The Fresh Loaf

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June 24, 2022 - 5:29am
Benito's picture
Benito

Corn Amazake Sourdough

Third in my series of polenta breads each different from the previous.  This third loaf instead of either cooked polenta or saccharified polenta, I used cooled cooked polenta and then held it at 135-140°F after being mixed with koji rice for 14 hours.  I’ve made regular amazake before but this was my first time trying it with something other than cooked rice.  So to understand what amazake is you need to know what koji rice is.  Koji rice is rice that has been inoculated with aspergillus oryzae.  This incredible mold has so many food related uses.  The reason for this is that it produces a ton of amylase and protease enzymes.  These enzymes will then break down starches to sugars and proteins to amino acids unlocking the flavour potential of the foods.  So for this corn amazake, the koji rice when mixed with the polenta and held at the temperature of 135-140°F will allow the amylase and proteases of the Aspergillus oryzae to break down the starches and proteins of the polenta and the rice.  This creates a rich delicious sweet corn/rice porridge that I used to make this bread.

A couple of interesting notes with this bake.  You may know that I often use both the aliquot jar for rise and another one to measure pH.  The pH of this dough after mixing was complete at the beginning of bulk was only 5.07, somewhat lower than what I am used to seeing.  Typically I will shape a hearth loaf at around a rise of 40% which often corresponds to a pH fall of 1.0.  In this bread the rise of 40% corresponded to a pH of only 4.42 so only a fall of pH of 0.65.  After shaping the dough was allowed a warm final proof before cold retard and at a rise of 100% the pH was only 4.15. So a fall of 0,92.  So this is very interesting to me, had I only followed pH it wouldn’t have shaped but based on the rise of the dough it needed to start cold retard otherwise it would have been too huge.  I’m not sure how to fully make sense of this.  I know that the sugars from the corn amazake will speed up browning and also fermentation, but in my experience that would have affected both the LAB and yeast populations pretty equally.  But in this dough, it seems that the yeast outperformed the LAB.  I didn’t think that the sugar was high enough to cause a dehydrating effect on the LAB to slow them down but perhaps?  We’ll see if the bread tastes that sweet as if it was highly enriched but I doubt it.  Another thought is could the aspergillus oryzae have contributed to the fermentation and actually produced CO2 causing the faster rise and helping the yeast along.  I know that you can make a bread raised by aspergillus oryzae making sakadane, but that typically takes many builds over several days to get to the point where they are active enough to leaven bread.  Interesting but I don’t know what the cause of this was.

 This was a relatively low hydration bread and I think it would benefit from a higher hydration the next time I try it.  Also the main score was a bit too shallow although well angled.



 

Overnight prep

Prepare corn amazake by cooking the coarse corn meal with the water for amazake.  Cool to 150°F or just below then add the koji rice.  Place in a jar, stir and cover lightly and allow to ferment at 140°F for 14 hours.  I use my Instant Pot using the [Keep Warm] Normal setting with the pot filled with water placing the jar in the water.  After 14 hours allow to cool, if you taste it you will find it beautifully sweet.  It will appear more runny than it initially was.

 

Overnight stiff levain

Mix the levain ingredients well and place in a proofing box set to 77-78°F.  After 10 hours it was just peaked with the dome starting to flatten.

 

Dough Mix

Add the corn amazake to a large mixing bowl along with the water and stiff levain.  Using your hands or a spatula break the stiff levain into small pieces.  Add the flour and mix until no dry flour remain.  Autolyze for 20-30 mins.  Add the salt on top of the dough, with very wet fingers press the salt into the dough then stretch and fold in the bowl until the dough starts to come together.  Place on the wet countertop and slap and fold the dough until moderately well developed, about 250 for my dough.  Do a bench letterfold.  Optional remove two aliquots of dough one for pH and the other to monitor rise and place each in their own jar.

 

Bulk Fermentation

 

Place the dough in a square Pyrex dish and if the dough temperature is less than 82°F then wet the outsides of the aliquot jars and place the aliquot jars in the Pyrex dish with the dough in contact.  This is in ensure that the dough temperature in each of the aliquot jars is the same as the main dough.  Once the main dough has reached proofing box temperature of 82°F then the aliquot jars can be removed from contact with the dough and placed in the proofing box.

 

At 30 mins intervals do sets of coil folds, stop when the dough appears strong and no longer relaxes between folds.  Aim for 40% rise or a 1.0 drop in pH as the indication to shape your dough.

 

After shaping aim for a further pH fall of 0.2-0.3 and then cold retard overnight for baking in the morning.

 

The next day when one hour before baking pre-heat the oven to 500°F with the cast iron skillet in the oven and a Sylvia towel in a metal loaf pan at the ready.  30 mins later add boiling water to the Sylvia towel pan and load into the oven to pre-steam it.

 

Once oven reaches 500ºF turn dough out of banneton, brush excess rice flour off, score and then brush with water.  Transfer to oven.  Pour 250 mL of boiling water into the cast iron skillet on a high shelf, high enough that the dough have fully bloom.  Drop temperature to 450ºF and bake with steam for 25 mins.  Then vent oven and remove all steaming gear and drop temperature to 425ºF.  Bake for another 25-30 mins rotating as needed.





My index of bakes.

June 23, 2022 - 6:35pm
thepocketcrumb's picture
thepocketcrumb

Furikake Loaf #1

After coming across Benny's Red Miso and Furikake post, I knew I had to try it!

Still struggling with bakers percentages, so omitted the miso for this first try... Just in case things ended up too salty.

Some things that I did differently as well (Sorry Benny!):

- Did not laminate in the furikake. Added in at my 2nd set of coil folds during BF
- Followed the flour values from one of The Bread Code's recipes (this has worked very well for me!)
- Added in diastatic malt

Alas, without the lamination the furikake was not well distributed. Will definitely do the lamination next time!

Quick breakdown of method:
10% Furikake (I think i will definitely increase the amount next time!)
80% Bread Flour (Bob's Red Mill)
20% Whole Wheat Flour (Bob's Red Mill)
1% Salt (This is an approximate because furikake can be salty)
65% hydration
20% Levain

1 hr autolyse.

After autolyse — Added starter and salt.

4 sets of coil folds during bulk fermentation. Added in the furikake at the 2nd fold. Took 7 hrs for bulk fermentation!

Shaped dough. Tried to shape as tightly as possible.

Proofed in banneton (in a plastic bag) at ambient temperature for 2 hrs. Did 2 poke tests just to be very sure.

Cold ferment in fridge for 12 hrs.

Baked in dutch oven at 220C (Covered, 20mins) and then another 30mins uncovered.

Cooled overnight and passed to friends the next day! Managed to get a crumb shot before handing the loaf over.

June 23, 2022 - 10:36am
JonJ's picture
JonJ

Guiness Country Sourdough

Maurizio Leo has quite a nice "Stout country recipe" on his web site, although he has promised an improved version for some years (as he did note that the bread could be better with more beer in the recipe).

I've tried making a few beer breads, with say an IPA or a weiss, did make one too with a local stout but I've always found that beer brings a tightness to the crumb and the flavour has been underwhelming although the stout one wasn't too bad. There was a standing joke with a friend that you'd have to prise my Guiness from my dead hands before I used it in a bread, and yet - here I am, still breathing, writing about using Guiness in a bread.

For these breads I used an entire large (440ml) can of Guiness, and since the can included the famous widget, perhaps the extra froth from nitrogen made a difference, or who knows fermentation is just better with nitrogen. The formula listed is based on using more beer, just as Maurizio suggested, and it worked out nicely.


The boule got 40 more minutes final proof at room temp (stopped the bâtard earlier because the banneton was already at the top, not the best reason for stopping earlier I guess).

These are larger than my normal loaves since it had - 1kg flour plus 250g levain for the two loaves. And baked the bâtard a little darker than I would have liked (was engrossed in a work meeting at the time).

Method wise it was a bit of a mixture of methods. I stuck to the quantities from The Perfect Loaf, more or less, with adjustments for the extra beer of the full can. However, the method used was a little different, mostly because the recipes from The Perfect Loaf have a LOT of stretch and folds, and I usually don't manage them all, but did manage 5 here over the first 3 hours. Also, it had an all in one initial mix with both the starter and salt being added up front. Both loaves were pre-shaped. The bâtard only had linseeds for the topping, but for the boule I was more generous with linseeds, sun flower seeds and black sesame.


Overall these were lovelier breads than I expected. The flavours were lovely, the loaves were larger than my usual and a pleasure to eat.

June 22, 2022 - 3:36pm
Benito's picture
Benito

Whole Rye Wheat and Buckwheat Beer Sourdough with Black and White Sesame Seeds

This is a bread recipe from a local baker here in Toronto who teaches baking Centennial College, Matthew James Duffy.  I made minor changes to it and put it into the spreadsheet.  This is my first run at this, and probably won’t be the last if it tastes as good as it smell. Based on the cracks on the sides of the loaf I suspect this is under fermented a bit.  We’ll see tomorrow when I slice it, given the amount of rye I suspect it will benefit for at least an overnight rest.



For 9x4x4” pan

Instructions

For the levain:

  1. Mix all the ingredients until well combined in a large bowl which you’ll use to mix the final dough. Cover with a lid. Let rise for about 11-13  hours at 22°C/72°F.  At peak the dome should be just starting to flatten.

 

Mix the Dough:

  1. Mix the flours and salt together.
  2. Put the honey, toasted sesame seeds and cracked buckwheat on top of the flour.
  3. Combine the beer and the water and pour into the cointainer or bowl with the rest of the ingredients. Mix until well combined.

 

Bulk Fermentation:

  1. Bulk ferment the dough for 30 minutes at 26°C/78°F.
  2. No folds are required during the bulk fermentation.
  3. Pre-heat oven at 460°F 

 

Final Shape

  1. Lightly oil or butter your loaf pan unless using a non stick tin.
  2. Using a wet dough scraper or silicone spatula, scoop the dough and place it into the dough tin. While filling the tin, lightly press down on the dough with a dough scraper to prevent any air pockets.
  3. When all of the dough is in the tin, use a wet dough scraper to smooth the top and sides of the dough.
  4. Sprinkle the dough with a good coating of rye or whole wheat flour.
  5. Cover the dough with a clean kitchen towel.

 

Final Proof:

  1. Let rise for 30 minutes at room temperature. You should see the top JUST starting to crack.

 

Baking:

 

  1. Score a straight line or an X pattern in the bread with a wet blade
  2. Bake with steam at 235°C/460°F for 50-60 minutes. Halfway through the baking time vent the steam. The bread is done when the internal temperature reaches 97°C/206°F.
  3. Remove the dough from the tin immediately after baking to prevent the loaf from steaming itself.
  4. Let rest for at least 8 hours before serving (I know it’s hard but do your best!).



My index of bakes.

June 22, 2022 - 5:30am
thepocketcrumb's picture
thepocketcrumb

Oat Porridge Sourdough #1

Have always been curious about the widely-raved porridge loaf and decided to give it a try!

This version is a mix of The Bread Code's last sourdough recipe and The Perfect Loaf's take on tartine's porridge loaf, because:

1. I am terribly afraid of high hydration recipes. Have had past experiences where i have broken down in tears after trying to slap and fold/ handling an extremely wet dough.

2. The Bread Code's recipe has worked very well for me, and I thought it'd be good to see if some of the methodology could be applied to The Perfect Loaf's recipe!

I'm also still a novice at baker's percentages, but here's a breakdown of the entire process:

10% Rolled Oats (50g cooked with 100g water)
80% Bread Flour (Bob's Red Mill)
20% Whole Wheat Flour (Bob's Red Mill)
1% Salt (This is an approximate because the oats were cooked with a little salt!)
65% hydration

Instead of a levain, I used my starter directly.

1 hr autolyse — This is where I deviated from The Perfect Loaf's recipe and followed The Bread Code's. Was worried about adding the starter too early and starting fermentation prematurely. Did not add the full amount of water here as I had read that the oats would release quite a bit of water.

After autolyse — Added in the oats, along with the 1% salt. Dough felt a little dry so i added in a few drops of the remaining water just to make sure everything was incorporated.

5 sets of coil folds during bulk fermentation. Took 7 hrs for bulk fermentation!

Shaped dough. Tried to shape as tightly as possible. Forgot to top dough with rolled oats :/ Reminder to self to do this next time.

Proofed in banneton (in a plastic bag) at ambient temperature for 1 hr. Did 2 poke tests just to be very sure.

Cold ferment in fridge for 12 hrs.

Baked in dutch oven at 220C (Covered, 20mins) and then another 30mins uncovered.

Cooled loaf for 10 hrs before I couldn't wait anymore! Was very curious about the inside!

June 21, 2022 - 5:31am
HeiHei29er's picture
HeiHei29er

Country Blonde Sourdough

The final request for the long weekend was a basic "white" sourdough that would be sized well for a toaster.  I decided to make a blonde with cross loaf scoring to make it lengthen instead of spread and bloom.  I do like the look of the long score with a big bloom, but I must say there's something to be said for the "clean" look of this scoring too.  

I was due for a starter refresh, so in this case, I used starter discard (6-hour feed discard) as seed instead of building a levain.

Discard
64g    Bread Flour
77g    Water (120% hydration)

Final Dough
247.5g   All Purpose Flour
98g        Bread Flour
13.5g     Whole Wheat Flour
13.5g     Sifted Durum
6.8g       Dark Rye
6.8g       Barley Flour
67.5g     Raisin Yeast Water
157g      Water
9g          Sea Salt

1)   Combine Discard and all Final Dough ingredients except salt.  Mix until all flours are just wetted.
2)   Let rest for 15 minutes
3)   One set of bowl kneading (24-28 folds).  Fold in salt during the first 4-5 folds during this process.
4)   Rest 10 minutes
5)   One set of bowl kneading (15-20 folds).
6)   Rest 90 minutes at 78 deg F.
7)   Two sets of bowl kneading (12-16 folds) with 30 minute rests between sets.  Ferment at 78 deg F.
8)   Pre-shape when dough volume has increased 75-80%.  Dough should have some jiggle to it.
9)   Final proof until dough has increased 25-50% at 78 deg F (45 minutes for me).
10) Cold retard overnight (8 hours)
11)  Preheat oven to 465 deg F with Fibrament stone.  Presteam oven with about 1/3 cup boiling water 2-3 minutes before loading dough.  Score dough straight across loaves about 1/4 inch deep.  Add 2/3 cup boiling water immediately after loading dough.
12)  Bake 465 deg F (1 minute), 400 deg F (19 minutes); vent oven; 425 deg F (10-15 minutes).  Remove when you have hollow thump.

 

They're taking this one home, so no crumb photo.  :-)

June 20, 2022 - 7:36pm
StevenSensei's picture
StevenSensei

Oat Porridge Sourdough (Tartine 3 Modified by Chelseasf @ The Fresh Loaf)

In planning meals for the week we decided that one night we wanted to just have a nice sandwich for dinner. A request was put in for an oat bread of some kind. Not having a go to recipe for this of course it was time to scour the fresh loaf. I ran across this beautiful post from Chelseasf and decided it was the way to go. I took her recipe and followed it but the hydration was way too high yet again. This is a trend I have seen in the Tartine recipes. I'm not sure how Chelseasf was able to produce such a beautiful loaf of bread. This one was another that got tossed into a loaf pan and baked off. 

I think I also ended up with a slightly over proved loaf as well as temperatures are on the rise and we all know weather will effect the bake. The results aren't bad but I honestly think could be much better. 

In an attempt to make sure that the bread was fully cooked I also ended up with a loaf that was a bit darker than ideal. Next time I will reduce the hydration (by adding in the oatmeal hydration into the overall hydration level). I really should not blindly follow directions and remember that soaker / porridge moisture must be included in the final calculations. 

RECIPE AND CALCULATIONS HERE 

 

Tasting Notes: Just a good solid oat bread with a kick of sourdough flavor. Not super sour and the oats shine through. Crust is great but the crumb is a bit like a crumpet (again from the over hydration issue). I think with some adjustments this will be a super solid sandwich loaf. 

Time/Effort: 3 days (Growing Levain, Mixing Dough, Baking) Normal for sourdough for my process.

Would I make it again: Yes, with some adjustments for hydration. This strikes me as a very basic solid bread that will not be the focus of the meal but a good support for other things. Next time I need to do a sandwich loaf I can easily returning to this one. 

June 18, 2022 - 6:45am
Benito's picture
Benito

Anis Bouabsa Baguettes (IDY)

Anis Bouabsa baguettes have been very popular on TFL over the years and I realized that I’ve only baked them three times so far.  Only once plain, another time with a sesame seed coat and then a third time with chocolate (this was so good).  Since there’s been chatter about Bouabsa baguettes recently I thought I’d try a fourth bake.  I so seldom bake with IDY I was very anxious about over proofing.  I don’t think they are over proofed but I do think my scores were a touch shallow.



Mix IDY and diastatic malt into water, then flour and mix until no dry flour remains.  Autolyse for 20 mins.

Add salt and bassinage water, pinching, squeezing and Rubaud to incorporate.

Rest for 5 mins.

French folds x 200 to develop dough moderately well.

Place in a bowl doing coil folds at 20 min intervals for 60 mins.

Cold retard dough for about 20 hours.

The next day

Pre-heat oven to 500°F  and prepare for steam baking as usual.

Divide dough into 3 portions and shape each into a roll.  Rest 20 mins then shape into baguettes and place in a floured couche.  The dough should pass the finger poke test when ready to bake.

30 mins into pre-heat pour boiling water into the Sylvia towel in your metal loaf pan.

Load baguettes, add 1 cup boiling water to the pre-heat cast iron skillet and reduce temperature to 470°F and bake for 13 mins.

Vent oven, drop temperature to 425-450°F and bake for a further 10-13 mins until the crust is the colour you prefer.  You will need to rotate the baguettes during this period to ensure even browning of all three.

Remove and cool on a rack.





All three are going to a friend’s place so no crumb photos.

My index of bakes.

June 17, 2022 - 6:26pm
CrustyJohn's picture
CrustyJohn

Rouge de Bordeaux tests

I got a bag of Rouge de Bourdeaux (85% extraction) flour from Dayspring Farms recently and have been wanting to test out the flavor of it.  Here's a quick write up of my first go-rounds with it.  

 

My first attempt was a purist attempt to get an unclouded sense of the flour:

100% Rouge de Bourdeaux flour (85%) extraction

80% hydration

standard process and timing (as much as this current heat will allow) except for a slightly longer autolyse

I was anticipating doing 85% hydration, thinking that a whole(er) wheat flour should be able to handle that.  I added all but 5% of the water, with the intention of adding the remainder with the salt.  But it became apparent that even at 80% I was bordering on more water than the flour could handle.  While it would feel like I was developing gluten doing stretch and folds, the dough would never hold shape.  I was able to somewhat shape it and do a cold proof, which made it somewhat possible to get the dough into the dutch oven with some structure.  Surprisingly, it baked up ok, with a decent (very wet) crumb.  Pretty good flavor, no bitterness.

Round 2 involved taking a Tartine No. 3 recipe for Wheat-Rye loaf with coriander and carraway.

Central Milling bread flour- 45%

Dayspring Rouge de Bourdeaux- 45%

Dark Rye- 10%

Wheat Germ- 7%

Water- 85%

Leaven- 5%

Salt- ~2%

Fennel Seed, Coriander Seed, toasted, rough ground- ~ 1tbsp each

 

Standard process.  Despite higher hydration, dough was much more manageable.  I expected a better crumb based on the feel of the dough as it developed, but the final bread was a little lackluster- a little dry.  Crumb not especially open, nor especially chewy.  Flavor pretty good.  The seeds are a nice flavor without being overpowering.   Weird note- partway through baking, I think sometime after I dropped the temp down to 450, I ran out of propane and had to switch out tanks.  While that should have been after the critical oven-spring period and not affected it too much, it probably had some less-than-ideal impact.  

 

All in all, I'm not super excited by this flour.  Maybe I just need to feel it out more.  Maybe going back to a more standard bread flour heavy loaf might provide a good comparison point.  

June 17, 2022 - 3:48pm
Benito's picture
Benito

Matcha Chocolate 30% Whole Wheat Sourdough Hokkaido Milk Bread

I’ve done swirled, flavored milk breads before but they were based on another baker’s formula. This is my first time doing a swirled milk bread based on my 25% whole wheat Hokkaido milk bread recipe. If you look closely at the formula I’ve greatly increased the percent pre-fermented flour. The reason for this is that this dough is even more enriched than usual. Both the matcha paste and cocoa have extra sugar added to them. Without the extra fermentation from the larger amount of levain, there is a great risk that the dough would ferment extremely slowly. Despite the fact that this uses a stiff sweet levain which reduces the LAB. Given a long very slow fermentation they would eventually catch up and make the dough very sour. This has happened to me before so now I compensate by increasing the pre-fermented flour, which works very well.





7 g dark cocoa powder (5%) with 10 g sugar
8.5 g matcha 17 g sugar and just enough water to make a thick paste

 

Instructions
Levain
Mix the levain ingredients in a jar or pyrex container with space for at least 300% growth.
Press down with your knuckles or silicone spatula to create a uniform surface and to push out air.
At a temperature of 76ºF, it typically takes up to 10-12 hours for this sweet stiff levain to be at peak. For my starter I typically see 3-3.5 times increase in size at peak. The levain will smell sweet with only a mild tang.
Tangzhong
In a sauce pan set on medium heat, stir the milk and flour until blended. Then cook for several minutes until well thickened, stirring regularly with a spoon or heat-resistant spatula. Let cool in the pan or, for faster results, in a new bowl. Theoretically it should reach 65ºC (149ºF) but I don’t find I need to measure the temperature as the tangzhong gelatinizes at this temperature. You can prepare this the night before and refrigerate it, ensure that it is covered to prevent it from drying out.

If you plan on using a stand mixer to mix this dough, set up a Bain Marie and use your stand mixer’s bowl to prepare the tangzhong.

Dough
In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the milk (consider holding back 10 g of milk and adding later if this is the first time you’re making this), egg, tangzhong, salt, sugar, diastatic malt and levain. Mix and then break up the levain into many smaller pieces. Next add the flours. I like to use my spatula to mix until there aren’t many dry areas. Allow the flour to hydrate (fermentolyse) for 20-30 minutes. Mix on low speed and then medium speed until moderate gluten development this may take 5-10 mins. You may want to scrape the sides of the bowl during the first 5 minutes of mixing. Next add room temperature butter one pat at a time. The dough may come apart, be patient, continue to mix until it comes together before adding in more butter. Once all the butter has been added and incorporated increase the speed gradually to medium. Mix at medium speed until the gluten is well developed, approximately 10 mins. You will want to check gluten development by windowpane during this time and stop mixing when you get a good windowpane. You should be able to pull a good windowpane, not quite as good as a white flour because the bran will interrupt the windowpane somewhat.

Place the dough on the countertop and fold to create a nice round of dough. Divide the dough into three portions. Form a tight boule with the largest portion. Place one dough portion into the stand mixer adding the cocoa sugar mix and mix until well incorporated. Remove and form a tight boule. Clean the bowl and the dough hook. Add the final portion of dough and gradually add the matcha paste until you get a good green colour that is well incorporated. I find that this dough is stickier than the other two because of the matcha. Form a tight ball on the counter.

Lightly flour a work surface and the plain dough boule. Roll out to at least 12” in length and almost as wide as the length of your pan, set aside. Continue to do the same with the other two balls next rolling the chocolate dough out to 12” and placing that on top of the plain rolled out dough. Finally rolling the matcha dough out again to 12” and finally placing that on top of the chocolate dough.

Roll the laminated three doughs out to about 16-18” in length. Next tightly roll the laminated doughs starting with the short end until you have a swirled log. Score the dough diagonally across at approximately 1 cm intervals. Place the log in your prepared Pullman pan with the seam side down, buttering the pan or lining it with parchment paper. Place in the proofing box set to 82-84ºF to proof until the dough comes to approximately 1 cm below the edge of the Pullman pan. This takes about 9-10 hours at 82ºF. This is an enriched dough so it will be slow to proof despite the increase in pre-fermented flour.

Preheat the oven to 350F and brush the dough with the egg-milk wash. Just prior to baking brush with the egg-milk wash again.

Bake the loaves for 50 minutes or until the internal temperature is at least 190ºF, rotating as needed to get even browning. Shield your loaf if it gets brown early in the baking process. After 50 mins remove the bread from the pan and bake a further 10 mins by placing the loaf directly in the oven on the rack with the oven turned down to 325ºF. You can brush the top of the loaf with butter if you wish at this point while the bread is still hot to keep the top crust soft.






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