Recent Blog Entries

Let's get the obvious out of the way...  My first attempt at decorative scoring is, well, let's say rudimentary at best.  Still a lot to learn on that!  :-)

Just before Labor Day weekend, I had a bunch of windshield time and was thinking about random stuff.  Thought I remembered reading somewhere that the Gold Rush cooks would keep a ball of their starter in a bag of flour and break it out when they needed to bake.  Then, refresh it and put it back in the flour bag.  I tend to like the traditional and historic side of things, especially this hobby, so I decided to give it a whirl.

I have a blend of wheat varieties from Janie's Mill that I've been grinding as my whole wheat: Glenn, Red Fife, Turkey Red, and Warthog.  Before we left for a 3-day camping weekend, I mixed up 40g of flour (50% WW blend and 50% Bread flour) at 45% hydration and formed a dough ball.  That went into a jar, was covered with bread flour, and put in my proofing box at 76 deg F.  3 days later I came home and found a nice mound in the top of the flour and the dough ball had definitely grown.  It also had a hard shell with an active starter center.  I did multiple refreshes.  A few at 24 hours.  Then a few at 12 hours.  Since then, I have been refreshing it at 1: 0.9: 2 with about an 8 hour ferment.  After 8 hours, it goes into the fridge.  This is my first bake with it.

I've also been done a few bakes recently with a 2-stage build on the levain.  The first is at 100% hydration to promote yeast and the second down at 60% to promote acetic LABs.  This is based on comments from one of the recipes on The Rye Baker website.

This bread is a country loaf with 15% whole wheat at 68% hydration and 15% PFF.  The whole wheat uses the blend of grains mentioned above.  My first build was 11g of stiff starter, 20g of water, and 18g of bread flour (haven't done the math on the hydration but should be close to 100%).  This was fermented for 6.5 hours at 76 deg F.  It was more than doubled, but hadn't fully peaked yet.  A young levain...  The second build was all of the first build combined with 20g of water and 49.5g of bread flour.  This fermented for 10.5 hours at 70 deg F.  The levain was fully matured and maybe just starting to show signs of deflating.  Wish I would have grabbed photos at both stages...

The resulting loaf had great spring and was maybe the thinnest, crispiest crust I've ever achieved.  This isn't full of cracks like others have attained, but it's the first one I've ever had.  My baking setup, times, and temps were standard for me so no changes there.

The loaf hasn't been sliced yet and I had to travel for a day.  It smelled great though!  Will try to post a crumb shot when I get back home and slice it.

Hansjoakim was a regular contributor to thefreshloaf for a long time, He was a physics graduate student at the time, as I recall, and an amazingly adventurous and talented chef and baker. In September, 2009 he posted what he called his "favorite 70% rye." I asked him for the formula and baked it myself a week later. It was easy to see why it was a favorite. It was an easy dough to handle for a 70% rye, and it was delicious to eat.

Over the intervening years, I have made this bread a few times. Every time I make it, I wonder why I have let so much time pass since the last bake. This week, I baked it again, and it is as wonderful as ever. I baked it yesterday. Let it rest wrapped in baker's linen overnight and had some with butter and smoked salmon for breakfast. Seriously yummy stuff!

Looking at my write-up from 2009, I found it could stand re-formatting  and editing. So, here it is ...

55% of flour is pre-fermented.

Mix the rye sour final build the day before you plan to bake. Mix all the ingredients in a medium bowl and cover tightly. Ferment for 14-16 hours at room temperature. For example, if you plan on making the bread in the morning, you can mix the rye sour the night before.

Procedure

1. Dissolve the rye sour in the water in a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours and the salt.
3. Add the flours and salt to the large bowl and mix thoroughly.  If mixing in a stand mixer, mix with the paddle at Speed 1 for 3 minutes. Switch to the dough hook, and mix at Speed 2 for 3-5 minutes. You may need to scrape down the bowl once or twice during mixing. The dough should form a loose ball but remain a thick paste with little dough strength.
4. Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl and cover it tightly. Ferment for 1 hour at 78-80ºF. It won't expand much if at all.
5. Transfer the dough to a floured board and pre-shape into a round. Cover and let rest for 5-10 minutes.
6. Shape into a round and place in a floured banneton/brotform. Note: If you want to dock the loaf (make lots of holes in the top to release steam), put it in the basket seam side up. If you want the folds to open chaotically, place it in the basket seam side down.
7. Cover the loaf with a towel or place the banneton/brotform in a food-safe plastic bag and seal it.
8. Proof for about 2 hours. (Mine usually proofs in about 1 hour, 45 minutes). The loaf will expand by 50% or so.
9. One hour before baking, pre-heat the oven to 480ºF with a baking stone and steaming apparatus of choice in place.
10. Dust the bottom of the loaf with corn meal or semolina. Transfer it to a peel. Steam the oven and transfer the loaf to the baking stone. Turn the oven down to 460ºF.
11. Bake at 460ºF with steam for 15 minutes. Then, remove the steaming apparatus and turn the oven down to 440ºF.
12. Bake at 440ºF for 20 minutes, then turn the oven down to 400ºF. Bake for another 15-20 minutes. Note: If the crust is getting too dark, you can turn the oven down further for the last 5-10 minutes.
13. The loaf is fully baked when the crust is firm, the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when thumped and the internal temperature of the loaf is at least 205ºF.
14. When the loaf is fully baked, remove it to a cooling rack. Let it cool completely (2-3 hours), then wrap it well in baker’s linen or a tea towel, and let it rest for 18-24 hours before slicing.

Happy baking!

David

I wanted a nice bread for sandwiches and/or toast so I threw together some Durum flour, fresh milled high extraction rye flour, AP flour and a little Potato flour I had recently bought at KAF.  The Potato flour helps keep the bread from going stale.

I also added some fresh honey I picked up during our recent trip to Vermont to add a touch of sweetness.

For the topping I used some “The Works” Bread Topping from KAF which to be honest is a bit strong.  It has a bunch of different seeds, garlic, onion, paprika, tumeric and sea salt and spices.

The bake turned out excellent.  The crust was crisp but not too thick and the crumb was open enough and perfect for sandwiches or toast.

Meet Gracie, the newest member to our family.  She’s another rescue who was used for breeding and then was surrendered to a shelter before being rescued.  Her doggie brothers and sister all adore her and her kitty sisters Luna and Sasha and brother Mookie are still deciding :).

Formula

Levain Directions Build 1

Mix all the levain ingredients for build one (including the seed starter) 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 78 degrees so it took around 4 hours for me.

Levain Directions Build 2

Add in the flour and water as indicated and mix until incorporated by hand.  Cover and let sit another 3-5 hours until doubled and you should see plenty of activity.

Either use in the main dough immediately or refrigerate for up to 1 day before using.

 Main Dough Procedure

Mix the flour and water together in your mixer or by hand until it just starts to come together, maybe about 1 minute.  Let it rest in your work bowl covered for 20-30 minutes.  After 30 minutes or so  add the salt, starter (cut into about 7-8 pieces),  olive oil and honey and mix on low for 5 minutes.   Note: If you are using the Ankarsrum mixer like I do, add your water to the bowl first then add in the flour.  After your autolyse add in the starter, salt, honey  and olive oil and mix on low to medium low for 15-20 minutes.

Remove the dough from your bowl and place it in a lightly oiled bowl or work surface and do several stretch and folds.  Let it rest covered for 10-15 minutes and then do another stretch and fold.  Let it rest another 10-15 minutes and do one additional stretch and fold.  After a total of 1.5 hours place your covered bowl in the refrigerator and let it rest for 12 to 24 hours.

When you are ready to bake remove the bowl from the refrigerator and let it set out at room temperature still covered for 1.5 to 2 hours or if using a proofer set at 80 degrees for one hour.  Remove the dough and shape as desired and cover with a moist tea towel or plastic wrap Sprayed with cooking spray and let rise at room temperature for 1 1/2 – 2 hours.  (I use my proofer set at 80 F and it takes about 1 hour to 1.5 hours).

Around 45 minutes before ready to bake, pre-heat your oven to 500 degrees F. and prepare it for steam.  I have a heavy-duty baking pan on the bottom rack of my oven with 1 baking stone on above the pan and one on the top shelf.  I pour 1 cup of boiling water in the pan right after I place the dough in the oven.

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

Take the breads out of the oven when done and let them cool on a bakers rack for as long as you can resist.

Still working away at my panettone here in the VT wilderness. I've adopted a consistent twice-daily feeding process for my Lievito Madre, and have made other adjustments in dough handling, pH measurements, proofing temperature, and baking process.

I am now seeing significantly more alveolation in the loaves, so apparently all of these things are contributing factors. 

This is the Candied Strawberry Chocolate Caramel panettone.  Here is a side-by-side with my bake of two weeks ago, the new bake is the top row:

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