dabrownman's blog

It had been a while since we had used our cherry yeast water so we decided to make aa large 1 stage levain using some hard bits that was a 13% extraction multigrain soft and some AP.  It was refrigerated for 2 days after it doubled for this bake but we used some of it yesterday to make the cherry YW buns.

Lucy also thought it would be nice to add in a smaller SD levain too, making our favorite combo levain of 2 natural levains,  so that the bread would have the tiniest bit of tang and some much better keeping quality.  This two was made from the same 13% extraction sifted hard bits and was single stage build.  The SD levain was refrigerated for 18 hours after it doubled on the counter.

With the overnight lows in the upper 60’s the past couple pf days, we thought we could get away with having a larger total levain especially if the larger part was the slow acting  yeast water and still be able to have a long slow rising retard for the final proof. 

Being cooler, Lucy took this as a small opening to really pump up her Italian inspired ingredient list as well.  A little opening for her is really a huge and wide chasm and she didn’t disappoint.  2 Starters, 1 fruit 8 flours with 6 of them whole grains, 2 kinds of nuts; hazelnuts and almonds, and 6 kinds of seeds and 3 different liquids: apricot soaker water, coconut water and water rounded out the liquids.

This wouldn’t qualify for the minimum 15 Flour and No More Than 30 Ingredient Challenge bake but it is more than half way there.  But she wasn’t done yet either.  Lucy decided to do a new kind of bread shape that we have never tried before.

You roll out the final dough into a10” wide by 18” long rectangle, sprinkle on poppy and sesame seeds, cut it into 6 strips the long way with a pizza cutter, twist each strip and then twist all the strips together and then make a final circle with the twisted up rope.  The hydration was a little high for this and the strips were a little sticky so, when you make it ,you want to cut the hydration down to 72%.

You put the twisted up circle on parchment so that it can be easily transferred to the oven.   I think she saw this shaping on one of the cooking shows that originated out of London.  I’m guessing it was Lorraine Pascale, since she is a baker, but Lucy can’t remember for sure.

The things we kept sort of normal after we got the levains out of the fridge were: 1hour of autolyse for the dough flour and liquid with the salt sprinkled on top, 3 sets of slap and folds of 7, 2 and 1 minute followed by 3 sets of stretch and folds all on 20 minute intervals.  

We did pre-soak the dried apricots for the dough liquid and the chia seeds so that we could put these seeds into the dough without them stealing all the liquid.  The Apricots were squeezed to get the liquid out and then paper towel dried after they soaked for 24 hours in the fridge  We wanted to make sure they weren’t going to transfer any extra liquid to the dough.   My wife drank a half a can of coconut water before she decided she didn’t like it so Lucy used some of it for the dough liquid.

The seeds (less the poppy and sesaame seeds), nuts and apricots were added to the mix on the first set of stretch and folds and were complexly incorporated by the end of the 3rd set.  Then the rolling, seeds sprinkling, slicing, twisting and shaping began.  The final donut shaped loaf was bagged and placed in the fridge for a 20 hour retard and baking the next morning.

The bread didn’t proof much in the fridge and, when we took it out the next morning,  we set it on the counter for 3 hours to warm up  We then fired up  Big Old Betsy to 500 F and readied the Mega Steam.  Once the oven hit temperature we put the steaming apparatus on the bottom rack and in 15 minutes the stones were at temperature and the steam was billowing.

We slid the dough onto the bottom stone with a peel while turning the oven down to 465 F for 15 minutes of steam.  Once the steam came out we turned the oven down to 425 F convection until the bread registered 208 F on the inside.

It puffed and browned up nicely and came out of the oven crunchy.  We will have to see how this beautiful loaf on the outside looks on the inside and how it tastes once we cut it for lunch.  This bread is delicious.  The crumb came out fairly open for a 50% whole grain bread with so much other stuff in it,  was very soft and moist too.  It made a fine baconaise, black forest ham, smoked Gouda, lettuce and tomato sandwich to go with the bow tie pasta, assorted fruits, veggies and salad.  You can't buy this bread anywhere but if you could it would be sold out:-)  So treat yourself and your loved ones by making one of  your own  - a perfect bread for the holidays.  For those who aren't into sour bread, this one fits the bill as the YW mutes the tang. 

Formula

 Lucy reminds us to not forget the salad

We needed some buns for tonight's monthly hamburger and sausage feast.  Sadly,  my wife won't be around for dinner meaning that I can really have a feast. if i want to pay the price later with some wrath coming my way!  It was 64 F this morning so Lucy was a little more feisty than usual so she sort of winged this one;

We had started the YW levain for Friday's crazy, slightly more than weird, Italian bread bake and noticed we had way too much of it when we put it in the fridge for a 24 hours snooze after it doubled.  So we used some of it for these buns.

For once we started then early enough in the day to let them properly ferment and proof before egg washing them twice , sprinkling on some poppy seeds netween washings and baking them a 350 F convection for 18 minutes.

The total dough weight was 415 g (105 g each for the 4 buns).  We used 2% salt,  1 egg, 1 tsp of sugar and 4 T f butter to go long with the 20% levain, All AP dough with 65% milk ( I used NFDMP and water).  I didm't make a spreadsheet for these buns and just went by feel as I slapped and folded them 3 sets of 7, 2 and 1 minute and then did 3 sets of stretch and folds - all with 30 minute rests.  After a 3 hour bulk ferment we shaped them and did a 4 hour final proof at 82 F.

These are some fine buns and the best we have managed to date.  Beautful crust and a soft, moist, open, shreddable crumb.  No complaints after eating a burger for dinner - just deicious with cheddar cheese, green onion and bacon inside the burger, caramelized onion, mushrooms and Hatch green chilis. blue cheese, tomato and lettuce.

2014 Dabrownman’s TFL Blog Index

1/1/2014 - New Year’s Panettone - 2014

1/3/2014 - YW SD Spelt and White Whole Wheat Miche

1/5/2014 -  Saturday Night Pizza - 1/4/2014

1/7/2014 - YW SD ADY Poolish, Tang Zhong Rosemary, Sun Dried Tomato & Parmesan Buns

1/10/2014 - 28 % Whole Multigrain Sourdough with Corn, Potato, Farina and Oat.

1/12/2014 - Saturday Night Calzones – or are they Stromboli’s?

1/17/2014 - Go Tang Zhong Sour Cream, Seeded, Aromatic Sourdough Buns

1/18/2014 - Toady Tang Zhong Multigrain Sourdough Boule

1/23/2014 - Yeast Water and Poolish 42 Percent Whole Multigrain Walnut and Pistachio Bread

1/24/2014 - 50 Percent Whole Multi-grain Sourdough

1/31/2014 - 60 Percent Whole Multigrain Sourdough with Sprouts, Seeds & Yogurt Whey

2/1/2014 - 16 % Whole Multigrain SD with Sesame, Flax and Chia Seeds

2/7/2014 - Dark Russian Jewish Rye Bread with Porter, Prunes, Nuts and Aromatic Seeds

2/14/2014 - Lucy’s Take on Josh’s Version of Pane Maggiore On Valentines Day - 2 Ways

2/20/2014 - Lucy’s Take on Adri’s Westphalian Rye

2/28/2014 - Un-Smoked Spelt Sprouter with Turkish Figs, Seeds, Aromatics & Some Nuts

3/5/2014 - Poolish Calzones and Yeast Water Italian Bread

3/7/2014 - White SD Bread

3/14/2014 - St Paddy’s Day Challenge YW Shamrock on a !00% Whole Wheat SD Chacon

3/21/2014 - Too Pooped To Pop - 56.5 Percent Whole Multigrain Sourdough

3/26/2014- 107% Whole Grain 8 Grain Sourdough

4/4/2014 - 50 Percent Whole Grain 10 Grain Sourdough – One with Cranberries and Seeds

4/6/2014 - Poolish Naan

4/11/2014 - Plotziade Sourdough Chacon

4/13/2014 - Yeast Water Poolish Pizza

4/15/2014 - Lucy’s Take On Wolfgang Puck’s Passover Gefilta Fish

4/17/2014 - Banana Bread

4/18/2014 - Sourdough Hot Cross Buns - 50% Whole Grain

4/19/2014 - Pizza Civitavecchia

4/20/2014 - Last of the Easter Sourdough Bakes Turns Ugly in a Tasty Way

4/21/2014 - Re-Do of the Last Easter Sourdough Bake for BBQ

4/22/2014 - Sacaduros - 46 Percent Whole Grains

4/23/2014 - Half Whole Grain SD Garlic Naan, Onion and Cilantro

4/25/2014 - Seeded Sourdough Multigrain Chacon

5/2/2014 - Everyday 7 Grain Sourdough

5/6/2014 - Cinco de Mayo - 2014

5/9/2014 - Getting Ready for Ploetziade 2

5/16/2014 - Boule and Pumpernickel for Plotziade 2

5/23/2014 - 10 Grain 50 Percent Whole Grain Sourdough - Back To The Old Sourdough Ways

5/26/2014 - Memorial Weekend Pizza - 2014

5/30/2014 - 67% Whole 10 Grain Baguettes

6/6/2014 - Spelt, Farro, Rye and Wheat Sourdough – 50% Whole Grain

6/9/2014 - Italian Yeast Water Buns

6/11/2014 - Italian Style YW Pizza

6/13/2014 - No……. Not Those Pharaohs

6/17/2014 - Calzones and Triple Levain Madness

6/20/2014 - Götz von Berlichingen Ancient Age Sourdough Bread

6/23/2014 - Yeast Water Whole Grain Breakfast Rolls w/ Snockered Fruit and Dark Chocolate

6/27/2014 - Lucy’s Take on Einstein’s Swabian Potato Bread - Schwäbisches Kartoffelbrot

7/4/2014 - 4th of July – 15 Grain Independence Sourdough Challenge Bake

7/11/2014 - 3 Sprouted Grain SD with One No Sprout

7/14/2014 - Lemon and Corn Pie - Old Southern Favorite - Chess Pie

7/18/2014 - Sprouted Multigrain Potato Sourdough with Spelt, Rye, Emmer and Wheat

7/23/2014 - Pesto and Sun Dried Tomato Multigrain Pizza Focaccia

7/25/2014 - 6 Grain Fennel and Fig Sourdough

8/1/2014 - Sprouted Pa de Pagès Català Sourdough

8/8/2014 - Sprouted 4 Grain Sourdough Chacon with Whey, Walnuts and Sage

8/15/2014 - Lucy’s Sorta Tzitzel Like Sprouted Sourdough

8/22/2014 - No Knead Sprouted Spelt, Barley & Potato Sourdough

8/25/2014 - Poolish Pizza Without Daughter

8/20/2014 - Sprouted Spelt, Barley, Rye and Wheat Sourdough with 5 Seeds and Brazil Nuts

9/11/014 - Spelt and Wheat Sourdough with Figs, Pistachios, Pumpkin and Sunflower Seeds

9/18/2014 - 20% Multi - Whole Grain Sourdough - Lucy's 44 Hour Fat Bags

9/19/2014 - Lucy's Fruit Stupid -Version 2

9/23/2014 - Knishes

9/25/2014 - Porter, Prune & Walnut Multigrain SD Bread with a No Fruit No Nut Potato Water Version

9/28/2014 - Pie Parade

2013 The Fresh Loaf Dabrownman’s Blog

1/4/2013 - Panettone - The Last Bake of 2012

1/4/2013 - New Year's Day Pizza and Banana Bread Cupcakes

1/5/2012 - Hanseata’s Sausage Filled Puff Pastry with Cheese

1/7/2013 - Multi-grain Cream Cheese Sourdough with Multi-grain Scalded Soaker

1/11/2013 - Multi-grain Sourdough Chacon with Olives, Sun Dried Tomato, Garlic, Rosemary and 2 Cheeses

1/16/2013 - Multi-grain Sourdough with Sprouts, Scald, Seeds, Nuts and Prunes

1/17/2013 - Multigrain Yeast Water Bread with Sprouts, Scald, Seeds, Nuts and Prunes

1/23/2013 - White Whole Wheat with Combo YW, Poolish, SD Starter, Water Roux and Wheat Berry Scald

1/25/2013 - SD, YW, Biga, Rye, Spelt, Tang Zhong Bread with Scald, Seeds and Nuts

1/30/2013 - Practice YW Slash Bag

1/31/2013 - Origami Sourdough and Yeast Water Panettone

1/31/2013 - Another Batch of kjknits English Muffins – 12.5 % Whole Wheat

2/1/2013 - Fun With Short Crust and Puff Paste

2/1/2013 - Phil’s Savory Pumpkin and Feta Pie

2/2/2013 - A Born Loser Tells a Tale of Too Many Two’s and the Evil Twin

2/3/2013 - Superbowl Pizza – Great Pizza For a Lights Out, No longer a Blow Out Game

2/3/2013 - It's Been Exactly a Year Since Our First TFL Post - The Index

2/5/2013 - Multigrain SD/YW Brown Bread with Aromatic Seeds and Multi-Grain Scald

2/7/2013 - Big Combo Levain Whole Wheat Bread with Pumpkin & Sunflower Seeds

2/11/2013 - Not So Pink Valentine Vienna Chocolate Rose

2/13/2013 - Sourdough Pink Valentine Hamburger Buns

2/15/2013 - Yeast Water Cinnamon Rolls

2/18/2013 - Multigrain SD Altamura - Not The Priest's Hat

2/21/2013 - Banana Bread

2/26/2013 - Old Dough VS Levain Multigrain SD With Bulgar and Flax Seed Scald

2/28/2013 - 100 % Whole Grain Rye and Spelt YW SD with Scald and Seeds - The Altus Test

3/5/2013 - SD YW Durum, Ricotta Bread with Pistachio Nuts, Pumpkin & Millet Seeds

3/12/2013 - http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/32637/more-you-want-know-about-labs-and-yeast%26favtitle=More%20than%20you%20want%20to%20know%20about%20Labs%20and%20Yeast

3/13/2013 - SD YW multi-grain Bagels

3/17/2013 - Enchanted Irish Lemon Curd Fairy Cakes

3/18/2013 - St. Paddy’s Day Feast, Sort of Ballymaloe 100% WW Brown Bread and Irish Ruben’s

3/20/2013 - If Ballymaloe Baked Sourdough Brown Bread with WW Scald & Guinness in a DO

3/23/2013 - WW SD YW Multi-Grain Pumpernickel

3/25/2013 - 50% Whole Wheat Matzoh

3/30/2013 - Hot Cross Buns - 25 % Whole Grain

3/31/2013 - Poolish & Y W Chocolate Walnut Easter Babka with Streusel & Snockered Fruits

4/2/2013 - 100 Percent Whole Multi-Grain Aroma Bread with 2 Soakers & 11 Seeds

4/4/2013 - Whole Grain DaPumpernickel Aroma Bread

4/8/2013 - Two Way 75% White Bread - DaPumperized with Scald and Seeds

4/12/2013 - Italian Tang Zhong, Fig, Hazelnut & Ricotta Cheese Sourdough Chacons

4/14/2013 - Dinner for 2 from the Pots

4/19/2013 - Fig Water, Multigrain, Apricot, Walnut, Whole Wheat Sprouter

4/24/2013 - Tang Zhong, Ricotta, Scalded Multigrain with and without, Cranberries & Pecans

4/30/2013 - They Call Me Mellow Yellow

5/3/.2013 - I Got the No White Bread Blues

5/5/2013 - Happy Cinco de Mayo - Breakfast Lunch and Dinner

5/7/2013 - Lucy's Jewish Deli Rye - Take 1

5/15/2013 - Dark Russian Jewish Deli Rye with Porter, Onion, Sprouts and Aromatic Seeds.

5/16/2013 - Whole Wheat and Spelt Sourdough with Sprouts and Seeds

 5/17/2013 - Friday Pizza Night

5/21/2013 - SD and YW Emperor Franz Joseph Buns with Same Dough Challah

5/24/2013 - Multigrain SD with Japanese Black Rice, Seeds, Prunes & Dried Edamame

5/24/2013 - YW & Poolish Hot Dog Buns

5/30/2013 - Ezekiel's Chacon

6/6/2013 - Multigrain Sourdough with Scald, Seeds and 3 Nuts

6/10/2013 - White Hamburger Buns Turned Dark

6/14/2013 - Multigrain Combo Levain with Seeds & Sprouts

6/18/2013 - It all started out simple enough

6/21/2013 - Everyday Multigrain Sourdough with Scald

6/25/2013 - Yeast Water, Tang Zhong Hot Dog Buns

6/28/2013 - Buttermilk and Greek Yogurt Multigrain SD with Seeds and Sprouts

7/5/2013 - Snails with Tails

7/8/2013 - Yeast Water and ADY Hot Dog Buns

7/12/2013 - Multigrain Caramelized Pickled Veggies, Parmesan, Flax & Sesame Seeds, Barley Boil & Toadish Sourdough

7/19/2013 - Whole Multigrain Sourdough Loaf

7/21/2013 - Saturday Night Pizza

7/26/2013 - 75% Extraction Mulit-grain Sourdough

8/2/2013 - Prince George's Chacon

8/9/2013 - Sourdough Tzitzel

8/12/2013 - Yeast Water 70% Whole Grain English Muffins

8/14/2013 - 100 % Whole Multi Grain, Yeast Water & Sourdough Bagels

8/16/2013 - 99.89% Whole Grain Sesame & Flax Seed Sourdough with Whey

8/22/2013 - Too Fast - Poolish Cream Butter Buns

8/23/2013 - Multi-grain Sourdough with Figs, Walnuts, Whey and 4 Seeds

8/26/2013 - Lucy’s Fruit Stupid - Nutella, Peach, Plum and Plantain Pizza and No Fruit Bagels

8/28/2013 - Lucy’s Take on Cleo’s and Ian’s Hamburger Buns

8/30/2013 - Multigrain Sourdough with Sesame and Flax Seeds Toadies and Malts

8/31/2013 - Three Levain Friday Night Pizza Night - With a Surpise Ending

9/4/2013 - Happy Rosh Hashanah – A Holiday Challah

9/6/2013 - Tzitzel – Take 3 with Triple Levain

9/6/2013 - For those who wanted "Aunt Beverly’s Sweet and Hot Brisket'

9/7/2013 - Meat Week

9/11/2013 - Yeast Water 35% Whole Wheat Hamburger Thins and HD Buns

9/13/2013 - Pistachio, Prune and Pumpkin Seed Multigrain Sourdough with Malty Toads

9/20/2013 - Hanseata Multigrain SD YW and Sunflower Seed Challenge Bread

9/27/2013 - The 100% Whole Grain, Multigrain - Mashed by Melon Test - 3 Ways

10/4/2013 - Whole Multigrain SD Bread with Scald, Seeds and More Aromatic Seeds

10/7/2013 - Multigrain Old Sourdough Makes 2 Retarded Pizzas

10/11/2013 - B…..B….B…. Babka - the Yeast Water Way to Gugelhuph Land

10/11/2013 - Prunish Multigrain Sourdough with Scald and Seeds

10/14/2013 - Poolish Buns the Girls Actually Like and Smoked Brisket Sandwiches

10/17/2013 - Mice Guarding the Punkin

10/18/2013 - 20% Whole Grain 9 Grain Sourdough

10/18/2013 - Pumpkin Nutella Swirl Bars

10/25/2013 - Lucy is Runner Up with Her Mice Guarding the Pumpkin Entry

10/25/2013 - Same Dough Two Ways with a Pizza Crust Later

10/27/2013 - Saturday Night 6 P’s SD Focaccia Romana Pizza

10/29/2013 - YW Primer

11/1/2013 - Owlloween White Buns made with a Poolish & SD Levain

11/1/2013 - 38 % Whole Grain Multi Grain SD with Sprouts, Pumpkin and Sunflower Seeds

11/6/2013 - What is the Best Thing You Can Put On Pumpernickel?

11/9/2013 - 15 % Whole Grain SD and YW Orange, Cranberry Walnut Bread

11/15/2013 - Almost Twin White Breads - One YW / SD and One SD

11/15/2013 - YW & SD 50% Rye with Scald, Onions & Young’s Double Chocolate Stout

11/17/2013 - Lucy’s YW White Bread for Thanksgiving Croutons

11/22/2013 - Mini's 100% Hydration Rye, Walnut and Seed Bread with Soaker Water & Dopplebock

11/22/2013 - CeciC’s Crackers with Added Yeast Water.

11/25/2013 - Two Thanksgiving Pies and the Blog Index

11/30/2013 - Josh’s Thanksgiving and Hanukkah Stollen

12/6/2013 - Big Levain Multigrain Sourdough with Figs, Seeds, Potato & Poolish

12/7/2023 - Sinclair’s Bakery Potato Rolls - Made With Poolish

12/12/2013 - Half Whole Multi-Grain Sourdough with Fax & Sesame Seeds

12/12/2013 - Christmas Chocolate Chunk Cherry Chacon

12/12/2013 - Holiday Puff Paste Heath Bar and Chocolate Chip Rugelach

12/17/2013 - Not So Stollen – Christmas 2013

12/19/2013 - 3 Christmas Fruit Cakes - One For Everyone

12/21/2013 - Friday Night SD YW Pretty Plain Pizza

12/22/2013 - Panettone Forced English Muffins

12/23/2013 - White SD YW Bread with Walnuts for Christmas Turkey Stuffing

12/25/2013 - Christmas Fruit Cake – SD YW Gold Rush Take 2

12/26/2013 - Arizona Christmas Tree and Blog Index

2012 The Fresh Loaf Dabrownman’s Blog

2/3/2012 - My first bread after joining TFL - DSnyder's San Joaquin

2/3/2012 - Brachflachen Mehrere Vollkombrot

2/3/2012 - Loaded Pizza

2/3/2012 - Pierre Nury meets DSnyders SFSD

2/3/2012 - Putting the Rye in Pierre Nury's rustic Light Rye

2/3/2012 - Too Many Red Pears and Blueberries

2/3/2012 - Make your own Greek yogurt

2/4/2012 - Minneola / Apple Yeast Water Semolina Bread

2/4/2012 - Raspberry SD Pancakes

2/4/2012- 1930's Magnalite Wagner Ware Roaster Used As Cloche for Multi-grain SD Challah

2/5/2014 - Sourdough English Muffins

2/5/2012 - Southwest Hummus Anyone?

2/5/2012 - I have some miscellaneous baking and foodie

2/7/2012 - Brachflachen Mehrere Vollkombrot - Version 4

2/7/2012 - Baked off PiPs (Phil's) new post on 40% Sourdough Rye w/ Caraway today

2/9/2012 - The Chellos - that don't play music.

2/9/2012 - PiP's 40% Rye w/ Caraway Meets Hanseata's Seeds and a Restless dabrownman

2/9/2012 - Whole Wheat Crusted Apple Caramel Galette w/ fresh ginger and assorted bourbon dried fruits.

2/9/2012 - Blueberry SD pancakes this time,

2/10/2012 - How to Make Yogurt - 'So Your Muffins Taste Betta'

2/10/2012 - isand66's SD Avocado Bread Meets Its Sunflower Seeded Guacamole Heart

2/11/2012- I Confess My Deepest Darkest Baking Secret

2/13/2012 - isand66's Bacon, SD, Potato, Onion with Cheddar Bread Meets Pork Jowls, Aged White Cheddar, Potato Flakes and Caramelized Onion

2/13/2012 - Shiao-Ping's Orange Turmeric Pain au Levain with Yeast Water

2/14/2012 - Happy Valentine Cupcakes w/ Strawberry Hearts

2/16/2012 - PiPs Walnut and Sage 100% Whole Wheat.

2/17/2012 - Let's Make Some Fresh Cheese

2/17/2012 - Birthday Chocolate Crusted Orange Cheese Cake with Ganache, Truffles and Chocolate Shavings

2/18/2012 - David Snyders' SD Pugliesi Capriccioso With Some WW and Rye

2/22/2012 - teketeke's Japanese Yeast Water White Sandwich Bread - 'This Bread Is Not Your Slimy Old White Slice'

2/23/2012 - Pips Vollkornbrot - Nearly 100% Rye with A Tiny Bit of Spelt

2/24/2012 - teketeke Bread

2/27/2012 - Rustique Pain Comté de San Francisco

3/1/2012 - Chad Robertson's Country SD - Modified

3/1/2012 - I've been working on a new home made Gas Regeneration BBQ /Smoker

3/3/2012 - Miscellaneous stuff at the end of the week

3/5/2012 - Pain Rustique au Levain du Sud-ouest

3/6/2012 - Pain Rustique au Levain du Sud-ouest - Retarded

3/7/2012 - Yeast Water, Rye, WW, Garlic Chive, Onion, Cheese and Chorizo Bialy’s

3/12/2012 - Tartine Everyday Rustic Country Sourdough

3/14/2012 - St Paddy's Day Dutch Oven Sourdough - Tartine Method

3/14/2012 - Corned Beef and Cabbage - 2 ways - possibly more

3/15/2012 - Just look at the pictures my new old camera takes!!

3/17/2012 - Yeast Water, Glazed, Spiced, Walnut, Bourbon Fruit, Chocolate Chip, Almond Granola Streusel Polish Babka

3/23/2012 - Making Red Rye Malt

3/24/2012 - Gingered, Tres Apple, Almond, Vanilla Granola Crisp with Bourbon Dried Fruit

3/29/2012 - A Blend of Seigle d’Auvergne and Borodinski

3/29/2012 - Jam and Bread Crust and Crumb Color

3/31/2012 - Revising isand66's Bacon, Potato, Onion with Cheddar Sourdough Bread

4/1/2012 - Getting Ready for Tomorrow's Sweetbird Buckwheat Apple SD Bake with Buckwheat SD Pancakes Today

4/2/2012 - Dabrownman Butchers Sweetbird’s Lovely Buckwheat, Apple and Apple Cider, Buckwheat Groat Bread with Insane Thoughts and Deeds

4/9/2012 - Super-grain Challah w/ Whey Water, Sprouts, Potato, Lentil, Sunflower Seeds and 2 Starters - SD and YW

4/10/2012 - Retarded Super-Grain Challah

4/14/2012 - Lemon Curd and Cream Cheese Puff Paste

4/14/2012 - Italian Corner - Cellos with Squash Lasagna and David Snyder's Pulgliese Capriosso

4/15/2012 - 20% Rye and WWW Potato SD Baggies Meet the Same Made with YW

4/15/2012 - Weekday Springtime Yeast Water Breakfast at Dabrownman's

4/17/2012 - Apple and Pear, Bourbon Dried Fruit, Ginger with Apple Jam Cream Cheese Puff Sleds

4/19/2012 - Sweetbird's Apple, Buckwheat with Groats, Insanely Modified, Makes for a Fine Toast or Lunch

4/20/2012 - SD Hemp Bags - txfarmer method with Hanseata's Seeds

4/20/2012 - Tired Monday's - YW 20% Whole Grain Bag Lunch

4/30/2012 - 50% Multigrain SD W/ Rye Scald, Rye Sprouts, Borodinski Altus and Pepitas, Caraway and Flax Seeds

5/2/2012 - Yeast Water Fake Pretzel Rolls

5/4/2012 - With Cinco de Mayo Yesterday - Hope You Had a Happy One! Cinco Sunset, Moon Rise and Dinner

5/8/2012 - Multi-grain SD w/ Multi Sprouts 2 Nuts and Seeds Somewhere

5/9/2012 - Yeast Water Hamburger Buns with Cinnamon Roll Same Dough Kicker

5/11/2012 - 1 - Day Multi-Grain Bread, Soft White Wheat, Spelt, Scald and Seeded with SD and YW Combo Starter

5/12/2012 - Banana Bread Cake

5/14/2012 - Mothers Day YW Apple, Pecan Buckwheat Pancakes with a Nice Chicken and Brie Sandwich for Lunch

5/15/2012 - Altamura Shaped Semolina Multi-Grain SD with Seeds and Sprouts

5/16/2012 - Having the daughter

5/18/2012 - Semolina, Rye, WWW Ciabatta w/ Chia Seeds, Herbs and Sun Dried Tomato

5/20/2012 - Apple Strawberry Ginger Crisp, Teriyaki and Lunch for Two

5/22/2012 - txfarmer's Croissant and Dainish Converted over to SD and YW - 3 Ways with Chia Seeds

5/24/2012 - Pretzel Roll P&J and Grilled Chicken Lunch with Pickles

5/25/2012 - Hanseata’s Wild Rice SD w/ Yeast Water, Multi Seeds, Prunes, Beer and Sprouts

5/26/2012 - Brown Plate Special with a Little Green, Brown Ale and Brown Bread

5/28/2012 - T-Rex Meets Floyd’s Sweet Potato Bread & Brownman’s SD & YW Combo Starter

5/29/2012 - Bread Baskets - A Serious Illness Revealed

5/31/2012 - Recent Breads for Lunch, Last Jacaranda Bloom and Desert

6/1/2012 - 40% Whole Multi-grain SD and YW Altamura Style Chacon

6/1/2012 - 24 Hours of Not Baking Bread

6/8/2012 - The SD / YW Chacon Revisited – 90% Whole Grain, Multigrain Sprouts, Walnut and Sage Paste, Pumpkin Seeds and Whey Water

6/9/2012 - Friday night P & P - Pizza and Pide

6/12/2012 - Let's Have Some Lunch and Other Stuff

6/15/2012 - Jasmine Tea, 50% Whole Multi-Grain SD & YW Durum Atta Bread with Wheat Germ, Flax and Chia Seeds

6/19/2012 - Buckwheat 60% Multi-grain YW / SD Bread with Walnuts, Sage, Flax, Wheat Germ, Apples, Prunes and Groats

6/21/2012 - Sourdough Durum Atta Bread – Pharaoh’s Mastaba Style

6/24/2-12 - Twisted Sisters Chacon : 67% Whole Rye & Wheat with Sprouts & Seeds.

6/28/2012 - Franko finally got to the top of the list

6/29/2012 - English Muffins - kjknits Converted to YW and SD Combo levain

6/29/2012 - Without Cheesecake For Desert - There May Be No Need for Bread

6/30/2012 - SD and YW Semolina Cheese Bread and Pizza with Sun Dried Tomato, Rosemary, Mojo de Ajo and Garlic

7/4/2012 - SD and YW Multigrain Bagels - The Stan Ginsberg Method

7/4/2012 - Catching up on some lunches and other stuff

7/4/2012 - Lunches and Other Stuff Continued - Happy Birthday America!

7/5/2012 - YW Naan with Paneer, Green Onion, Cilantro, Garam Masala and Garlic - Plus a Loaf - Added Lunch Shot

7/6/2012 - Joe Ortiz Pain de Champagne with Rye and WW Sprouts

7/10/2012 - Dinner in Houston

7/15/2012 - AZ Monsoon and Breakfast

7/17/2012 - Mocha Chocolate Chip Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches.

7/20/2012 - What To Eat With That Rustic French Country Sourdough Bread -Smoked Etouffee!

7/22/2012 - SD YW English Muffins - Some Fried As Donuts Per gmabaking With Apricot, Nectarine Ginger Glaze

7/24/2012 - Herbed Bialy's – Multigrain, Caramelized Onion, Chorizo and 4 Cheeses

7/27/2012 - 50% Rye SD Knotted Rolls With Wheat Germ, Barley Scald, Caraway and Sunflower Seeds

7/27/2012 - hanseata's Wild Rice Bread Revisited - 'The Wild One' - w/ Beer, Sprouts, Seeds and Prunes

7/30/2012 - Parade of Sandwiches and Other Stuff

8/5/2012 - YW vs Desem SD - Caramelized Onion, Basil, Bacon, Parmesan Rolls

8/7/2012 - 15% Whole Wheat Bagels with YW and SD Desem Combo Starter

8/11/2012 -YW / SD Olive Bread with Rosemary and Bulgar Scald

8/17/2012 - 100% Whole Grain Rye with Rye Sprouts – YW & SD Combo Starter

7/19/2012 - 25% Whole Wheat English Muffins Revisited - Over and Over Again - kjknits

8/22/2012 - Chacon Catastrophes Moka - Ian’s Mocha Disaster Chacon

8/24/2012 - Multi-Grain SD & YW Combo with Chicken Stock, Soaker & Seeds

8/27/2012 - 35% Whole Grain YW & SD Semolina, Durum Atta White Bread with Soaker

8/29/2012 - Rewind - YW & SD Semolina, Durum Atta, W. Germ, Malts & Honey - Deja Vue

9/2/2012 - Spelt, Rye and Whole Wheat Soudough Boule with Flax Seed, Honey and Malts - A Simple but Tasty Bread

9/5/2012 - 100% Hydration, 100% Whole Grain Kamut Flat Boule with YW and SD Combo Starter

9/7/2012 - Andy’s Roasted Brazil Nut and Prune Bread - Sourdough Variation with WW Scald

9/9/2012 - 8 Hour SD YW Saturday Night Pizza and Friday Shrimp Kabobs

9/14/2012 - 100% Whole Spelt Sourdough at 100% Hydration

9/15/2012 - Happy Rosh Hashanah!

9/20/2012 - 17% Whole Multi-Grain SD / YW Bagels – The Stan Ginsberg Method

9/21/2012 - 57% Whole Grain Multi-grain SD with 20% Seeds and Whey

9/25/2012 -15% Multi-grain Bread With YW and SD Combo Levain

9/28/2012 - 15% WWW Fat Bag with Desem SD Starter ala Ian and Phil

9/28/2012 - English Muffins- YW and SD Levains - 16% Whole Wheat

9/28/2012 - Banana Nut Bread with Seeds, Chocolate and Bourbon Dried Fruits

10/2/2012 - Judy's 45 % Whole Multi-Grain Sandwich Bread

10/6/2012 - 16 % Whole Multi-grain SD Baguettes – txfarmer’s Method only 40 Hours

10/9/2012 - Name Change - Gussied Up Franz Joseph's Emperor Rolls With Seeds

10/13/2012 - Parade of Sandwiches and Other Stuff - Partola Uno

10/14/2012 - Parade de sandwichs et d'autres choses - partie 2

10/14/2012 - Parade of Sandwiches Continues - Part 3

10/15/2012 - Desfile de Sandwiches - Parte 4

10/15/2012 - Parade der Sandwiches - Teil 5

10/17/2012 - World Bread Day - SD Multigrain with Figs, Anise, Pistachios and Sprouts

10/18/2012 - Pierre Nury's Rustic Light Rye with Whole Grain Multi-grain YW / SD Levains and Coffee

10/24/2012 -Tuesday Pizza Night - Crust 3 Ways with 25% Whole Grains

10/25/2012 - San Franciso Sourdough - 15% Whole Grain

10/27/2012 - Extended - SD Starter Experiment - 24 hour Countertop SFSD and a Seeded, Fig and Pistacio

10/30/2012 - Two DO Chacons Couldn’t Be Any Different

11/2/2012 - Two Weeks of Food for Thought - Week one

11/2/2012 - Two Weeks of Food for Thought - Week Two

11/2/2012 - 26% Whole Grain YW / SD Bagels with Sprouts

11/5/2012 - 24 hour 10% Whole Grain SFSD & SD Seeded Fig Bread with Pistachios - 1 g of Starter - No Levain

11/9/2012 - 60% Whole Grain SD / YW Bread With Caraway, Rye Chops, Coffee and Cocoa

11/9/2012 - Prune & Brazil Nut Sourdough with Bulgar Scald, Pumpkin & Sunflower Seeds

11/14/2012 - Not So Stollen

11/16/2012 - Thanksgiving Multi-Grain Marble Chacon

11/20/2012 - SD Stuffing Bread

11/21/2012 - Poolish Stuffing Bread

11/23/2012 - Not So Stollen - Thanksgiving Take

11/23/2012 - Daughter Does French Slap and Folds for Her Poolish Thanksgiving Rolls

11/27/2012 - A Chacon for Eric

12/7/2012 - 75% Whole Grain YW / SD Caramelized Onion, Wild Rice, Sprouts & Baltika Porter Bread

12/14/2012 - Multigrain SD / YW Porter Bread with Roasted Onions, Sprouts, Malts and Seeds

12/17/2012 - Puff Paste Experiments

12/18/2012 - Puffy So Not Rugelach

12/21/2012 - Christmas Sourdough Chacon - Figs, Pistachios and Seeds

12/25/2012 - Christmas Bi-Color Rose - 30% Whole Grain, Pesto and Sun Dried Tomato

12/25/2012 - Not So Stollen - 6 Weeks later

12/29/2012 - 25% Whole Grain Multi-grain Bagels

Our half pie / half crisp Apple New Year's Pie is made with a short crust bottom and a crisp top made with 1/3 C each almond granola, oats, sugar, flour and 4 T butter with some salt and pumpkin pie spices about 1/8th tsp each..

The inside has two different kinds of Honey Crisp and some Granny Smith apples.  How they get Honey Crisp apples to be so big and so small is beyond genetic engineering but they are by far the best apples for pie bar none.

Still we like to have at least two different kinds of apples in the filling along with some fresh lemon juice and 11 tap fresh minced ginger, 2/3 C total of white and brown sugar, 3/4 C total of snockered cranberries and raisins soaked in 2 T of bourbon and brandy with, 1 T corn starch and 1/8 tsp salt and pumpkin pie spices.

We par cook the filling to get the caramel going  and to get the apples pre softened since you cannot bake this at a high temperature or the crisp topping will burn.  It is baked at 375 F for 20 minutes, to set the bottom crust and then 30 minutes at 350 F trying not to burn the top but still get the middle bubbling through the topping at the edges.  This might be the best apple pie I have ever tasted.

The 2nd pie is our Saturday Pizza made with a double 12 hour preferments made from our cherry yeast water and a poolish with a pinch of yeast.   We used KA bread flour some slap and folds followed by stretch and folds where we incorporated the rosemary garlic and sun dried tomatoes into the dough.

After an hour on the bench to bulk ferment a final stretch and fold was done and the dough retarded for 6 hours  It warmed up on the counter for 2 and half hours before being formed into 2 large pizza pies.  The crust was brushed wih mojo de ajo before the red sauce went on, pepperoni, Mozzarella, 2 home made pork sausages, Italian and chorizo and 1 store bought chicken Italian sausage.

It was then topped of will yellow and red peppers crimini and button mushrooms, red and green onions, Parmesan and Pecorino cheeses.  Forgot the olives and fresh basil again.  The pies were baked at 550 F on a stone in Big Old Betsy.  This crust was very crisp, tasty and the pizza terrific.

Pizza Formula 

For Rosh Hashanah, my wife stopped at Chompies Bakery http://chompies.com/  to bring home a fine, non sourdough, snail shaped, raisin challah.  It was a leaner to the left with the inner circles higher than the outer ones – very tall.  Just beautiful, perfectly baked and delicious!  I can’t wait to have it for French toast this morning.

With the challah, I suppose Lucy and I didn’t need to bake any bread this week but we baked 2 SD breads from the same flour.  Both used the same levain.  One was walnut and prune chock full version with DeSchutes Black Butte Porter for the liquid and the other a white bread that used potato water for the liquid.  No one would guess that these two breads came from the same 40% whole grain flours.

The levain was made our usual 3 stage way with a few grams  of our 4 week fridge stored, stiff rye starter, the hard 18% extracted bits we sifted from the home ground grain and some whole rye.  The levain ended up at 9.32% of the flour in the mix

The first two stages were 3 hours each and it doubled after the 2nd feeding.  The levain was then retarded for 24 Hours after it had risen 50% after the 3rd feeding.  We allowed then Levain to finish its 3rd doubling  on the counter the next day while the 2 hour autolyse of the dough flour, malt and liquid was taking place with the salt sprinkled on top.

Both of these loaves fit into one bulk ferment container for the 24 hour cole retard.  But they did go into seperate baskets for the 12 hour cold proof making 36 hours total in the fridge.

 Since the dark bread has the 100g of walnuts and prunes we gave the white bread more of the flour (54%) than the dark (46%), we divided the levain, 65 g for the white and 55 g for the dark loaf, and added each to the 2 different autolyses.  We did 1 minute of slap and folds to mix in the salt and levain. 

After 30 minutes of rest, we started 4 sets of stretch and folds on 30 minute intervals.  Even though the hydration was the same for each loaf at 80%, the white dough felt slacker.  Maybe it was the difference in the potato water and the porter?  We incorporated the nuts and prunes in the dark bread during the 3rd set of S&F’s.  After a short 90 minute bulk ferment the dough was bulk retarded for 24 hours in the fridge with (1) S&F at the 12 hour mark for the white dough only since it was still slack..

Once it came out of the fridge we shaped it cold, put it in a rice floured basket, trash bagged and retarded again for 12 more hours.  The white dough was allowed to come to room temperature for 1 ½ hours before being upended onto parchment on a peel, slashed and slid onto the bottom stone at 515 F

It steamed under our aluminum DO bottom, used as a cloche, at 465 F for 22 minutes when the cloche came off.  The dough that had deflated and spread markedly when slashed.  This pointed to it likely being over fermented, proofed or both.  It recovered nicely under steam to spring, blister and bloom nicely.  We turned the temperature down to 425 F – convection to finish baking.  It finished browning and baked to 208 F on the inside in another 8 minutes making for a 30 minute bake total.

We then baked the dark loaf exactly the same way except when we noticed how stiff the dough was and that slashing this loaf with so many prunes and walnuts would be difficult we proofed it seam side down so all we had to do was upend it onto the parchment on a peel and cover with the Aluminum cloche – no slashing required.

There was no spread in this dough after un-molding.  The dark bread sprang, bloomed and cracked well at the seams.  It too was done after 22 minutes of steam and 8 minutes of dry heat for 30 minutes total.  This bread smelled better than the white one as it baked because of the walnuts and prunes no doubt.

Between the challah and these two breads, we have way more than we need for the week but since each is so different the variety will be the treat.  Plus Cousin Jay has closed on his AZ home and we will be giving him some bread and knishes to munch on.  Have to wait until lunch to see how the crumb came out on these fine looking breads.  The crumb on the white bread was much more open than dark one as expected.

It was very soft and moist with a little gloss too.  The dark bread was slightly sweet due to the prunes and the nuts were a a nice addition with the little bit of crunch.  Both of these bread are very good with their own similar beginning if different outcomes.  They both are more tangy than your normal SD bread due to the retarded starter,  levain and double retarded dough.  Can't complain about anything other than the fact that Lucy is just sitting there licking her chops.... waiting to jump up on the counter and eat them. 

The traditional chicken and roasted root veg. meal 15 minutes before being done. 

 Formula

Lucy says not to forget the salad and the Half Pie / Half Crisp Honey Crisp Apple dessert that had fresh ginger.lemon juice, bourbon snockered raisins and dried cranberries.

With Rosh Hashanah right around the corner, Lucy always tries something new for knish fillings.  This year we caramelized some onions, then threw in some cabbage, a clove of minced garlic and some  home made / smoked shopped corned beef. The red potatoes were boiled but not peeled, mashed and dressed with salt, pepper and some International crema.  Once the potatoes were mixed in we did our usual easy peasy dough wrap of oil, water, salt and AP flour.  Since this was test run we didn't bother with the egg wash but will do so for the RH holiday.  We like our knishes more bite size rather than the larger than gigantic hamburger size at Yonah Schimmel's knish bakery in Manhattan's Lower East Side

Here is the filling.  These were baked at 350 F for 30 minutes and then we turned on the convection and turned the oven down to 325 F for another 15 minutes. Will post the final version on Thursday.  Here they are for Rosh Hashanah...The egg wash and shaping made a difference::)  My wife said she liked them so that is really something!

Here is Lucy's latest version of here fruit stupid.  The black plumbs were replaced by empire prune plumbs, the Nutella was replaced by mini chocolate chips and pecan pieces, the bread crust was replaced by a short crust pastry and the berries were replaced by nectarines and peaches.

She also chucked in some apple slices to separate the plums om top.  So this one is totally different except for the spiral design with the plums on top.  We sprinkled turbinado sugar on top and then glazed it with some thinned out, home made, Minneola marmalade.

It was baked at 400 F for 20 minutes and then turned down to 350 F and baked another 30 minutes.  We expect this one to be even better than Lucy's first attempt at being fruit stupid but will have to wait until dinner dessert to find out for sure.  Lucy is trying to make up for snarfing down that Fat Bag loaf yesterday.

Lucy did put 1/3 C of brown sugar and some pumpkin pie spices; 1 teaspoon,  in the peach and nectarine layer . 

Here is a new slice shot.

We are out of white bread again.  Not surprising really since we don’t make much white bread and, when we do, Lucy puts at least 20% whole grain in it…. to tan it some and get rid of that blinding white crumb so damaging to the eyes of anyone who should be exposed to retina debilitating, white bread.

This version had equal parts of 8 different whole grains that were home milled.  Per our usual MO, Lucy specified that the hard bits be extracted from the grind resulting in a 17% extraction of the hard bits.

This was fed to 6g of 3 week refrigerated 100% hydration starter.  Normally we keep our starter in the fridge at 66% hydration but after 12 weeks it was a little weak and Lucy felt sorry for it being in such a weakened state

I think I see a Varda Knob on that Nury Style Fat Bag.

There wasn’t enough hard bits to make the whole levain since the 20% of whole grains only produced 21 g of 17% extraction so we chucked in another 30 g of the 83% extraction flour to make the small 10% levain.  We used our progressively larger 3 stage build for the levain and it easily doubled in 4 hours after the 2nd feeding so we refrigerated it for 24 hours when it rose 50% after the 3rd feeding. 

Normally we would do a 1 hour autolyse, 3 sets of slap and folds, 3 stets of stretch and folds and retard a shaped boule right after gluten development for 12 -18 hours and bake it the next day either cold if it fully proofed in the fridge or we would let them warm up on the counter to finish proofing before baking.  We like the safety net

The Nury Fat Bag did crack at the underneath seam so I'm guesing it was over proofed at 95%.

 But after David Snyder’s San Joaquin post and Alphonso’s baguette post this week Lucy decided to combine the 2 methods, with some of David’s SFSD while incorporating a little bit of Pierre Nury’s  2” end to end pull, after proofing, shaping method for his Rustic Light Rye bread we love so much.   These 4 methods combined all in one is never too much for a German Bread Baking Apprentice 2nd Class…… whose motto is’ Go ahead sucka’ ….bring any kind of bread on at any time!’

That is some nice cod under those crab cakes.

So, this one ended up being its own untested, possible scientific oddity producing method that didn’t end up resembling any previous known one for bread making – at least not one that  Lucy had ever heard of or seen around anywhere that ended up being 2 thin batards – one slashed and one stretched without slashing.

We have somethng Chinese or Oriental evey week like this Chicken Chow Mein.

We love batards because we have a hard time shaping them and they let us use our bamboo, bartard shaping helper thingamajig we found at Goodwill which hardly gets used at all.  I hate buying stuff at Goodwill and then not using it.

2" thick Ahi Tuna is best cooked no more thsn 2 minutes a side on the grill - yummy with a citrus Siracha sauce!

We took the levain out of the fridge to let it finish its doubling after the 3rd build and retard – like David Snyder’s SFSD.  We also autolysed the dough flour, 100 g of KA bread flour and the rest being 10% protein Pillsbury AP, for 1 hour holding back 10 g of dough water for mixing in the salt later.  Like David’s San Joaquin.  We also did 30 minutes of bulk ferment with the autolyse and the levain for 30 minutes - with the salt sprinkled on top.

This bread made a fine knobby bologna sandwich for lunch when turned inside out with the crust inside.

Once the salt and 10 grams of water were mixed in by squeezing the dough through our fingers, we did 1 minute of slap and folds to make sure everything was distributed.  30 minutes later we did another 1 minute of slap and folds.  These were followed by 4 sets of David’s style stretch and folds in the bowl also on 30 minute intervals.  The gluten was coming along nicely by the end of the gluten development.

We then did a 22 hour bulk retard ala Alphonso, in a oil coated, ceramic bowl where we hoped the no knead technique would strengthen the gluten further – and it did.  When we took the dough out of the fridge it had risen 70%.  Surprisingly the dough was fairly extensible even though a cold 38 F.

We pre-shaped it into thin, longer batards or fattish, short baguettes – now known as Lucy’s Fat Bags with baguettes being small bags.  5 minutes later we final shaped them.  After final shaping we put Lucy’s Fat Bags seam side down onto parchment that was lining the bamboo form.

Instead of letting them proof for a couple of hours and baking, we decided to do another long shaped retard of 22 hours ala David Snyder’s SFSD.   We have done a combined double long retard of 42 hours total before….. when following a weird no knead SD recipe so Lucy decided, what the heck?  A few slap and folds and stretch and folds shouldn’t get in the way of a doubly sever retarded dough - when it comes to SD bread!

Lunch the next day pointed out that this 8 grain 20% whole grain bread was sourer after a day of aging.  But ,when paired next to the 10 grain, 50% whole grain bread (at the same hydration) the whiter bread of this week's bake really looks white even though the holes are similar.  Guess that 50% whole grain loaf was pretty special after all:-)  Here is the 10 grain 50% whole grain post 10 Grain 50 Percent Whole Grain Sourdough - Back To The Old Sourdough Ways

 The next day once the dough came out of the fridge if we wanted to let it warm up or bake it on the cold side depending on how ell it final proofed over the last 21 hours.  We decided to let it warm up for an hour as we heated Big Old Betsy up to 550 F and readied the mega steam of 2 of Sylvia’s steaming towel cups and a pan of lava rocks – all half full of water.

15 minutes later the Mega Steam was Mega Enough.   We moved the parchment laden with proofed dough to a peel and slashing one of the Fat Bags and pulled the other one out 4 ".  Both were over proofed .  The scored Fat Bag was impossible to score with the razor just dragging along the the wet, poofy surface.   We forgot to flip the Nury style one over so it would bake seam side up and open along it but did mange a knobbu end for some fun.  We loaded them onto the bottom stone as we turned the oven down to 475 F.   After 10 minutes of steam it was removed and the oven turned down to 425 F- convection.

Chicken and veggie kabob.

10 minutes later, 20 minutes total, the Fat Bags hit 205 F on the inside, declared done and they were removed to the cooling rack.  The Fat Bags sprang a little, bloomed a bit but browned well with the stretched version, ala Nury, cracking naturally where they pleased - on the underside.  The crust came out of the oven very crispy and blistered.   The crust stayed crisp too.   It looks like we will have and OK crumb on these  but will have to wait for lunch to cut into them.  The crumb turned out soft, moist, light and glossy with holes that were smaller than we expected.  The taste is superb and this bread is now one of our favorite white breads.

Formula

Lucy always reminds me to never forget a fine salad wih lunch and dinner - or last Friday's 2 Fig, Pistachio, Sunflower and Pumpkin Seed bake - just delicious.

We were out of town for a few days and came back to a 100 year floods.  The normal rout we take to our house was closed so we had to go around and come in the back way.  The reason the road was flooded was the 5’ of rain we got in one day when we only get 7” a year.

There was no place for all this water to go since we don’t have storm sewers, no need for them except every 100 years, except into the lake. The lake community we live in saw one end of the lake overflow onto the road at one end.  The road has been closed since Monday and will remain closed until the lake goes down enough to clear it – that could take awhile.

Back to bread ….even though we refreshed some of our stiff rye starter 2 weeks ago for future use, Lucy still had a couple of weeks worth of the old one that has been in the fridge 14 weeks.  We are trying to see how long it will last in the fridge before it gives up the ghost.  Well…. it made it to week 14 but it was a real struggle for the poor tired wee beasties. .

Normally we feed the starter 3 times with the sifted out hard bits of the whole grains we mill for that week bake in order to get it up to bread speed.  But this time, the starter was fed some old farina and white spelt that Lucy found hiding out in her secret pantry – who knows how long it had been there?  The weak starter didn’t like it much.

Usually our levain will double in 4 hours after the 2nd build but this one showed no movement after the 3rd build and a total of 12 hours after the first feeding.   I thought it was dead but left it on the counter overnight for another 12 hours.  Low and behold it managed to rise 50%.  My usual rule is to toss the 2nd feeding if it can’t double in 4 hours and repeat it.  But since it had no movement at all we were in new territory.

To be honest, I should have tossed half of the poorly risen levain the next morning and fed it again and see if it could double in 4 hours.   But instead I just tossed the levain into the dough white spelt and bread flour and water that had been autolysing for 1 hour with the salt sprinkled on top.

Had I been thinking more clearly or had a better apprentice, I would have not put the salt on top of the autolyse and would added it later, after the levain had a chance to work on the dough for an hour or two - uninhibited by the restrictive salt.  But instead, we mixed everything together and did 3 sets of slap and folds of 7.1.and 1 minute and 3 sets of stretch and folds all on 20 minute intervals.

Even though the dough was 72.5% hydration it was stiff compared to our normal more slack dough.  We considered getting it up to 75% hydration but didn’t do it.  I hindsight 75% hydration would have been much better so, if you make this bread, take it up to 75% so the slapping stretching and folding will be much better and the crumb will be more open too.

We love udon for lunch as much as a good sandwich with fruit and veggies!  Or...blazing hot chicken thighs with  twice baked potato, salad and steamed veg.

The huge amount of addins including; pistachios, 2 kinds of dried figs, sunflower and pumpkin seeds were added during the first stretch and folds an were thoroughly distributed by the end of the third one.

Once the gluten development was finished we skipped the bulk ferment and went right to shaping, placing it in the rice floured basket seam side down so we could bake it seam side up with no slashing.  The basket was bagged and placed into the fridge for a nice cold 16 hour retard.

It didn’t do anything while in the fridge which was sort of expected since the levain was so weak and there was no counter bulk ferment.  We took it out of the fridge the next morning and not knowing how long it would take to proof we just checked it every hour after the first two hours on the counter.

 In 6 hours we un-molded the dough onto parchment on a peel and slid it onto the bottom stone for 15 minutes of steam using decreasing temperatures to 475 F for the last 11 minutes of steam.  Big Old Betsy has been preheated to 550 F and David’s Lava Rock Steaming Pan went in when it hit the preheat temperature.  15 minutes later the steam was billowing and ready for the bread.

After the steam came out, we wanted to turn the bread down to 425 F convection but somehow managed to turn it up to 525 F instead.  We discovered our mistake after 10 minutes when the loaf, top and bottom, looked well done but the inside was only 133 F.  We covered the top with foil to keep it from being totally burned and turned the oven down to 425 F and later to 400 F.

When it finally hit 200 F on the inside I shut the oven off and when it 203 F on the inside I took it out.  The crust was so hard I don’t think you could break it with a hammer.  I’m was pretty sure that it is to be a total loss since there was no spring and no cracking of the crust at the seam.   Burt we will have to see the inside once it cools down to call it a total loss.  Well it is far from a loss - yeah!  It taste great,  The crust didn't go soft but it wasn't as crusty as when it came out of the oven.  .  The crumb was not very open, but it was packed with all those generous goodies , it was moist and soft and about as tasty as one would ever want.  We really love spelt and this bread really does it justice.

Formula

Lucy says not to forget a fine salad withlunch and dinner 

This week Lucy came up with a combination method; part no knead, part slap and fold and part stretch and fold to go along with her recent sprouted flour fetish..  the whole grain sprouts this week were; spelt,  rye, barley and wheat and made up the 34%  whole grains in the mix.

After drying the sprouts, we milled them getting a 25% extraction of the hard bits.  This is the closest we have come to getting a 72% ‘straight flour of the remaining much whiter flour.  As usual we fed the hard bits to the now 11 week old retarded, 66% hydration, whole rye starter.

There was just enough left to hold back for next weeks baking at the 12 week mark and to refresh the starter back to its 120 g whole rye self which we did this week son that the starter when first used will be 2 weeks old in the fridge.

We love Andy’s Toasted Brazil Nut and prune bread and think that Brazil nuts, like pistachios, are vastly underutilized in bread making.  To mix things up, since we haven’t used any seeds for weeks, Lucy prescribed a 5 seeds mix of equal parts of toasted; chia, hemp (for the Queen of Seeds), flax  and poppy seeds with a tiny 5 gram amount of sesame seeds.  After grinding, she soaked them in 65 g of potato water for 24 hours since chia seeds are notorious for stealing water from the dough

The sesame seeds were light because that is all Lucy could find in her double secret, seedy store that she guards with her very life.   Ingredient guard duty is better than having to drag badgers out of holes like normal, non baking apprentice 2nd class dackels have to do I’m sure.  Still, she does go into every hole looking for them,   So, she must be genetically modified for it and can’t help herself like she can’t forego any food, of any kind that she can smell, locate and ‘Dackel Down.’ 

We retarded our built 3 stage levain for 12 hours instead of our usual 24 hours.  An hour after it came out of the fridge the next day to finish its 3rd stage doubling, we also autolysed the dough flour and soaked seeds for 1 hour.  All the liquid, except in the 6 g of seed starter, was potato water from boiling potatoes for the potato salad we made as a side for ribs.  Lucy throws nothing away.

Once the levain hit the autolyse that included the soaked seeds, we did 3 sets of slap and folds of 1 minute each, followed by 3 sets of stretch and folds from the compass points only.  All the stretching and folding we on 20 minute intervals.  The toasted Brazil nuts were incorporated on the 1st set of stretch and folds and they were well distributed by the end of the 3rd set.

This bread made for one fine smoked chicken sadwich for lunch.

We then shaped the dough into a boule, placed it into a rice floured basket, bagged it in our usual used trash can liner and left on the counter for 3 hours of fermenting.  Then into the fridge it went for a cold 20 hour retard where we hoped the dough would finish proofing and gluten development at the same time.

The next day the dough looked fairly proofed and we let it warm up on the counter as we preheated Big Old Betsy to 550 F and readied the Mega Steam.  The steam went in when the BOB hit 550 F and we waited another 15 minutes for the stone to catch up and the steam to be billowing like a thunderhead.

We un-molded the dough onto parchment on a peel, slashed it in a square and slid it onto the bottom stone for 15 minutes of steam as we gradually lowered the temperature to 475 F regular bake after the first 4 minutes.   Once the steam came out, we lowered the temperature to 425 F - convection and, in 15 more minutes, the bread was at 210 F and ready for the cooling rack.

It sprang and bloomed well enough and there were those small blisters we like very much.  The crust was mahogany and crunchy as it came out of the oven.  We will have to wait to see how the crumb came out and how it tastes until lunch time.  Lunch is over and the crust went softer as it cooled.  The crumb was fairly open, soft and moist for this kind oif bread too.   It tasted fantastic!  The seeds, Brazil nuts, sprouted whole grains and sour all worked so well together.  A tasty delight to eat for sure.  Deep and earthy flavor that is healthy, seedy and nutty all at once.  If there were figs in there somewhere, our taste buds might genetically mutate into the killer buds that tasted Chicago and the prison in Joliet.

 Smoked ribs and chicken for Cousin Jay who just bough a house in Phoenix and will be moving here in about a year- Yea!!!  We love Cousin Jay.  Then ther was the Thai green curry seafood for our daughter's last meal at home before heading back to school.

Formula

Lucy reminds us to never forget the salad but why not put the salad on a smoked rib quesadilla?