like using a cookie tray with sides that way I can push the dough up against the sides to get some seeds on the sides of the dough.

For those who are interested in pH. The pH of the levain was 5.06 at mix and 4.07 at 3x rise and peak.

The pH of the dough was 5.44 after initial dough development was completed. At 22% rise and start of cold retard the pH was 4.56. Finally at the time of bake the pH was 4.37.







My index of bakes.

October 17, 2022 - 7:34pm
HeiHei29er's picture
HeiHei29er

Sourdough Discard Molasses Cookies

I wanted to make some more discard cookies and this time chose to try something different.  It's fall and approaching the holidays.  Molasses cookies seemed like a good candidate.  Did a quick search and decided to use this recipe from Cooking Classy as the base for my discard recipe.  Happy to say that I'm really happy with how these turned out!

Dry Ingredients
100g whole rye flour
230g all purpose flour
8g ground ginger
5g ground cinnamon
3g ground cardamom
5.5g baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt

Wet Ingredients
100g white sourdough discard at 100% hydration
170g unsalted butter (softened at room temp)
150g light brown sugar
120g blackstrap molasses
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk

1)  Approximately 1-2 hours before mixing dough, combine sourdough discard with 25g of the whole rye flour.  Cover and let sit on counter at room temp.
2)  Combine remaining dry ingredients and whisk together to mix.
2)  Mix butter and brown sugar until creamed and fluffy. (I used a stand mixer with paddle attachment)
3)  Add remaining wet ingredients and discard from Step 1 to butter/sugar fluff.  Mix until well combined and smooth.
4)  Slowly add dry ingredients from Step 2 while stirring.  Continue stirring until no dry flour showing and ingredients evenly mixed.  Dough may be a little sticky from the rye.
5)  Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (I went overnight).  This hydrates the rye and hardens the butter.
6)  Preheat oven to 350 deg with rack in the middle position
7)  Form the dough into balls approximately the size of a golf ball.  Roll in your palm to smooth the surface and make a round ball.
8)  Roll the dough ball in sugar (I used a mix of coarse and table sugar)
9)  Place balls on a parchment lined baking sheet about 2" apart.
10) Bake at 350 deg for 12-14 minutes.  (May need less time if balls are smaller.  Cookie should appear slightly under baked in the center.)
11) Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack

October 17, 2022 - 5:43pm
Benito's picture
Benito

Taiwanese Scallion Pancakes (Cong You Bing)

I have always loved eating these delicious crispy flaky pancakes from my homeland and always wanted to try making them.  They are definitely best eaten right off the frying pan so they can’t be better than homemade.

J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s recipe seemed quite straightforward so I decided I’d try his recipe but add some sesame seeds since I love them.  


Ingredients

For the Pancakes:

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting work surface
  • 1 cup boiling water
  • Up to 1/4 cup toasted sesame seed oil
  • 2 cups thinly sliced scallions

For the Dipping Sauce:

  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons Chinkiang or rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon finely sliced scallion greens
  • 1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
  • 2 teaspoons sugar

To Cook:

  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • Kosher salt

 

Directions

1. Place flour in bowl of food processor. With processor running, slowly drizzle in about 3/4 of the boiling water. Process for 15 seconds. If dough does not come together and ride around the blade, drizzle in more water a tablespoon at a time until it just comes together. (Alternatively, in a large bowl add flour and 3/4 of the boiling water. Stir with a wooden spoon or chopsticks until dough comes together, adding water a tablespoon at a time as needed.). I used my KA mixer with the spiral dough hook which did the job alright.  Transfer to a floured work surface and knead a few times to form a smooth ball. Transfer to a bowl, cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap, and allow to rest for 30 minutes at room temperature, or up to overnight in the fridge. 

2. Divide dough into four even pieces and shape each into a smooth ball. Working one ball at a time, roll out into a disk roughly 8-inches in diameter on a lightly floured surface. Using a pastry brush, paint a very thin layer of sesame oil over the top of the disk. Roll disk up like a jelly roll, then twist roll into a tight spiral, tucking the end underneath. Flatten gently with your hand, then re-roll into an 8-inch disk. 







3. Paint with another layer of sesame oil, sprinkle with 1/2 cup scallions, some sesame seeds and roll up like a jelly roll again. (When rolling this up with the scallions inside, it is OK to roll loosely with some air inside as this leads to a more flaky pancake). Twist into a spiral, (tuck the end underneath again), flatten gently, and re-roll into a 7-inch disk. Repeat steps two and three with remaining dough balls.  I found that when making the spiral that if I kept the sealed side of the dough on the inside of the spiral, it helped prevent blow outs from the seal when flattening the spiral.






4. In a small bowl, whisk together sauce ingredients and set aside at room temperature. 


5. Heat vegetable oil in an 8-inch nonstick, carbon steel, or cast-iron pan over medium-high heat until shimmering. Carefully slip pancake into hot oil. Cook, shaking pan gently, until first side is an even golden brown (about 2 minutes). Carefully flip with tongs (be careful not to splash the oil), and continue to cook, shaking pan gently, until second side is an even golden brown (about 2 minutes longer). Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Season with salt and cut into 6 wedges. Repeat with remaining 3 pancakes. Serve immediately with dipping sauce. 

 

These turned out quite well, my partner and I devoured them.  I’ll definitely be making them again when the urge strikes.  



My index of bakes.

October 17, 2022 - 3:32pm
CrustyJohn's picture
CrustyJohn

Polenta a la Benito

After taking a go at an olive polenta loaf a few weeks ago, I wanted to try the saccharification process highlighted by Benny in his loaf that's currently featured on the homepage.  I didn't have diastatic malt powder on hand, so I used honey as it's supposed to also have amylase.  The polenta definitely seemed a little sweeter after the process, but then again, I added honey to it, so it's a little hard to attribute the source of the change.  Pretty straightforward approach otherwise.

 

350g (77%) Bread Flour

100g (23%) Bob's Red Mill Whole Wheat Flour

330g (73%) water

50g (11%) starter

---------------------

3 tsp salt

--------------------

45g Cateto Orange polenta from Red Tail Grains

150g water

= ~190g (42%) cooked polenta

--------------------

-Mix starter + water, dissolve, add all flour, mix.  Let sit for 1 hr.

-pinch in salt

-over next 3 hrs. stretch and fold ever 30 min. (room temp. probably high 60s-low70s)

-after first 1.5 hrs. stretch out dough and spread polenta all over surface, fold up, continue stretch and folds

-finish bulk fermentation 7 hrs. at ~60 degrees

-shape, retard in refrigerator for around 10 hrs.

-Bake: 500 22min, uncovered 10min, 450 30min.

-----------------------

Result:  This was one of my best porridge type loaves, yet I think.  The fermentation seemed right about on point (thanks to the tip about corn accelerating fermentation) resulting in a nice oven spring and good crumb.  The crust is good too.  The flavor seems a little different than the previous polenta loaf I did, lending credence to the saccharification process perhaps.  Using a bit lower % of polenta, the crumb was a nicer balance between airy and creamy.  The polenta definitely adds a nice subtle flavor- not as distinct as barley, but more than oats.   

I think having a substantial portion of the flour be whole wheat (perhaps even higher than this loaf) is nice as the bitterness of the hard red whole wheat is balanced by the sweetness of the polenta. 

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