dabrownman's blog

This week’s smoked meats included the usual sausage, chicken thighs and pork ribs but Lucy threw in a 3 pound chuck roast that was on the thick side too. Normally we would smoke a pastrami, corned beef or brisket but they are ridiculously expensive and Chuck roast is half the price.  She wanted to see if this usually slow braised meat could be smoked and pulled like a pork shoulder

She also wanted something to celebrate the Dow crushing 21,000, which it did this morning – about a month after it crossed 20,000 on January 25th.  This the fastest 1,000 point rise in Dow history – quite an achievement although a 1,000 point rise was only 5% and quit unlike the % rise it took to go from 1000 to 2,000.  Some of us are old enough to remember the Dow closing at 837 in 1974 and then 10 years later also closing at 837 in 1984.  Those were not great investing years and called ‘The Lost Decade.’

But we are celebrating today because the pulled beef turned out great and it on[y took half the time in the smoker as the brisket too at 6 hours to h=get to 195 F!  So, we needed some buns quickly and they had to be good so instant yeast, sugar, butter and Half and Half seemed to be the way to go in Lucy’s mind bit then she tossed in some potato flakes to make them potato buns.

After a slap and fold mix per the recipe below, we did the usual slap and folds to get it all incorporated and then did 2 more sets of 8 all on 30 minute intervals.  Then we did 3 sets of 4 stretch and folds,  We let the dough ferment for a while to let it puff up before shaping into thin buns and letting them proof for about an hour  We washed them with half and half and then slid them on the bottom stone at 400 F for 12 minutes before turning the oven down to 350 F for another 12 minutes.

They browned up very nice and we brushed them with half and half when they came out of the oven to keep them soft and put a shine on them.   It was 5 hours from start to finished baking.  These rolls are delicious and were perfect for the pulled beef sandwiches.  These are our go to fast buns and we make them in SD too using 15% pre-fermented flour in the 3 stage, 12 hour NMNF levain – if you want them to be done in 5 -6 hours you have to use 30% pre-fermented flour and have the levain built before you start counting the hours.

Mix everything except the salt & butter for 30 minutes before adding in the left outs.

100% LaFama AP with 2 pinches of instant yeast

14% egg

10% Potato flakes

10% Non-Fat Dry Milk Powder

17% unsalted Butter

65% Half and Half

2% salt

Lucy started off to do a more complicated bread by getting the 5 grain sprouts going on Wednesday but we forgot about the new Fig Yeast Water we started last Friday from the re-hydration soaking water left over from last week’s bake.  We wanted to include it in a SD / YW combo bake but it took a day longer than planned to get up to full ramming speed.

It was also very cold again with the house hovering at 62 F overnight.  We were too lazy to get the heating pad out till this morning for the dough so both of the overnight levains were very slow with the SD one the worse for the cold.  Now I was worried the bread wouldn’t get out of the oven before the wife got home to yell at me again:-)   I only had 8 hours total from mix to cooling rack and it is still 62 F in the kitchen.

The YW levain had managed to double overnight but the SD one only managed 50%.  The levain mix was 30% whole sprouted rye, spelt, Kamut, red and white wheat in equal amounts.  The bran from the sprouted flour was used for the SD levain's first build since it is SD LAB that really benefit from the buffering effect of the bran and there isn’t any LAB in yeast water. All of the whole sprouted grains were in the two levains.

We incorrectly thought the YW would be slower than the SD so we used the bulk of the high extraction sprouted flour for the YW levain at 18% pre-fermented flour and the bran SD levain came in at 12% pre-fermented flour for a total of 30% pre-fermented flour – a whopping total amount for Lucy ......but it is very cold, the heating pad can only do so much and I’m tired of being yelled at for not getting the bread out of the oven in time!

We autolyzed the LaFama AP dough flour for 30 minutes with the remaining water that brought the overall hydration to 78%.  Once the levains hit the mix, we did 60 slap and folds to get it all incorporated and then did 2 more sets of 10 slap and folds and 3 sets of 4 stretch and folds – all on 30 minute intervals.  We let the dough rest for a half an hour before pre-shaping and shaping into a boule for the rice floured basket.

It had risen about 25% during gluten development and bulk ferment stage.  It sat on the heating pad for 1 1/2 hours proofing away before it was time to preheat the oven and combo cooker to 500 F.  We unmolded the dough onto parchment on a peel, slashed the top tic-tack-toe style and slid it into the CC and then into the oven between the top and bottom stones for 18 minutes of steam.

Yes it is a half pound lamb burger with cheese - only ate half at a time though!

After 5 minutes, we turned the oven down to 450 F.  When the lid came off, the bread had bloomed and sprang well enough and now it was just a matter of 12 more minutes of dry heat at 425 F with the fan on.  It browned up nicely and hit 209 F on the inside when it was removed to the cooling rack.

It was 5 hours from mixing to being out of the oven for this bread.  Can’t wait to taste it and see how it fares for a fast bread without commercial yeast.  We will have to wait on the crumb shots until tonight's gumbo requires sopping up!. It turned out to be what we thought it would be.  Moderately open. very moist and slightly sour bread .

Perfect for sandwiches and sopping up the gumbo.... and the gumbo was killer lots of Swai, shrimp, Andouille and chicken with that dark roux.  We couldn't stop eating it.

Formula

12% prefermented flour SD Bran Levain using 5 grain sprouted flour and NMNF rye starter at 100% hydration

18% prefermented High Extraction 5 grain sprouted flour at 100% hydratiom

Dough

70% LaFama AP 

enough water for 78% ovderall hydration

2% PH sea salt

Here is the Recipe Queen when she isn't resting.  She wnats to taste that Naan real bad.

Naan Recipe

2 g of Instant yeast

400 g of LaFama AP Four

280 g water with 20 g NFDMP

8 g PH sea salt

25 g of butter - don't incorporate the butter until the dough is fully hydrated.

25 g of sugar

Lucy says to have a salad with that Chicken Tikka Masala and Naan made on the grill - both were fantastic.

Lucy really went to work this week to come up with a bread that would fit the Oriental Pullman pan perfectly – with the lid on!  A more complex kind of bread so she didn’t specify sprouting the whole grains so we got off a bit easy this week.  Every time I turned around she was pulling put another grain, seed or nut long hidden away that pantry she guards with her life.

The whole grains really came in at 11 if you count the wild rice with the red and white wheat, emmer, spelt, rye, oat, barley, Kamut, corn, buckwheat.  We haven’t put corn in bread for a while but we like grinding popcorn for it.  We have been fond of wild rice in bread since hanseata, (Karin), turned Lucy onto it and Maria Speck’s Aroma Bread.   This one is loosely based on a combination of those two fine breads.

The 100% hydration, 3 stage, bran and HEE 10 grain levain used 13% pre-fermented flour built over 12 hours from 10 g if our whole rye NMNF starter.  This time we did not retard the levain which is quite un usual for us.  We did autolyse the dough flour.  The whole grains came in at 30% with the wild rice omitted from this calculation.

Once the salt and levain hit the autolyze we mixed it all together with 50 slap and folds.  We did 2 more sets of 1 slap and folds and 3 sets of 4 stretch and folds – all on 30 minute intervals.  The rehydrated figs, toasted seeds, nuts and cooked wild rice were folded in during the 1st set of stretch and folds

 We then pre-shaped and final shaped the dough into a loaf to fit the Pullman and let it proof on the counter for 2 hours before placing it in the fridge for a 20 hour retard – something we rarely do.  The Pullman was covered with oiled plastic but we placed a large pie plate holding an apple and blueberry galette over the top of it to make sure it couldn’t rise over the top of the pan so that we could get the lid on before going to bed.

Since it had already risen to the top of the pan before we went to bed, we decided to bake it straight out if the fridge first thing in the morning, especially since it was oozing out of the top.  We pre-heated the oven to 500 F and when it hit temperature we slid the Pullman into the oven between the two stones and turned it down to 450 F.

After 20 minutes of steam, we slid the lid off and turned the oven down to 425 F convection and continued to bake for 25 minutes before unmolding the bread and finishing baking on the stone – about 15 more minutes.  When the lid came off it looked pretty good even though it stuck a bit and was difficult to slide.  Everything browned up after it came out of the Pullman.  We will have to wait on the crumb shot.

It has been a long time since I posted one of Lucy's lunches.  Guacamole, Pico, Gouda, brie and cranberry goat cheeses, a small salad, a couple of strawberries and half sandwich of bologna and smoked turkey, lettuce cheese and tomato.

If you have never had gussied up wild rice, aroma bread you really need get some somehow and give it a go.  It is ine of the great breads in the long list of great breads.  It is just delicious, earthy, healthy, exotic, soft, moist, bread that smells good too.  You won't be disappointed.

Formula

13% pre-fermented 10 grain HE flour and  bran levain, 3 stage @ 100% hydration

Dough

17% 10 grain HE flour

70% LaFama AP flour

80% overall hydration

15% pecans and pistachios

15% Turkish figs

15% Pepitas and sunflower seeds

10% dry weight wild rice that was then cooked for 1 hour

2% PH Sea Salt

We also made some more poolish reduced sugar brioche buns for hamburgers this week – with sesame seeds on top.  They were also very nice looking and tasty too!

Formula

100% LaFama AP

70% NFDMP hydration

2% salt

2.5% sugar

10% butter

10% egg

The name isn’t really all it is cracked up to be.  Yes, it has 3 toasted seeds folded into the mix – squash, sunflower and flax.  But is also has 8 different sprouted seeds and at least 2 unsprouted seeds that were ground into flour.  So, this could be called a 13, some sprouted, seed sourdough too.

No matter what it is called. Sprouted seeded sourdough is one of our favorite breads.  We have so many favorite breads it is hard to rank them but this would be in the top 10 or 20 for sure:-)  Our favorites seem to change based on what we are baking this week.

It has been a big bread week.  Yesterday was national bagel and lox day and it was also national pizza day – three of our favorite foods.  We went to Pizzeria Bianco in Saturday, the Best pizza place in the USA for a decade, the Bagel Man yesterday and we also made pizza last night.  Today was all seeded sourdough.

My daughter said the pizza at Biaco’s was the best she had ever had because his crust is the thinnest, the mushrooms were smoked and the sausage fantastic.  That lasted best tag for Bianco’s lasted less than week- until last night.  She now says my pizza is better than Chris Bianco’s.

Don’t you wish you had such a smart offspring who is always right about everything?   She says my crust is just as thin and crisp but has garlic, rosemary and sundried tomato in it so it tastes better.  I smoked the Italian sausage, onions and mushrooms this time and my tomato sauce is a day long, complex affair instead of plain crushed fresh tomatoes.

My take is that Chris’s WFO gives him a slight edge but my pizzas only cost $3 and his are a $17 minimum-  plus my house wine is better and cheaper too J   I have to admit that I try to make my pizzas using Chris’s as inspiration and guide and have spent 10 years trying to get somewhere close to his level with a 550 F oven at home.  With a WFO and 900 F, I could almost be there!

The Bagel Man is a Valley of the Sun transplant from NYC where he spent 30 years learning to make bagels.  He makes the best bagels in the Phoenix area by far and his lox is as good as you can find.  4 take out bagels, with enough cream cheese and lox to put on them will set you back $25 but they are worth it, just like Chis Bianco’s pizzas.  Needless to say, we have been living well of late!  Now if todays bread was half as good…..

The 8 sprouted grains for the bread were: red and white wheat, rye, spelt, buckwheat oat, barley and Kamut.  The100% hydration levain was a 16% pre-fermented flour, 3 stage bran one where the first stage was the bran from the 8 sprouted grains and the next two was high extraction 8 sprouted grain flour.

The whole sprouted grains were 40% of the flour and the overall hydration was 85% soit was a bit wetter than usual.  We autolyzed the dough flour and water for 1 hour with the 2% PH sea salt sprinkled on top.  Once the levain hit the mix, we did 50 slap and folds and then 2 sets of 6 slap and folds followed by 3 sets of 4 stretch and folds all on 30 minute intervals.

The 8% each of the 3 seeds were toasted and folded in during the first set of stretch and folds.  After shaping we dropped the dough into a tall basket, rice floured basket that we don’t use very often, placed it in a trash can liner and into the fridge for a 20 hour retard.  Once it came out f the cold we let it warm up for 2 hours on the counter.

After unmolding and slashing in a triangle we dropped it into a 550 F preheated combo cooker for 5 minutes of steam at 500 F and 13 minutes more steam at 450 F.  We then took the lid off and continued baking at 425 F convection for 56 minutes before removing the bread from the bottom of the combo cooker and allowed it to finish baking on the bottom stone for another 6 minutes.

The bread was 207 F on the inside when we set it out to cool.  We were kind if worried when we unmolded the dough and slashed it.  It was a bit over proofed and collapsed in the middle when slashed.  But it did recover to spring and bloom in the CI cooker.  It browned to that mahogany color we love so much and the smell of the bread when it came out of the oven was outstanding.

Hopefully the crumb will be nice too!  The crumb came out soft, moist and fairly open for a bread like this one.  The best part is that it is seriously tasty.  My future SIL said 'This is really good!' and I have to agree.  This combination of seeds is just delicious in a SD bread.  Yummy indeed!

Pizza

50% each Lafama AP and Smart and Final High Gluten

70% water

2% salt

10% pre-fermented polish with a pinch of IDY fermented for 3 hours.

1T each of fresh chopped rosemary, sun dried tomato and garlic for half the dough

Slap and folds and stretch and folds over 2 hours and then 24 retard in the fridge.  Each pizza was 253 g of dough.  (2) 13.5” Pizzas were baked at 550 F for 8 minutes.  One was a Margarita Pizza with smoked onions and ricotta added.  The other was the same with additional smoked sausage, smoked mushroom  and very thin pepperoni.

Seed Sourdough

16% pre-fermented 100% hydration bran and HE 8 sprouted grain levain - retarded 12 hours after 3rd stage doubling.

Dough

24% High extraction 8 sprouted grains

30% Lafama AP

30% Smart and Final high gluten

85% water overall

2% PHSS

8% each toasted; squash, sunflower and flax seeds.

Lucy says to have a great salad with that pizza and sunset

Lucy and I were trying to remember the last time we made an all wheat bread and came up with the thought that it had been a really long, long time.  This week was a good one for several reasons so we decided to celebrate it with something we rarely do – make an all wheat bread.

What made this week great was that yesterday was my birthday and it was a special one – 65.  Wow! I am officially old and on Medicare.  The 2nd milestone happened today.  The Dow crossed over 20,000 for the 2nd time ever…. having hit it for the first-time last week and then retreating back into the 19,000’s.  If it can close over 20,000 today it would be a very good sign indeed.  Yea!  I did close over 20.0000.

Though not as old as so many others, I am still old, especially when my apprentice reminded me that I was investing in the stock market and saw the Dow cross 1,000 for the first time….. and have seen it cross every 1,000 point milestone, some several times, since that time so long ago – 44 odd years now.  It has been 44 years since I left Vietnam for the 2nd time as well.

It took the stock market 156 years to go over 1,000 from its founding in 1817.  The stock markets birthday is in early March and it will be 200 years old.  That isn’t a long time for European standards but the first stock market was formed in London in 1773 when the USA did not even exist.  Oddly, it was only 44 years before the New York stock market opened after the London exchange.  44 looms big this week for me.

It took 156 years for the NY stock market to get over 1,000 but only 44 years for it to get over 20,000 – Wow, what a ride it has been.  I have seen a lot in 44 years of investing but the speed of the markets huge advance over my investing lifetime just reflects the huge changes in wealth of the country over that time. 

In 1817 the few businesses of America, and America itself, just weren’t worth all that much.  The whole country was pretty poor by today’s standards.  Today, the businesses in America are worth astronomical sums of money even though the dollar isn’t worth what it once was in 1973 - not even close.

The US dollar wasn’t created until 1777 but by 1781 it was only worth 1/40th if its original value. The currency collapsed in 1782.  The first bank in the USA was opened in 1782 – the Bank of North America.  But, there was no money to put in it…… so the US borrowed money from France to open it.

Near the end if the Revolutionary War, the country was so broke the government could no longer issue bonds to fund the war.  Superintendent of Finance for the USA, Robert Morris had to issue bonds in his own name, that were financed by his own personal funds, to cover costs for the final months of the war.  Robert was a believer.

 In the 1790’s, US treasury bonds were being traded at 1% of their face value.  The dollar and US bonds were the most horrible investments.  The Revolutionary War had bankrupted the entire country.  We were terribly in debt to France and the country wasn’t worth the paper that was printed to fund it.

For last Sunday's football playoffs we had to have ribs, sausage and chicken from the smoker

Those were the very worst of times the US has ever faced financially.  They were way, way worse than the Depression or having the 20 trillion dollars in debt we have today.  But, if you aren’t a history buff or lived through it, you wouldn’t have a clue what really hard times are like, how far we have come or how blessed we are today because of people like Robert Morris throughout our short history as a country.

Made some smothered breakfast, chorizo, potato, onion and egg smothered burritoes for my daughter to habe during the week.

The moral if the story is clear.  If you are young, disciplined and insightful, learn to invest in yourself and our country's future today…… then there is a very, very good chance you can become very rich by the time you are old.  It has always been so and will always be so….. as long as there are enough people just like you who are willing to sacrifice for all the right reasons to collect the benefits later in life.  It pays to be a believer.

Do not listen to the many around you who say it can’t be done today.  Ninsense!  They are fools and are never to be trusted to do anything at any time.  Keep them far away from you.  If you want to have over $1 million in today’s money by the time you are 65 and you are 21 today, all you have to do is invest $6.41 every day in the S&P 500 index and increase that amount by 3% every year – that’s it.  You don’t have to know or do anything else it is that easy – no worries.  Be a believer.

On to this week’s bake: the levain was a 2 stage, 100% hydration one using a bit less than 12 % pre-fermented flour.  The first stage was half of last week’s rye levain; 38 g of while rye retarded for a week and then adding 12 g of red and white wheat sprouted bran for stage two and letting it rise again 50%.

The dough white flour was half Smart and Final high gluten from the bins and half LaFama AP, which works out to a bread flour I suppose, and the remaining 76 g of high extraction sprouted red and white wheat.  We autolyzed the dough flour and water with the 2% salt sprinkled on top waiting for the levain to rise – about 2 hours.  The overall hydration was 78% but it could easily have taken 5% more water.

We did 50 slap and folds to get the levain and salt mixed in and 2 more sets of 6 slap and folds all on 30 minute intervals.  Then we did 2 stretch and folds from the compass points only on 45 minute intervals.  We shaped and pre-shaped the dough into a boule, placed the dough seam side up in a rice floured basket and bagged it in a trash can liner for 12 hours of retardation in the fridge.

When the dough came out of the fridge we fired up the oven with the combo cooker inside to the preheat temperature of 550 F.  The dough was unmolded onto parchment, on a peel, slashed tic-tack-toe style and placed in the cooker for 6 minutes of steam at 500 F and 12 more minutes at 450 F.

Once the lid came off we lowered the temperature to 425 F - convection on now.   We then removed the bread from the bottom of the combo cooker after 6 minutes and continued to bake on the bottom stone for another 12 minutes until the bread was nicely brown and 207.5 F on the inside.

It sprang, blistered and bloomed well under steam but we will have to wait to see how the crumb is when we slice it for lunch.  Since it is only 33% whole and sprouted grain, the crumb should be pretty open - fingers crossed.  The crumb came out, soft, moist, and glossy.  But once again, it is the taste that is amazing.  Our new favorite white bread. 

Let's have another salad for Lucy

Formula

Levain – 12% prefermented flour, rye and sprouted wheat bran levain – 2 stage and 100% hydration retarded for 1 week after whole rye stage 1 doubled.

Dough

21% high extraction red and white sprouted wheat

33.5% Smart and Final high gluten

33.5% LaFama AP

Water to bring the overall hydration to 78%

2% Pink Himalayan sea salt.

Last week we had no time and wanted to see how the yeast affected the flavor of the sourdough bread.  This week Lucy wanted to get some pecans and cranberries in the mix and get the yeast out because we had the time to do it with no worries about the wife coming home in tome to smell the bread baking.  The 7 sprouted grain flour was equal parts of Kamut, rye, oat, buckwheat, red and white hard wheat and barley.

This bran, 3 stage, 100% hydration levain was made on the heating pad from 10 g of our 2 day refreshed rye NMNF starter.  The first two stages were all whole rye and when it doubled we retarded it for 24 hours. We divided the 2 stage levain in half for next week’s bake and the 3rd stage for half was all of the bran from the 50% sprouted 7 grain flour that was added when the 2 stage levain was taken out of the fridge.  The total pre-fermented flour of the levain was a bit less than 14%

When the bran went into the levain we started the autolyze with the dough water (which brought the overall hydration up to 85%), the high extraction sprouted 7 grain flour and the 50% LaFama AP with the 2% pink Himalayan sea salt sprinkled on top.  The 3rd stage of the levain doubled in 2.5 hours so we mixed it into the autolyze and did 50 slap and folds to get it all mixed up.

We then did 2 more sets of 10 slap and folds and 3 sets of stretch and folds.  All gluten development iterations were done on 30 minute intervals.  12% each chopped toasted pecans and dried cranberries were added to the dough during the 1st set of stretch and folds.

We did not rehydrate the cranberries this time to see if it makes a difference, the dough was pretty slack already, they were very fresh and soft plus Lucy forgot to soak them!  The dough started to come together better after the pecans and cranberries went in.  We did a quick pre-shape and then shaped the dough placing it into an oblong basket seam side down so we could bake it seam side up. 

The dough was then bagged in a brand-new trash can liner and placed into the fridge for an 18 hour retard.  When it came out of the fridge this morning we let it warm up on the counter for 2 hours, since it wasn’t fully proofed, before turning on the oven to preheat at 550 F

Once the oven was hot we put in the Mega Steam and waited 5 more minutes for the steam to really get billowing before we unmolded the dough onto parchment on a peel and slid the dough onto the bottom stone and turning the oven down to 500 F.  After 8 minutes, we turned the oven down to 450 F and continued to stream for another 10 minutes.

Salad and Tuna just go together.

We then continued to bake at 425 F convection for another 15 minutes until the bread was 208 F on the inside and brown enough on the outside.  It sprang hardly at all but we will have to wait in the crumb shot till lunch time.  The lack of spring shows it was 100% - about 15% more than it should have been.  I’m guessing the crumb will still be OK.

This bread is fine tasting. Sour for sure, a bit sweet and tart when you bite into a cranberry and nutty too.  The crumb is very soft and moist.  Fairly open as well.  We will like it for French toast and just regular toast with nothing more than butter.  Lucy thought about throwing some sunflower or squash seeds in there too but this bread doesn't miss them.  We like it a lot.  

Formula

14% pre-fermented, 3 stage, 7 sprouted grain bran and whole rye levain @ 100% hydration retarded for 24 hours after the 2nd stage. 5% sprouted bran flour and 9% rye

45% high extraction 7 sprouted grain

41% Lafama AP

85% overall hydration

2 % PH sea salt

12% each chopped toasted pecans and dried cranberries.

3 apple, strawberry, blueberry and ginger Galette

Lucy had come up with a 50% sprouted 9 gran SD for this week’s bake but, at the last minute, we saw Lazy Loafers 50% whole wheat bread that has a yeast kicker in it.  Normally we don’t put yeast in a SD bread because it just makes things go faster and reduces the flavor of the bread.

But we have been basing our thoughts on this based on things we have read and other Loafers posts.  Commercial bakers do it all the time to control time and promote consistent outcomes regardless of how it might taste. So, we thought we would add a polish to this bake and see how it worked out.

We were short of time and with the no baking rule when the wife is home in place, we really needed to speed things up, especially after the bran levain was so slow to come around – it took 16 hours to double on the heating pad, showing that the more 20 odd week retarded rye and wheat NMNF starters need to be refreshed sooner rather than later.

We took the 56 g of bran from the 9 sprouted grains for the first stage and mixed it with a like amount of water and 10 g each for rye and wheat NMNF starter.  It fermented for 8 hours before adding in 14 g each of high extraction sprouted 9 grain and water for stage 2 and it finally doubled 8 hours later.  It ended up being 16% pre-fermented flour.

2 hours before the levain was done we started the 30 g each LaFama AP / water with 1 g of Instant yeast to get a 7% pre-fermented flour poolish making for a total of 23% between the 2 preferments.  We also autolyzed the dough flour with the dough water.  The dough flour was the remaining HE 9 Sprouted grain and Lafama AP making the overall flour a 50/50 split between the two. 

We also added 10 g of, or 2.3% red rye malt to the autolyze to boost the flavor and color of the loaf and give it a subtle hint of sweetness and sprinkled 2% Pink Himalayan sea salt on top.  Since RRM is a sprouted whole grain, this technically put us over 50% whole sprouted grains for this bread but we aren’t counting.

Once the preferments hit the mix, we did 50 slap and folds to mix everything together and get the 80% overall hydrated mass fermenting.  The dough was put on a flexible plastic mat with a light EVOO coating and that was placed on the heating pad and covered with a stainless steel mixing bowl and kitchen towels to keep it warm between sets of stretch and folds.  This set up was necessary because it was only 64 F in the kitchen.

We did 4 more sets of stretch and folds, all on 30 minute intervals before preshaping and shaping into a batard and placing the dough in a rice floured, cloth lined basket for final proof on the heating pad.  Because of the cozy 80-82 F heating pad and the commercial yeast polish, it only took 2 hours to proof.   It was unmolded on parchment on a peel and slashed in diamonds

So 5 hours from mixing to the heat is pretty fast for us but not fast enough as the wife got home just in time to see the door of the oven close as the bread went in – OH OH!  The oven was at 500 F with Mega Steam in the bottom and we steamed the bread for 18 minutes before removing the steam and turning the oven down to 425 F – no fan this time.

!2 minutes later the bread was 206 F and we called it done and moved it to the cooling rack.  It had sprung and bloomed well enough and browned up too once the steam was gone.  When we sliced it the bread was moderately open for a bread at 50% whole sprouted grain.  The crust had softened wrapped in plastic overnight and the crust was soft and moist.

It didn’t smell like our normal straight SD and didn’t taste nearly as sour either.  The bread wasn’t as moist or open or sweet as it would have been with our YW kicker that we do use now and again with SD to open up high percent whole grain breads and cut their bitterness.  The crumb on this one wasn’t as open as the intensively mixed Lazy Loaf version of non-sprouted 50% whole wheat bread posted yesterday.

It could be the sprouted low or no gluten; oat, buckwheat, spelt, barley and rye that held back the open crumb or it could be poor baking.  The girls will like this bread a lot because it isn’t very sour but for me it isn’t as tasty as a straight SD bread.

It has been about forever since we had hamburgers, even when we try not to have them more than once a month.  At the last minute, they hit the dinner menu so we had to get a bun made fast.  These buns, shaped as thins at 107 g each, were made from 100% LaFama AP flour, 70% hydration, 2% sugar, 8% butter and 2% salt and 2 grams of instant yeast.

Nothing fancy.  After 3 sets of slap and folds on 30 minute intervals we skipped the stretch and folds and further bulk ferment and went right to shaping and final proof.  All work was done on a heating pad that was at 80-82 F all the time.  We only had a little bit over 3 hours to get them completely done from mixing to cooling. 

We egg washed them twice, 15 minutes apart, before placing them into a 375 F oven on the bottom stone for 10 minutes and then another 10 minutes at 350 F.  The crumb was soft moist and open and the crust was a lovely brown and sturdy enough for hamburger use – no crumbing.

Lucy finally got back to her German roots and came up with a rye bread that reminds her of home.  It is 70% whole grain rye and 30 % sprouted red and white wheat.  It had a bit of red malt, some barley malt syrup and some Deschutes Black Butte Porter for some of the liquid to bring out a dark color.

For add ins it has 15% walnuts, 15% prunes / Turkish figs and 6% toasted and ground aromatic seeds; half brown and black caraway, and the other half evenly split between fennel, coriander and anise.  At 90% hydration, we decided to pan it up in the Oriental Pullman pan we love so much.

This bread has 2 different 100% hydration NMNF starters in one levain; rye and wheat with a combined 13% pre-fermented rye and sprouted wheat bran flour.  It also has an apple yeast water levain with 13% pre- fermented bran flour in that mix too.  Both turned out to be 2 stage affairs.

We started both levains with the rye bran and high extraction flour while we dried the sprouted wheat.  Once the bran was sifted from the sprouted wheat it was added to both levains as the 2nd stage for each.  The wheat bran was stirred in at the 4 hour mark and we stirred the levains down at the 8 hour mark.  Both doubled on the 80 F heating pad at the 12 hour mark with the yeast water a bit tardy and lazy.

Once the levains were built, we put them in the fridge for an 8 hour retard to bring out the sour in one and teach the AYW one a lesson for hiding out in the fridge for months and months doing nothing.   It has been a while since we made a SD / YW combo rye bread.

We autolyzed the HE rye and sprouted HE wheat flour, red and barley malt syrup with the extra soaking liquid from the prunes and figs and the Deschutes Black Butte Porter for 1 hour with the pink Himalayan sea salt sprinkled on top as the levains warmed up again on the heating pad.

We did 50 slap and folds to get everything mixed together and then 3 sets of stretch and folds to get the add ins fully incorporated – all on 30 minute intervals.  Then we panned the dough up and let it proof on the heating pad until ready for the 450 F oven – this took about 4 hours.  After 20 minutes with Mega Steam we and turned the oven down to 385 F for another hour of baking until the loaf hit 201 F.

The last 10 minutes we took the loaf out of the pan and finished baking it right on the oven rack.  It came out pretty handsome on the outside.  Now we have to wait until tomorrow to see how the crumb looks and how it tastes.

This bread sliced perfecty into 1/4" slices After a 36 hour wait tO let the moisture redistribute.  The crumb was soft, moist and open for a bread of this type.  The taste is amazing.  You thonk there is nothing better than the smell of thos bread baking but then the flavor puts the smell to shame!  

Yes it is a pineapple upside down cake mdae with fresh pineapple.

The prunes amd figs with the soaking waer give the bread an extra sweetness when you bite into one.and the color of the crimb asrust is deep to dark brown.  No wonder this isone of Lucy's favorite b reads to make.  I like it too!

We Love Fritattas for brunch.  This one is: onion, kale, 2 sausage, 3 cheese, 2 mushroom and red pepper with some hot sauce.  Grilled tuna is still a favorite, especially served over a nice salad!

Formula

Levain

10 g each wheat and rye NMNF starter 10.5% pre-fermented rye and 2.5% sprouted wheat flour 100% hydration bran levain

10.5% Pre-fermented rye and 2.5% sprouted flour, 13% Apple Yeast Water bran Levain

Dough

23% high extraction sprouted red and white wheat flour

50% high extraction rye flour

6% aromatic seeds – half brown and black caraway and the other half evenly split between anise, coriander and fennel

3% red rye malt

2% Barley malt syrup

15% Walnuts

7.5% Prunes

7.5% Turkish figs

2% salt

64% Prune / fig soaking water and Deschutes Black Porter dough liquid.

Where is that girl baby?  She wants to eat that salad real bad!

We always have pizza on New Year’s Eve, every year ……… for years and years.  But this year we didn’t….. at least not homemade pizza.  We got a take out from Oregano’s and it was good but it just cannot compare to homemade pizza – sorry to Oregano’s.

W final got around to making pizza tonight for dinner.  It was simple crust.  13% high extraction sprouted 4 grain, 8% semolina and 79% Smart and Final High Gluten with a bit of olive oil, a pinch of instant yeast, 2% salt and 72% water.  No rosemary, fresh garlic or sun dried tomatoes in the dough this time – Lucy has been really lazy lately for some reason.

We did a few sets of slap and folds, 30 minutes apart with the dough resting on the heating pad under a bowl between sets until it showed a 30% rise.  The we placed it in an oiled bowl, covered it in plastic and retarded it for 24 hours.

When we took it out and divided it 3 hours before we made the 2 pies it had risen a full 100% in the cold.  It shaped well enough and once the oven had been at 550 F for half an hour we made the first pie using spicy homemade sauce, hot Italian sausage, pepperoni, green and red pepper, caramelized red and white onions and crimini mushrooms, Monterey Jack, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses with green onion and basil for garnish.

We let the pie bake for 5 minutes and then spun it and let it bake another 5 until it was brown and the crust crispy.  We hate wimpy, limp, foldable pizza.  We like it thin and crisp no matter how much stuff you put on it!  This one fit the bill perfectly.

It was delicious – no doubt about it.  Just Yummy!

It has been 3 weeks since we last baked a loaf of bread proving that IBBA (Insane Bread Baking Addiction) can be controlled to some degree – but I did bake some rolls 2 weeks ago -  for Christmas / Hanukkah.  We never did get around to baking fruitcake and panettone for the holidays either…..Lucy is getting pretty lazy if you ask me

We are out of bread completely after clearing put the freezer for the future son in law to take back to Colorado with the last of the smoked sausages and pulled pork.  So, we need everything.  White bread, whole grain bread, multi-grain bread, fruit and nut bread, All kinds of rye breads, rolls,  etc.

I am always amazed how much darker the bran levain is compared to the dough!

We are starting out new year with a basic 33% sprouted multi-grain sourdough bread.  The sprouted grains were composed of red and white wheat, Kamut and spelt.   The levain was a 2 stage sprouted bran one at 100% hydration and 13% pre-fermented flour.

The first 4 hour stage was all the bran from the sprouts.  Since the kitchen was 64 F it really didn’t do much of anything for 10 hours but we kept stirring it every 4 hours anyway.  At the 10 hour mark we got out the heating pad and cranked the levain up to 78 F and all was well – it doubled in 4 hours.  Just shows how important temperature is to all things trying to ferment.

We did a 30 minute autolyze with the pink Himalayan sea salt sprinkled on top.  Once the levain hot the mix the hydration was a tad over 78% sort of like a sprouted Forkish Country Brown loaf except the bulk of the flour was the cheapest, store brand, 10% protein, flour I got on sale at Albertson’s – 5# for 99 cents.

Since the AP was so weak, the mix started out pretty sloppy.  We did 50 slap and folds right off the bat to get everything mixed in an then did 2 sets of 8 slap and folds and 2 sets of 4 stretch and folds every 40 minutes with the dough resting on the heating pad, under a stainless bowl, in between manipulations to keep it warm.

At the 3.5 hour mark after mixing, we pre-shaped and then shaped the dough into a squat oval, it was still pretty sticky, and plopped it into a rice floured oval basket seam side down, Forkish style, hoping it wouldn’t stick.  After bagging it new trash can liner to start of the new year, we put it in the fridge for a 15 hour retard. 

It looked like it proofed pretty well in the cold so we decided to let it warm up on the counter as the oven heated up to 500 F with the combo cooker inside.  We then un-molded the bread, no slashing required and slid it into the combo cooker for 2 minutes of steam with the lid on turning the oven down to 460 F.

When the lid came off, we turned the oven down to 425 F convection this time and baked it for another 5 minutes before removing the bread from the bottom of the combo cooker to finish baking the bread on the bottom stone.  10 minutes later the bread was nice and brown and 208 F – ready for the cooling rack.

It had puffed itself up and blistered pretty well under the steam so we hope the crumb will be equally as nice when we slice it later today.  A good bread to start off the baking year.  The crumb was soft, open, moist and glossy.  This bread tastes grand and would make a fine everyday bread if we didn't make a new one every week!

Formula

13% pre-fermented sprouted bran and high extraction flour levain – 100% hydration – 65 g each flour and water

20% sprouted high extraction dough flour – 100 g

67% AP dough flour,  10% protein – 335 g

65 % water – 325 g

2 % PHS salt. – 10 g

I'm not sure how many Prickly Pear Margaritas we made over the Holidays...... but this was not the only one:-)